Standing against contractual Christianity -By Azuka Onwuka

Do you know this song?

🎶My helper ooo
My helper
My helper oo
My helper
There is something that makes me come into your presence, my helper. 🎶

Why not change it to:
🎶My Saviour ooo
My Saviour
My Saviour ooo
My Saviour.
There is something that makes me come into your presence, my Saviour.🎶

The primary role of Jesus Christ is redemption (saving). Other roles are secondary. The primary thing that should make us come into His presence is for His redemptive role. We come to thank Him, to praise Him, and to ask for His mercy and seek His blessings.

The alternate name for Jesus Christ in Christendom is The Saviour. If you mention The Saviour without saying any other thing in the world, people know you are referring to Jesus Christ. But if you say The Helper, My Helper, My Help, most people would not know who is being referring to. They will need some clarification.

Therefore, if there is SOMETHING that makes us come into Christ’s presence, it should not be for Him to help us. That is selfish Christianity.

Today’s Christianity is increasingly becoming contractual: “What can I get from God? What can I get from the church?” Both the clergy and the laity are in the rat race of “What is in it for me?”

That is why today’s church messages and prayers are filled with “God, if you do this for me, I will do that for you” or “I am sowing this so that you can do this for me.”

I have seen a church brochure in which one of the big G.O.s wrote it in black and white that when God said He would give you as you gave, He meant that if you give in naira, He would bless you in naira; and if you give in dollars or pounds, He would bless you in dollars or pounds; and that you should not expect God to bless you in pounds or dollars after you have given in naira!

Wonder shall never cease!

Do you remember that passage in the Bible where some people met Christ and told Him that they had been looking for Him all over the place? Knowing their mind, He told them in His blunt way that they were not looking for Him because of His message but because He fed them the other day, and they had come to know if they could be fed again.

Have you heard songs in which Christians ask God to “settle” them? It makes one to wonder when they worked as God’s servants or apprentices to be asking to be settled.

Many are trying too hard to turn Christianity into some financial contract, and hard times and the love for money are making many to keep quiet and flow with the crowd.