This kicked me in the face yesterday and I figured if I’m any kind of friend I’d pass on a good kick-in-the-face. Are you ready for this?

I stumbled across an article by a guy named Miles McKee, on a blog by a guy named John Fonville. The article is called “The Gospel and Gandhi, Part 1,” and the longer I read the longer it got. I started to wonder if one of the two men hadn’t accidentally posted parts 1-4 as I skimmed down the page.

Then I got to the P.S. at the bottom, which reads,

“Would you like to know whether or not you are gospel driven? To find out, ask yourself these following questions.”

Having not read the majority of the article, I’m still not entirely sure how he defines “gospel driven,” but I think I’ve got a pretty good idea. The 10 questions below have obvious “right” answers, but if I were to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure how I’d score.

With which are you absorbed?

1. (A) Your personal righteousness, or (B) the vicarious righteousness of Christ?

2. (A) The condition of your faith, or (B) Christ’s faithful obedience on your behalf?

3. (A) Your self-crucifixion, or (B) His crucifixion?

4. (A) Your new life, or (B) His sinless life?

5. (A) Your experience of Christ, or (B) His experience for you?

6. (A) Your love for God, or (B) His love for you?

7. (A) The depth of your personal surrender, or (B) the depth of Christ’s personal surrender?

8. (A) Your victorious life, or (B) His victorious life on your behalf?

9. (A) Your attainment, or (B) His atonement?

10. (A) The work of the Spirit in you, or (B) the work of Christ for you?

They get kind of repetitive, and I started to get cynical about someone wanting a list of 10 and coming up with clever language to say the same thing over and over, but the questions still stand.

Of course some of the “A” answers are things that we should consider. How is my faith? Am I surrendered? But I wonder if a byproduct of our Western/consumer/MyFace society is the personal nature of our faith. (See? Right there, I said “our” faith, not “the” faith. It’s ours … which means it’s mine.)

Corey Russel spoke at OneThing in December, and he talked about self-absorbed Christians. “It’s not about you. Can you get delivered from you?” It was good and I applied it to me, but apparently not as deeply as I need to.

‘Cause we do this. We make it about us, which makes it less about Christ.

Or is it just me?

(HT: Peter Cockrell)