A great trilogy

I finished book 3 in McLaren's trilogy over the weekend and was struck by these thoughts toward the end of the book: "We act as if eternal life means life in heaven after you die. So now, according to both Paul and John, the gospel is all about getting into heaven after you die by believing. And the enemy of believing, we say, is doing good works. So we've now created a system by which we see good works as bad- or if not bad, at least a dangerous distraction from faith. And now the gospel focuses not on the kingdom of God being available to everyone on earth but instead on the people who believe right escaping the earth to go to heaven after they die to enjoy something called eternal life. What matters now isn't good works but right beliefs. I know it's an overstatement, but . . . " (207).

While I obvioulsy haven't worked through all of the book's claims regarding heaven, hell, the end of time, etc, this statement for me highlights a fundamental change within myself over the last couple of years and also a fundamental change within our church. In some ways, we and I have overcorrected our past insistence on believing the right things (or saying the right things) and are attempting to balance that with doing the right things.