“But here is the irony: too often the most ‘biblical’ folks are the most ‘unbiblical’. What do I mean by this? I mean that if the whole point of the Bible is the person and work of Jesus and you fail to make this your whole point in your life, preaching, writing, conferences, etc…then you have missed the point! And, in this case, your blind spot is glaring.”

We all have blind spots. We have our issues. Whether we are talking about personal, social, or theological blind spots, we have them. And to say you don’t, is to, well, make my point.

The important thing for us to look for said weaknesses, identify them and replace them. This is living life as a fallen sinner it is reality.

But sometimes our blind spots are our hobby horses. And this is a problem.

I can remember arguing about abortion with a friend who is pro-choice. In the midst of the discussion (it was civil) he called me out on my flippancy concerning life in the various wars that the US is involved in. He had a point. My issue was inconsistent. I had a blind spot.

Outspoken Bible Guys
I think there are people who are outspoken in their passion and devotion to the Bible. They are proponents of taking the Bible literally, being black or white and trying their best to obey what it says. We might call them evangelicals, fundamentalists, or simply Protestants. There really are many names and stripes available.

These guys (and ladies) will rightly go after those who compromise the Scriptures. They call out those who deny the Bible’s inspiration and inerrancy. They oppose people who inject their ministries with pragmatic methods. They decry the moral compromise in and around the professing church. All of this to say, no one would accuse them of being unbiblical. In fact, this is their cry, “we are just being biblical.”

And quite frankly, I praise God for many of these folks. They are an encouragement in so many ways.

But at the same time, too often, they are a discouragement.

How is this possible?

Assuming the Gospel
It is possible because too often these hard core biblicists simply assume the gospel. Jesus is not emphasized as the means and motivation for rightesouness. Instead Christianity becomes a laboratory to apply biblical principles. Sanctification is rooted in a striving to do and be better.

Slowly but surely Jesus, his dying and doing for sinners, gets benched for my living and doing for God.

You can tell you are in one of these settings when you listen to Christians pray (cf Luke 18). They often talk about how bad everyone else is vs how bad they are. They talk about how much better they want to be rather than how great Christ is. The gospel may receive a hat tip but it is not the great ocean that satisfies our thirsty hearts and supplies our tears. It is just assumed. There is a lot of ‘God-talk’, ‘Bible-talk’…but very little Jesus-gospel-sin–talk.

Painful Irony
There is a painfully ironic contradiction here. See, on the one hand you have the hard-core, committed, Bible-guy…he is sold out to the Bible. And he will quickly channel his ‘inner-Saul’ and chuck spears at anyone who is not on the same page with him (1Sam 18.10-11). After all, they are compromisers. These are the guys who have conferences, watch-blogs, and sermons dedicated to taking out famous gospel-editors and biblical compromisers.

But here is the irony: too often the most ‘biblical’ folks are the most ‘unbiblical’. What do I mean by this? I mean that if the whole point of the Bible is the person and work of Jesus and you fail to make this your whole point in your life, preaching, writing, conferences, etc…then you have missed the point! And, in this case, your blind spot is glaring. You are undermining yourself!! These folks are so ‘biblical’ that they are unChristian!

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