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Who’s Really “Lost”?

By Scott Limkeman Leave a Comment

The term “the lost” is a common term that Christians use to refer to anyone who has not committed their life to following Jesus. At its best, it is a descriptive term that implies deep compassion for someone who does not yet know the God of the universe. At its worst, it can be perceived or even intended as an exclusionary term that implies an “us versus them” mentality. The biblical source of this word actually reflects the compassionate heart of God and challenges any sort of in-group superiority.

Jesus’ view of the lost is maybe best seen in a trio of parables throughout Luke 15. Jesus tells three stories in response to the grumblings of the religious leaders of his day. They were upset that Jesus hung out with “sinners” – with “the lost.” They viewed anyone who broke the law with disgust and sought to keep separate from them. Jesus counters this with challenging compassion.

In the first parable, Jesus describes a shepherd with a hundred sheep. One of the sheep goes missing, so the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to go find this one lost sheep. When he finds it, he is overcome with joy. In the second parable, he describes a woman who loses her paycheck and earnestly does all she can to find it, rejoicing when she does. Jesus says that there is more joy in heaven from just one person who repents – who is found by God – than from a host of religious people who “don’t need to” repent.

In the final parable, Jesus describes a son who asked for his inheritance from his father early and then goes on to promptly waste it all. He hits rock bottom, finds himself homeless and hungry, and decides to go back to his father to beg for a position as one of his servants. But when his father sees him approaching in the distance, he runs to embrace him, rejoicing that he is no longer lost. Afterwards he throws a big party. The plot twist at the end of these three parables comes with the description of the father’s other son – the older brother. This brother is angry that the father forgives the younger son and throws him this elaborate dinner, so he refuses to attend the party. The father goes out and tells the older son that it is right to rejoice that his brother is back home – because he once was dead but is now alive, and he once was lost but is now found.

Jesus turns the idea that the religious leaders of the day had about who was “lost” and “found” on its head. He tells them in these parables that the worst of sinners can repent and be found, and that the most observant and devout religious person can be the one who remains truly lost in their failure to understand God’s grace – just like the older brother.

Being lost simply means that someone, by their life, beliefs, and actions, does not know and love who God really is. It isn’t just a designator for someone outside of Christianity’s religious structures. It’s not just for people who don’t go to church. The most desperately lost person might call themselves a Christian and do all the things you might expect a Christian person to do, even while in their hearts they do not know God. Jesus turns the “us-verses-them” mentality around on the most devout religious people of his day to say that it isn’t just the sinners, the prostitutes, and the tax collectors who are lost – it is the self-righteous religious who are lost. Like the older brother, they do not always accept the loving grace of God.

Finally, it is not a designator that should be used to pronounce some sort of final judgment on a person’s eternal state. No one but God knows if someone who is wandering will one day turn back to find and be found by God. At its best, it is a word not characterized by judgment and exclusion, but a word full of compassion that reflects a God who would drop everything to find each one of us.

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Filed Under: Featured, Grow, Jargon Tagged With: Issue 37

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Our striving to be like Jesus or do his work on ou Our striving to be like Jesus or do his work on our own is in vain. We can never hope to achieve the same level that Jesus was on while we are still here on Earth. We’re like little kids, struggling just to walk. But that’s why Jesus gave us an example of redeemed followers in the form of the Apostles, who were his close group of students here on Earth. He chose a group of broken, sinful men, and ultimately shaped them into the group responsible for continuing his ministry here on Earth. ⁠
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✍🏽: Tim VanDeWalker in "Running By Example" | Continue reading at newidentitymagazine.com⁠ by visiting the link in our bio and tapping on the image.⁠
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The Bible tells us to live in the world, but not t The Bible tells us to live in the world, but not to become like it. The New Living Translation puts it this way, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Rom. 12:2a). Some have interpreted this as an instruction to reject anything that isn’t explicitly Christian. But I don’t think that’s what this verse is getting at. I think it means much more.⁠
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✍🏽: Lindsey Beharry in "Choosing Wisely" | Continue reading at newidentitymagazine.com⁠ by visiting the link in our bio and tapping on the image.⁠
If you desire to serve, seek to form groups withou If you desire to serve, seek to form groups without age distinction. Maybe you want to form a group in your church. Avoid just inviting members from your age group. Seek out people older and younger than you to invite to meet together. Find that person who sits alone and talk to her or him. Instead of a focus on building groups that have the same characteristics to “relate” with one another, you center your discussion in the work of Christ. He will bring the group together. ⁠
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✍🏽: Russell Almand in "Community and Age Diversity" | Continue reading at newidentitymagazine.com⁠ by visiting the link in our bio and tapping on the image.⁠
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"The presence of my sin reminds me of my great nee "The presence of my sin reminds me of my great need for grace, and good works are the outpouring of a grateful heart; being a good child is not a means of earning the favor of God."⁠
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Often I picture Jesus telling us to love others an Often I picture Jesus telling us to love others and not to judge. I forget that when he said, “Come follow me,” he wasn’t just inviting us to a strict set of rules but to a real and exciting life whether you turn out to be a pastor, a doctor, designer or simply “Dad.” Sometimes I forget one of his main messages was that he came to give us a better life than we could ever dream of—life to the fullest. Jesus wasn’t locking us down to a vocation or job title. It’s as if he was saying, “Real, vibrant life is available to you now. Following me, loving me and living like me is your real calling…the rest is just there to aid you in following, loving and living.”⁠
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Like Morpheus, I want to “show you how deep the Like Morpheus, I want to “show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” There is yet another parallel between the Christian story and The Matrix, simultaneously the most foundational and the most captivating. It’s that something which is missing, something which is not quite right with the world. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know that it’s there. At the outset of the first film, Neo is searching for it. Trinity asserts that “it’s the question that drives us.” Morpheus claims that “you can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes.” The question is: What if I’ve only ever scratched the surface of all that life has to offer? What if there is a deeper, truer current of reality, ever-present behind all of my life’s experiences, to which I might awaken at any moment?⁠
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"I’ve always been intrigued by Augustine because "I’ve always been intrigued by Augustine because we all struggle with temptations to sin. And we all struggle to live in a way that honors God. Like Augustine we all feel the tug of our past sins that say, 'Don’t you want to enjoy us?' And Augustine’s story relates to Galatians 5:16-26 where Paul tells us about how the Christian life is like a walk. In a way, walking is a metaphor for the Christian life." ⁠
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