Everyone who professes to be a Christian believes in a gospel—some expression of what he or she considers to be good news. And one’s definition of the gospel will be manifested in one’s lifestyle.
The default gospel for most is cooperation; this means some combination of the grace of Christ plus human works. This gospel presumes that a person has, to some degree, potency to satisfy the righteous requirements of God. It was the gospel Adam and Eve manifested when they first sinned. Their response to their sin was to make coverings of fig leaves—presuming they could attain right standing with God based on their works. This was the first version of the gospel of cooperation.
Another version of the gospel of cooperation was the Mosaic Law, which required perfect obedience to be acceptable with God (James 2:10). The Old Testament Israelites failed in their attempt at the gospel of cooperation—they rejected God and chose idolatry—and, therefore, their gospel was not efficacious.
The failure of Adam and Eve and the Israelites was a testimony to the ineffectiveness of the gospel of cooperation. The only true gospel is the gospel of the grace of Christ, as noted in the verse above.
A person’s gospel is important because it will be revealed by that person’s lifestyle. Consider three ways that Adam and Eve manifested the gospel of cooperation.
Shame and performance. Shame is a profound sense of unworthiness before God. Driven by shame, Adam and Eve sought to make themselves acceptable with God based on their own works. But fallen humans can never be good enough to meet God's standards. The presumption of human autonomy will never be efficacious.
Hiding from God. Deep down, humans know that their efforts to be acceptable with God based on their performance will fail. Nevertheless, humans continue to try until the inadequacy of their works is glaring, then humans do what Adam and Eve did—seek to hide from God. Hiding is expressed by a lack of transparency. Mystery will always surround people who seek to hide from God. Nontransparent people will offer confused explanations; their perspectives will lack credibility. And sometimes they will lead double lives.
Blaming—others and God—for failures. When Adam was called to account by God for his sin, Adam blamed Eve and eventually blamed God, who created Eve. Those living in the gospel of cooperation have a propensity to blame others for their failures instead of taking responsibility.
These traits manifested by Adam and Eve are traits of the gospel of cooperation and are commonly manifest today. Workers display the traits of shame and performance, hiding, and blaming. These traits block the development of healthy workplace cultures and impair both individual and organizational performance.
Here is your business tip. Management can observe the gospel of each worker because it is manifested in what and how the worker delivers work-product. When a person is full of shame and performance, is not transparent, or refuses to take responsibility, such a person has embraced the gospel of cooperation and will never be an effective worker. To remedy this situation, the worker needs to embrace the gospel of the grace of Christ—the singular gospel. Wise managers recognize the traits of the gospel of cooperation in workers and will seek wisdom to introduce the true gospel of the grace of Christ to these workers. Those who embrace the true gospel will be empowered to produce excellent work and those who hold to the gospel of cooperation will never consistently produce excellent work. |
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