The Thrill of Orthodoxy

Trevin Wax is the author of The Thrill of Orthodoxy:  Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith (2022).  The book is about what we believe and how to live it out.  I recommend it highly.

Pause and stand in awe at the glories of the gospel! (p. 21).  If the thrill of God’s epic good news fades for you, beware of drifting in your beliefs due to powerful currents in our culture.  And remem­ber:  the gospel is the most thrilling when you share it (p. 177).

The Apostles were unafraid to draw lines between those in the faith and others who, by their actions and beliefs, show they’re outside the faith.  The gospel both raises and razes walls.  Lesser walls dividing believers are demolished, while key boundaries between Christians and the world are strengthened (pp. 40-41).

Applying orthodox faith in daily life calls for wisdom.  Two wrong ways of relating to the world are:  1) “The Faithful Few.”  Church struggles are the fault of the world.  And with all the corruption out there, our job is to stand firm and hold the fort—it’s a maint­enance mentality, a defensive posture all about our survival.

And, from a different angle but equally wrong, 2) “The Always Adapting.”  The problem is the church—it’s too rigid; it’s archaic, irrelevant.  If we want to stay vibrant and reach real people today, we must adjust our beliefs and lifestyle standards or be relegated to the ash heap of history.  Change is the answer (pp. 170-73).

We are helped to resist these errors by listening to our brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world and across the ages.  They remind us that our mission is not survival, but bearing wit­ness with truth and love.  Nor is our mission accommodation that placates critics, but presenting core biblical truths faithfully and with cultural awareness.  By contrast, we’re likely to stray from orthodoxy if we clump up with eccentric trends and tribes of the moment, and lose touch with the historic and global church.