An Open Letter to Generation Y

Brothers and Sisters of Generation Y,

I'm writing as one Millennial to another. More specifically, though, I have a message for myself and for my brothers and sisters in the Evangelical Church.

I have an old message to convey, but it seems particularly timely as 2012 prepares to close out its first full month. The message is this: Let's not be afraid to pursue holiness.

Right now, authenticity, brokenness, and "just being yourself" are all the craze. We're the generation that is embracing a haphazardly watered-down version of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "religionless Christianity"--a version which basically amounts to the Outback Steakhouse slogan of "No Rules, Just Right"--but in reality, we are in danger of missing Bonhoeffer's essential distinction between "cheap grace" and "costly grace".

Costly grace, Bonhoeffer said, is what happens when Jesus calls a man "to come and die". Cheap grace, on the other hand, doesn't make any requirements on its recipients to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Christ, but simply removes sin's consequences and allows a person to continue in the same direction they were headed.

We Generation Y-ers need a constant reminder that Jesus never calls us to be simply authentic, but rather, to freely admit our sin while we turn from it and put it to death.


We of the great Generation Y are quick to criticize institutions--including governments, banking sectors and the church--and we love to lambaste anyone who urges us to live within any set of rules, dismissing them immediately as hypocrites and--our favorite--legalists.

True, many of the legalistic tenancies that many of us grew up with in the church rightly deserve our criticism  and repentance from, such as equating mere Sunday School attendance with genuine piety and substitute cuss words with self-control.

True, the bare trappings of Christianity mustn't be confused with the core of the Christian message--the Good News that Christ came to reconcile sinners to himself by his death and resurrection.

But let's be careful that we don't forget what God in Christ has saved us to. Let's be careful to remember that work that we are called to as God's adopted sons and daughters in Christ.

Let's be careful to take into full consideration the writer to Hebrews' command to "strive for ... a holiness without which no one will see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). Let's not neglect Paul's command to "work out (our) salvation with fear and trembling", remembering that "God is at work within us, to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).

Dear brothers and sisters of my generation, myself included, Jesus came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). And shockingly, what Jesus did in the Sermon on the Mount was not to say that we need to obey less of the Law of Moses, but more of it.

The righteousness that is to "exceed that of the Pharisees" (Matt 5:20) consists in an obedience from our hearts to the heart of God. That's why conversion is necessary. That's why we need born again. Not so that we can live unto ourselves, but so that we can "belong--body and soul, in life and in death--to (our) faithful Savior, Jesus Christ", as the Heidelberg Catechism puts it.

Brothers and sisters of Generation Y, let's put aside our battle with institutions, regulations and rituals, and let's begin to do battle with the sin that dwells in our hearts. Let's be a generation of believers who are faithful to "put off" sin and "put on" righteousness, even if those around us deride us as hypocrites and puritans.

Let's accept the world's denouncement as a blessing, remembering that "no servant is above his master" (John 15:20), and let's get about the business of fighting our sin and openly proclaiming the Gospel of the life-changing, life-owning, life-satisfying Savior that calls us his friends.

Let's be a generation of believers who take up the mantle of the eighteenth-century missionary, David Brainerd, who said, "Oh! That I may never loiter on my heavenly journey!"

Let's not be a generation of loiterers and chameleons. Let's be a generation who embraces the costly grace that changes, sanctifies and turns cowards into fearless ambassadors for the King of Heaven.

Yours in the fight,

Jay