He spent the rest of his life teaching and writing about the missionary task of proclaiming the Gospel in the secular West. His personal life and writings commend the Gospel, as did that of St. Paul in his day. When Paul was called upon to prove the authenticity of his Christian faith he provided a remarkable check-list of three characteristics.

First, the authentic Christian is a person who endures hardship and opposition with grace.

"We want to prove ourselves genuine ministers of God whatever we have to go through -- patient endurance of troubles or even disasters, being flogged or imprisoned; being mobbed, having to work like slaves, having to go without food or sleep." (vv.4,5 JBP)

It is not likely that any of us have to endure such hardship for the Gospel. Yet there are Christians today who have to undergo such severe persecutions and do so bravely. Our troubles are minimal compared with theirs. How do we handle the hardships and adversities in our lives? Do we do so with grace and courage without complaining? That is a test of the authenticity of our faith in Christ.

When Newbigin came home to England he faced great opposition to the Gospel. He discovered that ministry in England "is much harder than anything I met in India. There is a cold contempt for the Gospel which is harder to face than opposition.... England is a pagan society and the development of a truly missionary encounter with this very tough form of paganism is the greatest intellectual and practical task facing the Church". He took on a church that was about to be closed because its congregation had dwindled to 20 members. It was in a slum opposite the gloomy walls of Winson Green prison near Birmingham. Because many Asian families had settled in the area he convinced the church to invite Hakkim Singh Rahi, a young Indian pastor, to join him. Together they went door to door in the run-down neighborhood. While Asian immigrants almost always welcomed him and Rahi in for tea, Anglo neighbors often slammed the door in their faces. When the two pastors did get inside, they found lives formed by the omnipresent television, not the Bible. Religion was seen as a matter of personal taste, a private concern about which no one should trouble another. Even some Christians seemed to believe this. Newbigin and Rahi had some success at evangelizing Sikhs and Hindus, but other believers were unenthusiastic, some downright antagonistic. One clergyman informed Newbigin that missions was theological racism.

If we are authentic Christians should we be experiencing hardships and opposition for our witness? Are we living too comfortable lives, at home in our culture, and not confronting the indifference and contempt of those who despise Jesus. The authentic Christian endures hardship and opposition with grace.

Second, the authentic Christian is empowered by the Holy Spirit.

"All this we want to meet with sincerity, with insight and patience; by sheer kindness and the Holy Spirit; with genuine love, speaking the plain truth, and living by the power of God." (vv.6,7 JBP)

When Newbigin went to Cambridge University he was a searching agnostic. He asked a friend how he would begin if he wanted to become a Christian. "Buy an alarm clock," was the answer. He didn't know whether there was a god or not, but he began taking just half an hour before breakfast to read the Bible and to pray." He has been doing so ever since. He had a vision of a cross spanning the space between heaven and earth that seemed to promise hope from God, reaching into the most dire circumstances. He was sure that night, in a way he never had before, that this was the clue that he must follow if he were to make any sense of the world. In his old age he worshipped with charismatic Anglicans in London. The fruitfulness of his life and the humble witness of his Christian character was the result of seeking the filling of the Spirit in prayer daily. If you want to be an authentic Christian your life will be characterized by sincerity, insight and patience, by sheer kindness and the Holy Spirit, with genuine love, speaking the plain truth, and living by the power of God.

Third, the authentic Christian is characterized by a life of integrity.

"Our sole defence, our only weapon, is a life of integrity, whether we meet honor or dishonor, praise or blame. Called 'impostors' we must be true, called 'nobodies' we must be in the public eye. Never far from death, yet here we are alive, always 'going through it' yet never going under.' We know sorrow, yet our joy in inextinguishable. We have 'nothing to bless ourselves with' yet we bless many others with true riches. We are penniless, and yet in reality we have everything worth having." (vv.8-10 JBP)

Integrity is defined as wholeness, soundness, uprightness, honesty. It is to be genuine no matter what others may say about you. It is being able to face circumstances with all the resources of Christ at your disposal because you are living for eternity and the glory of God. Jesus reminds us of the paradox of following him: "I tell you the truth, no one who has left home for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first." (Mark 10:29-31) There is much unhappiness in the world, there are so many troubles, hardships and adversity, but the authentic Christian can say: "I know sorrow, yet my joy in Christ is inextinguishable, I have everything in Christ that is worth having." That is a Gospel that the whole world needs.

I hope to be able to live up to the witness of Lesslie Newbigin who, at the end of his life said, "I have felt that my main ministry was just to encourage ministers and pastors and clergy to be more confident in preaching the gospel. What I have been horrified by is a kind of timidity by Christian preachers and ministers. The kind of attitude that says, 'Well, I happen to be a Christian, but of course I wouldn't expect you to think that.'" Instead, I want everyone to find in Christ what I have found: a life that endures hardship with grace, a life that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, a life of integrity, wholeness.

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