As someone who has struggled with his weight for years, I can entirely see the appeal of Ozempic. Who wouldn’t? A miracle fat jab where you achieve the size and shape you have always longed for, without exercise and without hunger. We live at a time when being able to Ozempic-anything is becoming possible. We write without needing to think deeply, thanks to generative AI. We find love in shallow seas, swiping through curated profiles. We are even conceiving perfect DNA-matched children without the discomfort of pregnancy.
How about if we were to apply Ozempic to Christianity? A religion which gives the appearance of perfect devotion to Jesus, without the deep work of heart change or sanctification. This religion is, of course, nothing new; it’s a form of Legalism and all of us have dabbled in it.
Kathy Keller captures this well in an article she wrote on faking it in ministry, and although she was writing with the Christian pastor in mind, I think anyone will feel challenged by what she describes.
The day will come when you have to deliver a sermon, or counsel someone in need, or listen to a heartsick soul, and you will be in no fit condition to do it… And after a while you hardly even admit to yourself that you are faking your interest in the other person, you are faking your enthusiasm for Christ and his Gospel, you are faking your entire Christian life, because you don’t even remember what it was like to have a close relationship to God. You have become hollow. You may still look and sound good on the outside, but inside the reality of God’s presence is gone.
There are many reasons someone might be well-advised by a doctor to take Ozempic for weight loss. I have read some incredible success stories where the patient gets a new lease of life and health. For many, however, something more sinister lurks on the other side. Studies are already showing that many Ozempic patients also experience the crushing disappointment of a rapid weight rebound as soon as they come off it.
Like weight loss injections, the problem with faking it is that the work never stops. Our finest attempt at religious performance and self-righteousness will never be able to earn our salvation, and so we get stuck in a hamster wheel of keeping up appearances. Jesus warns us in stark terms that this amounts to a life of dead bones, filled with every kind of impurity, and ultimately spiritual death (Matthew 23.27).
The good news is that there is plenty of hope for the faker. In John 6, Jesus speaks to a crowd who recently had their stomachs filled by loaves and fishes:
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you… I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
The antidote to this type of legalism begins with believing in Jesus and continues with him being our daily bread. This is the simple practice of eating fresh bread daily through Bible study, meditation, and prayer, energised by the work of the Spirit. Perhaps try praying the Lord’s Prayer for a week or follow a short Bible reading plan. How can you keep it regular rather than only feasting on a Sunday? How can you be humbled, satiated, and your law-keeping transformed daily by the grace of God?
Friends, the gospel came for the legalist. Jesus saved Nicodemus from religious piety. Jesus looked at the rich young ruler with love and compassion. Jesus changed Saul entirely. And I too am an Ozempic Christian, and daily I need to repent and remind myself that nothing tastes better than the bread of life.
These articles are 100% man-made, without the use of generative AI.