Wisdom from the Batman

Christopher Nolan's brilliant "Batman Begins" has me wondering about this walk of faith.  As a long-time Evangelical of Reformed Presbybapticostal training, I have been thoroughly schooled in fundamental doctrines of the Church.  Oh, no.  Not the creeds.  No creed but the Bible and all that for me.  But watching Nolan's film again with scales removed from my eyes has gotten me speculating on the nature of salvation and eternal life.


Strange, right?  I know.


So, at one point in the film, Bruce Wayne tells his un-requited love Rachel that his playboy image is not who he really is on the inside.  Her reply to him is echoed by the Batman back to her: 


"It's not who I am underneath, but what I *do* that defines me."


Evangelicals spend quite a bit of effort mastering "who they are on the inside."  Learn the key doctrines.  Live a morally pure life.  Win souls for Christ by telling people that they are destined for Hell and that Jesus is the ONLY way out.  Okay, granted, most evangelicals are more nuanced than this.  You might find some of them lovingly presenting the famous Four Spiritual Laws.  Or you might observe them attempting to build real friendships and relationships with those on the outside.  But sometimes, the good news proclaiming is as heavy as a sledge hammer.


All of these approaches are saying, at the base, the same thing about the gospel: you are a sinner heading for Hell without Jesus.  As Paul says in Acts,  "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."


But held up against other verses, it would seem that our road to eternal life is not simply a matter of what we think.  What did our Savior say in Matthew's text?


"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left…  Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world…  “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."


What is it that separates them?  Not the correctness of their doctrine.  Not the recitation of the sinner's prayer.  It's just as the Batman said: it's what we do that defines us.