The Love-driven, Sinner-centred Gospel?
What is the Gospel?
Courtesy of Operation 513
Check out their website, and apologetics blog!
I believe that the gospel as outlined below is a fantastic read for any and all christians and non-christians alike, to be able to get a grasp of the wonder of the Good News which we believe, and the Glory of the one who sent his son to die in our place for our sins.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." -John 3:16
John 3:16 has to be one of the most quoted verse in the Bible. It does appear to capture the essence of the Gospel quite well. It contains a positive message of love, forgiveness and self-sacrifice on the part of God. Who wouldn't like to know that God loves them and have nothing but divine well wishes towards them. You would think Jesus Himself intended for John 3:16 to be the catchy slogan and mission statement for His ministry. At least many Christians thinks so. They see that evangelism as the sharing of divine love, and their God given mandate is to tell a world who are ignorant of God's affection towards them. God is very much like the shy school boy who has his heart set on the prettiest girl in his class, and Christians are his best mates trying to help out a God who is so madly in love with the sinners. Well intentioned Christians help Him write sonnets, draft love letters on His behalf and try to capture the wayward sinner's attention. Many desperately try to secretly meet her felt needs and give the credit to all powerful, all knowing God. The ever more popular approach is to attempt to persuade the sinner how their lives will be much better and fulfilling than it is now if they decide to "accept Jesus into their heart." All the efforts and energy swells into a climatic proclamation designed to woo and swoon the love of God's life into submission and surrender. It's diced and sliced a thousand different ways, it's all called evangelism and it's all about love, sweet love. Surely nothing can be wrong about such a lovely, positive and uplifting message, can it?
Unfortunately it can, and the love driven, sinner centered message is not the Gospel message of the Bible. Even our beloved verse of John 3:16 itself gives us a vital clue:
"...whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life..."
Have you considered this all important question: perish from what?
Never Read a Bible Verse
One of the worst thing a Christian can do is to read a Bible Verse. When we single out a verse and take it out of context, well, lets just say that's one of the quickest way to "step onto the slippery slope of false teaching" (Proverbs 14:12). So let us look at John 3:16 in context. A Pharisee named Nicodemus came in the middle of the night looking for Jesus. The teacher of the law is intrigued and impressed by the teaching of Christ came seeking further enlightenment from who he considered to be a prophet from God. Jesus instead of indulges in a theological discussion, turns the whole discussion into a witnessing encounter. Jesus first confounds Nicodemus by the straight forward declaration that the Kingdom of God only welcomes those who are "born again" (verse 3 -8) Nicodemus, now both confused and intrigued by Jesus, pleads with him to explain "How can these things be?" (verse 9) And here is Jesus' answer (verses 10-21):
Does your theology suffer from biblical tunnel vision?
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God"
In light of everything of what Christ said, the message of love disappears into the back drop of a message of confrontational rebuke!. He points out Nicodemus' ignorance of God's word and his stubborn unbelief. While Christ said the He is not here to condemn the world, our master lovingly and boldly proclaim that the world is ALREADY CONDEMNNED. Further more the Savior goes on to define the reason of the world's condemnation: They are evil doers, they hate God which is the light of the world and they refuse to come to God for forgiveness. This is hardly a "God loves you and have a wonderful plan for your life" message. Christ, here in John chapter 3 and throughout the Gospel account is more interested in pointing out to men and woman what they are perishing from rather than the Love of God.
All You Need is Love?
The typical evangelical Gospel message makes very little sense to the unsaved. Without mentioning the reason why people are perishing, their love of evil, their outright hatred for God and their rejection of God's mercy, in a word: sin, the sinner would have no motivation to abandon their sin and run towards the Savior. Most of them don't even know that they are in danger of God's judgment. Perish from what? An unrepentant sinner will have to face God on judgment day and it will be the holy and righteous God who will punish all evil doers and cast them into an eternal hell. An unrepentant sinner will perish, ultimately, in the hands of an angry God.
By taking away the punch of the Gospel, sin, judgment and God's Holiness, we are left with a squishy message that's no different than any other self-help religion in the market place of ideas. In the Bible, God's love always shines on the darkened backdrop our sorry sinful state. When Christ said "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)" and He did by laying down His life for us on the cross, it points to the fact that we do need someone to take away our sins by dying on the cross. So often we say to our unbelieving friends: "See, God loves you and died on the cross for you" without the mention of sin, judgment and hell, such rhetoric is not only trite and overdone, it makes absolutely no sense. Why should a sinner who is blind to his own sinfulness, and is thoroughly impressed and satisfied with his own goodness, need a savior on the cross? He might need a life coach to whip some aspect of his life into better shape. He might need a divine girlfriend in the sky who he can sing love songs to and feel some kind of transcendent feeling on a cosmic level. He might need a "god" who is going to smile upon all his shortcomings and "mistakes" and validate every "good deeds" he performs as he tries to climb the spiritual ladder. He might need all these things but He doesn't need a Savior and He doesn't need God.
A Gospel message presented without the preaching of sin, judgment and hell is either completely senseless to the unsaved or it can only be presented to fit into the pragmatic mind set of the ungodly. It falls way short of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ prescribed in the Bible.
When Hell Freezes Over
The Biblical Gospel, starts with the Law of God.
First Things First
"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple." -Psalm 19:7
Chances are we all spend a fair amount of time in front of a mirror every morning. It has nothing to do with vanity, at least for some of us. We get our hair into shape, we wash our faces, for the guys we shave and for the ladies there is the face painting, I mean make up. All this would go on until we deem ourselves presentable to the waking world. We need that mirror for without it we wouldn't know if we washed out all the soap off our face or is our shirt out of place. Here is the question, how do we know if we are presentable in the sight of God? It's for this purpose, God has given us His perfect Law so that when we measure ourselves against it, we might be able to see how much we fall short of His standard.
The sinful human tendency is to measure ourselves against other human beings, and in that state we would never see the need for Christ. After all, I may not be perfect, but I am much netter than "fill in the blank". We boast about our self righteousness as if our good deeds can please God. This is the deadening effect of our sin, we are like drowning men in open sea who instead admit our weakness and cry out for help, we brag to one another about how much better we stay afloat than the next guy. In his mercy God gave us His Law, and the point of the law is not to keep it to please God, no sinner is capable of NOT breaking His Law, instead it's meant to reflect back to us our sinful state, much like mirror that reflect our bed hair, so that we will admit that we are drowning in a sea of His holy wrath and cry out for mercy.
"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." -Galatians 3:24
The Ten Commandment is not just some rules for a group of people far away long ago. The moral absolutes revealed in the Commandants transcends all cultures and ages. No one stands righteous in the sight of God and the verdict is already given, when we match our deeds and thoughts against His holy Law. A sinner must be confronted with his or her wretchedness in the light of the commandants so that they can see just how far they fall short of the glory of God. The Law is not done away in the New Testament age as some Christians would suggest, Christ Himself declared that "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail" (Luke 16:17). The Law of God is an integral part of the Christian message.
"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." -Romans 3:21
Hell is Reasonable Justice
Justice is not a novel concept nowadays and it's probably we see scarcely little of it in our lives. The key of winning a lawsuit often times have nothing to do with whether one has a case but whether one can afford an expensive lawyer. Jail or "Correctional Facilities" are more about reforming the criminal back into the society instead of punishment for the crime. The idea of justice is by and large lost and any adherence to the classic Biblical understanding of justice is considered cruel and barbaric by much of the western world. Even Christians, living and breathing the political correct air of this world, would deny the Biblical claim of God's final justice. After all, aren't we living in the age of grace and God has revealed Himself as an all forgiving, all loving, father figure in the sky in the New Testament? The angry, avenging God, isn't that the Old Testament God before Jesus came and mellowed Him out a bit?
"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law" -1 John 3:4
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." -Revelation 21:8
Are you ready for your court room appearence?
The Bible does not present sin as mere mistakes that can be corrected. Sin, in the most straight forward explanation presented by John the Apostle, is the breaking of the Law of God. Even with our whitewashed understanding of justice, we still hold to the simple axiom: "You do the crime, you do the time." We might say that it's not wrong unless we get caught, but that's just a feeble attempt at appeasing our God given conscience that accuses us when we do wrong. Besides, on the day of Judgment we won't have attorneys presenting our case, we don't have one, none of us do. The all powerful, all knowing God of the universe will call our every secret deed and idle thought into account; we will be without excuse on that great and fearful day. The verdict is already made for all sinners, we are guilty of violating the Holy Law of God, and God being good, just and righteous, can not turn a blind eye to sin.
An earthly judge that lets guilty criminal walks out of the court without proper punishment is not immediately thought of as being kind, but rather unjust and corrupt. How unthinkable it is, to try to apply that to God; the one who calls himself righteous and holy, to let sinners into heaven without dealing with their sin. Grace and Forgiveness aside for the moment, God MUST punish sinners, if He is to be called right and good.
It's not about Wholeness, it's About Holiness.
"For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." -Romans 7:11-13
The Law then is not given to us as a way to heaven. Unholy men are incapable of keeping the Holy Law, and the end result is not spiritual enlightenment but spiritual death. Instead, the Law was given to us so that we might realize just how sinful, sin really is.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and Pharisees understood the law as merely external. While it was a heavy burden to keep all the minute details of the external rules, at least, to their human thinking, it was now possible to please God through the Law. Jesus, on the other hand, in the famous Sermon on the Mount found in the book of Matthew 5-7, elevated the Law of God to it's true internalized conclusion. That breaking of God's Law does not start with an outward act, but all sin starts from within. This is what He taught his disciples, when He said that it's not what enters a man that makes someone unclean, but what comes out of us which shows the sinfulness of our hearts. This is crucial; the Bible's default position for all men and women is one of death in sin and in need of salvation. No one loves God or is capable of loving God apart from Christ. Men or women today may have a "spiritual" hunger, but do not mistaken the affinity towards the things of God for a love for God. All of us, born in sin, are by our very nature, selfish and self serving; we might "bow our knees" to a god, only if it serves our own selfish purposes. This most certainly, is not the way a man humbles himself before God, and is born again, being made a new creature in Christ by the very Spirit of God.
We are not good people just needing God to make us better; we are not just a little banged up and in need of a touch up. Christianity is not a self-help project in search of personal wholeness. The claim of Christ is no less than this: The God who will hold you accountable on judgment day, is all together Holy, and you better be holy as well, or there will literally be: "hell to pay". It's all about Holiness.
Mission Impossible
"And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." -Luke 18:24-27
If you start to think that this is an impossible message to preach, to confront men and women with their politically correct, post modern thinking of their sin by absolute Holy Law of God, that's just unthinkable, and it just won't work! Well, that exactly right. It is an impossible message to preach, and it does seem to work against all the wisdom the evangelism gurus today tries to tell us. Don't mention sin, don't mention hell, don't present God as judgmental or authoritative in anyway, just try to win them over by love.
However, pause and ask ourselves, that kind of message removed from the Biblical message of final justice in the hand of a Holy God, what are we saving people from? Boredom and lack of direction in life? Are they saved from not living out their untapped potential? Saved from a mediocre job and unfulfilling relationships? Turn to your Bible again and where did God promised any of the above when we become a Christian? Just the opposite, Christ makes no promise of a better life in this life and in all likelihood it will be a life of rejection, trials and tribulations. Christians down the ages have suffered lost for the sake of following Christ. Jesus Himself asks His would be followers to weight up the cost of discipleship, and He did not mean two hours every week spend in a group Bible study. Christ demands total denial of self and makes no promise of a cushy existence. Jesus did not make it easy for people to believe, just the opposite, His message, the Biblical message of salvation is impossible to believe for the human mind.
So when someone does believe when the Biblical Gospel is preached, God and God alone gets the glory for saving sinners. It's not about the brilliance of the preacher, it's not about the attractiveness of the message and it's definitely not about the intellectual prowess of the listener, it is only the God who saves, through the faithful preaching of the Gospel.
The Real Good News
So are we ever going to get to the good stuff, the cross and everything? Yes we are, but we hope that we can now see how the preaching of the Law does not detract from the cross, but instead makes it much more glorious.
God's love is shown to us through the cross.
For when we understood the exceeding sinfulness of our sin, and Christ who is God incarnate, the giver of the Holy law himself. The cross is no longer a mere symbol of Christian faith, it's the glorious reality of God saving sinners from the judgment of sin.
The good news is not the myth that God just forgives everyone; the good news is about the fact that God sacrificed His only Son, who was innocent of breaking God's laws, as if Christ was a Law breaker like you and I. God's love is shown in our deepest need, if we are not such rebellious offender's of God's Law, God could just shower His blessing upon our lives as a sign of His love. The problem is that in order for God to rescue us from His righteous judgment, the penalty of our crime must be paid for. Christ died on our behalf so that we might be made righteous before the Father.
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." -2 Corinthians 5:21
This is why grace is so amazing. The sacrifice of God's only son for our sin is NOT what we deserve. If we agree with the Bible then we must come to the conclusion that we deserve not God's mercy but His wrath. God is within His right to destroy every single last one of us for our outright hatred and indifference to Him, the giver of our every breathe. We should have perished in our rebellion, yet God is willing to lay down His Son's perfect and sinless life as a substitute for our worthless damnable sinful life. Every men and women presented with the Gospel have only two choices, to either reject God's kind and gracious offer, continuing to live a life of sin that would lead to eternal damnation, or else we would repent from our sins and be born again into the likeness of Christ and receive the ultimate perfection in heaven.
And either way, God will be glorified for being the Righteous judge when He calls all sinners into account, and punishes them according to their offences, or He will be glorified as the God who saves and justify sinners. This is the glorious message Christians are called to preach, whether in Churches behind a pulpit or "one on one" with a neighbor, to preach and exalt God's Holy law and call every sinner to repentance and run to our loving Savior.
U-Turn Required
"When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." -Mark 2:17
Do we have to draw you a picture?
The proper response the Gospel demands is not reciting the sinner's prayer, it's not walking an aisle and noting a date on the back of your Bible. It is when a sinner turns away from their sins and turns towards the Saviour. Christians who understood the character and nature of their new master and the fact that Christ paid a dear price for their sins, they no longer live in the same sinful life style that dominated their old life. A U�turn is required for all those who wish to follow after Christ. It doesn't mean all Christian lives in perfect holiness the minute they are born again, it does mean there should be tangible, radical changes to one's life style. There ought to be sorrow and disgust with one's sin that does not diminish, but increases as we grow in holiness. When we set our eyes on Christ, it always means we leave the sinful world behind us.
And being repentant, Christians must put their total trust in Christ. This means that we no longer try to please God by our own merits and good works, instead we look to the complete and final work of Christ on the cross as the only source of our salvation. It does not mean that we live a life devoid of good works, but our good works are no longer attempts at bribing God on judgment day, instead it flows out our appreciation and love for our God so kind and merciful to save us. We love God's word because it reveals to us the person and character of our new master. We desire to preach the good news to those who are lost, because we remember how we were all once lost, like the world. We worship God because our hearts have been made new.
The Gospel we preach is free, but it's not cheap. The Gospel we preach is open to all, but it's narrow and few find it. The Gospel we preach is not a heavy burden, but it is difficult to believe. The Gospel of God offers the sinner everything, but only if the sinner gives up everything. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is never politically correct, it is never compromising, it is sometimes offensive and at all times confrontational, it's never popular and always counter culture, it's the only message we are given by which sinners can be saved and all glory belongs to God.
May we all strive to be faithful, to that only Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.