The picture above has been in the news this week, as this heart-breaking image of two slave children just recently surfaced. In God’s providence, I have been reading a very good book this week, Surprised by Grace, and the book closes with an illustration of our freedom in Christ that brought this picture to mind.

There’s a story told, from Civil War days before America’s slaves were freed, about a northerner who went to a slave auction and purchased a young slave girl. As they walked away from the auction, the man turned to the girl and told her, “You’re free.”

With amazement she responded, “You mean, I’m free to do whatever I want?”

“Yes,” he said.

“And to say whatever I want to say?”

“Yes, anything.”

“And to be whatever I want to be?”

“Yep.”

“And even go wherever I want to go?”

“Yes,” he answered with a smile. “You’re free to go wherever you’d like.”

She looked at him intently and replied, “Then I will go with you.”

Jesus has come to the slave market. He came to us there because we would not go to Him. He came and purchased us with His blood so we would no longer be a slave to sin but a slave to Christ, which is the essence of freedom.

The gospel of Jesus Christ not only saves sinners in eternity, but it rehabilitates them here on earth as well. Radical things happen when God saves a sinner. Thieves stop their stealing and instead begin giving. Liars stop their lying and become advocates for the truth. Even the rich stop their hoarding, instead turning their focus on spreading what God has given them.

And when sinners with a great reputation for sinning come to Jesus in repentance and faith, no doubt they are eager to share the story of their rehabilitation. Though testimony sharing is a good, biblical, and edifying practice, even the best of personal testimonies do not carry with them the power of the gospel. The gospel is His-story, something that culminated 2000 years ago in the tiny nation of Israel. And this story concern the testimony of only one Man: the God-Man, Jesus Christ, and what He accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection.

But in considering personal testimonies, I find it easy to become weary of hearing these stories of radical conversions to Christ. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that these testimonies aren’t often very glorious and uplifting to Christians (and to me as well). But I can’t help but recognize that the world and many false religions bear witness these radical ‘conversions’ as well.

I’ve heard of adulterers embracing Mormonism and becoming radically faithful. I’ve heard of drunkards saved from their drunkenness by Alcoholics Anonymous. I’ve heard of selfish, hedonistic rich people turning their lives around to become loving, giving, serving people as a result of some spiritual experience.

And since these conversions are not unique to Christianity, many unbelievers also get fed up with us Christians acting like we hold a patent on radical transformations. As someone who has a pretty radical testimony myself, I’ve been cut off (by sighs, rolling eyes, scoffs) more than a few times with the plea “Not another ‘I Found Jesus!’ story!â€�

The fact remains: though the gospel rehabilitates sinners in outward areas of morality, this is in no way unique to the gospel, and so we shouldn’t treat these radical testimonies as if they are the gospel.

But is there no place for sharing our testimony? Yes- I do believe there is an appropriate place for them, but with a few qualifiers:

1) Focus more on the inward than on the outward

In other words, what religion can expose the hypocrisy of a moralistic, unselfish, upright and loving man? What religion can cause a goody-two-shoes to fall on their face crying ‘woe is me’ when enlightened by the holiness of God? What religion can convince a man who has all the money, power, comforts, and family he’d ever need that he stands condemned as a rotten sinner before God?

The most amazing power of the gospel is not that it rehabilitates the outwardly wicked, but that it rehabilitates the outwardly good but inwardly wicked! Emphasizing how God saved you despite your inward corruptions hits far closer to home than emphasizing your outward corruptions. Outward corruptions are recognized by all religions as undesirable; only Christianity and the gospel expose our true, inward self-righteousness.

2) So as not to sensationalize, get a firm understanding of the fact that radical testimonies are actually less astonishing -in God’s eyes- than ‘boring’ testimonies

Matthew 21:31 “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.”

Jesus, in speaking to the religious elite, the moral majority of His day, proclaims that it is actually more common for an outwardly wicked person to enter heaven, than it is for a person of moral and religious uprightness.

How is it, Christian, that you think that the worse you were before coming to Christ actually makes your testimony that much more astounding? If you let scripture be your guide, the better of a person you were before coming to Christ is what would make your testimony that much more improbable!

So friends- the word of God makes it plain that the gospel is a foolish message to those who are perishing. Let’s stop acting like it isn’t foolish, dressing it up in self-improvement as if it will somehow impress the world. Trust me. It doesn’t.

Instead, let’s place our trust in the power of the message itself: the testimony of Christ and what He accomplished. And should a time or place lend itself to sharing a personal testimony, do not neglect the inward over the outward. Proclaim the depths of sin and how it has permeated every fiber of your being, and demonstrate the power of the gospel to even save the successful, moral, and satisfied sinner.

Below you will find an excerpt from Tim Keller’s excellent book, The Prodigal God. The emphasis is all mine, which is the specific statement that concerns this post:

“Jesus’ teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of His day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on the people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.“

At first glance, I found this to be a very compelling and convicting statement. Jesus did tend to offend the self-righteous religious people of His day, while in our day these people are seen as valuable tithers. The majority of churches in my community do tend to attract and even seek after white, middle class (again, tithers are seen as vital for church growth), outwardly moralistic people, rather than inner city runaways, drug addicts, and homosexuals.

However, I part ways with Keller at one point: his presuppositions seems to be that the preaching of God’s word in the context of corporate worship is entirely evangelistic, and that the ministry of the church is to create an atmosphere/message that make unbelievers feel comfortable. Furthermore, I’d also disagree with his inference that Jesus’ preaching (which was obviously evangelistic) should be exactly modeled in the corporate gathering of His church.

Instead, the corporate gathering of the church should be to feed and equip God’s people to then go out and evangelize to the ends of the earth, even to the licentious, liberated, and broken. Sure, our preaching in church should offend the outwardly religious, but it should make the licentious squirm as well. God’s people are holy, sanctified, and have gathered with hopeful expectation of being fed with Christ’s gifts. That is not an atmosphere that should make an unbeliever of any sort feel very comfortable.

Thus, I’d like to propose a slight adjustment to Keller’s words: Instead of saying that if we do not attract the outcasts then the ministers are not declaring the same message as Jesus did, I think it would be more accurate to say that if we are not consistently around, friends with, or ministering to the licentious, liberated, broken, and outcasts, then we are not living the same gospel the Jesus preached.

Certainly, the church is not to be a place with high walls and cultural or spiritual pre-qualifications necessary for entry, but neither should it look like the mission work of evangelism. We are to be in the midst of God’s people on His Day, feeding of Christ’s gifts, while the rest of the week we are to instead look outward, to the spiritual needs of others, and seek to be around the wicked (in order to bear witness to the gospel) as much as possible. That’s the ministry of Jesus: going outside the camp to make friends with sinners.

Yesterday we celebrated my son Rylee’s 1st birthday. Rylee is named after the 19th century Anglican bishop, J.C. Ryle (along with my dad, Chandler, which is Rylee’s middle name).

Before we lit the cake and sang to little Rylee, I briefly explained to our friends and family what made J.C. Ryle so special, and why I’d name my son after an Anglican.

Broadening those thoughts just a bit, here is a good summary of what I admire most in Ryle, taken from Ryle himself in Knots Untied:

Ryle was an Evangelical

What is Evangelical Religion?

1) The first leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the absolute supremacy it assigns to Holy Scripture, as the only rule of faith and practice…

2) The second leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the depth and prominence it assigns to the doctrine of human sinfulness and corruption…

All men…are not only in a miserable, pitiable, and bankrupt condition, but in a state of guilt, imminent danger, and condemnation before God…

Hence we protest with all our heart against formalism, sacramentalism, and every species of mere external or vicarious Christianity. We maintain that all such religion is founded on an inadequate view of man’s spiritual need.

3) The third leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the paramount importance it attaches to the work and office of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the nature of the salvation which He has wrought out for man…

4) The fourth leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the high place which it assigns to the inward work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of man…

We maintain that the things which need most to be pressed on men’s attention are those mighty works of the Holy Spirit, inward repentance, inward faith, inward hope, inward hatred of sin, and inward love to God’s law…

5) The fifth and last leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the importance which it attaches to the outward and visible work of the Holy Ghost in the life of man…

The true grace of God is a thing that will always make itself manifest in the conduct, behaviour, tastes, ways, choices and habits of him who has it. It is not a dormant thing…

To tell a man he is “born of God”, or regenerated, while he is living in carelessness or sin, is a dangerous delusion…

Where there is the grace of the Spirit there will always be more or less fruit of the Spirit.

I am thankful for Ryle and his legacy of Gospel faithfulness. And I encourage you to get to know him better if you’re not familiar with his writings.

Sadly, in a recent article, Christian music artist Jennifer Knapp has openly admitting to living in a homosexual relationship with another woman. If you are not familiar with Jennifer Knapp, she was a extremely popular CCM musician in the late 90’s, until walking away from music (temporarily it seems) in 2002.

Reading the interview, a few things that she said about her relationship stuck out to me:

“…deciding to invest in a same-sex relationship”

“…because of who I’ve chosen to spend my life with”

“…we’re all hopelessly deceived if we don’t think that there are people within our churches, within our communities, who want to hold on to the person they love”

“…feeling like I have to justify my faith or the decisions that I’ve made to choose to love who I choose to love.”

“…this is not an option for me, to invest in this other person”

“…the conservative evangelical who uses what most people refer to as the “clobber verses” to refer to this loving relationship…”

“…I’ve found no law that commands me in any way other than to love my neighbor as myself”

I find it interesting how she paints this homosexual relationship. Who would ever think that investing in, loving, and holding onto another person is a bad thing?  Certainly those are good things; anyone reading the article –especially Christians– would agree.

But unfortunately, we’re talking about a sexual relationship here, between two people of the same sex. If she is sexually involved with this woman, which she admits, then she isn’t investing in, loving, or holding onto anyone but herself. She is actually destroying the other person, along with herself, and actively shaking her fist at God’s definition of sin, as well as His definition of ‘loving neighbor as yourself’. But notice that this very carefully –and intentionally– avoided by painting the relationship in these glowing  terms.

On a personal note, I recently transferred from a secular State University to Covenant College, a Reformed/PCA school. In one of my classes, ’sexuality and religion’, homosexuality in the church was the main topic. Sadly, I was very surprised at how many people (professing Christians) within the class were on the fence regarding this issue, and even some who after the class seemed convinced that homosexuality is not to be condemned by the church (but rather to be accepted).

If you don’t think this isn’t a real issue within the church right now, and I’m talking about conservative circles, then you’re not paying attention. That’s one thing that Knapp got right in this interview, when she said:

“The heartbreaking thing to me is that we’re all hopelessly deceived if we don’t think that there are people within our churches, within our communities, who want to hold on to the person they love, whatever sex that may be, and hold on to their faith.”

Yes, they are all around us, and if they’re not, then we need to “GO into all the world” a whole lot more so that they are around us. Because they –and us all– need the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Instead of defining ‘love’ to fit your personal preferences –which we all tend to do and which will most often lead us directly into conscience-soothing selfishness at some level– look to Christ. In Him we see loving, compassionate, missional, patient, and yet firm, demanding, objective, and stubborn when it came to truth, sin, righteousness, hell, and the judgment. He is the embodiment of love, to depths unfathomable by the human mind.

What He accomplished at the cross and the grave 2000 years ago is loving. Take that event and hold it up against all other claims of ‘love’, and by God’s grace our sin will be exposed, and the fullness of righteousness and forgiveness found in Him will shine like the noonday sun.

“We must have a righteousness in which Jehovah Himself cannot find a flaw, a righteousness which Jehovah cannot mend, a righteousness which neither sin nor Satan can mar; and unless we have on a righteousness of this nature, we can never enter into the blessedness of the world to come. Where, then, are we to find it? Eternal praises to the matchless mercy of a covenant God, we have it in the blessed Person, glorious work, and spotless obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ! And, therefore, as it was essential for Him to fulfill all righteousness for His people, He loved the Lord His God with all His heart, with all His mind, and with all His strength. He began at the beginning, and went through holily, righteously, and steadily every step of the law of God and all in justice and righteousness. He fulfilled every iota of it, and gave it immortal glory and honor. The law could only require the perfect obedience of a perfect man, but He gave it the perfect obedience of the God-Man, and stamped forever a holy dignity and majesty on it, in order to manifest that this glorious righteousness is suited to every sinner’s case, to all their needs, and to honor and glorify all the perfections of God; and thus He has “forever perfected them that were sanctified,” all those who were set apart for Himself. They are perfected forever in His own blessed obedience and spotless righteousness; and this righteousness which God gives shall endure forever…”My soul shall be joyful in my God; I will glory in the God of my salvation; for He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness; He hath adorned me with the garments of salvation.” –William Gadsby

“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.”

[These are a few random notes contained within my sermon; this is not a presentation or outline of my thesis]

“Love is defined and bound up in the person of Christ and His laying down His life for us; And it is His work, on the cross, that teaches to love, motivates us to love, and binds us up in duty to love.”

“We offended God through our sin, failure to worship, failure to give thanks, our failure to walk righteously, and our abuse of His gracious gifts of life and liberty. And though God is the one offended, HE is the one who stoops to reconcile with us, though we were yet enemies and fully guilty under Divine justice. And not only does He stoop down to reconcile with His enemies, in order to satisfy His Divine justice and demonstrate His righteousness, He sends that which is most precious to Him, His own Son.”

“God is holy, righteous, and just, and He cannot overlook sin and remain a just being. And to satisfy His divine justice and yet still redeem fallen man from sin and our misery, the holy and righteous God in the Person of Christ descended and became sin for us on the cross.”

“Have you considered how vile it was for Christ to submit to death, and to bear our sins on the cross? Let me give you an example: think of an upright, chaste woman being propositioned by a filthy pervert on the street. See how she recoils at the thought of such vileness! Infinitely more so, see the Son of God, perfect and holy, upright to a measure we can never understand, having our sins placed upon His back. The scripture says He BECAME sin for us. All manner of wickedness, adultery, murder, lying, stealing, blaspheming, hate, rebellion, homosexuality, uncleaness – things that EVEN WE SINNERS utterly abhor and recoil at, He became…in our place…there is no greater evidence of God’s love for us than His becoming sin on our behalf, and His death on the cross.”

“The apostle here is stirring our affections and our DEVOTION to Christ because of HIS love towards us. Because of His great love, we love. Because of His great service, we serve. Because of His great humbling and submission to both God and man, we are to be humble and submissive. As chapter 2 verse 6 says, we are to ‘walk just as He walked’.”

“‘laying down our lives’, is not in the heroic, battlefield type of ‘laying down your life’. Sure, there are many stories of bravery where soldiers forfeit their lives for the sake of their fellow soldiers. This is a wonderful and commendable thing, no doubt. But just because someone lays down their life doesn’t mean that they have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them. What we see in the text, however, is that John goes on to give an example of the point he just made (READ 17-19). This is a level of extreme care/concern/love. It means that we deny others nothing, even if it costs us our life! We hold back no material good or service to those in need, even to the point of our death.”

“Brethren, consider this deeply: the opposite of Love is NOT hate as we understand it; rather, it is indifference. It is selfishness. It is only noticing your own personal needs, not even paying attention to the needs of others.”

“The Law says ‘love your neighbor as yourself’? And how do we love ourselves?–by clothing, feeding, nourishing, watching our diet and health, exercising, making every effort to live as long as possible and in the best means possible. So obedience to this command is: though it cost you life, liberty, house and home to care for a brother in need, the prospect of death does not hinder you from loving others as yourself.”

“It is the cross is what motivates us to love, springing us into action, and binds us to love others. And the gospel does this in several ways:

1) Loving others gives us a picture of Christ. It is not simply a duty or an obligation (though it is) to love because He loved, but it is a communion with Him through a more deeper appreciation and understanding of His glory in the gospel. Loving leads to adoring, to worship, to greater communion with God, which is the highest, chiefest good. In contrast, NOT loving others diminishes our capacity to see Christ, know the gospel by experience, love Him, commune with Him. Failing to love alienates us from the gospel and what Christ saved us to do, and it brings God’s displeasure upon us.

2) The cross is the attraction that fuels our love for others by pulling us away from ourselves. What should consume our thoughts and affections is not following a list for how to ‘love’, but the glory and grace of God revealed at the cross! Christ GAVE HIMSELF, to the point of death, FOR SINNERS! This thought, properly and consistently meditated on, forces us to look outside of ourselves to something greater.

In contrast, NOT loving others; not mimicking Christ, leaves us vulnerable to being seduced by selfish ambitions and self-righteousness. When we lose the foundation, the cross, and yet still try to love, we will be seduced by our own corruptions and desire to please the flesh. A natural man may yet love, but not out of any beauty that he sees in it, not out of and love for Christ and a desire to glorify Him, but for his own self-righteousness, or because he sees them to be a bridge to heaven and he cannot get there without it. The gospel as the foundation for our love pulls us out of ourselves, our work, and our self-righteousness by declaring that we were enemies of God until Christ was formed in us.

“Our infatuation with the cross should lead us to love, and to love deeply. When we do not love, we declare that we have MISSED THE MESSAGE of the gospel. [Repeat] WE have MISUNDERSTOOD THE GOSPEL, its purpose, its power, its implications, if we fail to love. And what could be more frightening? This is the most important message of all.”

“An inference of application that we can infer from this text is that, understanding the providence of God, the reason we have been given extra food/drink in this life is precisely to care for others. God uses, in His providence, your graces and your abundance to feed/clothe/preach to others. If we think that the stuff in this life is ours for our own wantonness, our own comforts or selfish pleasure, we have misunderstood the gospel and the Christian duty of love.”

“Another application could be considering the hindrances of our love in relation to the gospel. What usually hinders us from loving? Is it not when we see pride in others, a lack of appreciation? Basically, isn’t it when we see the sin in others that we tend to pull back and be indifferent to their needs? But the gospel reminds us that we are to love what God in Christ loves; because He loves, He gives, serves, and is patient despite sin, we are to be as well. Loving our neighbor is not predicated on their receiving it with thanksgiving, or upon them being in some way righteous enough to receive it. If we love how Christ loved, seeing their sin will cause us to love them even more.”

“This passage ends with ‘the truth’: And what is the ultimate truth? Is not Christ the way the truth and the life? Brethren, again, we must run back to Christ and the gospel! To love in the truth is to love and speak the truth. Our deeds are to be such that they adorn the gospel, and are in step with what Christ has done on our behalf. We are to love by deed and by declaring the truth!

“I say this as carefully and sincerely as possible, but serving and loving without bringing the gospel IS NOT truly LOVE. People need the gospel, they need ‘the power of God unto salvation’ more than anything, whether they’re saved or lost. So when you serve, do not assume the gospel; Do not assume that that people know it already. Even if they’re in church; under sound preaching; Don’t assume that they know it or at least don’t need to be reminded of it.”

“Salvation is by works alone. But man is incapable of working his way to salvation. You need an alien righteousness, the works of Another”

If scripture clearly and emphatically declares that salvation is by faith (in Christ) alone, why would I say that salvation is by works? Let me briefly explain.

First, I am attempting to follow the model of our Lord in breaking up the fallow-ground of self-righteousness when presenting the gospel:

Matt 19:16 – “And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus broke this man’s self-righteousness by pointing him to the Law of God (the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments), and demonstrating to him his failure (inability) to keep it. He also upheld the necessity of a perfect law-keeping for eternal life (which is later explained to only be obtainable through faith in Christ, our substitute, who DID fulfill the law perfectly).

I am also attempting to follow the model of the Apostle Paul:

Rom 2:12 – “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

Paul has just shown the unrighteousness of the Gentiles in Romans chapter 1, and is now beginning to show the unrighteousness of the Jews in Romans chapter 2, which he brings to a head with ‘all have sinned’ in chapter 3. But important to Paul’s argument is how he demonstrates here in chapter 2 that the Jews had not really kept the Law at all –even in their zeal for outward observance. What a shock it must have been to the Jews to hear that perfect ‘doers’ of the Law are the only ones justified!

This type of groundwork is important, and I would argue, absolutely necessary for a faithful gospel presentation. Men must understand that they have broken the Law, and that God demands absolute perfection (not trying your best) in order to be justified. Oh, for more preachers of the Law in our day, who hold it up as a standard entirely impossible to keep by sinful man! Only then will men, in their despair, run to Christ for a covering, an atonement, indeed a righteousness not their own!

Secondly, I emphasize this need for ‘works’ because there is an intrinsic connection between the law of God in our justification that is often lost or undermined in our day.

Consider,

Matt 5:17 – “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Notice that Christ Jesus had to ‘fulfill’ the law in order to become a substitute for sinners. It wasn’t Jesus’ inherent righteousness as the second Person of the Trinity that approved Him before God as our substitute (by faith), but it also included His coming to ‘fulfill the Law’, in our place, where we haven’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t.

As I have argued here, This text *specifically* references how a person is *saved* in the New Testament/New Covenant era. For verse 20 clearly references ‘entering heaven’, and the righteousness needed to do so.

Also consider,

Rom 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

In accordance with the the Romans 2 chapter I quoted above (“it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”), and Romans 3:31 (“Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”), the Law of God is “FULFILLED” in us ONLY through Christ setting us free from the law of sin and death, and granting us His Spirit so that we may not walk by the flesh. This is where our justification (by grace/faith/Christ alone) and our sanctification (our obligation/duty/delight to obey the Law of God) meet perfectly, to the glory of God and not man.

Conclusion:
The works of the Law play an important role in salvation. That is, it is important to: presenting the gospel, our justification, and our sanctification. You may object and say ‘there is so much self-righteous, practical ’salvation by works’ in our day, the last thing we need is to mention anything about law-keeping!’. But I propose to you that Jesus and Paul lived in a far worse culture of self-righteousness and legalism, and yet they emphatically held up the true intention, purpose, and necessity of the Law.

We need to plumb these depths of our salvation more often! And we need to present the Law to men not as God grading on a curve or accepting imperfect conformity, but as the perfection necessary for salvation, only possible in running and throwing ourselves at the mercy of Christ by faith.

However, as I thought about the shortest of space in presenting the gospel, I realized just how important it is to know your audience when presenting the gospel. Of course, the gospel (‘good news’) is simply what God through Christ has done –and when we present the gospel we are simply pronouncing that news. And with this there is no need to ‘knowing your audience’. But there are many factors that go into what aspect of the gospel that we emphasize and/or mention when presenting it to unbelievers.

For example, we should present the gospel differently to a Roman Catholic than we would an atheist. A Catholic is likely to already acknowledge the Triune God, the truthfulness of scripture, the historical record of Jesus Christ, and even the reality of sin. An athiest, however, would need to be presented with something that defends and/or specificially proclaims the truthfulness of some of the stuff a Catholic already accepts.

Therefore, I found the ‘140′ limit quite challenging. Sure, it’s easy to mention some of the important aspects of the gospel in 140 characters, but what good is it to say ‘Jesus is the only way’ or ‘Jesus died for sinners’ to this outwardly-churchy but hypocritical land that we live in?

So, considering the state of our land, the popular church in our day, and most people’s already accepted beliefs concerning God, the bible, and Jesus Christ, I offered the following three attempts at communicating the gospel in 140 characters:

“Salvation is by works alone. But man is incapable of working his way to salvation. You need an alien righteousness, the works of Another”

“Christ/the cross is the only way to eternal life because you can neither escape punishment for your sin nor work your own righteousness”

“God through Christ did what we could not do ourselves: paid the penalty for sin & fulfilled all righteousness; we receive only by faith”

Our culture is inundated with the idea that salvation, in some sense, and in some degree, is dependent upon something in us. That is, what we do, what we say, what rituals we follow, what truths we accept, etc. Religion is about doing good, right? –so the ignorance goes.

But the Bible makes it abundantly clear that man’s works, even his best deeds, are filthy wickedness in His eyes outside of the merits of Christ. And that any trust or dependence in ourselves, or even any attempt to please God in our own power, is absolutely futile, not to mention offense to Him. I believe that this is a very important -and often lost- truth in our land, which led me to phrase the statements above like I did.

What are your thoughts? What aspect of the gospel should we emphasize above all others when only given 140 characters?

As I have said before, I highly recommend Christless Christianity to you, as I consider it to be one of the most important books written in the last few years.

Today’s topic: What is the Gospel?
Recently, on a discussion list I am a member of, a friend of mine asked the following question, requesting a response:

What is the Gospel?

A. A Command
B. An Announcement
C. An Offer
D. All of the above
E. Something else

How would you answer this question? I certainly think there is some legitimacy in “all of the above”, but if we’re completely honest about how scripture presents the gospel, I must say that ‘B’, an announcement, probably begins to answer the question best.

Consider this in light of the following excerpt:

“J. Gresham Machen’s cry, directed at Protestant liberalism, can as easily be addressed to evangelicals today: “What I need first of all is not exhortation, but a gospel, not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news? That is the question I ask of you. I know your exhortations will not help. But if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts?”

As I read through this book, I begun to realize how our culture, and certainly myself included at times, have gotten the gospel backwards. Even in solid, bible-believing reformed circles, too often the gospel is a great exhortation to ‘believe’, or ‘repent’, or ‘place faith in Christ’, or ‘deny yourself’, or any number of things which center on us doing something. This, I fear, many otherwise sincere believers sometimes misunderstand.

But the gospel and our response to the gospel are two different things. We cannot preach our response to the gospel and call it ‘the gospel’; to do so would just preach ourselves. Rather, we must understand that we only call for our response to the gospel after the proclamation of good news has first been given, instead of the other way around.

More on this to come.