Typical response from an unsaved do-gooder to the gospel.
The Truth Hurts Sometimes.
An atheist confessed that the reason she stopped going to church was because the preacher always made her feel bad about herself. How many others keep going to church, never convinced of their depravity? How many others, convicted of sin, resolve to save themselves by further effort?
Salvation is very easy, but the self-righteous person is tone-deaf to the gospel. Whether you carefully spoon feed it to him, or knock him over the head with it, he still can’t get it. While you are talking he’s listening for where his self-righteousness is going to fit in. He won’t believe he has heard the gospel until you’ve provided him with something for his self-righteousness to rest on.
He is restless to plug his self-righteousness somewhere, anywhere, into the message of the gospel. But in so doing, he destroys the gospel. The saving gospel of Jesus Christ and man’s self-righteousness are mutually exclusive. You can’t have both.
You are the sinner, and he is the saviour.
Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. The gospel summarized in a positive manner is, “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.
But notice that is just a summary of the gospel – it is not really the gospel itself. The gospel is, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
The difference between John 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 is Christ dying for sins. You are the sinner, and your sins had to be paid for, and Jesus died for your sins. That is the heart of the gospel.
Unless you understand that you are a sinner you won’t understand why Christ died – nor why you should trust him. The purpose of the atonement is completely lost on you – you have no salvation without adopting this negative truth. “…the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:13.
The humanistic gospel.
It is a soul-damning heresy to tell people to “invite Christ into your life” and “commit your life to Christ” and “make Jesus the Lord of your life” and “live for Jesus” — don’t ever think that a convert who approached Christ on those terms got saved!
A self-righteous religious do-gooder would be quite content to “ask Christ into his life” and never realize that he has no life to ask Christ into – he is dead in his trespasses and sins.
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;” Col. 2:13.
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; … Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” Ephesians 2:1,5.
The modern evangelist approaches the sinner on his own terms – he wants to address the sinner’s loneliness, the sinner’s desire for acceptance, the sinner’s misery, the sinner’s desire to please God. The sales pitch is that Christ will be your friend, he is standing by ready to accept you, he will comfort you, he will help you to be a good person. Notice how every angle is a positive message – you gain gain gain by simply “accepting” Christ.
All of that positivity is completely false if the sinner approaches Christ in his own self-righteousness. Nobody may accept Christ until they REPENT! Then the sinner knows why he is trusting Christ. He is trusting Christ for MERCY. He is not “accepting” Christ to win a holiday vacation package. The modern sales pitch has perverted the gospel message.
You must Repent, and trust Christ.
Notice that you repent and then trust Christ: “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21.
But about the time we have corrected the “easy believism” of those who preach Christ without preaching repentance – along come another crowd of Bible-perverting do-gooders who want to re-define the word “repentance” to mean self-righteousness. The say, to repent is to stop sinning. These fools – and there are millions of them – would destroy the basis of the gospel by claiming that a man’s own efforts constitute “repentance” – he is saved by attaining and maintaining his sinlessness.
Repentance is not stopping of sin. It is changing your mind about sin – it is when you testify against yourself that you are a wicked sinner.
Notice in this verse how repentance is different from its fruit: “But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” Acts 26:20.
In other words, you repent by changing your mind. If you changed your mind, then you are urged to put your new attitude to work – by doing right. The repentance is one thing – the works are something entirely different. You are saved by a repentant heart when you declare you are a sinner, and then look to Christ for mercy because he died for your sins. After that, you ought to do works. Those works are the result of salvation – they do not get you saved or keep you saved.
Religious self-righteousness.
Another gimmick – one that trips up a lot of unsaved religious do-gooders, is the “obey” the gospel switcheroo. You would think the words of Christ would be enough to debunk their heresy: “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” John 6:29.
Nevertheless, the unsaved ritualist claims salvation is dependant upon obedience to some ritual that must be performed by the person seeking salvation – a hellish sleight of hand that usually sets forth water baptism as the test for “obedience” to the gospel. He says, “water saves” and if you “obey” the gospel, you will “repent and be baptised” in his tank of water.
By this unholy madness he completely guts the gospel of its demand that a sinner admit he cannot save himself, transforming it into a sinner saving himself by his own “obedience” and performance of a ritual. By this trickery he is not trusting Christ for mercy, instead he has put the operation of salvation into his own hands by his “obedience” in performing the ritual. That is why these people are unsaved and headed for hell ( … and vainly quoting Acts 2:38 all the way down). They simply hope to be saved by being religious and so they end up where their own self-righteousness will take them.
To obey the gospel is to lay down your self righteousness and believe the gospel. As Romans 10:16 makes clear, those who do not obey the gospel are those who do not believe the gospel: “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?”
Salvation is easy … if you are a sinner.
A man is truly saved when: (1) he repents of his own self-righteousness by admitting he is a sinner, guilty before God, and headed for hell; (2) he hears the gospel message that Jesus Christ died for his sins, was buried, and rose again the third day; (3) Because Jesus Christ paid for his sins and has risen again, he knows that Jesus is the right saviour, and he trusts in him for salvation, delivered from hell by the forgiveness that Christ bought for him.
That’s it! Because no part of that has anything to do with a man’s works, he can be assured that it is final and complete upon immediately upon his receipt of it. Nothing can be added to it or taken away from it because God has done it all.
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13.
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Posted on January 12