Easter season is a good time to be thinking about the gospel. I recall that I once went to a large evangelistic rally at the Singapore Indoor Stadium (that has to be several years ago). There was a fabulous drama being put up; very professionally done and the crowd was responsive and spontaneous; basically, awesome atmosphere! When the altar call was about to be given, the preacher spoke very dynamically about how people feel a sense of emptiness no matter how they try to fill their lives with friends, activities and achievements. He spoke about a God-shaped void where only God can fill and with that, he gave an altar call, getting non-Christians to come forward and allow Jesus to come into their lives and fill them with peace and purpose; no more restlessness, no more emptiness; just come to Jesus! And honestly I was pretty shocked at the immense numbers that responded. In my estimation I’d say at least 300 plus went down, if let’s say 100 of them are really rededications, then we’re talking about a 200 plus harvest! I recalled going out of that rally deep in thought. I remember on my bus journey back, I was asking myself why did the 300 plus responded to the altar call? At a human level, I guess it’s because they wanted the benefit of obtaining a purposeful life and eradicate emptiness and futility in their lives (which I believe is not the essence of the gospel). But yet on that bus, I came to the conclusion that God is gracious. God is able to use what deficient theology preachers deliver to fulfill his salvific purposes. And I believe by faith, that those 300 plus that responded will eventually find out about the essence of the gospel through follow-up sessions.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that those 300 plus are not saved, they probably are, since salvation is really more of a process of enlightenment and by faith I believe that the Holy Spirit is working in their lives to cause them to respond to the altar call in the first place and that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in their lives to cause them to eventually understand and embrace the essence of the gospel. But like I said, I am speaking by faith, so I’m not entirely sure; but I am pretty sure that the preacher in the rally is really sincere about drawing people to God’s kingdom and God can use such a sincere heart. But the point I am making is that I believe nobody can be convinced that a certain person is a Christian unless and until that certain person has come to a clear understanding of the essence of the gospel. FORGIVENESS OF SINS is the essence of the gospel, without which the gospel message must be deemed deficient (but not unusable by God).
Psalm 103:2 says: “Praise the LORD , O my soul, and forget not all His benefits”. It is so true that being a Christian comes with it a whole host of benefits (which is of course less apparent if the conversion stems from a persecuted nation) and I think it is fine to draw people to Christianity with these host of benefits but yet the main benefit to be highlighted ought to be that which is found in verse 3 of Psalm 103: forgiveness of sins. In fact, this I believe is the benefit that separates the sheep from the goats. Forgiveness of sins presupposes that you are a sinner on your way to hell – a key idea that contributes greatly to the gospel message being an offensive one. Overly “seeker sensitive” messages that takes the offensiveness out of the gospel simply won’t cut it. Indeed the gospel message must be offensive to those whose hearts are hardened and salvific for those whose hearts are humbled. Our Lord Jesus quoted Isaiah in Mark 4:11-12.
“He [Jesus] told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”“
Pretty shocking to hear that the reason why Jesus spoke in parables is not because he wanted to help people relate to his message better but so that those whose hearts are proud and hardened against God will remain unforgiven for the purpose that they be kept out of the kingdom. When the unadulterated word of God is preached in its truest form, it always produces two different kinds of effects on two groups of people: those who are perishing (regarding God’s word as foolishness) and those who are being saved (regarding God’s word as the power of God) – 1 Corinthians 1:18. Do I believe that God’s desire is for everyone in the world to be saved? That’s a definite yes, but do I believe it is God’s will for everyone to be saved? I guess that’s a no, since I believe that God has willed that proud and hardened hearts be left out of the kingdom. God works by this principle: resist the proud, give grace to the humble (James 4:6).
Therefore, a chief concern for any outreach is not for all to be saved but for the untainted message of the gospel to go forth without stripping away its intended offensiveness. Even if all the non-Christians present are offended by the message and nobody receive Christ in the end, that’s not really the concern. The chief concern is that the Holy Spirit is able to use the truth of God’s word to fulfill its intended purpose of saving souls on the one hand and hardening hearts on the other hand. Ultimately, people need to receive Christ for the reason that really matters: forgiveness of sins. Come to think of it, forgiveness of sins is at the very core of the sinners’ prayer, I am of the belief that a “Christian” is not a Christian until the core benefit of forgiveness of sins is clearly internalized.
There was once a sincere evangelist who was sent by God Himself to preach the gospel to a non-Christian household. So he went and spoke about how God accepts everyone without favouritism; how Jesus went about doing good through the power of the Spirit; how Jesus died and rose again and is now Judge to the living and the dead. He said all this, but it was only when forgiveness of sins was preached that the Holy Spirit saw fit to interrupt (yes, interrupt) his preaching and descend upon all who heard the gospel message. This evangelist is Peter, the household is Cornelius’ and the core benefit of Christianity was preached in verse 43 of Acts 10. Especially in this Easter season, whenever and wherever the occasion calls for us to share the gospel, let’s get back to the core of things.