Excuse me, but I don't get it!
I can hardly turn on a Christian radio station without hearing someone proclaim without any elaboration, “God loves you unconditionally.” Is this the message an unbeliever needs to hear? Is this the message of salvation that we get from the Bible? This message of unconditional love implies that your sins of all kind are no problem whatsoever to a loving God who has no other attributes of consequence. Whether you are stealing or selling drugs to children remember now that ‘God loves you unconditionally’. Is that Biblical? What does the Bible have to say about God’s love and his message to a lost sinner? Is it to tell them of his love and to tell them to proceed full steam ahead in sin because his love is unconditional or is it possibly another kind of message? Perhaps we should do something controversial and look to the Bible for answers. Very early in the first book of the New Testament we read the following:
Matthew 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
These are clear words from John the Baptist and from Jesus. Repent! This certainly indicates that ‘Houston we have a problem’. Yet, we not only have Churches proclaiming unconditional love from God, we also have no-lordship proponents proclaiming that repentance is not a part of the gospel message and a changed life is really not necessary for salvation. Excuse me but I just don’t get it. It seems to me that we should read a little further and find out why Jesus thinks we need to repent, or would that make make a ‘sensitive seeker’ too uncomfortable.
Matthew 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
These are clear words from John the Baptist and from Jesus. Repent! This certainly indicates that ‘Houston we have a problem’. Yet, we not only have Churches proclaiming unconditional love from God, we also have no-lordship proponents proclaiming that repentance is not a part of the gospel message and a changed life is really not necessary for salvation. Excuse me but I just don’t get it. It seems to me that we should read a little further and find out why Jesus thinks we need to repent, or would that make make a ‘sensitive seeker’ too uncomfortable.
4 comments:
W.H.,
In Luke's account of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says in verse 6: 40 " A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher". It would appear that obedience to Christ's teachings and becoming Christ-like are one and the same. Or, obedience to Christ = conformity to Christ.
Now, if we visit the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 "make disciples...teaching them to obey all that I have commanded..." it would seem that salvation is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The "end" would seem to be Christ-likeness, Romans 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 4:19. Hense, the preaching of repentance as part of the Great Commission in Luke 24:47.
Jazzy Cat: perhaps in this day and age of political correctness, it's apparent some would not go the way of the fiery sermon of repentance for fear of reprisal, picketers, ACLU and special interest groups. To listen to the world at large, everything is okay now because it is a matter of choice. So what is there to repent from? Everything is either a disease, disorder or dysfunction. And if the Biblical list of "sins" from which one should repent doesn't fall into those categories, then we lean on old faithful...freedom of choice. The I-have-a-right-to-do-whatever- I-please and it's nobody's business but my own. selahV
p.s. I love your deer picture. Oh that we should long so after the Almighty....selahV
Selahv & Mark,
Thanks for the comments. Selahv your sites do show your writing ability.
W.H.
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