What Has Precedence?

The best-known verse in the Bible is John 3:16, “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.”

If eternal life for mankind was God’s object for sending his Son into the world and faith the one condition of receiving it, why has the emphasis of the Church so largely shifted to other things?

We write with deep feeling because we believe people who need the message of eternal salvation are being denied that message in many places.

Basic to this shift in emphasis is open or tacit unbelief in the biblical teaching about unregenerate man’s lost condition and acceptance of theories more palatable to human pride.

The love of God must be preached as the motive for his gift, but the condition of man must also be preached to show his lost condition outside Christ. There is no general amnesty in the Cross; it is the basis of redemption to those who will believe. Salvation is not for sinners who ignore or reject God’s proffered forgiveness.

In many churches entirely too much is taken for granted. People are urged to “join the church” without ever being told they are sinners in need of a Saviour. Young people come up through the church school without ever being confronted with the claims of Christ other than as a challenge to go out and make the world a better place in which to live.

Lest some think these statements are too sweeping, we hasten to affirm that there are many churches that are preaching the sinner’s lost position outside Christ and the obvious necessity for repentance, faith in Christ, and holy living. But too often such preaching and teaching is found only in the newer and more evangelistic denominations that have risen up to challenge the older churches with the very message the older churches have abandoned in their concern with social engineering. This shift in emphasis in most major denominations may well determine where God’s blessing will rest in the years to come.

For generations the main thrust of Protestantism was the proclamation of salvation by the grace of God. Central to this was the Cross. There were differences over interpretation and emphasis on one particular doctrine or another, but there was never any quibbling about the sinfulness of man and his need of redemption—a doctrine pointed up by the Reformation and stressed by Luther and Calvin. Nor was there any major division about the reality of heaven and hell and the finality of man’s destiny once death had intervened. Theologians and churchmen were willing to accept at face value the clear statements of Scripture about these things.

Then, insidiously at first but more and more openly as dissenters became bolder, there was questioning of almost every doctrine of the Christian faith. Where the meaning of Scripture could not be contravened, the integrity or validity of the author was attacked. Often the excuse was only that the attackers did not like or believe what he had written.

The present shift in emphasis stems from a frank denial of Scripture and a new philosophy of man. The result is a completely altered message.

If man is essentially good, if he needs only example and coaxing to become truly good, that is one thing. If, on the other hand, he is a lost sinner, a sinner by inheritance, by choice, and by practice, then he needs a complete transformation, a new nature, a new heart—all of which is a part of the regenerating power of the Son of God. If man’s eternal destiny rests on his relation to the Christ of Calvary, as is so clearly taught in the Scriptures, then the most important thing the Church can do is to preach that Gospel in season and out.

The greatest tragedy in Christendom today is that so many within the sound of the Church have never heard of their own need and condition as sinners. Where is the urgency of the apostles and the early Church? Where is the personal confrontation demanded by preachers only a few score years ago? How often are men challenged about their lost condition and about the claims of Christ today?

We write with deep earnestness because we believe the present shift in emphasis is a betrayal of the trust imposed on the Church by the very nature of the Gospel and the condition of men.

Two days before writing this we were talking to a friend of many years’ standing. Four hours later he was dead of a heart attack. Godly parents had set his feet on the right path, godly and able preachers had taught and preached in his church, and he had made his personal surrender to Christ years ago and had become an active church member and officer.

But what about those who live within the sound of the pulpit, and even work within the program of the Church, who have never been confronted with the necessity of accepting Christ as Saviour from sin and Lord of life? What about those about whom too much has been taken for granted? We speak with feeling because we know so many people who have “joined the church” but who have never confessed their sins and turned to Christ for forgiveness and renewal.

The current idea that people are “educated into the kingdom” gives precedence to the head rather than the heart, to reason rather than the Holy Spirit, and often to salvation by works rather than salvation through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no question about the depth and height of the love of God for all the world. There can be no question but that our Lord clearly stated the lost (perishing) condition of those who live in this world. There can be no question but that he taught two destinies, “perishing” and “eternal life.” And there can be no doubt that Jesus taught that the shift from being lost to being redeemed rests solely on the faith of those who believe.

Why then do we play down man’s desperate need and the fullness of salvation to all who will believe?

The social concerns of the Church have their rightful place provided they are not given priority over the soul needs of those to whom the Church ministers.

The “one thing needful” has to do with eternal values, not earthly; with changed hearts, not changed environment; with the inside of the cup, not its outside; with Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, not with some man or organization.

There is no question but that the Gospel will be preached to all the world for a witness. There is no question but that God’s Kingdom will surely come. Nevertheless, whether the ecumenical church as we know it will be the instrument of this ultimate triumph will depend on its faithfulness to the message 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.”

Are men prepared for death through the Gospel you preach?

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