Domesticating The Biblical Evangel

Many preachers today are into watering down or contextualizing the gospel message, even glossing over sin, while they preach to make it seem less strident and more palatable to the seeker.  Jesus made it appear well-nigh impossible and even discouraged the faint in heart and those who wouldn't count the cost of laying down their lives for Him. When the evangelist preaches that all we need to do is simply believe, or agreeing without obedience or lordship, he is guilty of disseminating a false gospel or what are termed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as "cheap grace."  (NB:  Salvation is free but not cheap! This is also known as "easy-believism" because it denies the necessity of making a lordship commitment to enter into a permanent relationship with God in salvation and reconciliation.  Its logical conclusion is that there can be "carnal Christians" who haven't fully surrendered to Christ's lordship and ownership of their lives as a new type or class of Christian.

This is where we must distinguish but not separate law and gospel in our preaching and evangelizing.  Law is what we must do: gospel is what God has done (the done deal!).  We must get them lost first!  We must preach sin to get them convicted of sin--for they may not see any need for salvation or believe they're righteous already.  We must not dumb down the gospel to those would-be disciples who admire or respect Jesus but don't worship Him. Why?  Because false assurance that one is saved is more of a problem than lack of assurance among sincere believers with weak faith.  Those who see no need of Christ are worse off than those seeking Him and realize their sinfulness.   What does lordship entail but obedience to the gospel and following on to know the Lord and walk with Him in fellowship producing fruit? And so the bad news of condemnation due to sin is the first word.  Sin is not a killjoy word to be avoided, even though it seems like a thankless and unwelcome task to preach it.

Then we welcome the grace of God to set the sinner free and restore his relationship with God (reconciliation). The bad news is our condition as totally depraved and that we are not good enough to need to be saved, but bad enough to be saved (knowing that no one is too bad to be saved though).  However, there's a catch-22:  we must realize how bad we are to be saved, and to realize how bad we are, we must try to be good! It's like not realizing how addicted one is to cigarettes until one tries to stop.  The good news is what God has done for us: solving the sin question with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.  We must become grace-oriented to have any assurance because merit is the antithesis of grace and there is no place for merit in God's economy.

Faith is not seen as a work of man for then he'd be worthy but as a miracle work of kindling it as wrought in God ("This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent," cf. John 6:29).  When we are grace-oriented in our salvation it affects our whole outlook on our relationship or walk with God.