This week is on Ephesians 2:1-10:
This week, the sandwich board preachers were back, near my workplace. Only this time, instead of preaching an angry version of the gospel, like they normally do, they had a giant plywood sheet with a picture of an aborted fetus on it and were preaching against abortion. So, clutching my bag of tasty Chinese food, I did my best not to look at the spectacle, as the howls about abortion, fornication, and sexual immorality came out on one side, and the college kids yelled "Christianity is stupid!" over and over on the other.
Preaching to the unsaved about sin is like yelling at a death-row inmate about how he should pull his pants up instead of wearing them ghetto-style. He's going to die either way. If you're not going to tell him how to escape, at least let him be comfortable. "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE! ALL OF YOU ORANGE-SUITED INMATES ARE GOING TO DIE FOR YOUR CRIMES! SO PULL YOUR PANTS UP, PRISONER!!!"
Normally the sandwich board guys mention something about grace in with their gospel tirade. So I'd call it more good than harm in that case. Like Jesus said, if you're not against him, you're for him. But if you leave the grace out, the very thing Jesus embodied, you're kind of missing the point. That Christianity is stupid. So I decided I'd look to see if I could find a simple gospel summary that didn't deny the existence of sin, but didn't reduce grace to a mumble either. And wouldn't you know it, I opened right up to one.
Paul summarizes nicely in these verses. And I'll summarize him here: We all started off in the negative. Every single one of us has screwed things up. Some people still do. But God has started something new with us. Because of his love for us, not because of some cosmic obligation or some holy entitlement, God sacrificed Jesus to reset things for us, to restore us to perfection. It's not about the sin, it's about the love. No matter what you're in, Jesus' righteousness can buy you out of it. That is some good news! Whether you see your sin or not, God's grace can set you free.
So, if I had the power to dub and doctor the video of my lunch today, instead of the sacrificed infant they plastered on their plywood, I'd put God's sacrificed son, and instead of the sin tirade, I'd put an open offer for forgiveness and reconciliation. A fresh beginning. You can't argue with that.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
This week, the sandwich board preachers were back, near my workplace. Only this time, instead of preaching an angry version of the gospel, like they normally do, they had a giant plywood sheet with a picture of an aborted fetus on it and were preaching against abortion. So, clutching my bag of tasty Chinese food, I did my best not to look at the spectacle, as the howls about abortion, fornication, and sexual immorality came out on one side, and the college kids yelled "Christianity is stupid!" over and over on the other.
Preaching to the unsaved about sin is like yelling at a death-row inmate about how he should pull his pants up instead of wearing them ghetto-style. He's going to die either way. If you're not going to tell him how to escape, at least let him be comfortable. "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE! ALL OF YOU ORANGE-SUITED INMATES ARE GOING TO DIE FOR YOUR CRIMES! SO PULL YOUR PANTS UP, PRISONER!!!"
Normally the sandwich board guys mention something about grace in with their gospel tirade. So I'd call it more good than harm in that case. Like Jesus said, if you're not against him, you're for him. But if you leave the grace out, the very thing Jesus embodied, you're kind of missing the point. That Christianity is stupid. So I decided I'd look to see if I could find a simple gospel summary that didn't deny the existence of sin, but didn't reduce grace to a mumble either. And wouldn't you know it, I opened right up to one.
Paul summarizes nicely in these verses. And I'll summarize him here: We all started off in the negative. Every single one of us has screwed things up. Some people still do. But God has started something new with us. Because of his love for us, not because of some cosmic obligation or some holy entitlement, God sacrificed Jesus to reset things for us, to restore us to perfection. It's not about the sin, it's about the love. No matter what you're in, Jesus' righteousness can buy you out of it. That is some good news! Whether you see your sin or not, God's grace can set you free.
So, if I had the power to dub and doctor the video of my lunch today, instead of the sacrificed infant they plastered on their plywood, I'd put God's sacrificed son, and instead of the sin tirade, I'd put an open offer for forgiveness and reconciliation. A fresh beginning. You can't argue with that.
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