by Jacob Ninan
God is both just and merciful. In fact, He is the only One who has both these in balance. Because of our fallen nature, we tend to be inclined more to one side than to the other. Some of us like to be on the side of justice, demanding that everything should be just and fair. They tend to be judgmental towards others who do not take justice as seriously as they think they should. This cannot be right, can it? We cannot be unmerciful and think that we are right. But there are also others among us who like to be merciful. They are willing to overlook justice in order to show mercy. Is that right? No. We cannot afford to ignore justice in order to show mercy. Having said that, let us keep in mind that we as people will never get the balance right here on earth. But God wants us to press on in the direction of perfection even here.
But on another side, people like those who are merciful towards them than others who present justice to them. That is a part of our fallen human nature. We can see this easily from observing how children tend to like those who are nice to them and hate others who are strict with them, even if this strictness is actually meant for the children's good. The children are not able to think that much and understand that those who are lenient with them may be spoiling them and that the strict ones may be the ones who really love them. Of course, I am thinking about those who are lovingly strict and not others who are cruelly strict.
When it comes to preaching (or writing) also, there are these human compulsions pressing on our mind. We want to bless people and we don't want to turn anyone away. We want to draw people towards God, and therefore we want our messages to be attractive. Because of the same reason, we don't want to put off people from God by being bad representatives of God. We know that people will not like to hear hard messages, and so we think our messages must be 'good news' for people. So, some preachers have gone on to offer the so-called prosperity gospel which is very attractive to those who hear. But that is not the truth! Some others promise healing through prayer as a right. But healing does not happen every time, and God also has not promised to heal every sickness in this present world. Some preachers promise 100 percent returns for offerings. But such offers that attract many people in the beginning also tend to disillusion people afterwards, and many people turn away from God altogether. This is not something these preachers want, but it happens because the message itself is faulty.
Sad to say, even when it comes to preaching specifically about salvation, all preachers are not proclaiming the same message. In other cases, the preaching is not clear enough to guide the hearers to the right path. In some cases, we cannot straightaway say that the preachers are teaching heresies, because what they are saying is true. But the problem is that they are not sharing the full truth, and partial truths can often be misunderstood and, in effect, becomes false teachings in practice.
Salvation is something none of us can achieve by our efforts no matter what we do, whether we try to do penance, follow religious rituals, punish ourselves, follow strict regimens of self-denial, spend time in studying the Bible or praying, doing good deeds for other people with great self-sacrifice, etc. Certainly what makes the Gospel of Jesus Christ uniquely attractive is the proclamation of God's grace to undeserving sinners. Through the preaching of the Gospel, God offers to take away the punishment all of us deserve for our sins, and give us salvation from our sins which we do not deserve. "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph.2:8,9). God offers salvation to us as a free gift, and we can receive it through faith. Since this is a free, totally undeserved gift which we cannot earn, there is no way we can boast in ourselves.
God offers this gift to all, but it is only those who receive it by faith who will begin to experience it. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (Jn.3:16). Not everyone receives this free gift even though it is offered to the whole world, but those who believe in Jesus Christ. Of course, believing in Jesus is not about believing things about Jesus, but believing in who He is, and as a result yielding our life to Him. The Amplified Bible translates the Greek word for 'believe' as 'trusts in, clings to, relies on'.
Perhaps with the intention of exalting the grace of God, some people downplay the role of man in choosing to believe in Jesus as his Saviour, and then label anything that man does as trying to earn God's favour. Surely, that would be a misrepresentation of the truth. The plain truth is that man rebelled against God and now God is now offering him a way back. Adam and Eve chose to trust in Satan and rebelled against God. Now we are being offered an opportunity to repent, turn back to God and receive salvation as a free gift. There is absolutely no scope for us to boast in our self.
So we can see that there is something that God has done from His side to prepare and then offer this salvation to us. That is what Jesus meant when He said on the cross that it was finished. But now it is for us to think about it, understand our fallen position before God, the punishment that we deserve for our sins, and this gracious offer of salvation, and then to choose this gift from Jesus. Sometimes people miss seeing that even though God has completed every preparation from His side, no man is going to be saved until he turns from his sins and puts his trust in the Saviour. Because they think that everything is from God's part, such preachers only present the fact that God loves us and how God sent His Son for us. Another reason is that perhaps they fear that if people hear about what they need to do, some of them may not decide to come to Jesus! The sad result of this kind of thinking is that many people 'accept' Jesus but have not chosen a life of giving up sin and following Jesus. They start attending churches, and may even take part in some of the activities to the extent that some others may think they are good Christians. But they do not really have a relationship with Jesus because they have not been born again. They have not repented from their sins and started relying on Jesus for victory.
Now that they are in the church, pastors begin to comfort them by sharing with them about how much God loves them, what all He is going to do for them, etc., and offer promises of great things to come. Prophets appear and tell them about miraculous things God will do for them. Just think about this. Many of these promises and prophecies are being given to people who do not even have a living relationship with God. Preachers do not want to warn them about repentance or the judgment of God over sin because they do not want these people to get offended and leave. As a result of such seeker-friendly approach in the church, teachings about sins that people need to put away from their life, and warnings about what can happen if they continue in sin are avoided. Pastors assume that the Holy Spirit is working in the lives of the people in the church, they are reading and learning from the Bible themselves, they are spending time seeking God in prayer, etc. But what is actually happening is that many of these people are assuming that God must be happy with them because they are active in church!
Let us look at some of the verse such preachers avoid. "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matt.7:13,14). This is a part of Jesus' sermon on the mount. He is telling us very plainly that very few actually get saved and that many are deceived thinking they are saved even while they are on the way to destruction. Isn't this a passage that ought to be well known to Christians? But very few pastors preach about it. They don't want anyone to begin to doubt their salvation, or they don't want anyone to think that the pastor is judgmental or legalistic. They would rather tell everyone that they are saved, how God loves them, they have a glorious future coming to them from God, etc. But think of it. If there are people in the church who are deceived like this about their salvation, isn't it the responsibility of the pastors to show them the true way of salvation?
"Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God" (Heb.3:12). God is warning people who are 'brethren', His born again children, that they should watch out against the possibility of falling away from Him because that is what can happen if they nurture unbelief in their heart. This word is so plain and clear that we do not need to find some hidden meaning here or to look at Greek words. All of us are actually aware of people who have been zealous for Jesus, and have shown many fruit of the Spirit in their lives but have later given up their faith. Two common reasons why this happens is that they have found some serious intellectual problems concerning the Christian faith and found no answer, or there has been personal tragedy in their life because of which they have been disappointed with God. There can be some people who had never really come to Christ in the first place and then fall away like this, but surely there are others who genuinely came to Christ but who could not endure in the face of pressures. So each of has to make sure that it does not happen to us. But this is another verse preachers avoid. They imagine they do not want to make anyone feel fearful, insecure or have doubts. They only want to comfort and encourage people by quoting promises to them.
"Christ was faithful as a Son over His house--whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end" (Heb.3:6). "And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end" (Heb.6:11). Where do you hear teachings based on these? Some Christians believe that once they have come to Christ they will have a never ending connection with God. But what do warnings like these to endure till the end without wavering mean, if our relationship is unbreakable? "He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels" (Rev.3:5). This is a warning from Jesus about what can happen if we don't take care to be overcomers. It is so serious as to warn us that our names can be erased from the Book of Life! If that is never actually possible, as some people say, what will that imply concerning words of Jesus, that sometimes He doesn't mean what He says? That would be blasphemy. Do you think that He who is Truth personified can sometimes speak without meaning what He says, or bluff?
I hope you can see the trend, of avoiding warnings and corrections and giving only comforting words. God describes the prophets who do not warn the people when they go wrong, but cover up the glaring lacks with smooth sounding words. "It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, 'Peace!' when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash;" (Ezek.13:10). Imagine saying, 'Peace' when they know there is no peace. But isn't this happening among Christians too? When there are sins people need to repent from, and when there are consequences they need to face, preachers give them promises and prophecies that make them feel good and get hope for the future. But have they turned away from their wrong ways and turned back to God in humility? No. But they feel confident that somehow God will do a miracle for them!
Dear brothers and sisters. The world is going from bad to worse, and Christian people are also being influenced by it to compromise their values and principles, imitate worldly people and go for success and pleasure. In this kind of a time, we need warnings and corrections. But many preachers have only words of comfort and hope. May the Lord raise up prophetic preachers and writers to draw His people away from danger and to Himself.