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Wednesday 11 August 2010

Sin or no Gospel

mc_largeSome might correctly think that this is a strange title for a blog post, and possibly it is, however is does the job for setting out the topic of this post.

I am sure that almost every westerner who reads this will have heard of the phrase ‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’ Romans 3 vs 23. Here is a typical example of what I mean:

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. But there is a problem, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So accept Jesus and pray the following prayer…

Ok, while not deconstructing this entire unbiblical presentation, I want you to focus on the ‘for all have sinned’ part.

This is my contention: any Gospel presentation that makes the (biblical) claim that all have sinned without explaining exactly what:

  1. sin is
  2. why it is so personal
  3. Offensive to the Holy God

Is not a true gospel presentation at all. Why? Because the Gospel demands a response. The bible says that sinners must REPENT and put their FAITH in Jesus. Here is the problem, repent of what? We (Christians) have repented of our personal sins against the Holy God of the universe. But just telling sinners that all have sinned leaves the potential convert without the ability to repent, because he or she doesn’t know what to repent of nor why.

acts3_19

THE SOLUTION

Preach the Law (10 Commandments)

1Jn 3:4  Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

This verse tells us exactly what sin is, namely lawlessness, or as another translation puts it, transgression of the Law. So by telling sinners what sin is (breaking God’s Law) we fulfil half our task, the other half is to make it personal. It is effective and biblical to hold up the Law as a mirror, showing sinners just how dirty they are, show them that they have lied, stolen, committed adultery through lust etc. make it personal.

Then they can understand what sin is, repent of it and be saved.

To God alone be the glory

rRepent

2 comments:

projector22 said...

Graham Van Rensburg thought:...
Repent - greek: metanoia - "change your mind"...

i.e - change your mind and believe...
had it said "change your mind and don't sin", i would agree that the problem was sinning.

but the fact that jesus says "change your mind and BELIEVE" says that the problem is UNBELIEF...

projector22 said...

My Response:
the two aren't mutually exclusive,
Act 20:21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance of sins, faith (belief) in Jesus Christ, two sides of the same coin. Further you could say that the chief sin IS unbelief

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