- [Jared Wilson] What's really interesting is if you ask, I think,
the average unbeliever or, you know, your unbelieving friends, co-workers
what they think the essential message of Christianity is, 9 times out of 10,
I'm willing to bet you're not going to hear a summation of the gospel.
You're going to hear some variation of work's religion, be a better person,
be a good person, love God, love your neighbor, do unto others,
the Golden Rule type of thing, maybe go to church, maybe read the Bible,
but there's just that essential goodness works.
And of course, we know that the essential message of Christianity,
as good as good works are, is not that we are saved by our effort
but that God saves us purely by His grace.
And it's received purely by our faith, it's received by faith alone.
And so that message actually can be quite polarizing.
We see that even as Jesus was using the message of the in-breaking of the kingdom,
the gospel of the kingdom, that he had an attractive sort of effect on some people
but also a very repellent effect on some people.
And so just as Paul would say, the message of the cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing.
You may discover that as you share this message of the gospel with some folks,
they find it somewhat antagonistic to their own sense of self-righteousness,
because most people want to believe they have what it takes.
I can be good enough to earn enlightenment or heaven or reconciliation with God
or forgiveness or whatever it is.
But others who have never heard the message of the gospel before
who now encounter it kind of for the first time, if you're able to express it
clearly and simply, it can be quite surprising and really compelling.
I remember when I was pastoring a church in Vermont, it's the least church-state
in the nation, and legitimately, people there, no church background,
don't know the Bible stories.
If you say, you know, David and Goliath, they may know that in the context of like
a sports analogy, it's a real David and Goliath story or something like that.
But no Sunday school, no church membership, that sort of thing.
And so the best lead-in that I would have usually as I'm, you know, talking to
someone in the coffee shop or getting my hair cut,
when they find out I'm a pastor, now we're in a religious conversation.
I would just simply ask them, "Hey, what do you think the message
of the church is? What do you think the message of Christianity is?"
And I never heard anyone articulate the gospel.
No one, not a single person said, "The essence of Christianity is that
God saves sinners through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ."
And so I was able to sort of respond and say, "You know, your response was good,"
whether it's be a good person or, you know, do good works.
And the Bible does talk about those things.
But do you know that really what makes Christianity unique,
what makes it stand out from every other religion and philosophy in the world
is that we can be reunited with God, we can be reconciled to God through Christ
purely as a free gift of grace from Him?
That Jesus Christ came to live the perfect life that we couldn't,
and to die the sacrificial death that we wouldn't, and if we put our trust in Him,
we can be saved from the wrath of God for sin?
Those who are taken aback by that, those who've never heard that before,
they have to reckon with that.
They have to somehow deal with that.
And maybe they reject it, and most times, they did but that, in and of itself,
that message which is so startling and so strange and so new,
unbelievers actually find the message of the gospel really compelling
at least to wrestle with even if they don't believe initially.
They find it really compelling if only because most of them have never
ever heard it.
And so, to me, that's one of the exciting things about the world that we live in
right now, the culture as it is right now.
Christianity is weird again, and the gospel is fresh and new again.
And I think that gives us a lot of encouragement that God really
is working through this message to save sinners.