|
By Dr. Sam Smith|Published Date: January 25, 2010
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing . . . "
Mark 10:21
In a preceding article I applauded the growing use of “follower” as a term for Christians to use in describing themselves. I referred to Dan Merchant’s book and companion film titled, Lord, Save Us From Your Followers, where he (tongue-in-cheek, I believe) lampooned a wide range of high profile cultural warriors, even several self-described Christians.
Because of the lack of civility, even fairness in championing hot button issues on the part of these believers, non-followers have negative perceptions about Christians and keep their distance from the Gospel. Merchant asks a provocative question in his work’s subtitle, “Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America?” In identifying this issue, Merchant has entered into the conversation about the effective witness of the followers of Christ, how we are to convey Jesus’ Good News. But Merchant is mistaken in framing the issue as the “gospel of love”; what we convey must be shaped by a Biblical worldview.
What makes focusing on Merchant’s work significant is that he is not alone in discrediting issue-oriented evangelical cultural warriors, who are viewed as ineffective and even counterproductive to the Church’s witness. Most evangelicals are viewed so negatively by gay and lesbian advocates, liberals, and many others that they are set against the Gospel from the start. Instead, Merchant argues, in following Jesus, we should focus on relational warmth – love of a sort – so that we might increase the message’s receptivity.
As a new voice joining the missional choir, Merchant makes welcomed corrections, but he constructs a pre-evangelism approach divorced from one key feature. He offers three commendable recommendations; however, one suggestion, which he takes from Jesus’ conversation with a young man in Mark 10, runs contrary to a biblical worldview.
Evangelism and relational warmth
First, in pivoting away from the explicitly prophetic approach to proclaiming the Christian Faith, Merchant’s winsomeness and humility in disarming non-followers are commendable. By doing side-walk interviews clothed in a jump suit plastered with bumper-stickers slogan, or sponsoring
a Catholic-style confessional booth set up during a Gay Pride Northwest festival, Merchant has realized genuine conversations with those who seem furthest from the Kingdom.
Moreover, Merchant himself is to be commended in modeling relational warmth toward those cultural sub-group members often neglected by evangelical churches. He engaged twenty-four individuals, all pro-gay/lesbian/trans-gender, to hear him confess his past demeaning statements and attitudes, and in some way speak on behalf of the broader Church for its perceived mean- spiritedness. By doing this sincerely, and not as a bait-and-switch technique, Merchant made
real soul-to-soul connections.
Third, Merchant is to be commended for ability to do what Jesus frequently did with the irreligious of His day and culture: hear their stories of how they came to be alienated from “Christianity.” These are the Mary Magdalenes, the woman caught in adultery, and even the Zacchaeuses of our day.
Indeed, it is commendable to seek to lower the height of unnecessary dividing walls between followers and non-followers, so that we may talk trustingly with one another. As Jesus demonstrated, genuine love through truth-telling need not be caustic. In discerning if or when we must forego forging relational bonds, we should first be quick to listen and slow to speak. Opening our ears to those who are conflicted over same-sex attraction or sympathizing with young teen girls who find themselves taken advantage of by older males is simply doing what Jesus would do.
Yet, Merchant’s conversations with non-followers include a disposition against any proclamation of righteous standards. The one area where Merchant misses the mark is in conveying the Gospel of the Kingdom, rather than love, as its defining essence of our message. He seems to acknowledge this point when he writes, "Strangely or understandably, I had a few heated conversations with Christians who questioned the value of these engagements. Their position was I had an obligation to tell them the truth and to try to save them from hell. I would agree on the end goal and disagree on the means." (Merchant, 181)
He goes on to talk about modeling something vaguely without speaking “truth,” but here is
where the model of Jesus helps us.
Evangelism and the use of the Law
Expressing God’s love toward rebellious image-bearers is a crucial in proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom. Consider Jesus’ encounter with an affluent young man. Notice the flow of thought:
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:17-23, ESV)
Here is an honest conversation, with Jesus discerning a critical missing perspective before answering. We see real relational warmth. Jesus yearns to have the young man find the answer to his question about “eternal life.” Jesus skillfully asks the right question, revealing the real issue in the young man’s heart. Nevertheless, we see that He did not succeed in winning the young man, he “went away sorrowful . . .” Why did this Gospel conversation suddenly break down? Because Jesus spoke to the conscience of the young man by appealing to the moral Law.
Law! Why the Law?
Without the moral portion of the Law entering into the conversation, the one with whom we are speaking has only his faulty conscience to evaluate his spiritual state. Law reveals what pride often conceals. Confronted not only with what the Ten Commandments, but also with how Jesus expands their implications in the Sermon of the Mount, one must consider, from the start, the moral implications of becoming a follower of Christ. In our one-to-one friendships, we express love best by helping non-followers identify what the real heart issues are.
God’s moral Law in public life anchors any culture’s sense of right and wrong. Vigorous debate in the public square about morality has, is and will continue to divide America, that is, unless the emerging generation of Jesus’ followers begins to take up the challenge of the Gospel of the Kingdom, and give the Law of God the more prominent place it deserves in our witness.
And this is where the rub is. As I pondered Merchant’s comment, “To me, the division of America, this separateness, isn’t getting any of us anywhere,” I would agree with him that aggressively advocating Biblical moral values in the public arena will continue to alienate. By speaking against gay marriage and abortion rights, as well as a variety of other social ills, evangelicals can be assured that opponents will continue to portray them as mean-spirited. But this must not deter us from standing for Biblical morality in the public square.
In the same way, we cannot allow the sinful sensitivities of our unbelieving age to lead us to misrepresent the Gospel in our witness to the world. We must, indeed, pursue honest relationships and reasoned conversations as we talk with others about the Lord, but not at the expense of the moral requirements of the Law. For unless “non-followers” of Christ come to see their sin, and the need for deliverance, how will they ever, in good conscience, yield to the love of Jesus and become a follower of the Lord?
To learn more about communicating the Gospel effectively, order Art Lindsley’s book,
Love: The Ultimate Apologetic, from our online store. Click “Store” then enter the title to order.
For more insight into the relationship between the Law and the Gospel, read T. M. Moore’s article, “Law and Gospel: Embracing the One without Losing the Other.” Just type the title into the search box on the home page.
Help us build readership; forward this article to a friend.
Give us your feedback on this article.
|
