For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16
Some of us are not at liberty to say that we agree with this verse of Scripture. Oh we may say we do, and vehemently oppose anyone who would tell us otherwise, but in our heart of hearts it is proven by the way we preach the gospel. But know first that we do not only preach the gospel by specifically speaking about the death and resurrection of the Christ, we preach it in our common communication about Christianity in general. For when we speak of it, we more often than not leave out such hard doctrines that may turn away someone immediately, and only speak to them such things that are inviting. Now, suffice it to say that I am not speaking of the difficult words that are meant for those who are mature, as opposed to those which are meant for babes; for the words of milk that are meant for babes are meant for those who are under and within the saving grace of God. Now, what we often do is sub-consciously leave out the hard truths that must accompany each and every word or movement concerning our Lord, in order to save these truths for a later point in time, when it may seem be more ‘beneficial’ to the recipient. Now while this may seem to be a noble cause, in it lays the same amount of devilish thought that follows the teachings of all heresies and cults. Herein lay all the problems.
Firstly, that as we are speaking, we neglect to remember that the gospel is the power of God. That it is the Lord who saves whom he will, and nothing we can do, no matter what we think, can make it easier for him. He does not need help.
Second, a person who accepts the gospel without the specific hard truths that must accompany all the others accepts nothing but condemnation, for he believes a lie. Also, to attempt to teach them after they have been ‘converted’ is to facilitate something that would be the same as pulling the wool over their eyes, as the old adage goes. It would be to blind a man from birth, and then pull off the fold when he is deemed old enough or wise enough to use his eyes, as if the things he would see as a child would scare him away from using his eyes the rest of his life. We cannot withhold the truth that a man (or woman) must forsake all for the sake of the gospel. We cannot hide such things from them, hoping to blindside them with it later on in life. We cannot hide from them the simple truths that upon rejection of the gospel, all that awaits them is death and hell. It is both irresponsible and ignorant, not to mention downright blasphemous.
Thirdly, (should have said lastly) my heart tells me that most of the time we are doing this, it is to save face; to forego any hurt or blemish upon our reputation. If we were to speak the truth as we ought, we would be deemed crazy. We would be ridiculed, we would lose our jobs, we would even be cast out of our families. This thought leads me to again state that we do not, indeed cannot, believe the above verse. For our hearts show that we do not. Our outward actions may show us to be noble, genuine, even godly, but within us our hearts are a den of evil, in dire need of purging and the refiner’s fire.
But all is not lost. There is place for hope. For where sin hath abounded, grace abounds much more. And though some of us are regenerate in our hearts, there are still many places where we have not let God cleanse us from our sins. We have not yet bent the knee to him in all areas. Our hearts betray us. We often fail to see the way the Lord sees us, and we often forget that he weighs the heart, not the actions. And we often forget that our hearts are deceitfully wicked. So we must spend time in his presence in order to see our hearts the way the Lord sees them. Then, and only then, will we be changed into his likeness.
“God is more tender than we can conceive, and every now and again He gives us the chance of being the rugged one that He may be the tender One.” -Oswald Chambers.
