Charlie Sheen professes to be a born-again Christian.

What? Do you mean the alcohol fuelled, drug driven, womanising actor, who has spent a fortune on prostitutes and has been in jail for assaulting one of the number of women he was once married to? Yes, the same.
But at some point, he heard: “Jesus loves you just as you are. Jesus has done it all. You don’t have to do a thing…”
And he didn’t. He continued his alcohol fuelled, drug driven, womanising ways – only now as a “born-again Christian”.
Would that he were so!

Perhaps this explains why J. I. Packer wrote (A Quest for Godliness):

“A much-travelled leader, a native American (be it said), has declared that he finds North American Protestantism, man-centred, manipulative, success-oriented, self-indulgent, and sentimental, as it blatantly is, to be 3,000 miles wide and half an inch deep.”

This is not to deny that there are many wonderful Christians in North America; I have learnt so much from many godly Christian teachers there, as well as having benefited from fellowship with some dear brothers and sisters.
Nor is it to suggest that the same “3,000-miles-wide-and-half-an-inch-deep” epithet could not be applied to much of what is called “Christian” in this land – or most other Western countries for that matter.

Stop using the phrase: “God/Jesus loves you” in evangelism

Last week Ryan Hemelaar wrote a good piece on this.
Ryan has been a street preacher for 13 years; he is currently overseer of Operation 513 (an Australia-wide street evangelism ministry) and team leader for S. E. Qld. He has endured ridicule and harassment, but has also seen fruit for his labours for the gospel.
No one could suggest he is not interested in evangelism.
He writes to “help you to be as clear as possible in speaking with unbelievers, by explaining why some common Christians phrases shouldn’t be used in witnessing encounters as they are either unbiblical or are very easily misunderstood by the unbeliever.”

One phrase not to use is: “God/Jesus loves you”.
Why not to use it:

• Very easily misunderstood: The unbeliever usually thinks: “If God loves me, he must love me in my sin too, so I am going to continue living the way I am living.”
• Reaffirms their own viewpoint: “Of course God loves me. I love me too, so why wouldn’t God love me?”
• Not always true: A phrase like that does not factor in verses like Psalm 5:5 or Romans 9:13.
• Instead, it’s better phrased: “God has shown His love to humanity by sending Jesus to die for our sins” (after you’ve explained the bad news first – we have sinned and deserve hell).

Repent and Believe

Let me assure you I rejoice that Jesus “has done it all”. “It is finished” are some of the sweetest words I read in Scripture. My problem is not with that; that is my joy.
My problem is when those words are hammered in isolation to the point that the hearer believes there is nothing he is to do: Jesus accepts him just as he is, he doesn’t need to commit to change.
This is to preach a “gospel” of indicatives without imperatives.
This is not grace; it is not even preaching the gospel.
To preach divine sovereignty without human responsibility is functional hypercalvinism.

In this regard we should notice that New Testament evangelism was never couched in terms of “Jesus loves you just as you are. Just believe Jesus died for your sins. You don’t have to do a thing…”
Rather it was always in terms of:

• “Jesus has done this.”
• “Now, repent. And believe.”

As well as many exhortations to believe there are those to repent:

Jesus:

• Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying,  ‘Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)
• “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Mat 9:13)
• He began to rebuke the cities… because they did not repent. (Matt 11:20)
• He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two… So they went out and preached that people should repent. (Mark 6:7-12)
• “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3-4)
• “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)
• Then He said to them, “…repentance and remission of sins should be preached in [My] name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:46-48)

Peter:

• Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” (Acts 2:38)
• “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” (Acts 3:19)
• “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:30-31)
• “Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.” (Acts 8:22)
• “The Lord is… not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9)

Paul:

• “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30)
• “I taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:20-21)
• “I declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.” (Acts 26:19-20)

John:

• “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Joh 1:9)

What is repentance unto life? 

Repentance unto life is a saving grace,
whereby a sinner,
out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ,
does, with grief and hatred of his sin,
turn from it
unto God,
with full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience.

(Shorter Catechism 87)

Auchterarder Revisited 

In 1717, the Presbytery of Auchterarder in Scotland was examining William Craig, a candidate for the ministry, who had passed all his exams and whom they had already licensed to preach.
But he faced one final test; they asked him to subscribe to the “Auchterarder Creed”: i.e.  “It is not sound and orthodox to teach that we must forsake sin in order to our coming to Christ.”

Even today, those who defend this “creed” cannot agree on what the Presbytery was getting at: some claim they were seeking to guard against Neonomianism (i.e. seeing repentance as a “good work” that helps “merit” salvation); others that it was to guard against hypercalvinism (i.e. since salvation is all of grace you shouldn’t offer salvation till someone evidences the grace of repentance.)
This highlights the confusion the “creed” creates even now, as well as back then. Even the defenders of the “creed” today acknowledge it was “poorly worded”.

Also, the plain meaning gives the appearance of contradicting the good balance of the Church’s own Westminster Confession which teaches that: “although repentance be not to be rested in as any satisfaction for sin”, yet “it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it.” (ch 15, § 3)
The “creed” then is an example of the danger inherent in imbalanced statements; we ourselves need to guard against such imbalance in our preaching, because a half-truth soon leads to untruth.

Understandably William Craig was confused: he hesitated, at first agreeing with the “creed”; but then, demurring. As a result, the Presbytery disbarred him.
The Assembly of the Church of Scotland then took up his case and condemned the Presbytery.
Lines were drawn. Sides were taken. The fight was on.

My experience of 50 years in the eldership has taught me how difficult it is to get to the bottom of a church dispute, even today – especially as personalities and feelings continually get in way of the facts.
So I won’t even pretend to understand all the in’s and out’s of a bun fight as confusing as this, on the other side of the world, 300 years ago. I think I (or any other) who imagined we now had possession of all the facts would be presumptuous at best.

My heart is with Thomas Boston who sided with the Auchterarder party; I have benefited from some (though not all) of his writings.
But my sympathies are with William Craig. I think I too would have demurred.
I believe it is dangerous to preach a gospel that does not insist on the “necessity to all sinners” to repent before they “may expect pardon”.

Easy Believism

Rosaria Butterfield was converted out of her own life of rebellion against God. In her book: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, she writes:

Because conversion, in Scripture and in my personal experience, is arduous and transformative, I fear the consequence of the easy believism that typifies modern evangelical culture.
I live now in a neighborhood that often seems like the Disneyland of evangelical culture. I have neighbors who are members of one of the big churches in our community.
Their church has a fast-food restaurant (so no one gets hungry), a well-known coffee chain (so no one gets sleepy or feels deprived of creature comforts), and a Moon bounce (so children will think that God just wants you to have fun). The church organizes a church-sponsored pool (i.e., gambling program) around the NCAA Final Four.
When we compare what we do at church, what we learn in Bible study, and what we mean when we call ourselves followers of Christ, our vocabulary may be the same, but the meaning behind our vocabulary is vastly different…

In his popular book, “The Purpose Driven Life” author Rick Warren represents conversion in these words: “Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you” (p. 59)… Warren falsely (and dangerously) assures us of our salvation… When I read something like this, I do not recognize Jesus, the Holy Bible, my conversion or myself at all.

Recently, on vacation in South Carolina, my husband and I went to a “community church”… This church’s conversion prayer was printed in the bulletin. It read like this: “Dear God, I’m so sorry for my mistakes. Thanks for salvation.”
These misrepresentations of the gospel are dangerous and misleading. Sin is not a mistake. A mistake is taking the wrong exit on the highway. A sin is treason against a Holy God…

In accepting misrepresentations of the gospel that render sin anything less than this, you will never learn of the fruit of repentance…
Before we can come to Christ, we must empty ourselves of the false pride, blame-shifting, excuse-making, and self-deception that preoccupy our days and our relationships.

Something in my hands I bring

Paul Tripp wrote this piece: Something in my hands I bring:

God doesn’t want you to come to Him empty-handed.

No, you can’t come to Him full of yourself, and you can’t come to Him based on your track record, and you can’t use your performance as a recommendation.
No, you can’t come to Him based on your family, your personality, your education, your position in life, the successes you’ve had, the possessions you’ve accumulated, or the human acceptance you’ve gained.

But God requires you to come with your hands full. He requires you to bring to Him the sweetest of sacrifices: the sacrifice of words. He calls you to bring Hosea’s offering: “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord.”

God doesn’t want you to come to him empty-handed. He asks of you a sacrifice.
It is the offering of words:
Words of humility, words of honesty, words of moral courage, words of moral candour.
Words that could only be spoken by one who rests in grace.
Words of confession are what you must bring.
Place words, free of negotiation or excuse, on his altar of grace,
And receive forgiveness and cleansing.
Uncover your heart, exposed by words, and say: “We will never again say, ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made”
(Quotes are from Hosea 14:1-3)

The title of this piece is not a criticism of Toplady’s famous hymn (“Nothing in my hand I bring…” etc) which is one of my best loved hymns. Rather, the hymn is itself the very “something” Paul Tripp explains we are to bring: words of confession expressing sincere repentance.
God does not receive and forgive me coming “just as I am”, i.e. still continuing in my sin.
God receives and forgives as I come with “a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart” – these our God, “will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)