An open letter to my former adult Bible study leader

Dear David,

You cannot be more right about our reason to “bring the gospel” but that we ourselves have been blessed recipients of the same. You ask, “What does it take to get us to go “out there” to "spread the gospel word?” I would like to suggest that there might be nothing wrong with us and that there might be something wrong with the message that we are to tell. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with the information that we have. Believing in the Lord Jesus and that God raised Him from the dead, that Jesus is the friend of sinners, and that all have sinned must be communicated. I submit to you that today the church is operating with a truncated gospel. It has been shortened, abbreviated, and generally bereft of its soul to the point that we essentially are asking (in the nicest possible way) that men just might want to rethink their lives and give Jesus a try because He has been good to us. We appeal to their well being and try to get them to see the unending terror of God’s wrath upon them if they do not believe in Jesus. You understand that this is (hopefully) a gross over simplification of the gospel presentation. But isn’t it usually that we are trying to persuade people that believing in Jesus is only in their best self interest?

You have referred to Romans 10:9, 10. This is an excellent passage to use. What does Paul mean when he says “God raised Him from the dead” but that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead? Jesus said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Therefore go….” Jesus was ordained of God to be the judge of the living and the dead and to judge the world. God gave proof of this by raising Him from the dead. How can we talk of the Lord saving us if we neglect the fact that He is our lawgiver, our judge, our king? After all, He has been exalted to the right hand of the Father on high far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. Colossians 1:18 seems to get at the matter. “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

How can we say that we are faithful heralds of the gospel if our greatest motivation for speaking is for the well being of our hearers? We are so accustomed to thinking of the gospel in a certain way that when we read what a Bible writer says is the gospel e.g. Revelation 14:6,7; we gloss right over it because it just does not square with our conception of the gospel.

Leo and I are reading Getting the Gospel Right by Cornelis P. Venema and plan to talk about what we have found. I would welcome an opportunity to talk to you about what I have found in my studies of the Bible in general and the Gospel in particular.

SDG,

Paul Robb