Our Witness

Two ideas I've heard discussed of true Christianity:

1. If the world fully accepts you as a Christian, you're doing something wrong.

2. Sharing a part of the Gospel, isn't sharing it at all.

Why are we so content to accept the idea that people have to come to Christ on a comfortable, padded path? The inherent nature of the Gospel is offensive to who we think we are, and what we think we know. And as much as it is offensive, it is even more so miraculous. How can the God of the universe send his son to be sacrificed on the cross, knowing everything that we had done, were doing, and would do. We grapple with those questions sometimes even long into the time we have faith in God. Removing a piece of the Gospel does not ensure anyone's salvation, in fact, it could even hinder it.

Part of the beauty of the Gospel is that it is God, not us, who chooses to save people. If this is the case, then why do we worry so much about what we say and do when attempting to witness to people? Our job as outlined in Matthew is to GO. We are to go and speak of the great work God has done for his creation, and God does the rest. We are void of the power to save even a single soul of our own merit, and yet we worry that someone's salvation hinges on whether or not we say the right thing at the perfect moment in time. Just as God was the one to reveal himself to us, he will reveal himself to those we are called to witness to.

The world repeatedly tells us that people won't "convert" to our religion unless we soften it for the weary, broken hearts of our fallen brothers and sisters of creation... but that isn't our call. If God is the one saving the souls who hear the Gospel and believe, do you not think he would know what needed to be said? God. The one who spoke everything into existence, and breathed man into life. Who hung the heavens in their place and brings even the most powerful rulers to their knees. He who was and is and is to come, who can see and comprehend all of humanity's existence in the time it takes us to blink. He gave us his word in the Bible. The Bible talks about the Gospel and says to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew's Gospel ENDS on this idea. After Jesus has risen, and as he is speaking to the disciples, this is what Matthew chooses to leave us with. We are to go and make disciples. Of whom? Christ. For what reason? Because he commanded us to do so. Why is that important? Because he, the holy son of God, willingly gave his life to redeem the fallen creation. We are given the opportunity to escape the wrath of God though hell in Jesus's sacrifice. The point of it all being that God should receive glory for who he is and what he has done. When you remove hell and wrath from the gospel you are speaking, you cheapen the glory you are giving to God.

The story of the Gospel is not some fun-filled romp where the good characters, bad characters, and neutral characters all end up living in peace together. The Gospel is bloody. The Gospel is miraculous. The Gospel is powerful. The Gospel is life-changing. When we as humans make the decision to alter the Gospel we speak, we are telling God that we know better than him. We have the audacity to say to the being who knit every person together that he was too stupid to comprehend how people work. That humanity will never respond to the story the author of life wrote for them to know. That it's too dark, scary, or depressing to speak of the reality that a death without God is: suffering his eternal wrath in hell. God knows his creation better than anyone of us EVER could, and yet we doubt his approach to the salvation of it.

Rewriting the Gospel through our fallen, human perception to fit our fallen, human world has, and will, send millions of people into the wrathful hand of a just God. If God sent Jesus as the only way to escape from that wrath, then he is the only way to escape from that wrath. If God told us to go and make disciples, then we are to go and make disciples. Speaking the Gospel, the whole Gospel, to everyone. Trusting that God is working in the hearts of those we encounter, and knowing that nothing short of his remarkable power can do anything to bring salvation to anyone.

We can’t save people. That is both the most joyful and most somber aspect of the Gospel. Joyful knowing that the burden of such an impossible task is not ours to bear, and somber knowing that we can’t change the hearts of those we would desire come to know God the most. All we can do is obey God, and trust that he is faithful.