World War 0: Resentment and Reconciliation

We Christians seem ready to acknowledge that when we were saved, we became part of a spiritual war. But did you know that we were part of a spiritual war before we were justified? The Bible teaches that before salvation we were enemies of God (Romans 5:10)  and that we were not only alienated but also hostile (Colossians 1:21-22).

Despite the persistent myth that everyone has a longing for God deep down inside, fallen humanity hates God and is at war with Him. In the context of the holiness and wrath of God, modern theologian R.C. Sproul observes:

“By nature, our attitude towards God is… a posture of malice… God is our mortal enemy. He represents the highest possible threat to our sinful desires. His repugnance to us is absolute, knowing no lesser degrees. No amount of persuasion from philosophers or theologians can induce us to love God.” (R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, 180-1; Emphasis in original.)

As evidence, he points to the way that humanity did treat God when He appeared in the person of Jesus, whom he calls “the supreme curve buster.” (Sproul 61). Imperfect people tend to resent those who are perfect, like the lonely student who gets the only A on the impossibly hard exam that the rest of the class failed, and God is the ultimate target of morally flawed humanity’s resentment.

Still, don’t all cultures reveal an innate impulse to worship something? God is indeed the One who “satisfies [the soul’s] desires with good things” (Psalm 103:5),but what we really long for are the benefits He gives. We want to have our guilt taken away, to feel accepted by someone greater than ourselves, to somehow escape death, etc. Yet we want those desires met without having to stand before the Judge of All the Earth whom we have offended and in whose presence we are undone.

If none desire God, how are we saved? The good news is that even though people do not desire God, God has desired people. Ephesians says of Jesus,

“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… that he might… reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14-16)

Jesus Christ made it possible for humanity to be reconciled to His Father, and the Father draws us to His Son. A.W. Tozer wrote,

“We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. ‘No man can come to me,’ said our Lord, ‘except the Father which hath sent me draw him,’ and it is by this prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God.” (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, 11-2. Emphasis in original.)

God is winning the war by making peace with His enemies. Someday He will come in full force to end the war, but in the meantime, “let us draw near” to God “by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us,” “all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:19-25) 

Being a Winner

When you think of winning in apologetics, what comes to mind?

Maybe you’re focused on winning in competition. You have your eyes set on the medals and trophies at the end of the tournament, and you’re dead set on dominating the competition, one round at a time.

Or maybe you’re focused on winning the argument. Whatever ungodly worldview the other person throws out at you, you know your stuff and can shoot it down, leaving that heathen floundering for a response.

Trophies and good arguments are great, but (you guessed it) the attitudes I’ve just described are obviously wrong. Consider what the Bible says about winning:

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30, NIV1984)

When we do apologetics, it’s easy to focus on the wrong type of winning. Think about it: how much effort do you put into winning souls to God? Trophies will collect dust, rankings will be forgotten, and even knowledge will pass away. Souls last forever.

Always remember, the point of speaking truth is to persuade another person—a valuable human precious to God and made in His image—not just to be right! Make the most of each opportunity to speak the truth.

Be wise: win souls, and you’ll always be a winner!

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men… For Christ’s love compels us…  So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.
 And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
 We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:11, 14, 16-20) 

How Not to Be a Super Villain

BAM! ZING! POW!

It seems like some Christians who try to defend their faith want to feel like superheroes. They think they’ve found that one perfect argument that will make them invincible, an argument that they can swing around and—WHAM!—leave those ignorant heathen too stunned to respond.

If you don’t believe me, find almost any popular video of Christian music on Youtube and read the comments. Some will make you facepalm.

The problem with this superhero mentality is that it does more harm than good. That’s right: Christians who take that approach are actually more like—gasp!—super villains!

You see, it’s not enough to be right. There’s no point in telling someone something you want them to believe unless you… really want them to believe it. And that takes a little more tact than some people are willing to use.

Aristotle wrote in The Art of Rhetoric (Book I, Part 2, Paragraph 3),

  

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided. This kind of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people think of his character before he begins to speak. It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the speaker contributes nothing to his power of persuasion; on the contrary, his character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion he possesses. [emphasis mine]

So if our character, or how we’re coming across to others, is so central to changing someone’s mind, can we agree to stop slinging around “zinger” arguments? Might we even be willing to listen to why someone else believes what he does, or treat him with the kindness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4)? 

Let’s put away our capes and stop trying to save the world with conceited clichés and one-liners. Look instead to how God saves a soul, and point that person to His kindness by being kind ourselves.