1/17/19 Willie
Picture a guy out rowing upstream against the current who thinks he is making progress, so he eases up a bit, thinking he’ll just do what he can to “get by”. What he doesn’t realize is that he is being swept downstream, despite his efforts, toward a deadly waterfall.
From your vantage point on the riverbank you can see the edge of the waterfall and hear the roaring cascade on the jagged rocks below, but the man in the boat is too busy to notice.
You know from experience that no matter how hard he rows, he won’t be able to make headway against the current. You throw him a lifeline, telling him he’ll be much happier if he grabs on to it, not wanting to offend him with the whole truth of his situation.
He refuses the lifeline however, believing he has everything under control. You then work to convince him that he isn’t keeping up with the current, but instead of grabbing the lifeline he just rows a little harder. He isn’t concerned, and actually enjoys the feeling that he is the master of his own destiny.
You tell him how you were in a similar situation and how the lifeline saved you, but he laughs and points to hundreds of other people on the river, all rowing against the current like himself. What he can’t see is that their situation is the same as his, that they aren’t making progress either and are, in fact, also being slowly swept downstream despite their efforts, because his only standard of comparison is himself.
What to do? He needs to see a fixed point on shore for a proper standard of comparison, and he needs to know about the waterfall.
I read this story in evangelist Ray Comfort’s book “Way of the Master”. He uses it as an analogy for our unwillingness as Christians to help people see the whole truth of their situation. Like rowing in vain against a strong current, our good works can’t save us. Like the need for a “fixed point” of comparison, we need to help unbelievers compare themselves to the “fixed point” of God’s law. And like the inevitable fate of being swept over the waterfall, we need to be honest and vocal about the judgement and hell that awaits unforgiven sinners.
The man in the boat didn’t grab the lifeline because he saw no need for it. He didn’t know that his efforts at rowing were futile and that the waterfall awaited him. Likewise, the average non-Christian doesn’t know that their good works can’t save them and that hell awaits. All our efforts at being friendly and nice can’t convince them of their desperate need for the lifeline that Jesus is.
So should we just shrug our shoulders and leave them to fate? A believer I met named Willie seemed to have done that. Though he has an understanding that all sinners need the salvation found in Christ, he is also willing to leave them to fate.
The many biblical passages describing God’s sovereign rule over all things, even over our human free will and future events, might be one reason why so many Christians seem uninterested in taking the initiative in evangelism. God is in control, so what difference does it make whether we share the Gospel or not?
An account of another boat-related life and death situation, this one a real historical event, can help explain our responsibility as Christians in relation to God’s sovereignty. In Acts 27, as Paul was journeying to Rome by ship, a terrible storm arose that threatened to sink the ship and drown everyone on board.
But God had clearly revealed to Paul through an angel that all lives on the ship would be spared. Nonetheless, when some of the sailors tried to secretly escape in the lifeboat, Paul warned them that “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” (vs. 31) Paul understood that God, in His sovereignty, often chooses to carry out His plans through the means of human will, and that therefore we all have a tremendous obligation and responsibility for the choices we make.
In another passage, Paul writes “And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10) As believers we are the means God chooses to use, the tool in His hands so to speak, through which God carries out His plan to bring the Gospel to the lost.
I’m glad God is sovereign, but let’s not allow His sovereignty to lull us into complacency. Let’s be like the good Samaritan and not just stand on the shore and shrug our shoulders when we have the words people need to hear on our lips, and the lifeline they need to grab hold of in our hands.
Thanks Willie, for allowing me to record our conversation. It’s at
https://youtu.be/yFcvlbfV2L0 on my YouTube channel.
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