10/13/19 Wesley (see HERE)
How can we as Christians tell an often uncaring, preoccupied world about our most precious treasure, the joy of knowing Jesus as our Lord and Savior? For years I was silenced by something I was told during one of my early, awkward attempts at outreach – an annoyed man on the street told me “You’ve got your Jesus and that works for you, but I’ve got my _____ and that works for me.” I can’t even remember what he said works for him, but there are dozens of things people use to fill in the blank.
I had assumed people would naturally rejoice when they heard the good news of the Gospel, because I didn’t know about the biblical mandate to use the law such as the Ten Commandments as a mirror to help people see their own sin and their need for forgiveness. The good news of the gospel - that we can have a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus - doesn’t make sense without the bad news that our sin isolates and separates us from God.
So the gospel message naturally needs to include this bad news. It’s usually not enough to just mention Romans 3:23, that “all have sinned”, because people reason that there is safety in numbers and that not everyone would be condemned. Most feel secure in their goodness because they think they are better than average and feel they have good excuses for the sins they do commit.
That’s pretty much where I found Wesley, a young man from Brazil whom I talked with after finishing my grocery shopping. Wesley was quick to say that he was far from perfect and unsure of how God would judge him. The Bible repeats several times that God “opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”, and Wesley seemed pretty humble from what he told me.I have learned to use some of the 10 commandments to double check if people really do own up to their sins, and I did so with Wesley. But each time I brought up one of the commandments to help him check his reflection in the biblical “mirror” Wesley failed to do so, either claiming innocence, setting up a sort of smoke screen by focusing on the example I gave rather than the point I was making, or giving some sort of excuse for the few sins he did admit to.
So I wondered, how could someone be so humble about their goodness when they really didn’t admit much to sin? Wesley’s focus was on a “sin” that he felt he had committed many years ago. He had hurt an opponent in a jujitsu competition and sent him to the hospital. I was dismissive of this “sin” – after all, it occurred in the context of a sports competition and wasn’t intentional. But now I’m thinking it may just play a key role in Wesley’s life. It allows him a false sense of humility about an accidental “sin” that occurred years ago, while relieving him of the real humility and heartfelt repentance he should be feeling for the sins he is committing here and now, including living with his girlfriend.
Some may wonder how a Christian can lovingly share this “bad news” of our sin as part of sharing the gospel, especially as I did there at a crowded grocery store. I feel I did this by being a good listener and helping Wesley to judge himself, rather than pointing my finger and doing the judging for him. Sure, a few shoppers heard quick snippets of our conversation as they passed by. But this is so much better than waiting until it is too late to do anything about it, when all our sins and innermost secrets will be made known, as Jesus described: “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” (Luke 12:3)
Knowing the bad news of their sin and their need for forgiveness can help people see how Jesus indeed “works for me” and how he can work for them too in bringing forgiveness, reconciliation, and salvation. This is an important part of the message an uncaring, preoccupied world needs to hear.
Thanks, Wesley, for allowing me to record our
conversation! It can be seen HERE at https://youtu.be/87zPIWSoSFc
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