Sharing the “Good News” in today’s world is a bit different than it was in Biblical times because we live in what might be described as a “post-Christian” world, where people aren’t hearing about Jesus for the first time. My Pastor has described it almost as a cultural vaccination against the Word of God. I used to have this cultural vaccination against Christ. I had this attitude of, ‘Oh I already know what that’s about and I’ve already rejected it.’ Mind made up. Case closed.
I think this influences some believers’ willingness to even speak about the Love that has transformed us. Because we know that people, for the most part, have already made up their minds about the existence of God, and so we wonder what we might say that would have an impact. We forget that God didn’t choose us because we’re perfect, or because we’re great at speaking, or because he needs us. He chose us because he loves us and because we need HIM.
I write and speak about God from time to time because at some point I found it impossible not to do so. When I was first saved, I thought I could keep God “on the second floor” of my life, as a friend put it to me. I knew how people would perceive me, and all of the baggage and labels and boxes that would come when people heard I’m a Christian. I knew this because these are all the same kinds of baggage and labels and boxes that I used to put Christians in. But God is what sustains me, what leads me, and what gives me life. He is the lens through which I see and interpret the world, and the cradle I lie in when I need refuge. He is the one who directs my steps, and forgives me and helps me get back on the path when I misstep. I could no more keep my salvation quiet for very long, than I could cease to breathe or eat for very long.
I don’t preach at friends or acquaintances. Why would I? I know some critics who say this means I am not sharing the “Good News” but I don’t see it that way at all. At some point, if you know me, you will learn I am a believer. It’s inevitable. And what I have found is that those who are seekers will ask ME about my faith. God doesn’t need me to be a used car salesman. We don’t have to be pushy with loved ones. Those who God is working on will come to us. That has been my experience so far, in any case.
I recently had a pretty long conversation with a friend (she initiated it, not I) about my faith. I’m so grateful that she would even be curious enough to ask me, and to bring her grievances to me. This world infects us with so many of what my Pastor calls “defeater beliefs” - those stumbling blocks that keep us from the leap of delight that is a relationship with our creator.
Among her grievances, I found that not many of them had to do with Jesus’ words. On those we have so much agreement. Many of the grievances have to do with humans - not with God. Some of them are about the many people throughout history who have done evil while cloaked in God’s name, seeking to subvert God’s message and lead people astray. On this we agree as well. As I pointed out to my friend, Jesus delivered some of his harshest rebukes for such False Shepherds.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!” Matthew 18:6-7
But there was one defeater belief she voiced in our conversation that did surprise me, and gave me such wonder at being able to share with someone the real “Good News.” At one point, we were talking about the concept of Original Sin. She said she can’t get with a belief system that says we are all born evil, and that we must spend our whole life trying to fix it and undo it. First - I disagreed with the characterization of “born evil” - I don’t think that at all. Rather that, because of the fall, we are born with a capacity for both good and evil. That we can choose to live in the spirit or in the flesh, both in the big picture and in the myriad of choices we make every day. But secondly, and this is the Good News: “We don’t have to fix it. Jesus fixed it. That’s what he did up on that cross. He paid the debt for us.” She said she’d never heard it put that way, and she was raised in the church. This really made me wonder about how we live in a world where the “Good News” is not new, and yet it so often hasn’t been heard. Maybe that keeps us from speaking it sometimes - because we assume everyone has heard it.
Jesus died for us. He is the ultimate self-sacrificing scapegoat. He took upon himself all of humanity’s sins and he bore the burden of them and died for them and wiped our debt for us, and rose again. He triumphed over our sin. He freed us from our bonds to sin, that which is death (of the body, of the spirit). We are not a works-based faith. There is nothing I could do to “earn” my way into salvation. God sent Jesus to die for my sins, so that I - a wretch in need of the Way, the Truth and the Life - might be saved. I have only to take that leap of delight and accept him.
I have another friend, who I believe God is working on, who told me recently that if he ever has a conversion experience, that he likely won’t say anything about it to anyone. The thing about being transformed by the blood of the lamb is this - you don’t have to say anything, my dear friend. God will transform you so utterly and joyfully that it will become apparent to those with eyes to see. What is different about you? What is this light that sustains you and carries you? What is this grace that plucked you from darkness and seems to have breathed life into your very soul? What is this joy? It is God, the Alpha and the Omega. It is the one who IS, and who was, and who is to come. The Almighty.
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
T’was grace that brought me safe thus far.
And grace will lead me home.
Wonderful