In the context (
1
Cor. 15) of defining the essential Gospel, Paul commands the Corinthians
to “wake up” to their duty because some are still ignorant of God. And
in closing the sentence with the “I speak this to your shame” remark,
Paul is emphasizing our
responsibility to the Great Commission.
If this is guilt-motivation, it is Holy Spirit-inspired guilt-motivation.
God is most certainly sovereign in our salvation - but that does not
exempt us of the responsibility, in light of the repeated commands to
“teach all nations,” “preach the Gospel to every creature,” “preach
repentance and forgiveness of sins,” “be witnesses unto me...” As Christ
said, “...so send I you...”
Do you ever worry about what our report card
would look like? How are we doing in our generation? Who in today’s
world still do not have the knowledge of God? Even with sufficient knowledge
of Him, many still reject Him; but how about those who only reject a
caricature of Him, because that’s all they know? A poorly-understood
version of the one-and-only, true and living God?
Set aside thoughts of remote tribal villages
for a moment: how about many who attend religious services in our own
country? A 2003 survey of those who call themselves “born-again Christians”
revealed that 50% believed that a person could earn salvation by good
works. If this kind of deadly ignorance of the uniqueness of salvation
through Christ according to
John
14:6 exists in our
churches, how
could the rest of
the world be getting an honest representation of Him and His mission?
Mel Gibson’s upcoming film, “The Passion of
the Christ,” has already received a lot of negative publicity from a
politically-correct world; but from most reports, it is poised to shatter
a lot of the kind of negative sentimentality that exists about His nature
and His mission. The penalty suffered for our sin was so great! The
act was dirty, violent, brutal and bloody. The crucifixion was not the
pale, bloodless golden-haloed thing so many mediaeval icons have made
of it. It was a monstrosity, the greatest ever perpetrated. I expect
that such a shockingly authentic presentation will take the cross out
of the realm of the theoretical, the morally-abstract and clinical,
and force many to consider
just why Jesus went to the great lengths
He did. Hopefully, if only for a moment, to perceive that it may be
necessary to re-think the gravity of sin, if God would not spare Jesus
all of that suffering. And for Christians themselves to recognize a
little more of the fate awaiting those we fail to reach with the knowledge
of God. It also reminds us of the tremendous grace demonstrated in the
love of God: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down
his life for us” (
1
John 3:16) It’s not that we have
escaped the penalty for
our sin; but that the penalty has been
paid in full! (See
1
John 4:10)
As Christians who are awakening to righteousness,
we need to clearly perceive opportunities and callings that are laid
in our path. Pursuant to this, LINC-Net, our ministry in Campus Crusade
for Christ, is establishing a follow-up
website
with information about the film “The Passion of the Christ.” What is
great is that the material is already there, in the form of an existing
website, “
http://www.whoisjesus-really.org/”
in 36 languages. This site is an approachable survey of prophecy, comparative
religion, the essential claims of Christ, and apologetic material.
Please pray with us that God will multiply our
staff’s efforts to make use of this unique opportunity; that we’ll truly
reach many with the site and companion materials; and that the Lord
would bless and speed our efforts to join the other staff members in
Orlando who would benefit so greatly from our assistance.
