I don't want this to feel like a class. This is actually a very quick post, just to try to get a handle on something. But do me a favour - it'll really help me out. If a friend said, "for my sister to become a Christian, what does she need to know?", how would you answer?
Take a moment.
Another friend. "My sister has severe learning difficulties. What does she need to know in order to be saved?" How do you answer that?
Last question: Apart from perhaps an obviously different tone, were your answers different? Why?
The Broad Gospel
I'm not just having a go. It's not that I've located a new way to make people feel bad about themselves.
Here's what it is - I don't think many of us, if we took our answer to the first question, would be able, using the same categories, to say that a baby can be saved. That someone with Alzheimer's can be saved. Maybe even for some of the answers, just someone with a slightly lower-than-average IQ. And if the Church, God's missional team on earth, is sending out this kind of vibe, then what hope does the world have?
Is it possible that we have allowed Christianity in the UK to be essentially for the educated middle class? Have we tied the gospel to academic thinking only the privileged are given access to?
Luke tells us that the basest understanding required is at least no more complex than realising Jesus' innocence and asking of the Lord: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
I have a sincere belief that we do not behave or speak in accordance with this truth.
Keep Defending!
Don't hear what I'm not saying - we must keep defending the doctrines of our faith - they are essential. Those who deny the resurrection should never be allowed to speak from our pulpits; those who oppose atonement, sanctification, the presence and evil of sin shall have no part in pastoral ministry.
But I do wonder if we have spent so long fighting these battles that we've forgotten what we're really here for.And I wonder if we've lost sight of a crucial distinction:
The difference between denying doctrine and not ascribing to it.
There are myriad people who are incapable of ascribing to such doctrines as substitutionary atonement... because they do not know what it means - such people are not deniers of the faith: I know of old ladies who would say "Oh, I don't know about such things" if you were to ask them of inerrancy; yet I guarantee that the way they read and scour the Scriptures is a truer reaction to the inerrant Word than any zealous young man reading this post possesses.
I used to go to church with a child with cerebral palsy - one could never quite be sure that he was listening to or understanding when he was spoken to. But he would cry out with such unabashed joy in church when he heard the word 'Jesus', or when we sang hymns, that only a liar could say he did not love the Lord.
Start Preaching!
J.C. Ryle's observation in his book Christian Leaders of the 18th Century, which documented the rise of Christianity in England and Wales during the great revival of the time, was that "they were not ashamed to crucify their style"
Much like today, the majority of the communicators of the gospel were well educated, many of them public-schooled, and had the capacity to intellectually engage and come out with the most profound points, I'm sure, relating the gospel to the teachings of Cicero, Aristotle and whoever else they had encountered in their education.
But that is not what they did - George Whitefield, despite being from humble origins, went from Gloucester's grammar school to Oxford University - yet was to be found years later by the exit to the coal mines, preaching the gospel with such basic zeal, that the miners could be seen with "white gutters made by their tears down their black cheeks."
Archbishop Ussher once said "To make easy things seem hard is easy, but to make hard things easy is the office of a great preacher."
They crucified their style - they spoke plainly and boldly of Christ crucified and raised, of people sinful and forgiven, of the world fallen and destined for being made new.
Ryle said that Whitefield preached a 'singularly pure gospel', 'He was perpetually telling you about your sins, your heart, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the absolute need of repentance, faith and holiness, in the way the Bible presents these mighty subjects. "Oh, the righteousness of Jesus Christ!" he would often say; "I must be excused if I mention it in almost all of my sermons."'
These miners and their families to whom he preached were completely illiterate - the revivalists' schooling would be lost on them...except for the plain duty that came with being able to read the Bible, and communicate its message.
The Broad Shoulders
"Christ died for all"
Do you believe this to be true? Do you behave thus?
Whitefield explains what drew him to dedicating his life to preaching to the poor and base people in England and Wales despite having traveled even as far as America: "Having no righteousness of their own to renounce, they were pleased to hear of Jesus who was a friend to publicans..."
This post will not be convicting to all - there are many brothers and sisters dedicating themselves to preaching the gospel to the poor. (There are also many who have dedicated themselves to preaching to the privileged - and this, too, is good and right - for surely the point of this is that all people need to hear the gospel.)
But my question is, is there anyone whom you think the gospel is not for? Anyone too rich, anyone too stupid, anyone too young; anyone too lacking in cognition? You are wrong. We must crucify this attitude.
Karl Barth, one of the most complex theologians of the last century, whose academic works trouble the brightest of students, was once asked to sum up his life's teachings. He replied
"Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so."
These words were also sung at a funeral I attended of a young boy, who had chosen the song himself. Towards the end, he was barely aware of our presence around his bed... but he knew this.
And we will finish with a useful litmus test:
If you don't know how to communicate the gospel to illiterate fishermen... then you do not yet know how to communicate the gospel.
