In an earlier gracEmail, I stated that
God will judge all people by the light they had and not by truth they
could not know. A missionary in South America asks, "If that
is so, am I wasting my time here? Why preach the gospel today? Are
you saying that people are saved apart from Jesus Christ?"
*
* *
Not at all. I am saying that no one
will finally be saved except through Jesus Christ and what God accomplished
through him. That includes people who lived before Jesus and after
Jesus -- within Israel and among the nations. That is not to say that
all those saved people knew in this life the details of God's work
in Christ, although they all did relate to God in the kind of creaturely
faith we see in the patriarch Abraham, "the father of the faithful"
(Acts 4:11-12; Rom. 2:11-16; Rom. 4:1-16).
Are you wasting your time? Absolutely
not! You are obeying Jesus, fulfilling his Great Commission (Matt.
28:18-20). You are speaking because you believe (2 Cor. 4:13) and
are sharing the way of life (Acts 11:18). You are turning people from
darkness to light (Col. 1:13-14), introducing people to the living
and true God (1 Thess. 1:9-10) and spreading hope of eternal life
(Titus 1:1-3). You are giving freedom over fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15),
inspiring a living hope (1 Pet. 1:3) and filling people with joy and
peace in believing (Rom. 15:13). You are giving assurance of God's
mercy which transforms lives (Titus 2:11-15). You are bestowing many,
many other blessings through the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
In the process, you are being used
by God as an agent in the salvation of those who through your ministry
receive the grace of God (2 Cor. 5:18 -- 6:2). The gospel is God's
power for saving believers -- in the fullest sense of the word "save"
(Rom. 1:16). The kingdom of God brings wholeness and healing of all
kinds -- spiritual, emotional and physical (Acts 4:10-12). Jesus is
the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). We are privileged to
tell people what God has done for sinners through him, and how God
has revealed himself most fully through his only-begotten Son, the
divine Word made flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. Our success
depends on God. His success does not depend on us.
© 2001
by Edward Fudge. Unlimited permission to copy without altering text
or profiteering is hereby granted subject to inclusion of this copyright
notice. For encouragement and spiritual food any time, visit
Fudge's multimedia website at www.EdwardFudge.com
.
Further discussion responding to the question "Why
preach?" can be found in Posting # 9, entitled "Motivation
for Missions or Why Preach?" and Posting #30 "The Belhar
Confession."
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