Sin and the Gospel

Global Pastors' Network is an evangelical LinkedIn site that I am certain I joined just to be contrary. There is always the possibility that such discussions and debates widen the perspectives of all who contribute, but for the most part the site is characterized by a doggedness of opinion that doesn't seem inclined to bend much...

Chris Harbin • Why Must We Begin a Gospel Presentation with Sin?
Paul certainly presents his argument this way in Romans, but he is presenting an answer to Jews caught up in a battle of legalism. Jesus speaks on the issue of sin, but it does not appear to be his normal starting-point. It is an issue to wipe off the table, but what He wants to present is an alternate perception of God. For Jesus, God is not Judge, so much as a loving Father, desiring relationship and willing to do whatever it takes to ease our human distrust of God.
When we begin the gospel presentation with sin, doesn't that say more about our hang-ups than with the Good News of grace?

Scott Ingram • I never start with sin because even starting there doesn't explain the problem. I always start with creation. God made everything and it was good. When sin and the fall happened, all of that was lost. Salvation, then, is the way by which the goodness of creation is reclaimed and ultimately restored. That is why the Bible says Jesus came to seek and save "that which was lost." Not just "those" who are lost. 

Starting with creation, then, helps me demonstrate why we need a savior to cover our sin and fix us as individuals, but also to demonstrate the global need for a Savior, explaining why injustice happens in the world, and that we get to stand against it as the body of Christ. 


On another note, in preaching against "religiosity" demonstrated in the Pharisees, Jesus even points to the creation to supersede the law of Moses in Matthew 19:3-9. It is the discussion on divorce. The Pharisees ask, "why did Moses allow divorce." Jesus responds that it was for their hardness of heart, but that "from the beginning it was not so," which points to the original intention of God at creation. I say that to say that the creation of all things by God also calls us to repent of our self-righteousness, not only our sin.

Jose Ruiz • The content of the "good news" is that God motivated by love has provided an answer for the effects of sin. Not that he is a loving Father. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Joseph and told him to take Mary as his wife, he gave him the reason why: "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1.21 NIV If it was important to mention the main point of Jesus' birth is salvation from sin twenty-one verses into the first chapter of Matthew, we should follow the Holy Spirit's example as well. Until someone recognizes their miserable state, there is no good news to deliver.

Arthur Shady • As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. Proverbs 23:7 If a man is drowning, but he thinks he can swim, he doesn't want a life raft. He only wants salvation when he first understands he needs one, when he knows he's in trouble. A lot of people are in trouble with God, they need the Saviour, but they think they are ok. That is why we must convince them that they are lost so they will run to Christ for the cure. Before Moses made a brass pole with a snake on it representing the healing of Jesus on the Cross, He send poisonous snakes to bite the people, and He was the only cure. Jesus said it was an illustration of Him on the cross. The people did not do anything, but believe. All they had to do is look and live.

Bruno VAN de VLIET • Go to Acts and read their presentations

Chris Harbin • Bruno, I see sin often dealt with in Acts, but not everywhere. In Acts 10, sin is not an issue. The issue is Peter's discomfort in entering the presence of the "uncircumcised" or unworthy. God demonstrates no such qualms. 


Arthur, Jesus does not appear to deal with the term "lost" in regard to sin from a standpoint of judgment and condemnation. He seems to deal with the concept in terms of reconciling the distance between humanity and God. God takes that initial step and offers approach without condemnation. As in Isaiah 6, the issue of sin enters on the human side of feeling unworthy, while God as father of the prodigal wishes to wipe the slate clean in order to bring the unworthy creature into fellowship and secondarily make the creature more "worthy" or whole.

John Deacon • Chris - I couldn't agree with you more. We have become so formulaic in our presentation of the gospel that we exclude the creativity and the timeliness of the Holy Spirit in our expression. So when people hear the formula it quite registers with them as something archaic, something irrelevant, something on the verge of demise. 
We who are used to the old wine are terrified of the new. We are bound to old wineskins and hence we cling to 'the old is better.' 

But the Holy Spirit is ever bringing new wine - it is wine as it has always been wine, but it is wine for our generation, a wine which to taste and savour precipitates a new day for the church, with new expressions of grace, and new people saying yes to the call of Christ for their time.

Arthur Shady • Chris, Jesus puts it a little stronger than "lost," He uses terms like condemned and those that perish (John 3). We are lost and confused about the mystery of the gospel in this life, but if we reject Christ we will perish, and that is more permanent.

Romans 16:25-26 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: 

Ephesians 6:19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, 

The Bible does refer to unsaved or unconverted people as "lost" though. 

Matthew 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 
Matthew 18:11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. 
Luke 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. 

Some times we can get too hung up on the terms, certain words, that we miss the point. Words are important, every word in Scripture is important, but let's not split hairs if our only difference is semantics. 


I need to talk to a preacher who is in my office,... will post more later.

Arthur Shady • All you need to know to be saved is who Jesus is (God, Creator, Only way, Isaiah 9:6; John 14:6) and what He did for you (Became our High Priest and made a blood atonement, Hebrews 9). Salvation is by grace alone, or it doesn't exist (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). 

The Bible is clear about us being sinners though: 

Matthew 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 

The word here does not mean what the secular dictionary says repentance means. μετανοια "metanoia" means a change of attitude. It's a change of mind that leads to action or decision. Usually metanoeo is used for repentance in relation to salvation of the soul, and that just means a change of mind. 

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 

Not the sins, but all our righteous works are as filthy rags in His sight. The Hebrews knew He was referring to the filthy stench from the rags lepers used to wrap their sores. That's what God thinks of our religion, tradition, or good works. We could never do enough good works to match what Christ did for us. 


Romans 10:2-4 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Deacon Mike Chesley • If you look closely at the Gospels, how Jesus evangelized, the person alway's had an "encounter" with Jesus. The apostles- Jesus invited them to follow him, the women at the well- an encounter, the blind man, gradually "saw" who Jesus was. Take that as your model for evangelization. If you start with sin, first, you become moralistic, and drive people away. Alway's begin with the Good News, an encounter with the Lord, then the subject of sin makes sense. ( what holds us back from God). This is what Pope Francis has been talking about in the media. The Church doesn't always "need to talk about abortion, artificial contraception, same sex marriage," Is he minimizing those subjects like the media tries to play out? No, what Francis is saying is, "Everyone knows what the church teaches, we don't need to keep repeating it, Show God's mercy, God's love, then a moralistic dialogue can take place. Without an encounter with the Lord, morality will sound only judgemental and outdated in a culture that put's so much emphasis on individualism and relativism.

Arthur Shady • Mike, I would agree with you generally, but inspiration without education leads to frustration. Others may know what we believe, but occasionally, not all the time we need to show them why we believe what we believe so they can see it in the Bible. If they are just following a man then their motives are wrong, but if it is a Biblical conviction they will believe it even if they get another pastor. 


We are to repent of our righteousness. Our righteousness is "self-righteousness" and in God's view that is competition for redeeming your soul. He wants you to repent of your self-righteous self-sufficient pride, and admit you are lost and indeed deserve hell. Therefore you need a Saviour. The only Saviour is Jesus.

John Deacon • I have to admit, much of my thinking on this subject comes from the experience of preachers insisting that sin be the topic in the most inappropriate situations. 
I remember a funeral of a very humble saint whose dying wish was that her funeral make no mention of her. 'Just speak about my Jesus', she insisted. 
So the preacher took the occasion to talk about sin and how we were all sinners in desperate need of Christ's forgiveness. Other than that one reference to 'forgiveness' there was nary a word about Jesus and certainly nothing which reflected why the dear departed loved Jesus the way she had. 
If the preacher had spoken about Jesus he would have done both the deceased and the Lord she loved a great service. But instead all we got was a brow beating that was offensive to anyone there who loved the Lord as she had, and a lifeless testament to an angry god to anyone there who wasn't Christian. 
When I expressed my concerns to the preacher afterwards he insisted that he was just 'preaching the gospel.' He was so accustomed to the gospel being about sin he had lost the ability, the imagination and the love to preach about the person of Jesus. This is tragic and chief to the reasons why so few of the next generation are drawn to the church.

It has been my experience that when the youth hear about Jesus, lover of the outcast, whom no one but the highly religious were reticent to approach, defender of the woman caught in adultery and hard on the religious elite, they come running!