Hungry for God: Responses to Redemption

“And He was teaching them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said to them: ‘Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.’”—Mark 4:2-3

We have to get it out of our mind that following Christ is a popularity contest, nor can we think that we can lower the standards to following Him. Trying to make Christianity anything else than it really is—an entire life given over to Jesus, is to misunderstand the Gospel. The Gospel is not for making you a better person, although it will. It’s not for helping you to live life without pain, get your best life now, incur a blessing, etc. The Gospel is about God loving man in his sinful condition so that much that He gave His one and only Son to identify with us, take our sins and sicknesses upon Himself, die a criminal’s death that we deserved, taking the wrath of God upon Himself, be buried, and then rise again on the third day. And from belief in that there is a call to repentance, a response to God’s love-act accomplished in Christ. It is not merely intellectual assent, attending church, reading the Bible, praying, or giving your money. It’s repenting of your sins, trusting in Him, and then living a life wholly devoted to Him. Anything less is not the Gospel.

There will be various responses to the Gospel, as Jesus taught in His parable about the sower (cf. Mark 4:1-9, 13-20). We must remember that family, friends, and close loved ones will respond to the Gospel differently. Some will reject it straight up (v. 15), others will embrace it initially and then fall away when tribulation or persecution comes (v. 16-17), others will embrace it but will fall away when the cares of the world enter in and choke it (v. 18-19), and still others will embrace it and be transformed (v. 20).

Discouragement comes when we forget this scriptural truth. We can’t believe for any man or woman, but only present the truth of who He is, making sure that we are doing it in a way that presents the full counsel of God, making great effort not to water down the response God calls for.

Have you compromised or watered down the Gospel to others? Have you done something other than proclaim the full counsel of God? Let God be God, stay true to His Word, sow the seed, and leave the results up to Him. Amen.