The Rev. Roger Salter: “An Answer Devoid of the Problem (The Phenomenon of the Fifty Per Cent Gospel)”

From the Rev. Roger Salter of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church near Birmingham, here is another thoughtful sermon, titled “An Answer Devoid of the Problem”:

Oftentimes we are not fully appreciative of information we receive because we are either unable to value its true significance or we are unaware as to the solution it proffers to a much debated problem. Numerous statements are indeed answers to questions that are being asked explicitly or implicitly, but if we have not shared in the interrogation of a particular matter we are unlikely to get the point if we overhear the response when it is disconnected from the context of discussion. For example, when believers firmly identify the Christ of faith with the Christ of history they are denying the distinction often made between the Jesus who (perhaps) lived and died, and about whom little is known, and the Jesus of Christian doctrine who is a (developed) construct or invention of the church. We believe the entire gospel record and its exposition in the epistles, and our saving trust is placed in the risen Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary. We are not subscribers to mere religious fiction, fantasy, or wishful thinking. When scholars go out of their way to substantiate the New Testament witness as factual and reliable we could mistakenly regard their statements as obvious and even fatuous, or their arguments unnecessary, because we are not aware of the academic issues at stake and the alternative propositions that have been made in specialist circles that influence the testimony of the people of God as they address the world. Statements only make complete sense when we are party to the full conversation. This leads to the observation that we rarely grasp a truth in a firm and personal way until we have first had to pose our own earnest and probing questions. Simple faith and unexamined faith are not identical. And all of us are afraid of gullibility. In various ways we all engage in the process of checking things out until we are satisfied. Acceptance of the gospel is fortified by apologetics (defence of the truths we hold), which enables us to commend our convictions cogently to others (1 Cor 15:1-7,1 Pet 3:15).

The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the proclamation of the cross, is an answer to a problem — the moral problem of our sin and consequent alienation from God — but if the problem is not well defined and understood any attempt at presenting the gospel will inevitably prove inept, inaccurate, and inadequate. The answer we propose as the church of God will be disconnected from the problem, distorted, and misleading. If we do not wholly admit the reality of the human predicament and peril as outlined in Holy Scripture then eventually the redemptive message we attempt to declare will become something else, much diluted, and radically different from the message of the apostles, and it will soon become that which Paul himself describes as another gospel and does his utmost to guard against. People seemingly tire of and grow impatient with doctrinal accuracy and the preservation of orthodoxy, but when the church grows lax in its oversight of teaching then dangerous misperceptions and interpretations of the Word of God are smuggled in and a false hope is promulgated that, left unchecked, could result in eternal disappointment and regret (Galatians). Surrender to sentiment and slick slogans in Christianity, with tolerance for any view that is prefaced with the glib profession, “I love Jesus” or “I believe in Jesus” — which many of the cults are able to (deceivingly) affirm — is an abdication of our responsibility to honour and obey the full disclosure of God’s mind in the Bible and deliver it faithfully and unedited. Nothing plain in Scripture is surplus to requirement or disadvantageous to us and it is not to be omitted from our preaching. We must declare his whole counsel, as the sacred text puts it (Acts 20:27), and no-one has the right to modify that requirement or adapt the word at the world’s beckoning. Confessionalism and completeness of its communication is a sacred duty assigned to the church and we are delinquent or craven if we fall short in this responsibility. The consequences, and the task of making repairs, are enormous, as present crises within the church attest.
The nature of the gospel we proclaim will depend on our diagnosis of the condition of human nature, and if that is not “spot on” according to the verdict of God’s Word, our word to our fellow men will be flawed in its content and false in its assurances.

The warning of John Duncan needs to be taken seriously: It is easy to invite rebels to return to God, if there be a keeping out of view of the cause of the quarrel between the rebels and God.

This is the offensive message that mankind does not want to hear. Our pride detests it, and our preferences dictate that the church should tone it down and make its pronouncements more palatable with a lack of emphasis on sin, guilt, and judgment, and an affirmation of our worth, our entitlement to enhanced self esteem, and the assurance of a benevolent God who exists to pamper our every desire for self- gratification. In our time, and in our churches, we scarcely invite folk to the Saviour in the terms suggested by Duncan. Instead, we employ the language of flattery and self- interest, and seek to entertain rather than inform. We fear the rebuff and rejection of the world and crave its popularity and approval, It is no wonder that the cross is a perplexity to modern Christians, an embarrassment, or something that has to be radically re-construed, or even set aside. Only rebels can discern its purpose and rely on its efficacy. Atonement is irrelevant to unconvinced sinners still concerned to maintain a sense of pride and self-righteousness.

If we do not identify the quarrel between ourselves and God how can sinners be expected to seek the refuge of the cross and truly prize the saving achievement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and entrust their souls to Him? The gospel becomes the solution to other concerns, and provision for other selfish “needs”, and not the only divinely ordained remedy for sin, deliverance from wrath, and restoration to peace with God. Instead of being true to Scripture the gospel is adapted and tailored to the demands of men. It conforms to the wisdom of the world and fails to display the wisdom of God, which is so contrary to our natural outlook (ICor 1: 18-3 1).

Sin is essentially outright rebellion against the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, and true repentance is the recognition and admission of our rebel status, attitude, and behaviour. We seek first forgiveness before favour. We do not demur at the biblical accusation as to our character and condition but accord it our full concurrence accompanied by sincere confession and contrition. Each person in his or her own heart has to own the fact that we are rebellious (not to do so perpetuates and masks the rebellious spirit even in the life of the church) and plead for pardon and a renewed spirit compliant with the nature and will of God. The way of return to God has to be both thoroughly honest and profoundly humble. “They have rebelled against me” is the divine indictment levelled against the whole human race, and also the church of God in time of declension and waywardness (Isaiah 1), and the measure and potency of divine mercy in Christ can never be appreciated and experienced until we start from that basic realization that each of us is truly a rebel, offered amnesty in the gospel, and reinstatement to divine acceptance through the substitutionary death of the Redeemer. We have no entitlement to salvation. Sin is no trivial thing to be casually swept aside, as in the gospel of cheap grace. The salvation of the soul is the miraculous deed of undeserved and incalculable mercy. A false gospel creates false Christians, and we must be wary of falling prey to the delusion, or of perpetrating it through a false message that wins human favour (widespread but wide of the mark) but denies its believers the favour of God. The glory of the cross is only seen against the backdrop of our utter wickedness and wretchedness. The love of Jesus shines brightly in contrast to our unloveliness. Divine brilliance (His holiness and mercy) is designed to banish human blackness. If we do not admit the latter how can we revel in the former and admire the grace that stoops to rescue us?

Our time-honoured formularies provide us with all the biblical categories (Scripture will be organized one way or the other i.e. corporate competence or personal subjectivism) for self-examination, confidence in Christ, acceptable worship, and obedient service. Dismissal of these, or a drift from historic faith, catholic and reformed, cultivated through the wisdom and sifting processes of previous generations, will result in a fashionable but feeble version of Christianity. We pray and wait for an Anglicanism that will not compromise its God given legacy — undeniably counter culture, and currently “counter-church”.

This is quite a powerful message, and that citation from John Duncan is something we have seen proven in our day, for certain.