All of us, both within and without the church, face the temptation of being legalists when dealing with others’ sins against us, and antinomians when dealing with our sins against others. We want those we have perceived to have wronged us to pay for what they have done, while reminding our own tender consciences that we all deserve a little grace.
The two propensities come to a head as we seek to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the walking dead all about us. The first objection, typically, comes from the antinomian side. The sacrifice of witnessing to our enemies is that we know we will be hated for pointing out the reality of their sin. We’ll be pilloried as narrow, bigoted, judgmental, medieval. We will run smack into Romans 1. The unbeliever, in his unrighteousness unrighteously suppresses his knowledge of his unrighteousness. He, in short, doesn’t want to hear it.
The irony, of course, is that what we are trying to tell them is just what they need to deal with their guilt. We would be wise to remember that when we fall under the onslaught of their wrath. They want to hide from their sin, while we are trying to tell them how to make it go away.
The second problem, however, arises when we get to the promise of God. As we preach, “Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” they will find “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” to be almost as incredulous as “Repent.” In fact I’ve often heard this objection- “What a minute. You’re telling me that if Adolph Hitler had simply said just before his death, “Jesus, forgive me” he would have entered into heaven at his death? That’s all it takes, just saying you’re sorry?”
Of course that’s not all it takes. Though our repentance is never the ground of our peace with God- that is, God doesn’t forgive us simply because repenting is such a wonderful thing that it covers our sins, it is necessary and necessary that it be genuine. Saying something and meaning it, because we are sinners, often means two different things.
Second, the ground is not in our repentance, but His provision. “All it took” was for God to put on humanity, to live a perfect life, and to suffer the wrath of the Father due to all those who would believe. The passion of Christ is not a small thing.
The scandal, in fact, is less that we who are sinners should get off scot free, but that God should pay such a high cost for our redemption. Had Hitler repented at the last moment he would indeed now be enjoying the blessings of eternity. Not, however, because his sins would have gone unpunished, but because his sins would have been punished on Christ. And such are we.
I wonder if perhaps those outside the kingdom would be less tempted to think of the gospel as a cheap get out of jail free card if we were more faithful in grasping that we are Hitler, and Jesus suffered for us. The gospel is not for good people who fall a bit short, but for evil people. Jesus did not come to rescue the beautiful princess. He came to rescue the ugly hag that killed Him, because He laid His life down. Perhaps the gospel would scandalize the world less if it scandalized the church more.