“God, I thank you that I am not an Evangelical Arminian. They drive me insane, filling churches with false converts and talking only about Man’s Free Will, ignoring Your sovereignty over all. They swallow up any teaching without discernment and don’t care about systematic theology.

“But I have my shelves full of textbooks about doctrine, and I study them hard, as often as I can, and make it a point to talk about my favorite parts with everyone I meet. I avoid pastors who talk too much about human choice and don’t make sure to clarify every single time that really it is God’s choice anyway. I read only nonfiction and don’t need to expose myself to impractical things. And I listen only to expositional sermons about favorite Scripture passages.”

What’s your reaction upon hearing this oft-repeated evangelical slogan:

“God so loved the world (that) he gave his only begotten son. What are you willing to give?”

A response likely depends on whether you’re a Christian or non-Christian, as written last week. For Christians, you might know that it doesn’t really mean you’re supposed to “match” Jesus’ gift with your own. That would be horribly insulting to Him, and useless besides. Instead, we do good works out of gratitude to Him.

But do Christians always think that way? I know I don’t. Instead I too often feel guilt for not doing as many “good works” as I should, not because I haven’t been loving and honoring God enough, but because I think that I should Be Better Than That.

So if a Christian can still drift into that way of thinking, imagine a nonbeliever’s reaction to any vague-at-best phrase that goes like “Jesus gave it all for you, now what will you give to Him?”

A nonbeliever could take it lightly as just another work-harder religion, or worse, try to follow it.

So what might be more-Biblical ways to tell about Jesus’ gift and call others to action?

What’s the Word?

How did the first Christians say people should respond to the Gospel of Christ’s death for sins?¹.

“Repent and be baptized.” Confess your sins; turn from them. Be saved and confirm it publicly.

Very similar: repent from your sins, turn from them, and God will send Jesus to you.

Acts 8: 26-40 skims over some details, but shows the apostle Phillip stressing another part of the Gospel for an Ethiopian eunuch²: the fact that a passage from Isaiah was prophesying Jesus’ death.

In Acts 10: 34-43, Peter is at it again, giving a quickly summarized presentation of the Gospel. His audience is Gentiles who already believe in the God of the Jews, and maybe that’s why Peter hits harder on the same this-was-foretold-by-the-prophets angle (verse 43).

At the end of Acts 17, the apostle Paul barely talked about Jesus at all — at least that we read. He may have talked more about Him later, but his main point to the Greeks: repent (verse 30).

Further in

For those whom the apostles expected to know about God’s Law, or the pagan Greeks who don’t even know about God period, the apostles didn’t say anything like Jesus gave it all for you, so what will you give for him? That’s not a clear Gospel message. It’s also confusing. To a non-Christian, it will only reinforce a “default” religion of trying to sacrifice to impress God.

Yes, believers are meant to give their lives to Christ and do good. True religion, John and James separately say in many ways, is carried out in love for God, each other, and good works.

But even that is not really a sacrifice. All believers’ good works are ultimately God’s work in them (Philippians 2:12). The explorer/missionary David Livingstone (whose birthday was yesterday) seems to have understood this; even he famously said, “I never made a sacrifice.”

So let’s ensure that, for Christians and non-Christians alike, we never speak or act as though we do need to “match” Jesus’ sacrifice with our own!

“God gave His Son for you. What are you willing to give for Him?”

I hear that a lot. It gets on those oft-maligned Christian t-shirts.¹ And it was also written in chalk on a public park my wife and I visited some months ago (see below).

And I wonder if this is a good way to word the question.

Christians who know the Scriptures may not have a problem with it, because they already know there’s nothing they can do to earn God’s salvation. We know that our sins are too bad, and God is too good; only Christ by His grace through faith can save us.

But every once in a while you’ll meet a Christian who seems to have a wrong understanding: “Jesus gave His life for me, so I gave my life to Him.” Quid pro quo. This-for-that.

So if a Christian, who should understand God’s grace, can fall into that kind of thinking, how much worse could an non-Christian, outside of grace, interpret that slogan?

It’s not a heresy. But it’s not helpful either. Christians should clean up their jargon. Here’s why.

Ye have heard that it was said …

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. What are you willing to give?”

Figure A:

Public park sidewalk slogan (artist unknown): “God so loved the world [that] he gave his only begotten son. What are you willing to give?” ²

Figure B:

Using Scripture, an evangelistic tract gives an overall-good presentation of man’s need for God, and the need to accept Jesus. But it concludes with something like, “Jesus gave his life for you, so won’t you give your life for him?”

What’s the truth in this?

Salvation is not easy — it was not easy for Jesus to die to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21) and it’s not easy to admit one’s sin, repent and turn to the only Savior.

Some Christian evangelists may commit the opposite error, saying repeatedly something like “all you need to do is believe.” This is true, and for those who wrongly believe Christianity is about earning one’s way to Heaven, it could be vital to emphasize the comparative “easiness” of it.

However, often an “easy believe-ism” approach minimizes the raw, anguish-inducing, personally humbling fact that one’s repentance coincides with his or her belief in the Gospel (Mark 1:15). Jesus said that those who follow Him would need to deny themselves and “take up his cross” (Matthew 16: 24-26³). In that sense, we do need to “give” something to follow Him — that is, give up our selfish desires, our arrogance, ourselves.

What’s the lie in this?

But what is the religious “default setting” in non-Christians, or sometimes even in Christians? ⁴ Is it remembering that salvation is all God’s doing? Or is it thinking that what we give, either before or after salvation, is what impresses God?

I don’t know about you, but my “default setting” is not total trust in God’s grace. It’s reliance on (what I think are) my own good deeds. By default, I would drift out of orbit around Christ and His Gospel, pulled by the gravity of old Earth back into religious legalism — even as a Christian.

This is why it’s vital to remind ourselves of God’s word and His grace as often as possible.

So if Christians can struggle with that, what does a nonbeliever think after reading or hearing a message like “God gave his son for you; what will you give to him”? Put yourself in the place of a nonbeliever. By default, they don’t think, “Oh, God is incredible; He’s given me so much, and I’ve been so rebellious against Him; I need to be saved.” Instead they might think:

Mild:

“Huh … those religious types … trying to get people to be good.” (Note: misses the “Jesus gave His life” part. Most people know the crucifixion story, but naturally don’t care.)

Medium:

“Nice to know they think God loves me … maybe I should be more loving too. …”

Hot:

“Yeah … Jesus set a good example, dying and all of that, so I really should get to work and feed hungry children.” (Note: this is the really convicted reaction! Again, no conviction of sin against anyone — especially God — and the need to repent, and no basis in God’s grace.)

Next week: related Scriptures, and further in. …