Many Christians are disheartened when they look around at how our American culture has become more secular and, in many ways, anti-Christian in everything from its views on sexuality to public policy. In this cultural moment, it’s easy for Christians to not only feel like outsiders, but victims.
I find it interesting, however, that Scripture never encourages us to play the victim card. Instead, we are called to see ourselves “overcomers,” who are always victorious in Christ (see Romans 8:37).
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:7, ESV)
Some renowned Christian preachers from the past have said things like, “Trying to make a difference in the culture is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” While we are called citizens of Heaven, we are still citizens of our nation. One truth does not cancel out the other.
Thank God that people like William Wilberforce, the Christian abolitionist who was instrumental in ending the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, didn’t take such a view. He believed that the God of Heaven had called him to take a stand for truth, justice, goodness, and beauty in the culture he inhabited. Wilberforce urged his fellow Christians to not shrink into the shadowy margins of society with a private faith, but to boldly and publicly profess their faith in Jesus along with all the implications that come with that.
Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth and commanded, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
In his great book, Real Christianity, Wilberforce writes:
“What a difference it would be if our system of morality were based on the Bible instead of the standards devised by cultural Christians.”
Wilberforce was confronting those who want to claim the name of Christ, but deny that Christ’s Lordship has the power to transform both individuals and whole societies. He wondered why so many professing Christians seemed embarrassed by the Name of Jesus and would only be caught uttering His Name in the safety of a house of worship.
As I read Wilberforce, I feel like he’s talking to Christians today–like he’s talking to me! The same struggles with fear and shame that he addressed so boldly are found among churches today. Brothers and sisters, this should not be.
Consider how Jesus called us to take our personal faith in Him public:
“What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” (Matthew 10:27, ESV)
Knowing we would be tempted to keep our faith private, Jesus said:
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33, ESV)
Jesus was speaking to His twelve Apostles, but notice how Jesus uses words like “everyone” and “whoever” to make the point. In other words, speaking about Jesus publicly is not something reserved for trained evangelists or those gifted in evangelism. Jesus is saying that our willingness to speak His Name in public is an accurate gauge of our relationship to Him. I don’t know about you, but I want Jesus to acknowledge me before the Father. These words should motivate us to boldly take the next step of faith in our relationship with Jesus. When we do speak openly of Jesus, the response will always be mixed. Sometimes, we may feel like we did a poor job of representing our Lord or didn’t say everything we could have, but again, speaking of Jesus is something to which “everyone” is called. And we can depend on the Holy Spirit to give us the words we need (Luke 12:11-12).
Unless people hear the message of Jesus, their hearts won’t be regenerated. “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:17, NIV). If we care about cultural renewal, we need to first care about renewal of hearts.
Christians should not intentionally be antagonistic toward others. We should use wisdom and seek to listen well before we speak. At the same time, we should be known for both what we believe and Whom we believe in. Both visibly and audibly, it should be plain to others that we belong to Jesus.
Jesus told Paul, “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking; do not be silent. For I am with you and no one will lay a hand on you, because I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9-10, BSB). He told the other Apostles, “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life” (Acts 5:20, BSB).
Jesus called us to be salt and light in a culture shrouded in spiritual darkness and decay. We are called to take our faith public, and above all, to live with hope.
Prayer:
Lord, help me to live with hope in dark days. Help me be the light you call me to be by the power of the Holy Spirit. On my own, I know I have very little to contribute, but with Your enabling power, I can reach others and make an impact in my generation. May this generation experience a reawakening to Your power, wisdom, and love. I ask this in the mighty Name of Jesus.
Have thoughts on this post? I’d love to hear from you!
“Note then the kindness and the severity of God.” (Romans 11:22, ESV)
Not long ago, my friend Matt and I were on Oregon State’s campus talking to people about Jesus. A Jewish rabbi approached us and asked, “Are you Jewish?” When we said we were not, he explained he was passing out materials for celebrating Passover and then started to move on.
When Matt asked what he thought of Jesus, he quickly declined to answer. I couldn’t help thinking, But Jesus is the One Passover is ultimately about.
“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7, ESV)
Sadly, throughout the years of engaging with Jewish people, whom I love with the love of Jesus the Messiah, I have had very little fruit in even discussing Jesus. His very Name seems to be a conversation killer.
“To the Jew First”
Nevertheless, I remain convinced that I must tell Jewish people about Jesus. I’m not going to accept our culture’s “everyone gets to choose their own brand of spirituality” mantra. For many people, choosing your spirituality is like choosing your own flavor of ice cream. Just go with whatever floats your boat. But spiritual truth is like gravity; you can deny it has any bearing on you, but you do so at your own peril. We don’t get to decide what God is like; rather, we discover what God is like.
Our culture may say I’m being disrespectful and intolerant of my Jewish neighbor by telling him about Jesus. But, at the core of my being, I believe that every person on the planet, irrespective of their ethnic and religious background, needs to hear the gospel.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16, ESV)
Americans love to say things like, “My God would never send anyone to hell.” Or even, “My God is tolerant of all faiths and lifestyles.” They have a lot to say about their God. But that’s the problem. Such people have violated the first three commandments and set up a false version of God in place of the real God.
Instead, people need to hear what the true and living God of the Bible has to say about this:
“It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27, ESV)
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36, ESV)
The truly loving thing is to tell my Jewish neighbor that Jesus fulfilled the Hebrew Scripture that spoke of a Messiah (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53; Zechariah 9:9; 12:10), He fulfilled the Temple sacrifices of the Torah, and He is going to return one day soon to judge and to save.
God’s Plan for Israel in Romans 11
I’m also motivated by passages like Romans 11 to keep sharing the good news of the Messiah. Now, fair warning. Romans 11 is a bit dense for those who are new to the Bible. And even learned scholars continue to wrestle through all its implications. Nevertheless, I think it’s a passage worth a careful reading as we think about God’s plan for Jewish people as a whole.
In the eleventh chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul is warning Gentile believers to not presume on God’s gracious character. Throughout this monumental letter, Paul has been carefully explaining the gospel of God’s grace—telling sinners how they can be reconciled to a holy God. He has emphasized both God’s righteous character and His extraordinary mercy. But in Romans 11, he discusses the problem of Jewish people rejecting Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. In other words, if Jesus is the Heaven-sent Jewish Messiah, why do so many Jews reject Him? He asks the rhetorical question: “Has God rejected his people? By no means!” (Romans 11:1).
Paul uses the illustration of an olive tree to say that the Jewish people who rejected Jesus’ right to rule over them are like the “natural branches” that were “broken off because of their unbelief” (Romans 11:20). Gentile believers were like wild olive shoots that were grafted in to the tree in place of the branches that were removed.
“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.” (Romans 11:17-18, ESV)
So, Israel’s rejection of her Messiah is what led to the gospel going out to the nations? In God’s providence, yes, that’s what happened (see Romans 11:19-20). However, Gentile believers must not grow complacent and presume on God’s grace, thinking they now have the right to the root (Jesus) and Jewish people do not.
“But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.” (Romans 11:20-21, NIV)
Natural Branches and Wild Branches
Here’s the point. Many Jewish people rejected Jesus and had confidence in their Jewishness that God would spare them from judgment. John the Baptist directly confronted this mindset (Matthew 3:9-10). However, in the same way, God now gives Gentiles a severe warning. We ought not to presume that because we grew up in church, got baptized, and listened to Audio Adrenaline growing up that we too will be spared from judgment.
Why? Because it is only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, His substitutionary death for our sins and resurrection from the grave, that we are saved. If we have not surrendered our lives to Jesus, it doesn’t matter what our “Christian” background is—we “too will be cut off” (Romans 11:22).
“Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.” (Romans 11:22, ESV)
John Stott writes, “Not that those who truly belong to Him will ever be rejected, but that continuance or perseverance is the hallmark of God’s authentic children.”
Faith in Jesus makes all the difference, because that is how we are united to Christ and get to wear His righteousness before a holy God on the Day of Judgment. To “continue in his kindness” is to demonstrate that our faith is genuinely in Jesus, because genuine faith continues to the end.
“For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”(Hebrews 3:14, ESV)
Thus, we should have a holy fear of the Lord and be staggered by the sheer grace of God to save us by hanging Jesus on the cross we deserved.
See, without this warning, we’d miss out on an important aspect of God’s character, that He is holy, just, and righteous. We should revere Him and have an awe for who He is. The warnings in Scripture help us to not lose sight of this.
Warnings are given by God to shake us out of our spiritual slumber that proudly thinks we are better off than others because we were raised in the “right” church or family. Warnings like this also remind us what is at stake for everyone who dies apart from Jesus.
We Gentiles are the wild branches. We aren’t the natural heirs of the promise, but we’ve been adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus. I don’t believe that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan, but that we have been grafted into the root of Israel. No promise of God has been abrogated; instead, our understanding of the original promise to Abraham and his offspring has been expanded (Genesis 12:1-3; Romans 4:13-18). But Paul warns us Gentiles not to be arrogant, because we are nourished by the Jewish root (Jesus).
“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved.” (Romans 11:25-26, ESV)
This gives me great hope! Even though it looks today like Israel will go on rejecting her Messiah, God says that this is only a temporary situation. The hardening is “partial” not total, and it will only be “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” In other words, as more and more Gentiles turn to the Jewish Messiah, eventually it will reach a tipping point. At that providential moment in history, there will be a sudden and powerful inflowing of Jews into the kingdom of God.
“All Israel Will Be Saved”
Paul says, “All Israel will be saved.” This cannot mean all of “spiritual Israel” or the elect remnant of Israel will be saved; otherwise, the statement would be redundant. Paul has to be speaking of ethnic Jewish people, and his statement probably carries even more force in light of the fact that Israel has been a sovereign nation since May 14, 1948. In other words, God is not done with Jewish people. In His sovereign plan, Israel—as a nation—will one day repent and trust in Jesus as their Messiah and God.
Does this mean that every Jewish person alive at that point will be saved? F. F. Bruce explains: “’All Israel’ is a recurring expression in Jewish literature, where it need not mean ‘every Jew without a single exception’ but ‘Israel as a whole.’”[1]
That makes good sense, because even today while there is a “partial hardening” on the Jewish people, there are still a great many Jews who love and worship Jesus.
Okay, so what’s the big takeaway from all this? Be not discouraged as you encounter Jews who reject the gospel today. Yes, it is sad when any person (Jew or Gentile) rejects the offer of eternal life. Paul said he was willing to go to hell for the sake of his fellow Jews (Romans 9:3)! His heart’s desire and prayer was that his countrymen would see their need for the righteousness of Jesus (Romans 10:1-4).
But God has a purpose and a plan, and we can always trust what God is doing in the world today; He told us it would happen this way. For myself, I’m committed to continually honoring Jewish people as those whom God has used mightily throughout history. We must roundly condemn all forms of anti-Semitism, including weaponizing the Bible as a tool of denigration. We must thank God for how He has blessed Abraham’s descendants and, in turn, allowed us who love and follow Jesus to be grafted on to the Abrahamic olive tree. The Bible I read every day is very Jewish!
And I’m also committed to sharing the good news of Jesus the Messiah with every Jewish person I meet.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5, ESV)
I pray this encourages you to be bold in the gospel. If you have any thoughts or questions about this, I would love to hear from you!
From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He went around healing, teaching, and calling people to follow Him. When people followed Jesus, they began a life of transformational discipleship. In other words, people did not have to meet certain criteria before becoming His followers. They only had to leave their life of sin. Jesus didn’t call people to clean themselves up. He simply said, “In whatever place you find yourself, come to Me. Come to Me and begin a new life following Me as Lord, Teacher, and Savior.”
Interestingly, in the call to follow Him, Jesus included a call to reach others. Jesus told those rugged fishermen on the Galilean shore, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). He tells them that part of following Him is calling others to follow Him, too. Multiplication is at the core of what it means to be a follower (disciple) of Jesus.
Jesus was teaching these fishermen about discipleship using language they were familiar with: “Look, you guys know how to catch greasy fish in a net. I’m appointing you to catch greasy sinners in the net of grace.”
In other words, you don’t see any indication in the Gospels that it’s possible to faithfully follow Jesus while pursuing a monastic life of perpetual solitude or taking a “just Jesus and me” approach to spirituality. If you truly want to follow Jesus, then you should be concerned about helping others follow Jesus, too. Put another way: True disciples make more disciples (see Matthew 28:18-20).
This was true for those fishermen, and it’s true for everyone since then.
The “Grace First” Approach
Jesus called people with what I call the “Grace First” approach. In other words, Jesus called people to follow Him and forsake their life of sin, but He didn’t say, “Let me take a look at your track record and see how you’ve spent your life so far. Let me see if you check all the boxes of true righteousness.”
For goodness’ sake, just look at the kind of people that Jesus picked, and you’ll know they weren’t exactly on the honor roll for holiness. You’ve got Peter, a man with no verbal filter. Then you’ve got John and James, brash brothers who seem bent on incinerating those who look or think differently from them (Luke 9:52-55). Somehow, these three were considered His closest friends! All twelve came with lots of baggage, terrible habits, and troubling issues. They came with checkered backgrounds. Yet, Jesus didn’t say, “Go back and get your life straight, and then come follow Me.”
He showed grace first. He came to them with the clear mindset that He wanted them, even if they were woefully unworthy of Him. And you know something? Followers of Jesus can forget this, but this is how we all came to Jesus. Here is every Christian’s testimony in a nutshell:
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” (Titus 3:3-5a, NIV)
We didn’t become Christians “because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.” It wasn’t by our holy records. It wasn’t by our outstanding moral achievements. It was by His blood shed on the cross. It was by His call to trust in His sacrifice for sins. It was always grace first.
And so, because He welcomed us with grace first, He expects us to do the same to others.
Matthew the Tax Collector
Matthew was a disreputable tax collector, and his own people hated him for it.
Today in America, our stomach tightens when someone mentions “taxes” or “the IRS.” But this is nothing compared to the way first century Jews viewed tax collectors. They were seen as vile, corrupt, and loathsome. The scum of the earth. Jewish tax collectors were commissioned by the occupying Roman Empire to tax their own countrymen, and they were notorious for overtaxing their own people in order to skim off the top an extra portion for themselves. In other words, in the eyes of their fellow Jews, tax collectors were not only turncoats who had betrayed their nation, but also greedy cheats who had become wealthy by extorting their own people.
More respectable and religious Jews were probably saying, “You know what’s wrong with our country? You know why God isn’t blessing us like He used to? It’s because we have guys like that tax collector over there running around!” They were utterly despised.
That was Matthew. Just imagine how seared your conscience must be for it to be your daily practice to cheat your own people in order to pad your wallet! Nearly everyone hated Matthew. Nearly.
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. (Matthew 9:9, NIV)
The account is simple and straightforward, but to watch this scene unfold would have left every upstanding citizen scratching their head. The other disciples might have been thinking, Oh no, Jesus. Not Matthew. Anyone but him.
Changed by Grace
It’s not just Jesus’ choice of Matthew that’s shocking. Equally surprising is Matthew’s sudden willingness to go with this Jewish rabbi. Could it be that Matthew, hardened though he was, sensed a love from Jesus that he had never experienced before?
At the beginning of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables, Jean Valjean is a recently released criminal. 19 years in a French prison have left Valjean bitter and hard-hearted. After being turned away at every inn and tavern, he stumbles upon the house of a bishop, Monseigneur Myriel. When Valjean tells Myriel who he is, he expects to be turned away once again. But instead, the bishop says, “You need not tell me who you were.” He tells Valjean, “This is not my house – it is the house of Jesus Christ.” After feeding Valjean, the bishop invites the ex-convict to stay the night. In the middle of the night, Valjean’s old habits get the better of him. He stuffs the bishop’s silverware in his knapsack and slips away while the bishop sleeps.
Before long, some policemen catch him with the silverware and force him to take the walk of shame back to the bishop’s house. Valjean knows that he is done for – he had blown his only chance and would likely be imprisoned for the rest of his life.
But then something astonishing happens. Before the officer can explain the crime, the bishop marches right up to Valjean. “Oh! Here you are! I’m so glad to see you. I can’t believe it. You forgot the candlesticks. They are made of pure silver as well… Please take them with the forks and spoons I gave you.” Valjean is stunned. So are the policemen. After dismissing the officers, the bishop says, “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. I have bought your soul from you. I take it back from evil thoughts and deeds and the spirit of Hell, and I give it to God.” From that moment on, Valjean is a changed man… changed by grace.
In an even more profound picture of grace, Jesus sought out Matthew, even while he sat in the tax booth, and called him to Himself. Jesus Himself says in Luke 19:10 that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
“He Left Everything and Followed Him”
Like Valjean, Matthew was utterly lost. He was a man without a lick of spiritual potential. And yet, Luke tells us that when Jesus called Matthew, he “left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:28, NIV). That’s significant. Matthew was forsaking his old way of doing life and embracing the call to follow Jesus in the new way.
Interestingly, we learn that Matthew invited Jesus over for a dinner party at his house, and many of his old pals were there. This created quite the scandal. After all, these people were the gangsters, thugs, and prostitutes of this time. For a Jewish rabbi to associate with that ilk was unheard of, because by eating with someone, you are in some sense identifying with them. The religious leaders grumbled about Jesus eating with “sinners and tax collectors.”
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32, NIV)
Notice that Jesus had no problem identifying Matthew and his friends as the sick and sinful, those in need of repentance. But He showed astonishing love to them by eating with them and expressing a genuine concern for them. His call to repentance was adorned with grace.
If Jesus called others to repent with a grace first approach, then as His disciples who are called to make more disciples, we should do the same.
Have thoughts on this post? Feel free to comment below!
Lamp and Light 