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Why Christians care about Every Injustice?

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The following is a lightly edited transcript.
Christians care about all injustice,especially injustice against God.
Christians care about all injustice. The word all is intended to prick the conscience of Christians who, because of self-indulgence or fear, have dulled the capacity of their hearts to care about the injustice of the world — all the countless ways that people all over the world are treated by other people worse than they deserve.

“Christians care about all injustice — especially injustice against God.”

I say this is because of self-indulgence, because I think most indifference to injustice among professing Christians is not owing to convictional partiality or convictional opposition, but rather to the moral stupor that comes over us when we are satiated with the comforts of this world.
And I’m saying that the dulling of our capacities to care about injustice is owing to the fear of man because so many of us fear that if we feel strongly or give expression to caring about some manifestation of injustice, somebody is going to put a theological or political label on us that’s going to feel misleading and offensive. And so, we will convince ourselves that indifference to injustice is a price worth paying to maintain our reputation.
But in fact, Christians care about all injustice because all justice is rooted in God.
  • “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)
  • “The King in his might loves justice.” (Psalm 99:4; see alsoPsalm 33:5)
  • “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!” (Revelation 15:3)
  • “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!” (Revelation 16:7)
  • “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory.” (Matthew 12:20)
If you don’t care about all injustice, you’re striving in your heart against God. And from the justice of our God and Savior flow his commands:
  • “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
  • “By the help of your God . . . hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” (Hosea 12:6)
  • “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24)
  • “Woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God.” (Luke 11:42)
If we neglect justice, if we don’t care about all injustice everywhere that we see it, we’re not acting like Christians, because Christians care about all injustice, especially — especially — injustice against God.
And the word especially is intended to call out unbelief among Christians. It’s intended to call out the practical unbelief of Christians for whom the injustices against humans ignite more passion in their hearts, in their mouths, than the global tragedy of injustice against God. It aims to call out the practical unbelief of Christians who are so anesthetized by the comforts and entertainments of the world that they don’t care about injustice against man or God.
Injustice is to treat others worse than they deserve, and the more respect they deserve, and the less we render, the greater the injustice. God alone deserves the highest respect and praise and love and fear and devotion and allegiance and obedience of all beings in the universe. Yet every single human being in this room and on this planet has fallen short of this worship and have exchanged the glory of God for the creation. Therefore, every human is guilty of an injustice that is infinitely worse than all the injustices against man summed up totally throughout all history.

“God embraced injustice against himself to create a brokenhearted, bold people called Christians.”

God is infinitely deserving of complete worship, trust, and obedience. Therefore, in treating God as unworthy of our total allegiance, every human is guilty of an infinite injustice against God. That’s our biggest problem everywhere.
This injustice against God came to a climax in the very moment when God himself, in great mercy and without compromising his justice — in the very moment — when God came in human flesh to save us from the just penalty of our injustice against him. In that moment, our injustice rose to its heights.
Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
   and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
   so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him. (Acts 8:32–33)
And as God embraced infinite injustice against himself and purchased a people who would prize him above all things, Christ crucified became the vindication of God’s justice and the forgiveness of our sins. He embraced injustice against himself to create a brokenhearted, bold people called Christians

Three symptoms of a dying church.

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very sick at the time, but she did not want to admit it. . . . She never got better. She slowly and painfully deteriorated. And then she died. . . . She, of course, is a church.”
So writes Thom Rainer in Autopsy of a Deceased Church (3–4). One of the defining marks of a dying church is that the people in it don’t realize it’s dying. They don’t know they’re on a one-way journey to the ecclesiastical morgue. There is enough about the church that makes it seem alive and worth showing up to each week, but the symptoms of death pervade.
While the heart of a church is still beating, how can we take its temperature to check if it’s thriving or slowly preparing to gasp its last breaths?

Help from a Doctor

I believe the letter of James is here to help us, whatever kind of church fellowship we’re in. If all is well, it can warn us that all can be lost if we think we are beyond failure. If all is broken, it can comfort and care for us if we think our collection of bruised and bewildered believers is beyond the pale.

“One of the defining marks of a dying church is that the people in it don’t realize it’s dying.”

The reason James can help us so profoundly is that he sees both symptoms and the underlying cause. He is like the physician we visit, convinced our cough is just a cough, only to have him listen carefully to our breathing and then diagnose a much deeper malaise. James goes deep, to the ultimate source of all our problems. He has a sharp scalpel, but he wields it with a gracious, loving hand, because he knows exactly what medicine to prescribe.
He gives us the symptoms, the disease, and the medicine for a dying church.

Three Symptoms of a Dying Church

James lays out three symptoms for us to help us self-diagnose our health: the words we speak, the lines we draw, and ignoring good works.

1. Churches begin speaking angry words.

We get the first hint of this inJames 1:19, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” The issue surfaces again in James 1:26, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” By chapter 3, James is giving us a full frontal assault on the damage we can do with our tongues: “And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell” (James 3:6).
James tells us “these things ought not to be so” (James 3:10), but he is having to write precisely because these things can be so. We all know what this is like. In my home, it’s usually Thursdays. I don’t know what it is about this day of the week in particular, but it can be the day when our tongues do their worst. Fuses shorten, tempers fray, words sharpen. Out they come, sibling to sibling, husband to wife, parent to child — and a room is on fire! People get burnt.
And uncontrolled tongues are just a symptom, not the disease.

2. Churches begin drawing ugly lines.

In chapter 2, we discover this church loves partiality. It has favorites. The rich over the poor, the haves over the have-nots. It is honoring certain types of people and dishonoring others. There is an in-crowd in this church and an out-crowd; there is an attraction to the people with means, wealth, and status.

“We are divided on the inside and that is what leads us to cause divisions on the outside.”

Such socioeconomic dividing lines might exist in your church. But even if these particular lines aren’t present, we draw lines in plenty of other ways. It’s what makes us feel safe in physical spaces and social groups, and what causes us to bond with some and ignore others. We draw lines between men and women, students and old people, married and single, employed and unemployed, and no doubt a myriad of other ways too.
We gravitate towards those who can help us and give to us much more than those who have nothing to offer us. It’s why we are so unlike God when we draw lines. God loves the defenseless, the poor and the weak, the people with nothing to contribute, and it’s why religion that is pure before him visits orphans and widows — it cares for the unrewarding of this world (James 1:27).

3. Churches begin ignoring good works.

The letter of James is so challenging because it is written to a church that has faith. It is a church that loves the gospel. The theology is orthodox and all the boxes are ticked. This is a church that loves preaching. They love hearing a sermon. They love the Bible.
But although they love hearing the Bible, they don’t do what it says, and so James blindsides us: no good works, no action, means, in fact, no living faith. You might look like you’re alive. But you’re dead. “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26).
Bad words, partial lines, no good deeds. If we went to see the doctor with those symptoms and he said to us, “Okay, go away and speak good words, don’t draw lines, and do good deeds,” would that help us? Is that the cure?

Where These Sins Come From

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5–8)
Lodged in these verses is a term which describes part of the human makeup, a medical term if you like. It’s the word double-minded — literally, the word is “two-souled.” This teaches that it is possible to have a “two-ness” to me, a two-ness corrupting my one-ness.
We know that living with two of you can land you on the psychiatrist’s couch, as she listens to you describe yourself and eventually you are given the diagnosis of schizophrenia. James is saying our deepest problem, the well from which all the symptoms flow, is spiritual schizophrenia: we are divided on the inside and that is what leads us to cause divisions on the outside. A divided heart leads to divided actions.

Living as Two

Just look at how double-ness inside us takes shape outside us:
  • “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). We can be divided between hearing and doing. We love hearing, but we don’t find it so easy to do. We split them off one from the other. We like being in church and we loved the sermon, but by Tuesday we’re struggling (again) to do what God told us to do. Why is that?
  • “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” (James 2:1). James is probing here a very profound reason why we honor the rich over the poor. It’s because one part of us loves the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, and another part of us loves the glory of wealth, riches, and prestige. James is calling his readers to not be divided in our glory gaze.
  • “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15–16). We divide faith and good works, thinking we can separate them and safely have one without the presence of the other. Why is that?
  • “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing” (James 3:10). Notice the dividing line splits our mouth. Our speech is not united. It is double in form and content.

When the World Is in the Church

We can see that this letter is all about the problem of double-ness where God intends there to be one-ness. Its main thesis is that there is no point ever trying to fix the tongue, or change the lines we draw, without changing the heart, the source of it all. We will never change how we relate to a poor person and a rich person in the same room unless we realize the real issue is not money but the evil inside: “Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:4).

“The quarreling, the unbridled tongue, the discrimination in our midst reveal that we’re happy to cheat on God.”

Evil thoughts and selfish desiresare our real problem, the kind which are willing even to ignore the damage some people are doing to the whole body if I can stand to benefit from them personally. James does more than give us a sterile medical term for our problem. He calls it adultery. Adultery is the ultimate form of double-ness, a twisted two-ness where there is meant to be beautiful one-ness: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4:4).
Imagine a young couple just back from their honeymoon. They are starting out their life together, a new adventure, and in their new flat the doorbell rings. They open it to find an old flame of the husband from years ago: “Hi, I thought I’d come and live with you for a few years!” Before the bride can express her astonishment, the young husband bounds along, gives the woman at the door a hug, and exclaims, “This is going to be so much fun! One big happy family!”
Why is the bride weeping? It’s because of jealousy. Righteous jealousy. It’s because of real love, true love. “Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’?” (James 4:5). Can we hear what God is saying? You like someone else in bed. You like being married to the world as well. The world likes the rich over the poor. The world quarrels and fights and murders and has bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. And when you live like that, it shows you are double in your loves.

What Does The Bible Say About Baptism?

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Martin Luther, the great Protestant Reformer, said, “There is on earth no greater comfort than baptism.” Luther was famous for fighting against sin and Satan by preaching to himself, “I am baptized! I am baptized!”
Luther was not claiming to be saved simply because he was baptized. Rather, he rightly perceived the wonder and glory of baptism. He saw the visible, external act of baptism as an objective reminder of the invisible, internal reality of new birth and the faith through which we are saved on the basis of Christ alone. Luther was, after all, the great champion of justification by faith — as well as one captivated by the power and grace of baptism.
Yet, as a baptist, I can’t help but observe that something was missing in Luther’s reminder to himself about his baptism. Luther was what we call a paedobaptist (or infant-baptist). He himself was baptized as an infant, not in response to a profession of his own faith, but because of the faith of his parents — the faith they prayed would be manifest someday in their newborn son. Luther himself supported and practiced infant-baptism not only of adult converts, but also of the infants of Christian parents.
How much more powerful would recalling his baptism be if he could actually recall it? What if his baptism would have been an expression of saving faith already plainly present in his soul, rather than just a hope and prayer of his parents?

Repent, Believe, Be Baptized

Luther is not alone in leaving something to be desired in his vision of baptism. God has embedded his sacraments with more than meets the eye. For all of us, the “visible words” of the ordinances teem with depths of wonder and power into which we grow and mature. Christians of all stripes can anticipate shades and textures of meaning in Christian baptism we have yet to realize.
Before I lay out six of the most important New Testament texts to consider, let me acknowledge at the outset that godly evangelical pastors, scholars, churches, and seminaries stand on both sides of this question. The issues are many, and the arguments often complex, and I have great respect for many dear infant-baptist brothers and sisters.
Nevertheless, we credobaptists (or believer-baptists) — who baptize, typically by immersion, only those who give a credible profession of faith — have a deeper case than only what’s on the surface of the biblical text. For instance, as you often hear from believer-baptists, if you go looking in the New Testament for an example of an infant being baptized, you won’t find one. We don’t overlook the obvious, but we do go further and deeper.

Mark 1:5

All the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to [John] and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan,confessing their sins.
Without exception in the New Testament, baptism is tied to repentance and faith in the baptizee. John’s baptism, the precursor to Christian baptism, was explicitly, repeatedly, and irreducibly tied to repentance.“They were baptized by [John] in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:6). John said, “I baptize you with water for repentance” (Matthew 3:11). In the Gospels and Acts, John’s baptism is summarized as “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3; alsoActs 13:24; 19:4). Then, in telling the story of the early church, Acts repeatedly ties Christian baptism to repentance and faith:
  • “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38).
  • “Those who received his wordwere baptized” (Acts 2:41).
  • “When they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himselfbelieved, and after being baptized he continued with Philip” (Acts 8:12–13).

Acts 18:8

Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paulbelieved and were baptized.
Infant-baptists often point to the “household baptisms” mentioned in Acts 16:33, 18:8, and1 Corinthians 1:16 and argue that any infants in these households would have been baptized. However, as John Piper writes,
Nowhere in Scripture is there any instance of an infant’s being baptized. The “household baptisms” (mentioned in Acts 16:15, 33and 1 Corinthians 1:16) are exceptions to this only if oneassumes that the household included infants. But, in fact, Luke steers us away from this assumption, for example in the case of the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:32), by saying that Paul first “spoke the word of the Lord . . . to all who were in [the jailer’s] house,” and then baptized them. (Brothers, 156–157)
In Acts 18:8, Luke clarifies immediately, in the ensuing sentence, that simply being in the newly Christian household was not enough for baptism. Belief in Jesus was prerequisite: “Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue,believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paulbelieved and were baptized” (Acts 18:8).
The believer-baptist argument goes deeper than such instances in the Gospels and Acts, but we often begin here. And not just in the early-church narratives, which can be thorny in terms of prescription, but also in the Epistles. Four anchor texts in the apostolic letters bind baptism and faith with a clarity and simplicity that is unmatched in the infant-baptist argument.

Galatians 3:26–27

In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Paul assumes that those who have been baptized and those who have saving faith are the same group (with no sanctioned outliers). Faith and baptism belong together in the church’s practice and in the individual Christian’s experience. Those who evidence saving faith should be baptized. And those who have been baptized have given expression to saving faith.
No allowance or provision is made here, or elsewhere, for some who would have been baptized apart from a profession of faith, in anticipation of faith to come.

Colossians 2:11–12

In [Christ] you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
The mention of circumcision is important because one of the main arguments for infant-baptists is that as circumcision was administered to every male born into God’s first-covenant people, so baptism should be applied to every child (male and female) born into believing families of God’s new-covenant people, the church. However, this is not what Colossians 2, or any other New Testament text, says about circumcision.
Here “the circumcision of Christ” refers to his being cut off, at the cross, for our sins, and the “circumcision made without hands,” which Paul applies to every believer, is spiritualcircumcision, that is, new birth (as commentator Doug Moo notes, “the connections . . . are betweenspiritual circumcision and baptism,” Colossians, 269, n18).
Of these new-covenant people who are born again, circumcisedin heart, Paul expects the new-covenant inaugural rite of water baptism to have been applied. As we’ll explore more below, the new-covenant recipients of baptism, as the counterpart to old-covenant circumcision, are those who have new birth (not mere natural birth), a spiritualcircumcision which does not happen apart from faith.Colossians 2:11–12, likeGalatians 3:26–27, presumes active and professed faith in allbaptized, not just their parents.

Romans 6:3–4

Do you not know that all of uswho have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk innewness of life.
As in Colossians 2, the baptized are those who have been buriedinto Jesus’s death and raised to new life in him. Not only does the image suggest immersion, rather than sprinkling or pouring, but more importantly, “newness of life” testifies to new birth and its effects, not mere first birth.
An “old self,” into which we were born (Ephesians 2:1–3), has been crucified (Romans 6:6) or put off (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9). And Paul says such is true of “all of us,” all the baptized. We all now “walk in newness of life,” not in the oldness of our first birth. The infant-baptist argument that presumes faith in the newborn does not do justice to the litany of New Testament texts about conversion, putting off an old man, and walking in newness of life.

1 Peter 3:21

This text is often avoided, by believer- and infant-baptists alike, because it raises the question about what it meant by “baptism . . . now saves you.” However, if we understand the verse aright, we both clear up that confusion and see further confirmation that baptism is nothing less than an objective expression of subjectiverepentance and faith (new birth) already present (not simply hoped for) in the baptizee.
Baptism . . . now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Peter anticipates we will be surprised to hear “baptism . . . saves you,” so he immediately explains. He does not mean that the external act of baptism, “as a removal of dirt from the body,” has salvific power on its own. Rather, the instrument connecting the believer to Christ for salvation is the invisible condition of the heart (faith) that is being externally expressed in baptism.
Baptism demonstrates objectively and externally the subjective and internal “appeal to God for a good conscience.” Baptism saves not as an outward act but through the inward faith it expresses. Peter’s statement hangs together on baptism expressing a saving,spiritually newborn condition of heart in the believer.

Plausible or Biblical?

Beyond the instances in the narratives, and the didactic words of the apostles tying baptism to faith, we also make our argument on theological and covenantal grounds. I’ll leave that for the next article, but there is something fitting about not moving on to those arguments too quickly. Essential to the credobaptist position is doing justice to the demonstrable teaching of the New Testament.
The best infant-baptist voices typically provide admirably plausible, reasonable, and consistent arguments. The key issue for us as Christians, however, should not be whether the argument is plausible and consistent, but whether it istaught by the actual text of Scripture.
While we must move on, in due course, to the more theological and covenantal arguments, we dare not pass too quickly over the plain, stubborn, obvious readings of the New Testaments texts. Whatever your tradition, a good argument for the nature and application of Christian baptism cannot ignore or minimize what the Bible actually says, including these six important texts

The Night That Took My Wife

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If I could have known somehow that the Lord would call my wife, Kyra, home to be with him, I would have begged him to take me instead. Our girls were only six, four, and two. What hope did I have of raising them alone? The thought was unthinkable. It simply didn’t make sense.
But, as we know all too well, the Lord’s ways are often not our ways. So, on August 14, 2015, I woke up to a new reality and a new, previously unthinkable world, one which did not include my precious wife to live and walk and parent alongside.

The Day We Lost Kyra

The day prior, Kyra and I were packing up and preparing to return to Rome, Italy, where we had been living, working, and serving the evangelical church for six years. We had been in Georgia visiting family and were excited to get back home, returning to our friends and the work the Lord had called us to.
Since it was our last evening together with family, we went out to dinner and then elsewhere for dessert. While we enjoyed each other’s company, no one could have imagined the events that were about to unfold, how that evening would conclude. No one dared to think that those would be the final words we would exchange with Kyra, at least here on this earth.
The ride home was pensive and quiet. I was driving, Kyra was in the passenger seat, and our two youngest daughters were in car seats behind us. Our oldest daughter rode home with her grandparents. Unbeknownst to us, up ahead on the road we were traveling, a truck driver was checking his cargo and preparing to depart for West Virginia.
Before leaving, he exited his truck to inspect his vehicle. In doing so, he failed to set the parking brake. Immediately the truck began to roll down the ramp that led to the highway we were traveling.
The timing was such that the fully loaded semi entered the highway the exact moment we were passing the truck ramp and collided with our vehicle. The impact was tremendous. Our vehicle was pushed across the northbound lanes of traffic, the median, then the southbound lanes of traffic before crashing against the guardrails on the far side of the road. Kyra took the brunt of the impact and was killed immediately.

Our Unexpected New Journey

Passing motorists stopped and helped the best they could by pulling one of our daughters from the car to safety. Her leg was broken and head cut badly. Myself and our youngest daughter remained trapped for approximately two hours before rescue workers could free us from the wreckage. Miraculously we both suffered only minor injuries. Kyra was trapped in the vehicle with us, but I was aware the Lord had taken her.
We were taken to different hospitals, and family slowly began to arrive. Our oldest daughter came to visit me where I had been taken, but was not yet aware of what had happened. I remember, like it was yesterday, having to tell her that Mommy wouldn’t be coming home. I can still see the tears she cried in sadness and confusion.
I was released that evening and travelled to the hospital where our other two daughters had been taken, and passed a long night by their sides. The next several days would be a whirlwind of emotions swept up in planning and attending a funeral and learning to face an utterly different reality. It was also the beginning of a new journey.

Extra Measures of Grace

This new journey would teach me and my family about new measures of God’s amazing grace that we had previously known nothing about.
These extra measures of grace are deeply rooted in the gospel of the Bible. This good news is that those who place their faith in Jesus Christ are forgiven their sins and receive a new life. They are no longer slaves to sin, but are now slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18). This new life in Christ is radically different than the previous one, in which we were enslaved to fear, worry, uncertainty, and sin. Faith in Christ frees the believer and radically transforms his perspective on life. The fear, worry, and uncertainty of the old life is replaced by peace, hope, and the certainty of salvation.
By no means, however, does faith in Christ guarantee a life free of hardship and suffering. It is, in fact, the opposite. Suffering is not an exception for the believer, but the norm. the apostle Paul warns his disciple that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will experience suffering (2 Timothy 3:12). Trials are to be expected.
The hope of the gospel, however, is that life in Christ frees us from the fear that suffering and trials produce. Whereas sin enslaves us to fear, the gospel frees us from fear and enslaves us to grace. The apostle Peter states clearly, “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).

Suffering Imprisons Us to Grace

Loss and suffering, then, imprison us to the grace of God and teach us that apart from him there is no lasting hope and peace. Grace radically transforms our perspective on facing grief and hurt, and teaches us that we can even have joy in our suffering. Through faith in Christ, we are no longer slaves to fear and hopelessness, but slaves to grace — the grace God pours out on us through his Son’s perfect obedience and sacrifice.
Thanks to the extra measures of grace he poured out on me and my family, the unthinkable task of being a single father to three little girls, while living in a foreign country, became possible. Were it not for his abundant grace, I would have remained a slave to fear and hopelessness. Instead, I am a slave to his grace, and I am slowly but continuously being restored, strengthened, and established.
In the days, months, and years since Kyra’s passing, it is God’s grace alone that has given my girls and me (and the rest of our family) the ability to endure the trials placed before us. Because of his amazing grace, we have even had great joy and peace, as the Lord has worked and continues to work through his calling Kyra to be with him.
By God’s grace alone, evidenced through the love and care of the church, the girls and I returned to our lives and ministry in Rome three months after Kyra passed, something I thought would have been impossible. By his grace, we are still here today.

Amazing Grace in Abundance

Having three young daughters to raise, and considering the realities that come along with them growing and getting older, I naturally began to wonder if the Lord would ever provide another wife and helpmate for me. My daughters wondered aloud whether they would ever have another mother in their lives.
We hoped that would be the Lord’s plan, but we knew that his grace was sufficient, and that he would continue to provide for us as he had all along. Dependent on God’s grace was where we landed, and it was (and still is) a good place to be.
Late last year, God’s grace was once again revealed in a very tangible way as the Lord brought my wife, Steppie, into our lives. Once again, we are a family of five, and almost every day someone tells me how happy the girls are since Steppie came into their lives. The difference she has made is evident to all.
With the two simple words “I do,” Steppie became a wife and the mother of three young girls. Like us, she is learning what it means to be a slave to God’s grace, while she lives a life she had never considered or imagined. Dependent on God’s grace, she too is finding great joy and pleasure in this story, despite the challenges her new reality constantly presents.

No Better Place to Be

This story could be written by any number of people who have faced similar and devastating trials. Just this week, news arrived of friends of our family that lost their second daughter in just two years to an illness. Neither of their daughters had yet reached the age of eight. What devastation and heartache!
One might wonder how it is even possible to have hope and peace amidst such brokenness. Thankfully this family knows Christ as their Savior, and despite the inevitable hurt and pain, God’s grace will be shown to them in ways they never could have imagined.
God will bring extra measures of grace, wave upon wave, that will bring a deep and real hope and peace — hope and peace that only faith in the living Christ can provide. His grace will be sufficient, just as it has been for us. Along with this family and many others, we are slaves to God’s grace, and there is no better place to be.

The Plaque Of Lazy Pastors

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The apostle Paul thought and spoke of Christian ministry aslabor. He abhorred laziness in the pastorate.
Paul did not see the office of pastor as a nice fit for guys with soft hands who prefer an indoor job. Pastoral work, and good teaching in particular, is hard labor — labor that is not only cursed and opposed, but specifically targeted by Satan, who loves to focus his attack on opposing lieutenants. If he can cut off the supply lines and defenses, he will soon overwhelm and defeat the ground troops.
Good pastors, Paul makes plain, must be laborers (1 Timothy 5:18), hard workers, in particular in their labor of preaching and teaching (1 Timothy 4:13–16;5:17). Such is the ministry of pastor-elders in the local church: to teach and exercise authority (1 Timothy 2:12). To labor in, and lead through, teaching the words of the risen Christ in the inspired writings of the apostles. “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work” (1 Thessalonians 5:12–13).
Christ calls pastors to labor in their feeding of the flock through sound teaching. And diligent word-work — both in preparation and presentation — is not easy work, not when it is done well.

Honor Men Who Work Hard

“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Timothy 5:17). Not merely “especially those who preach and teach,” as it is often paraphrased, but “especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.”
Doubtless some pastors will labor more in preaching and teaching than others. All pastors are to be skilled teachers (1 Timothy 3:2;2 Timothy 2:24; Titus 1:9), but inevitably some will have abilities and proclivities to preach and teach more than others. But it’s not gifting that Paul highlights, but “labor” that he says is especially deserving of appreciation.
The labor of preaching and teaching is the central labor of pastoral ministry, and while churches should stand ready to provide financial support for all good pastors, we should have a special concern — the especially— for those who bear the burden, and do the hard work, of the central pastoral labor: preaching and teaching.
A pastor who doesn’t emotionally sweat and strain over his words is a pastor falling short of his calling. God means for pastors to be workers at their teaching. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workerwho has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Good teaching doesn’t just spill over. It requires diligence and vigilance. “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching” (1 Timothy 4:16).

Teaching with a Tether

Part of what makes pastoring hard work is that we teach with a tether. We don’t just sit down with a blank piece of paper, or show up to address an attentive church, and speak off the top of our heads. Unashamed workers “rightly handle the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Week after week, day after day, the words we breathe out to feed the church are not our own thoughts on the matter.
Christians have a Book. And good pastors are happily tethered to this Book — which is the most powerful, proven, life-changing Book in the history of the world. Good pastors are unavoidably Book-men.
Being men of the Book demands headwork and sustained mental effort. We study. Many of us learn and reference the original languages of Hebrew and Greek. Before making applications, we first wrestle with what the text means and does not mean. And being men of the Book requires heart-work. Before turning to tell others what the Book says, we first put ourselves under its teaching, for repentance and faith.

Most Solemn Charge

Then, when we craft words in writing, or say words in speaking, we inevitably put ourselves out there for criticism — with preaching being even more taxing than writing because you can’t edit what you say in public. Survey after survey reports modern man fears public speaking more than anything else, including death. Add to that the weight of speaking, in the context of worship, on behalf of God. There is no more solemn charge in all the Bible than this:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:1–2)
Christian preachers may make every effort to “hide behind the cross,” but we cannot long hide behind the pulpit. Preaching exposes a man. In time, even when he tries to hide, a preacher inevitably reveals his own heart and life, borne witness in what he’s willing, and unwilling, to address. And in addition to what happens in the moments before our hearers, we anticipate the final day, when “we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1).

Heart Behind Hard Work

So, good pastors are not lazy. They are hard workers — even in the face of a modern society freshly primed to criticize a leaders’ workism and encourage what amounts to laziness. Outward hard work, however, can come from a sinful inward disposition. All of us, pastors included, can work hard for the wrong reasons. For selfish ambition. For mere kudos and applause. From deep emotional insecurity. What, then, are the right reasons for hard work in pastoral ministry?
First and foremost, we work notfor God’s acceptance but from his full embrace in Christ. We first own, in our own souls the Christian gospel, not another. We aim to labor from fullness of soul, not from emptiness. Such is the heart of the Protestant work ethic, noticeably distinct from the prevailing medieval ethic, which came before it and challenged it at every turn.
The first word to every pastor, as to every Christian, is not, Work, but, He worked. It is finished. Look to the labors of Christ. Look how he rose early to meditate and pray, how he navigated intrusive crowds, and had patience with maturing disciples, and untiringly did the works of his Father, and fielded inconvenient pleas from the sick and disabled and disadvantaged.

Free to Work Hard

The Reformation recovery of such ultimate rest for the soul produced a different kind of people — and a different kind of pastor. Not a lazy and apathetic people. But the kind of people with new energy and freedom, new vision and hope, fresh initiatives, fresh freedom from self, and new desires to expend self for the good of others. The kind of people who have the Spirit of God at work in and through them.
Those who best know the grace of God in Christ — and pastors should know him well, if not best — are the freest people on the planet to give themselves to work hard. The gospel has liberated us with Christ’s full righteousness in our place and Christ’s own Spirit now dwelling in us. In him, we have been freed from self-protection to pour out our energy and give our time and skill and creativity to blessing others, rather than serving self. Good pastors lead with and model, as examples to the church, a new ethic for all those who are in Christ (Ephesians 4:28) — inwardly first, and then unavoidably outward.
With such a heart, then, we receive the mantle of preaching and teaching not mainly as a privilege but as a call to self-sacrifice. Not mainly as an honor, but as a summons to gladly bear a burden for others. Not mainly as comfort, but as a calling to hard work.

Work for More Joy

As we labor in preaching and teaching, as we work hard at good words, whether written or spoken, we learn the lesson that a hard day’s work makes for a happier evening than a day of laziness and distraction. And for a happier soul. Which makes us a better vessel for the joy of the church.
When we do not eat the bread of anxious toil but enjoy the soul-sustaining food of Christ himself, we see hard work as an opportunity, not a burden. Hard work is more satisfying than laziness, both in the moment (if we have eyes to see) and, without a doubt, on the other side of our labors. “Christians will work hard,” writes John Piper, “but they will work more for the joy of all the good their work can bring to others than they will out of fear at what men will think if they fail.”
You will not find the happiest people in the world lying on couches. Pastors, let’s show that world that one of the most reliable places to find them is in pulpits.

Run Hard For Your Reward.

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Heaven is for those who never stopped running the race on earth, looking to Christ. In this lab, John Piper reminds us that we are going to win this race. We are going to get the crown. Not because we are great runners, but because Christ has made us his own.
Some questions to ask as you read and study Philippians 3:11–14:
  1. How would you describe the prize that Christians run for? What are some challenges that prevent some from finishing?
  2. Read Philippians 3:11–14. Does Paul believe he could lose the race and miss the prize? How did he press on?
  3. How can you keep your focus on pressing on this week? What are the warning signs that you have lost sight of the prize?
Watch this video offline by downloading it from Vimeo or subscribing to the Look at the Bookvideo podcast via iTunes or RSS.

Principle for Bible Reading

Plan to Do, Not Just Hear
As you read the word, remember the commandment of Jesus, reiterated by James, to be doers and not merely hearers of the word (Matthew 7:24–27;James 1:22–25).
Seldom does anyone wander into obedience. Often, we must take time to not only digest what we have read, but to plan for how we can practically obey God’s wil

Satan Will Sing You To Sleep

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You don’t tell people about Jesus, because you don’t care about their eternal state.”
His assertion stung. But I knew it was true. Confronted with the way he lives for the lost, its truth was as obvious to me as the nose on my face. And like the nose on my face, I wasn’t paying much attention to it until he called it out. But unlike the nose on my face, his assertion was eternally significant.
I recently met this remarkable man while traveling in the Middle East. He, along with his wife, is leading a rapidly growing movement of Muslims turning to Christ in a very restrictive part of the Islamic world. I had the great (and exposing) privilege of spending hours with him. I wish I could tell you more about his story — how Jesus called him and the incredible ways the Lord uniquely prepared him to make disciples and plant churches in a very dangerous place. His story is worth a book someday. For now, I will spare the details, lest I in any way expose him.
I must pass along something he shared with me, though, because we all might be ignoring the obvious and eternally significant “nose” on our collective Western Christian faces — to our own spiritual detriment, for sure, but also to the spiritual catastrophe of those around us.

What Could Happen to Them

My new friend lives in an Islamic country where sharing the gospel, if you’re caught, will get you thrown into prison and likely tortured to extract information about other Christians. Yet he and his wife are daily, diligently seeking to share the gospel with others because they want to “share with them in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:23) — even more than they want their own survival.
Each morning, when this husband and wife part ways, they acknowledge to one another that it might be the last time they see each other. She knows, if caught, part of her torture will almost assuredly include rape, probably repeatedly. He knows, if caught, brutal things await him before a likely execution. For to them, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
Yet each day they prayerfully pursue the Spirit of Jesus’s direction in order to show the lost the way of salvation. And they are equipping other Christians to do the same.

Wholly Dependent on God

When I say “prayerfully,” I meanprayerfully. They, and their fellow leaders, spend a minimum of four hours a day in prayer and God’s word, and frequently fast for extended periods, before they go out seeking souls. They do this because they need to.
Spiritual strongholds do not give way and conversions don’t happen unless they do this. One wrong move and a whole network of believers could be exposed. So, they depend on the Holy Spirit to specifically lead them to people the Spirit has prepared. For them,the doctrine of election is not some abstract theological controversy for seminary students to debate. They see it played out in front of them continually.
The cessationism-continuationism debate is also a moot issue for them. They regularly see the Holy Spirit do things we read about in the book of Acts. As my friend described the Spirit’s activity where he lives, it was clear that all the revelatory and miraculous spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12–14 are a normal part of life for these believers — because they really need them.
They’re not debating Christian Hedonism either. When you live under the threat of death daily, either life is Christ and death is gain to you, or you will not last. So, I learned that my friend has translated John Piper’s original sermon series on Christian Hedonism into his native language and used them as part of his core theological curriculum for believers.

Lulled by an Evil Lullaby

All those things were wonderful and encouraging — as well as convicting — to hear. But then he told me a disturbing story.
A number of years ago, this man and his wife were given the opportunity to move to the States, and they did. After living here for a period of time, however, the wife began to plead with her husband that they move back to their Islamic country of origin. Why? She told him, “It’s like there’s a satanic lullaby playing here, and the Christians are asleep. And I feel like I’m falling asleep! Please, let’s go back!” Which they did (God be praised!).
This story contains an urgent message we must hear: she wanted to go back to a dangerous environment to escape what she recognized as a greater danger to her faith: spiritual lethargy and indifference. This should stop us in our tracks. Do we recognize this as a serious danger? How spiritually sleepy are we?
According to my new friend, we can gauge our sleepiness by how the eternal states of non-Christians around us shape the way we approach life. Judging by the general behavior of Christians in the West, it’s clear to my friend that, as a whole (we all can point to remarkable exceptions), we don’t care much about people’s eternal states.

Are We Content to Sleep?

My friend and his wife are right. There is a satanic lullaby playing, even in churches, across the West. Why else are we so lethargic in the midst of such relative freedom and unprecedented prosperity? Where is our collective Christian sense of urgency? Where are the tears over the perishing? Where is the groaning? Where is the fasting and prevailing intercession for those we love and those we live near and those we work with, not to mention the unreached of the world who have no meaningful gospel witness among them?
Paul had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish in [his] heart” over his unbelieving Jewish kinsmen (Romans 9:2). Do we feel anything like that? And Paul’s Spirit-inspired urgency to bring the gospel to the lost shaped his whole approach to life:
I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:22–23)
What is shaping our approach to life? If we think that kind of mentality was only for someone with Paul’s apostolic calling, all we need to do is keep reading1 Corinthians 9:24–27. It’s clear that Paul means for us to run our unique faith-races with the same kind of kingdom-focused mentality.
If we’re not feeling anguish over people’s eternal state and ordering our lives around praying for and trying to find ways to bring the gospel to them, we are being lulled to sleep by the devil’s soothing strains. It’s time to start fasting and praying and pleading with God and one another to wake up.

Now Is the Time

It matters not if we call ourselves Calvinists and believe we have an accurate knowledge of the doctrine of election, if our knowledge does not lead us to feel anguish in our hearts over the lost and a resolve to do whatever it takes to save some. “We do not yet know as we ought to know” (to paraphrase 1 Corinthians 8:2). What we need is to cultivate Paul’s heart for the lost.
My conversation with this new friend showed me that, Calvinist though I am, I do not yet know as I ought to know.
But, Father, I want to know as I ought to know! I repent of all lethargy and indifference! I will not remain sleepy anymore when it comes to the eternal states of the unbelieving family and friends and neighbors and restaurant servers and checkout clerks all around me.

Over Our Dead Bodies

According to Jesus, in his parable of the ten virgins, spiritual sleepiness is a very, very dangerous condition (Matthew 25:1–13). We need to get more oil — now! There isn’t much time.
I want to be done with satanic sleepiness and cultivate the resolve that led Charles Spurgeon — that unashamed Calvinist — tosay,
If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.
Father, in Jesus’s name, increase my anguish over perishing unbelievers and my urgent resolve to “become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22), whatever it takes!

Hephzibah – The Message: Benteng

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Hephzibah – The Message: Benteng 


Spirit minded singer, Hephzibah, is a younger medical student of the University of Jos.
The Message Benteng is an inspired record from the Holy Spirit set to be distributed to the world. The love of God to man is unexplained that’s why this record was created., To remind all of the second coming and for all to be prepared.

Let’s share the Word, the Message to all so we can all be rescued in his fortress. BENTENG.

Contact on IG @Hephzibah_bt
Join the Facebook Movement: Benteng: The Movement.

Do Not Bury Your Doubts

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Why do the unrighteous prosper while the godly suffer?
The question is as weighty today as it was 3,000 years ago. Many have asked it. You know from Scripture and the testimony of others that God is good, but you’ve found yourself in the pit, feeling the excruciating pain of your circumstances. Wondering how God could possibly be good in the midst of them. And it really is a pit — a dark and desperate place to be, leaving you feeling abandoned and alone. So, what do you do when you fall into the darkness of doubt?
Fortunately, we’re not without help in the pit. The Psalms are a treasure trove for how to grapple with the most difficult experiences of living in a sin-saturated world.

When You Are Tempted to Doubt

Psalm 73 begins with a clear statement of God’s character and disposition towards his people: God is good. However, this truth was not always a given for the author; it is a hard-won conclusion that came out of his significant struggle to resolve the tension between the apparent prosperity of the wicked and his personal hardships.
In his own words he says, “My feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalm 73:2–3). His dilemma was no mere theoretical quandary — he experienced it viscerally, concluding that either God was good to his people or he was not. And, if not, then everything he had been taught to believe about God was a lie.
Using Psalm 73 as a model, there are at least three good steps to take when we doubt God’s goodness in the midst of our circumstances.

1. Go to God Honestly

The psalmist is honest with God about his problem, his pain, and his question. He does not shy away from the reality that the wicked people who surround him are better off than he. “They have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek” (Psalm 73:4).
Although they “scoff and speak with malice,” loftily threaten oppression, and “set their mouths against the heavens,” they are nevertheless “always at ease” while “they increase in riches” (Psalm 73:8–9, 12). But the psalmist has a different life. “All the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.” Therefore, he was tempted to conclude that obeying God was useless: “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence” (Psalm 73:13–14). These untruths recorded in Scripture teach us to take our honest struggle to God.
The psalmist is no stoic. He does not gloss over pain or downplay the realities of sin and injustice. Rather, he sincerely seeks to understand. He feels appropriately about what he witnesses: the apparent exaltation of those who oppose his Most High God. And, most importantly, his suffering drives him to God with all his thoughts and emotions rather than from him. God knows him. Burying his pain will do no good. He goes to him in honesty.

2. Go to God in Worship

After honestly airing his complaint, the psalmist enters into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73:17). In other words, the psalmist brings all of his confusion and hurt before God in worship, humility, and adoration. He acknowledges the limits of his ability to reason and understand (Psalm 73:16), so he goes to the one whose ways and thoughts are higher than his own (Isaiah 55:8–9).
And in God’s presence, the psalmist’s perspective is lifted from the immediate and the temporal to the infinite and eternal. God gives him spiritual insight to the true nature of things: while the wicked may enjoy relative peace and prosperity now, their pleasure is but for a moment. God will not be mocked. He will bring judgment. He will do right.
All of us are prone to lose sight of God’s eternal perspective. We so easily forget that we are eternal beings and that life, in its fullest sense, does not end with our last breath on this earth. All of us will spend eternity somewhere — either with God, in whose presence is fullness of joy; or separated from him, where there is only bitter weeping over the absolute absence of God’s goodness. While Satan tries desperately to distract us, we all know these things to be true — God has set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
We, like the psalmist, become envious of the wicked and doubt God’s goodness and faithfulness when they seem to flourish while we flounder. Therefore, we need to go to God in worship. After bringing him your complaint and asking for wisdom, stop, listen, and recall who he is and what he has done.

3. Rest in God’s Power

Who led the psalmist through his valley? God.
When my soul was embittered,
     when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
     I was like a beast toward you.
Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
     you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
     and afterward you will receive me to glory. (Psalm 73:21–24)
God kept him during his dark night of the soul. God was there, holding him by the hand, guiding him with his counsel. God heard his complaint and God granted him the right perspective. The very question and doubts that first threatened the psalmist’s relationship with God, God used to draw him closer to himself.

Make Doubts into Doorways

His renewed affections for God are expressed in the glorious cry, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25–26). The man who was once plagued by such deep doubts and nearly renounced his faith became, by God’s gracious keeping power, a bold celebrant of God’s goodness and faithfulness.
Wrestling with God is difficult and painful. By necessity it means you will face hard circumstances that require humbling yourself before God. But when you do — when you struggle and wrestle sincerely and humbly — God is always faithful to give you more of himself in the process. And whenever you get more of God, your soul has reason to rejoice. So, rest in God’s power to turn your doubts into doorways to deeper joy in him.

We Murder With Words Unsaid.

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Never since have so few words haunted me.
In the dream, I sat in a balcony before the judgment seat of God. Two magnificent beings dragged the man before the throne. He fell in terror. All shivered as the Almighty pronounced judgment upon him. As the powerful beings took the quaking man away, I saw his face — a face I knew well.
I grew up with this man. We played sports together, went to school together, were friends in this life — yet here he stood, alone in death. He looked at me with indescribable horror. All he could say, as they led him away — in a voice I cannot forget — “You knew?”
The two quivering words held both a question and accusation.

We Know

A recent study reports that nearly half of all self-professed Christian millennials believe it’s wrong to share their faith with close friends and family members of different beliefs. On average, these millennials had four close, non-believing loved ones — four eternal souls — that would not hear the gospel from them. What a horror. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?” (Romans 10:14). Incredibly, the eternity of human souls, under God, depends on the instrumentality of fellow human voices. Voices that increasingly will not speak.
But what about the rest of us? How many people in our lives — if they stood before God tonight — could ask us the same question? We’ve had thousands of conversations with them, spent countless hours in their presence, laughed, smiled, and cried with them, allowed them to call us “friend” — and yet — haven’t come around to risking the relationship on topics like sin, eternity, Christ, and hell.
We know they lie dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1–3). We know that their good deeds toward us cannot save them (Romans 3:20). We know they sit in a cell condemned already (John 3:18). We know they wander down the broad path, and, if not interrupted, will plunge headlong into hell (Matthew 25:46). A place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. A place of outer darkness. A place where the smoke of their anguish will rise forever in the presence of the almighty Lamb (Revelation 14:10–11). “And they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). We know.

We Say Nothing

More than this — much more than this — we know who can save them. We know the only name given among men by which they must be saved (Acts 4:12). We know the only Way, the Truth, the Life (John 14:6). We know the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5). We know the Lamb of God who takes away sins. We know the power of the gospel for salvation. We know that our God’s heart delights to save, and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). We know that Jesus’s atoning death made a way of reconciliation, that he can righteously forgive the vilest. We know he sends his Spirit to give new life, new joy, new purpose. We know the meaning of life is reconciliation to God. We know.
But why, then, do we merely smile and wave at them — loved ones, family, friends, co-workers, and strangers — as they prepare to stand unshielded before God’s fury? What do we say of their danger, of their God, or of their opportunity to become his children as they float lifelessly down the river towards judgment? Too often, we say nothing.

How Christians Murder Souls

I awoke from that dream, as Scrooge did in A Christmas Carol, realizing I had more time. I could warn my friend (and others) and tell him about Christ crucified. I could shun that diplomacy that struck so little resemblance to Jesus or his apostles or saints throughout history who, as far as they could help it, refused to hear, “You knew?” I could cease assisting Satan for fear of human shade. My friend needs not slip quietly into judgment.
And my silence needs not help dig his grave. I could avoid some of the culpability that Spurgeon spoke of when he called a minister’s unwillingness to tell the whole truth “soul murder.”
Ho, ho, sir surgeon, you are too delicate to tell the man he is ill! You hope to heal the sick without their knowing it. You therefore flatter them. And what happens? They laugh at you. They dance upon their own graves and at last they die. Your delicacy is cruelty; your flatteries are poisons; you are a murderer. Shall we keep men in a fool’s paradise? Shall we lull them into soft slumber from which they will awake in hell? Are we to become helpers of their damnation by our smooth speeches? In the name of God, we will not.
God said as much to Ezekiel. “If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand” (Ezekiel 3:18). Paul, the mighty apostle of justification by faith alone, spoke to the same culpability of silence: “I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26–27).

Am I an Accomplice?

We warn people in order to save their lives. Paul did not allow his beautiful feet to be betrayed by a timid tongue. He “alarmed” men as he “reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25). The fear of people-pleasing did not control him — lest he disqualify himself from being a servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10).
Now today we are not first-covenant prophets, or new-covenant apostles. Many of us are not even pastors and teachers who “will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1). But does this mean that the rest of us will not be judged by any strictness? Do not our pastors and teachers train us “for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:11–12)? Should I appease my own conscience by merely inviting others to church, hoping that someday they might cave in and come and there hear the gospel?
My pastor did not grow up with my people, live next door, text them frequently, watch football games with them, and sit with them in their homes. But I did. And as much as some of us may throw stones at “seeker-driven” churches, the question comes uncomfortably full circle: Do Ishrink back from saying the hard truth in order to win souls? Is mydelicacy cruelty? My flatteries poison? Am I an accomplice in the murder of souls?

If Not You, Then Who?

Recently, a family we care about nearly died. They went to bed not knowing that carbon monoxide would begin to fill the home. They would have fallen asleep on earth and awoke before God had not an unpleasant sound with an unpleasant message startled them. We, like the carbon detector, cannot stay silent and let lost souls slumber into hell. If they endure in unbelief, let them shake their fists at us, pull pillows over their ears, roll over, turn their back to us, and wake before the throne.
If we have been unfaithful — where our sin of people-pleasing and indifference abound — grace may abound all the more. Repent, rise, and sin no more. Mount your courage and ride like Paul Revere through your sphere to tell them that God is coming. When the time comes to speak, tell them they stand under righteous judgment. Tell them they must repent and believe. Tell them that Jesus already came once. Tell them he bore God’s wrath for sinners. Tell them he rose from the dead. Tell them he reigns over the nations at the Father’s right hand. Tell them that, by faith, they may live. Tell them that they can become children of God.
If we, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his people left here after conversion to proclaim his excellencies (1 Peter 2:9) will not wake them from their fatal dream, who will? God, save us from hearing those agonizing words, “You knew?