Seeking Truth in Today's Troubled World

The gospel is not a trinket on an open stall, waiting for whoever happens to wander by. Scripture presents salvation as God’s gracious initiative that awakens the dead, not a human project that polishes the already living. The Lord speaks first, the heart answers second. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,” says Jesus, and again, “no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:44, 65). If coming to Christ is a gift, then the first movement does not rise from human will; it descends from divine mercy.

This is not a small thread. It runs through the whole fabric of the Bible. Those whom God foreknew He predestined, called, justified, and glorified, a single chain forged by God’s purpose, not by human boasting (Romans 8:29–30). He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace (Ephesians 1:4–6). When Paul preached, some believed because they were “appointed to eternal life” (Acts 13:48). The church lives by a call that creates what it commands, as in the creation of light, where God’s word does not merely request, it brings into being.

This clarifies the well-meant yet sometimes careless appeal, “Jesus loves you, just accept Him.” Scripture speaks of God’s love in more than one register. God loves the world and gives His Son, that whoever believes should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Scripture also speaks of a particular, covenant love for the bride of Christ, for whom He gave Himself to make her holy (Ephesians 5:25–27; John 13:1). The invitation goes out widely, for the church must preach to every creature under heaven, yet none can come unless God grants it. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). What the command requires, the Spirit supplies. God gives a new heart and a new spirit, taking away the heart of stone and giving a heart of flesh, so that we walk in His statutes (Ezekiel 36:26–27; Jeremiah 31:31–34).

Here the modern ear bristles. Many prefer what feels earned. A grace that is free can be despised as common. If salvation is offered to all, some imagine it is hardly worth the trouble to reach for it. Yet Scripture overturns this proud instinct. Grace is free, not because it is light, but because no one could ever afford it. The price was paid by Another, the Lamb without blemish, whose blood ransoms people for God from every tribe and tongue (1 Peter 1:18–19; Revelation 5:9–10). What is free to the receiver was infinitely costly to the Giver. Grace is not cheap. It is priceless.

Moreover, the call that brings a sinner to life also sets the path of a costly obedience. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). “Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:13–14). Faith is granted, and suffering for His sake is also granted (Philippians 1:29). The summons of Christ is royal. It gives new birth, then trains the newborn for battle and for love.

This corrects two opposite mistakes. First, the error that makes salvation a simple matter of signing one’s name. Scripture never speaks as if a human decision could animate a dead heart. Second, the error that treats grace as a velvet rope for the religiously impressive. God chooses the foolish and the weak, in order to silence boasting and magnify mercy, so that the one who boasts, boasts in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:26–31). Grace humbles the proud and lifts the poor. It is not earned by effort, yet it produces effort, since God works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure, and so we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12–13).

How then should the church speak? We must preach to all, because God commands it, and because His sheep hear His voice through that preaching (Matthew 28:18–20; John 10:16, 27; Romans 10:14–17). We must not trade the King’s heraldry for slogans that flatter human strength. The Bible gives us better words. “Come, everyone who thirsts,” and “let the one who is thirsty come,” yet the ones who come are those who have been made thirsty by grace and whose names are written in the book of life (Isaiah 55:1; Revelation 22:17; Revelation 13:8). We may say to every person, in honesty and love, that Christ is the only Savior and that all who come to Him will never be cast out, and we may also confess that all who truly come have been drawn by the Father’s hand (John 6:37, 44).

If this is so, will such teaching make the church passive? Not if we have read the Scriptures. The same Paul who preached God’s sovereign call also endured beatings and prisons in order to speak one more time in one more place, “because I have many in this city who are my people,” said the Lord (Acts 18:9–11). The doctrine of calling does not chain our feet. It stiffens the spine. It reminds us that the success of mission does not rest on clever phrasing or softening the cost. It rests on the God who raises the dead. We proclaim Christ crucified, which will be a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others, yet to those who are called it is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:22–24).

What then of the cost of discipleship in a culture that finds “easy” things forgettable and “hard” things respectable? The Lord Himself sets the terms. He invites the weary and burdened to Himself for rest, then takes them into His school where they learn obedience through love, generosity through detachment, courage through hope. He refuses to flatter the crowd. He tells would-be followers to count the cost, to take up the cross, to lose their lives in order to find them (Luke 9:23–25; 14:25–33). The church should do no less. We do not sell Christ as a lifestyle upgrade. We announce a Kingdom that asks for everything and gives more than it asks. When the message is trimmed to fit consumer desire, the result is shallow profession. When the message is delivered as Scripture gives it, the result is either offense or awakened faith, and both outcomes are honest.

There is a final sweetness here. Those whom God calls, He keeps. The Shepherd gives His sheep eternal life, and no one will snatch them out of His hand, because the Father who gave them to Him is greater than all (John 10:27–29). The new covenant does not rest on human sturdiness, it rests on God who writes His law on the heart and remembers sins no more (Jeremiah 31:31–34). A faith that began as gift continues as gift, and yet that gift bears the fruit of endurance, love, holiness, and fearless witness.

So the church speaks to all with open arms and with straight truth. We plead, we warn, we promise. We call sin what it is and grace what it is. We teach that discipleship costs a man his life, and that the life he receives in return is the only one worth having. We do not dilute the offense of the cross. We trust the Spirit to open blind eyes, unstop deaf ears, and awaken the sleeper. And when any sinner believes, we say what Scripture says. You have come because the Father drew you. You stand because Christ intercedes for you. You walk because the Spirit lives in you. To Him be the glory.

In Christ’s service,

~JFH