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The Foolishness Of Trying To Save Everyone

by Phillip Ross  
7/28/2009 / Bible Studies

1 Corinthians 1:17-20

Paul wasn't interested in baptism or fancy talk. He was not out to impress anyone with his knowledge or his communication skills. He didn't give a hoot what the world thought of him or of his preaching. When Paul said that he aimed at "what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of man" (2 Corinthians 8:21) he did not mean that he was appealing to the values of sin, but that people would eventually see that what honors God also honors man. And the way to keep this clear is to keep our eyes on the cross, not on the pew. This is a lesson that the church has yet to learn -- particularly those who appreciate scholarship and social credibility.

American Christians lost this battle before the founding of the United States. Harvard University was founded in 1636 by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. To vote at that time required membership in a Congregational church. The Congregationalists of that day were consistent Calvinists, whose Puritan worldview was to be perpetuated in the institutions of higher learning in order to train future leaders of society in Christianity and Calvinism. They intended to build American society upon a Reformed Christian foundation.

An early brochure, published in 1643, justified the College's existence: "To advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches." With the dawn of the Enlightenment too many Christians in higher education began to believe that science and scholarship were leaving the church in the dust. Christians began scrambling to keep up with the latest scientific discoveries in order to apply them to the Bible. Many, like Charles Darwin who wrote in the 1800s, worked vigorously to adapt the Christian faith to newly discovered "truths" of science. Those efforts pushed the church down the slippery slope of compromise with the world in the name of scientific scholarship. The church endeavored to impress the world with its ability to adapt itself to the world of science in order to remain relevant.

Relevancy is a cry that we again hear in contemporary society and even in contemporary churches. More and more people are saying that the church must be relevant to the people it is trying to reach, that the Bible must be relevant to the world in which we live. Of course this is true, but the question is: Who are the people the churches are trying to reach? Here is where covenant theology plays a distinctive role. Obviously, the churches are trying to reach the "lost." But the lost come in two flavors -- the unsavable lost and the not-yet-saved lost.

Paul notes this difference when he says that "the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). There are some people who will not respond to the grace of God, period. Others, of course, will respond. But we don't know exactly who will or who won't respond to the gospel. We don't know which individuals will respond and which won't. But we do know that some will and some won't, and that is very important information.

Knowing that some of the lost will respond to the gospel we must make our proclamation of the gospel appeal to those who will respond, to those who will eventually recognize the truth of Scripture and grow in grace and godliness. By way of contrast, it is futile to make our presentations of the gospel appeal to those who will not ever respond, to those who think that the gospel is foolish and who will never think differently.

Our presentation of the gospel and of ourselves as Christians must reflect the truth of the gospel. We must make our appeal by using the values and aesthetics of Scripture because it is precisely those values and aesthetics that will appeal to those who will ultimately respond to God's grace. Those who will eventually respond to God's grace will come to appreciate biblical values and aesthetics. Conversely, to use the values and aesthetics of the world in the presentation of the gospel is a waste of time and resources because those who see the values and aesthetics of Scripture as silly and irrelevant are exactly the people that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 1:18. They are or consider themselves to be "worldly wise," and they consider the gospel in and of itself -- without embellishment -- to be foolish and powerless. These are the people who will always reject the gospel (Luke 16:31).

Christians don't need to make an appeal on the basis of worldly values and aesthetics because those who will respond truly will respond to the power of the gospel alone. They will not be dissuaded by what the world sees as a foolish and irrelevant message. It is a waste of time and resources to try to make the gospel appear to be wise and/or relevant to the world. It is in and of itself already relevant to those who will be saved. What we win people with is what we will win them to. If we win people with worldly values and aesthetics, we will win them to a worldly church, a church that has already watered down the gospel to make it appeal to those who do not love the Lord.

Phillip A. Ross founded http://www.Pilgrim-Platform.org in 1998, which documents the church's fall from historic Christianity. Demonstrating the Apostle Paul's opposition to worldly Christianity, he published an exposition First Corinthians in 2008. Ross's book, Arsy Varsy -- Reclaiming the Gospel i

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