By now, you’ve probably heard of the game Pokemon Go! Players download an app to their smartphones and walk/drive/parkour anywhere and everywhere, trying to locate and capture Pokemon.
Within 13 hours of its being made available, Pokemon Go! became the top-grossing app in the U.S. It attracts 21 million users and 4-5 million downloads per day. In other words, it’s very, very popular.
Why? Because it gives people a fun way to obtain something they really want.
If Christianity were something people really wanted, they would be out chasing it, too. But it isn’t.
Why? Because when nonbelievers hear our presentation of Christianity, they feel like we’re giving them an unpleasant, arduous way to obtain something they don’t really want—a relationship with a God who isn’t really interested in them unless they get everything right.
Maybe, just maybe, we should take a closer look at how we often present Christianity.
See if the following way of presenting the gospel sounds familiar: “God is holy, and we’re sinners. We can’t come close to God unless we’re righteous. Fortunately, Jesus made us righteous, so now we can belong to God and go to heaven when we die.”
It’s all true. It’s 100% accurate. But most people don’t want just one more person (God, no less) to tell them that unless they find a way to measure up, they can never be accepted. If that’s the only thing you tell them, they probably won’t be interested.
What people are interested in is relief from stress and loneliness, comfort when they’re discouraged or grieving, wisdom to know how to relate to others and which decisions to make, and the assurance that they can make it through this crazy, sometimes excruciatingly difficult and painful thing called life.
A relationship with God offers them all of those things, but that’s not what we tell them about. Or if we do, we promise them incredible things, then make those things conditional upon their right actions.
Please hear me clearly: YES, we must submit to God and obey Him. YES, we must admit our sin and our neediness. YES, we must acknowledge Him as the Lord of our life. YES, we must make sure people know about God’s holiness and our sinfulness and what Jesus did on the cross for us.
But this is not how Jesus primarily presented the gospel. He didn’t say, “You’re a screw-up. You need to get it right for God to love you.” Instead, He showed them by His response that He already loved them.
When Nicodemus came to Him seeking a right understanding of God, Jesus took the conversation deeper and explained the answers to questions Nicodemus didn’t even know he had.
When the woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, He first assured her that He didn’t condemn her, and then He told her to stop sinning.
When a pagan Roman soldier sent emissaries to Jesus to request that Jesus heal his daughter, Jesus began by commending his faith, not confronting his sin.
True, Jesus confronted sin when appropriate. I’m not suggesting that we not do that. There will be many occasions when we must confront sin. But even then, we must remember that the point of presenting the gospel is not to get people to clean up their lives, but to introduce them to the incredibly rich spiritual blessings of a relationship with a holy, perfect God who loves them passionately.
That’s the good news, that such a relationship is even possible.
Psalm 16:11—You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (NIV)