Our sad state as unconverted sinners is at the heart of the Christian gospel. There can be no good news unless we first accept the bad news…. So those who reject this basic biblical truth are not calling out Calvin or Newton or me or you but God himself. And when you effectively tell God that he is wrong or that he does not know what he is talking about, that is a very precarious place to be in. Indeed, I describe that as being in a very wretched state. So we must insist on what Scripture teaches, not on what mere mortals FEEL about such issues. 

There are countless reasons why so many folks refuse to come to Christ as their Lord and Saviour. One major reason is the fact that they refuse to admit that they are in need of a Saviour. They really believe they have nothing they need to be saved from. They think they are actually pretty good people.

Human pride is one of the biggest sins, and it is sending countless unrepentant sinners into a lost eternity. They simply think they are really OK. They think they have no need of changing anything, and that God is obviously quite mistaken to call them lost sinners. ‘Sure, maybe Hitler was a sinner needing a Saviour, but not me!’

Or they may think that they can somehow earn God’s favour by being “good” or by doing good works. All non-Christian religions operate this way. So if they avoid certain things (‘I have not murdered anyone’) and if they do certain things (give alms, help an old lady across the street, donate to charity, etc) they think that God now fully approves of them.

Never mind that Jesus said if you hate someone it is the same as committing murder! But the unconverted sinner takes great offence at the thought that he cannot save himself. He abhors such a demanding God who says he is lost and that apart from the grace of God he never will be reconciled to God. That is why the Apostle Paul speaks about the “offence of the gospel” (eg., 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; Galatians 5:7-11). It IS offensive to the sinner – and it always will be.

We fully expect pagans to think this way. But sadly there are plenty of “Christians” who basically think much the same. Some of these folks are Protestants of various stripes, and some are non-Protestants. But they really refuse to think of themselves as thorough-going sinners who in the eyes of a perfect, holy and righteous God are in a very bad place indeed.

They want nothing to do with a passage like Isaiah 64:6 which speaks of our own righteousness as being like “filthy rags” (or as the Hebrew would have it, ‘menstruous cloth’). Now that is some VERY strong language God used to highlight our condition apart from God’s saving grace. Paul said much the same about his very religious life before he was saved by Christ, calling it “dung” (Philippians 3:8).

So the biblical picture of man’s condition apart from God is not flattering at all. It is downright damnable – literally. But too many folks hate the very thought of this. Let me give you one quite sad example of this that happened to me recently on the social media.

Some non-Protestant got all upset with me when I merely posted a quote from a book by a respected Princeton scholar on Luther. It was about Luther’s love of music. I thought it was an interesting quote – nothing more. I certainly had NO intention of starting some sectarian war (that is something I have long said can be done elsewhere, and not on my pages).

But this guy came along and started blasting the great hymn “Amazing Grace” by John Newton! My post had nothing to do with this, but he launched into an unedifying and rather bizarre diatribe against “its disturbingly Calvanist lyrics.”! (Um, it would help if he at least knew how to spell correctly!) Good grief!

I said there was nothing disturbing about the lyrics and that they happened to be 100 per cent biblical. That got him into even more of a tizz, and after a few more comments displaying his sad sectarian bigotry and animosity, I had to finally let him go as he clearly was no friend of mine.

This sort of thing really does my head in when it happens – especially when folks like this have asked to be my friend, and then I never hear from them, and when I do, they go into full-blown attack mode! And it is usually off-topic and foolishly tangential anyway.

But his emotive and angry rant based on how offended he was about one of the world’s most beloved Christian hymns fits in perfectly with what I have been saying here. The natural man hates the gospel message and finds it offensive. And sadly plenty of folks who call themselves Christians are in the same camp.

So how might we reply to folks like this? Firstly, they really need to know a bit about what it is they are attacking. When it comes to Newton, this critic is obviously clueless. Anyone who knows his story knows how incredible it was. A profane, immoral sailor involved in the slave trade had a miraculous conversion to Christ, which really did involve amazing grace.

He said this about himself after his conversion: “I sinned with a high hand and I made it my study to tempt and seduce others.” And this: “How industrious is Satan served. I was formerly one of his active undertemptors and had my influence been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was.” Thus he was quite right to describe himself as a wretch. He was far more honest about himself than most pagans and religious folks are.

Secondly, if you have folks get mad at you for speaking biblical truth about our condition as sinners alienated from God, they are obviously biblically clueless as well. The Bible is perfectly clear on this matter. While we are all made in God’s image and likeness and are therefore of real value, worth and dignity, because of the Fall we are also all sinners headed to hell unless saved via the grace of God in Christ. (And yes, the biblical doctrine of eternal punishment is also hated by pagans and mere religious folks.)

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