It was pouring with rain as I stood at the doorstep under my umbrella talking with the man. Perhaps in his early thirties, he told me he’d done a lot of reading in recent times and was very proud to tell me that he’d, “read the Bible from cover to cover.” However, he said that he couldn’t understand it’s relevance for him personally since he was not a Jew or a Christian. I explained to him that the Bible is not an academic book, but rather, it is a spiritual book, and as such, one must be, “born again” to grasp insights into what God wants to communicate to us.
He told me that the term, “born again” was familiar to him, but once again, “what does that mean for me personally?” Knowing he would have read the Adam & Eve history in Genesis, I explained to him that before they went against God’s command in the garden, our first parents in fact had daily fellowship with Him, but they lost that fellowship the moment they disobeyed Him. I then explained that the Bible calls that act of disobedience, “sin.”
The man told me he didn’t see himself as a sinner, because he had never stolen, raped or bashed anyone. That’s most people’s belief about themselves of course, they always think of sin in terms of morality and if they don’t see themselves as immoral then they don’t see themselves as sinners.
So rather than limit our discussion to morality, I focused on the word “rebellion.” I told him that a Biblical study of the word “sin” will show us that one of its meanings is “rebellion” – so, we can define sin as basically rebellion against God. Rebellion arises from within us as a result of us inheriting Adam & Eve’s nature.
The man then said to me that he didn’t think we should be, “penalized by God for inheriting something we didn’t create.” That’s another argument that I found to be common among people. So I replied by explaining that God does not judge us for inheritance of their nature, He judges us on the fact that we’ve added lots of rebellion (sin) of our own towards Him. His response to that was, “That’s not fair.” I didn’t argue with him I simply asked, “But is it a fact? Yes or no?” He grinned and said, “Yes.”
Next I explained that the Bible tells us that God is a Spirit and when He created Adam & Eve they were made up of a spirit, soul and body – tri-part beings, complete people. But the day they were sent from the garden was the day that communication with God was cut off. Their spirits became dormant. In effect, they became bi-part beings, limited now to soul (mind, will, emotion) and body – incomplete people, lost.
Not only is that our inheritance, but I told the man that the Scriptures show us that’s our problem – we too are incomplete people, lost. We are in fact dead in our spirit and God tells us that is why the things of Himself, Christ and the Bible are foolishness to us, making no sense or relevance. But even though this is true in our experience, each of us continues to live with this sense of loss – a void. And we try to fill this void every waking moment with all sorts of thoughts and activities – “spiritual,” mental and material – none of which bring true fulfillment however.
I told him the word “gospel’ means “good news.” Here’s why it is. In the Bible we see that God has given a thorough diagnosis of the human problem – a diagnosis of a disease which He calls sin. And this disease, without treatment, cuts us off from God. That’s the bad news. But the good news is, in the same Bible we see that God has also provided a thorough Solution to the human problem – the disease of sin, and the thorough Solution is the Healer, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who brings reconciliation between us and God. He then said to me, “That’s for Christians. What about people from non-Christian religions?”
In the midst of the pouring rain, still standing at his doorstep but not wanting to become side-tracked, I said to him, “You’ve read the Bible, let’s lay aside labels like “Christian” and “non-Christian,” how many Saviours did you read of, that God sent into the world to die on a cross in our place for our sins?” He didn’t answer. He wanted my thoughts on Jesus. I told him they were exactly those of the Scriptures – He was very human and one with us, He was tempted to rebel as we do, He had his battles like we do, He was tempted to shrink from suffering like we do, but unlike us, He didn’t cave in to those things. Jesus had no sin.
Continuing to give him my thoughts, I then said that Jesus was also fully divine and as the Son of God (God in the flesh) He came into our world to redeem us, to reconcile each one of us to Himself, to set us free from ourselves – no longer lost, but found – our spirits now becoming alive, putting us back on a pathway to completeness. To further reinforce his thinking, I told him Jesus is both God and Man, who came to show us that God the Father is caring and approachable, but we can only experience this truth through Christ and that if we will humble ourselves and believe this, we would know by personal experience that there is no limit to God’s love. I said, “You will know it because you will be born again.”
It was now time to challenge this young man. I said to him, “There is no other way for you to be saved from sin/rebellion and hell. If there were, God would have found it.” And because earlier he said he hadn’t see himself as a sinner, I explained that if his living a “good” moral life was going to save his soul, then Jesus would not have come and died on his behalf.
But that’s not all. I finished by reminding him of the fact that all the other founders of religion are now dead. Yes, Jesus died too. But a dead Jesus is no good to anybody. If He were still dead, then all each of us are left with are the words and tales of a “good” man who went about doing “good” – just like some of those other religious founders. Besides, a dead Jesus makes a liar of the Living God.
By now I was becoming very wet, given that our chat lasted over forty minutes. The umbrella had long reached its limitations. As I shook his hand to leave, he said to me, “I didn’t invite you inside, I was testing your faith. I was wondering how long you would stand there before you gave in to the rain. I’m impressed.” Whatever this young man’s agenda, I knew God had a higher one. “Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see (perceive, understand) the kingdom of God.” John 3:3.