Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel Wholly by Grace Communicated Truthfully & Lovingly by Will Metzger

Author:Will Metzger [Metzger, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2012-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

Grace Makes Salvation Possible

Let’s think together about grace. Are you saying, “Well, finally! You’ve spent a lot of time getting me to think about sin, and I was beginning to wonder where the hope was.” Good. You’re getting the point. As much as I’d like to write only about grace, I can’t.

For the Christian church (even in its recently popular seeker services) to ignore, euphemize, or otherwise mute the lethal reality of sin is to cut the nerve of the gospel. For the sober truth is that without full disclosure on sin, the gospel of grace becomes impertinent, unnecessary, and finally uninteresting.[1]

It is only in the context of disobedience that mercy has relevance and meaning. Mercy is of such a character that disobedience is its complement or presupposition, and only as exercised to the disobedient does it exist and operate.[2]

What could have caused such indifference, even among churchgoers? It is a failure to understand and “feel in one’s heart” four great truths that the doctrine of grace presupposes: 1) the sinfulness of sin; 2) God’s judgment; 3) man’s spiritual inability; and 4) God’s sovereign freedom.[3]

Below are two more stories that I have retold. Both have a happier conclusion than the two earlier stories where I emphasized the impossibility of salvation. Now we see that, as Jesus said, “with God, all things [salvation] are possible” (Mt 19:16-30; Mk 10:17-31; Lk 18:18-30).

Story 1. At the age of twenty-four, Young Jun Son had burned out. He ended up in Amsterdam, sleeping sometimes in an urban men’s shelter, other times in a rotting warehouse. He says:

How could I have gone so far down so fast? Occasionally I worked washing dishes at a dingy restaurant. I took uneaten food right off the plates. I thought I might as well have it since it was just going to a farmer who would feed it to his hogs. I felt like an animal, and I lived like one. I had been acting like an animal for a long time. When I was fired I began working for the farmer—disgusting. Let me tell you how my problems all started.

I grew up in Seoul, Korea, where I lived with my father and brother. I’m not sure where my mother was; “single-parent family” was what my high school teacher wrote next to my name in her grade book. What she didn’t know was that my father had money—lots of it—from various properties that he owned. He never flaunted it, but I realized how rich he was when I sneaked a look at his accounts on the computer. Looking back, I see that’s when my animal passions came to the forefront. I wanted to have it all; get the biggest part of the money for myself. Back then I called it “my passport to freedom.” My desire wasn’t really for the money; it was only to be independent, to live life at my speed and have fun. I was seventeen at the time, and the wealth wouldn’t come to my brother and me until my father died.

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