Reaching the UnreachedAn annual conference for churches trying to reach out in the hard places of our land

Jerram Barrs is helping me to think again about how to unsettle a bunch of lovable, but stubborn, old battle axes that i get to speak to every week about Jesus. We have a kind of pensioners “just looking” where they get a meal, get a message from Luke’s Gospel and then discuss it on tables with a leader, before doing some sort of activity. They are salt of the earth, quick witted, traditional working class ladies who love a bit of banter  yet have a real hard time believing they need a saviour. They are the war generation, many of them having had to face very difficult times in years gone by. If there is one thing that defines them it is the proud announcement that, “we pay our way”. The day i suggested that we will give them a meal for free i nearly got linched! And, i’m sad to say, they respond to the Lord Jesus the same way. How do i unsettle their flimpsy self-righteousness?

Many of you will be familiar with the Tim Keller material on 3 ways to live (Religious: Finding righteousness in your performance and being your own saviour, Rebelliousness/license: Finding you righteousness in being your own Lord, Gospel: Receiving your righteousness from Christ and trusting Him as Lord), and i’m a big fan. But as i have tried to present Christ within this framework the ladies have applauded when they meet Christ the righteousness-giving saviour of the rebel, yet have remained painful unconvinced that they are so like the religious who need an alien righteousness too.

For that reason this book is giving me a few ideas to think through, as “plan B”, in helping these dear ladies (who i love dearly) taste their need of the Gospel. Here is a snippet from Chap 9 entitled “The Sinful Women and the Righteous man.” It is exploring how Jesus uses the law to unsettle those who are confident in their own righteousness by throwing them back to the law as a standard they can only fail to meet. I like Barr’s writing because it holds the law in such high regard. It makes me wish i could fulfil the law, and makes me rejoice that i have a saviour who did it where i fail. See what you think:

The Kindergarten of the Law

For many people the law of God (what God demands of us) must be communicated prior to the gospel. We might describe the law (i.e., ” You should obey these commandments; you should do these good deeds”) as “preparatory school” or “kindergarten,” a necessary precursor to the good news of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus essentially sends Simon to kindergarten, outlining the requirements for pleasing God and listing the acts of love that the woman has done in service to God’s Son. While the gospel (i.e., ” There is nothing you have done which can make you acceptable to God; acknowledge your guilt and need and receive the forgiveness of Christ”) is for those who know they are sinners, kindergarten is for those who don’t. That is why the sinful woman receives the good news and Simon is left with only the charge to serve God better.

So, when should we give the good news, and when should we send someone off to kindergarten? To which unbelievers should we give only the law for the present, and to which should we give the good news right away? These may seem like strange questions- a new way of thinking to some, and absurd or even heretical to others. However, there are many examples of Jesus doing precisely this in the Gospels. The Bible teacher (Luke 10:25-37) and the wealthy young man (Luke 18:18-27) are both given tasks and sent away to obey the law. They are sent off to kindergarten.

It may not disturb us that the Bible teacher is sent away to learn what it truly means to love God and to love his neighbour, so that he might discover that he too is a sinner in need of mercy. However, we find it more troublesome that Jesus also sends the wealthy young man away with a set of commandments to obey, even though he is a person who claims to be genuinely seeking God and eternal life. We want to say, ” Surely everyone needs the good news of forgiveness and grace. People should not be left hanging in limbo, trying to please God by keeping his commandments, when nobody will be saved that way. Why not tell everyone the good news and forget about ‘kindergarten’?” How should we respond to such concerns? In answering this difficult question, it will be helpful for us to compare what we see in Jesus with what is often the situation in the church today.