Bekah and I were in our twenties living in a little house in Pinson, AL. Across the street lived a young couple, and we struck up a loose friendship with them. One might consider them, perhaps, typical of their culture and age. She tended towards the Goth trend with dark makeup, dyed hair, and conspicuous tattoos. Her husband and she loved video games, and he sported the latest gaming systems.
One day, Bekah invited her to come to church with us on a Sunday morning, and she accepted! We rejoiced in the opportunity to bring someone to hear the words of the Lord, and we were nervously excited. I think our neighbor was much more nervous than we, as she wandered into the church building in what I expect was some of her best clothes, a rather short skirt and fishnet stockings. We were just glad she was there.
Much to our shock and chagrin, the preacher’s message that day included a diatribe against—you guessed it—tattoos and gaming, as he took aim at the wastefulness and wantonness of contemporary youth.
She never visited our church again. And I can’t say I blame her.
She needed what everyone needs—the gospel—but she received a heavy dose of moralizing. Don’t get me wrong; we must preach God’s morality from the pulpit, absolutely. But we so often get the moral cart before the gospel horse, which is not only unbalanced but wrong.
Too often we preach lessons like this: “Look at all these bad people out there doing bad things. God is angry with them. We need to make sure we don’t do those bad things so God will be happy with us.”
Does that sound like gospel? Does that sound like good news? “Good news! God will love us if we will only do right things, think right thoughts, and say right words!” If that is what we think the gospel is, we are either deluded or despairing. Do we rejoice before the Lord because we think we have been living up to His expectations and demands (Luke 18.9ff)? Or do we despair, knowing we are not and never will be good enough for God (Luke 18.13–14)?
The gospel starts not with man but with God, and that’s why it is good news. The gospel recognizes that we are filthy transgressors of God’s law, but that is the reason for the good news, not the good news itself. Christ fulfilled God’s law and paid the price to purchase us (redeem us) from slavery to sin. Christ became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5.21). It pleased God to punish His own Son, and Jesus bore all our iniquities so many would be accounted righteous (Isaiah 53.10–12). Jesus tasted death for everyone so He could bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2.9–10).
Those who will be saved must simply have faith in Jesus as both Lord and Christ (Acts 2.36), that He was killed on a cross, that He died and was buried and was raised on the third day, and that He is now exalted sitting at the right hand of God (Acts 2.22–35; Romans 10.8–13; 4.3–8; 1 Corinthians 15.1–11; Ephesians 1.13; etc.).
The Gospel of Christ is the horse that draws the cart of sanctification and morality. Once we understand and accept the love of God and what He has done for us, that gospel works in us salvation (Romans 1.16–17). It drives us to repent of our sins and walk in obedience (Acts 2.38–39; Romans 6; Ephesians 4–6; etc.).
Then, what should we say to our tattooed gamer friends? First, we might reflect and wonder if we are judging with righteous judgment (John 7.24). Second, we should remember how we ourselves are being saved in Christ—not by our own works of righteousness but by His grace and mercy. They will be saved the same way we are. We should not judge them with a judgment we don’t place on ourselves (Matthew 7.1–5). If they come to Christ and get to know His mind and heart, they will start cleaning up what they should as their faith directs them to repent, trust, and obey.
Should we tell our coworker to clean his language up? “Why should I?” he asks. Because God hates filthy language, right? That means nothing to a person who doesn’t understand God’s character nor is concerned about pleasing Him. No, our coworker needs to hear the gospel. If he believes the gospel, then he will clean up his language as a response of faith.
Ben Shapiro often says he would rather someone hypocritically live godly principles rather than non-hypocritically live sinful principles, because overall it’s better for them and for those around them if they live according to God’s rules. His hope is that the person will come to love God as he lives out godly principles. This is the “fake it ‘till you make it” model. The problem is that if a person does not commit in faith to the Lord, he is not really living godly principles; he is only living principles that he deems would be good for him. He is not concerned for the things of God, really. He is not submitting to the Lord. Therefore, he is just moralizing. You say, “But that’s still better for him and for society, right?” Perhaps it is, superficially, but Satan still has a win, and there is no eternal life in that man’s future. Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ—period (Acts 4.12; Hebrews 11.6).
We must not be content with morality because morality does not save anyone! Living, obedient faith saves.
Let us preach the gospel and not just push morality on a dying world!