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The following article
recently appeared as a guest editorial by Pastor Ralph Ovadal in the Monroe
Times:
In a recent article on the
marriage amendment, Times
reporter Brian Gray seemed to insist that Christian Americans do not have
a right and a duty to support legislation they believe to be most
beneficial to the morality and stability of our nation. In support of his
conclusion, Gray turned to worn-out clichés about legislating beliefs, as
if morality and law have nothing to do with each other. As much as I would
like to comment on that, as a pastor, I am more concerned by the
misrepresentation of the gospel in Gray's article boldly titled "Gospel
should be preached, not legislated." I heartily agree with that statement
but strongly disagree with the application Gray made of it, which was that
Christians who support the marriage amendment are attempting to legislate
the gospel. The gospel is the good news of God's gracious offer of
forgiveness and salvation to those who repent of their sins and put their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is "the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom.
1:16
). The marriage amendment has not even a hint of the gospel in it.
But Gray preached a false
gospel when he stated, "It's important to realize that Jesus could have
changed everything on earth. He didn't have to die on the cross." That
statement strikes at the heart of the gospel as well as the holiness and
perfect justice of the Lord. God's Word warns that the sentence for any
infraction of His immutable moral law in thought, word, or deed is eternal
damnation, an eternal living death in hell. "For the wages of sin is death"
(Rom.
6:23
). The law's demand is perfect righteousness, but man is a fallen race,
and "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom.
3:23
). Because He is holy and just, God cannot and will not set aside the just
sentence of His law.
The question to all then
becomes what Jesus preached: "How can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
(Mat. 23:33). The answer is found in God's mercy. He has provided a way of
salvation for sinners, a way which upholds His law and righteousness.
Jesus Christ, God "manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim.
3:16
), was the sinless substitute who perfectly fulfilled the law which we
violated and who offered the perfect atonement for sin which none of us
could offer. The Scriptures testify that Jesus suffered the wrath of His
Father against sinners in our stead and atoned for our sins with His own
blood. By God's free grace, when a sinner repents and places trust in
Christ alone for salvation, his sins are blotted out. Further, God accepts
the perfect righteousness of Christ, imputing, or crediting, it to the
sinner for the purpose of acquitting him of his guilt under the law and
thus freeing him from the sentence of damnation. This is known as
justification. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor.
5:21
). Sinners are forever saved from hell and accepted by God as His children
by His grace alone, through faith alone, in the blood and righteousness of
Christ alone, and by no merit of our own (Eph. 2:8-9). We are thus
redeemed as God's own by "the precious blood of Christ" (1 Pet.
1:18
-19).
Mr. Gray has forgotten that
the Word of God decrees "without shedding of blood is no remission" of
sins (Heb.
9:22
). Without Christ's vicarious atonement for our sins on the cross, those
sins could not have been blotted out, the sentence of the law could not
have been satisfied, and we could not have been saved. That is why the
Apostle Paul preached "that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen
again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is
Christ" (Acts 17:3). That is why the risen Christ Himself appeared to some
who were mourning His death and told them, "Ought not Christ to have
suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:26). Brian
Gray makes the cross of Christ optional; but the Word of God testifies of
the necessity of Christ's death to save sinners, even if many contest that
truth. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor.
1:18). |
