Brian Onstead

I used to listen to a Christian radio station that marketed itself on being positive and encouraging. This is strategic from a marketing perspective. In a world of negativity, bad news, and difficulties, who wouldn’t want to hear something positive and encouraging? 

So, this radio station would fill the air waves with Bible verses on God’s love and acceptance, messages on God being on our side, and promises to bless us with the good life.

This same trend exists in the Christian section of the book store. Titles such as “Your Best Life Now,” “Become a Better You,” “Authentically, Uniquely You,” and books depicting imaginary conversations with God or coffee with Jesus where he only speaks positive words that make you feel special and speak only encouraging, non-condemning words have become the most popular purchases.

And, of course, this is the message that fills church buildings. It is a message of inclusivity, free from any condemnation, and filled with principles to better yourself and your life. This message seems to work because it fills the pews, keeps the money flowing in, and does not drive anyone away. It seems like a message that offers hope and relief from the burdens that come with feeling condemned.

This message, however, turns Christianity into a little more than a pep talk or something that you could hear from a life coach at a seminar on positivity. Jesus is needed as a motivational speaker to give a boost to downtrodden good people, but not as a savior to rescue dead, condemned sinners. The large sections of the Bible that this kind of Christianity leaves out are the parts that talk about the wrath of God. It is a message that is devoid of talking about our sin, the coming judgment, and hell. It leaves out where the Bible talks about our inability to please God (Romans 8:7), our hostility and enmity toward God (Romans 5:10), and the fact that we were all by nature followers of Satan and no better than anyone else in this world (Ephesians 2:1-3). It is easy to understand why these plainly stated truths of the Bible are left out. It’s because it is too humbling to our pride to hear them. It is offensive to our sinful nature, and it therefore does not market well. But if we have not come to grips with these truths, then we will not know from what we need Jesus to save us. We may be more outwardly moral in comparison to other people, yet in comparison to God’s holy and righteous standard all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. As the Apostle Paul says, there is none righteous and there is no one who does good, no not even one (Romans 3:10, 12). Every one of us must know that because of our sin before a holy God, we deserve nothing but his wrath. However, when we come to grips with this, then we are interested in Jesus, not merely as a moral teacher but as a savior. This is when we begin to seek the good news that God sent his son to be born of a woman to live a perfect life of obedience to the law that sinners can freely get credit for by simply trusting Jesus, and that he bore the wrath of God on the cross in order to pay for sin and save those who believe in him from eternal judgment. This is the true escape from condemnation that is being falsely sought after in the positive, non-judgmental messages. May we recover this forgotten message of Christianity, because without it Christianity is not truly Christianity.

(Brian Onstead is the Pastor at Trinity Bible Church.)