God's Equity on the Vineyard

Scripture: John 15:6

"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

Insights:  Juan Carlos Ortiz, an Argentina missionary in the 1970’s wrote, “The gospel which we have in the Bible is the gospel of the Kingdom of God.  It presents Jesus as King, as Lord, as the maximum authority.  Jesus is at the very center. . . .  But in recent centuries we have been hearing another gospel—a man-centered, human gospel. . . .  [In this gospel] we are always appealing to man’s interests. . . .  We take all the verses we like . . . and we make a systematic theology from these verses, while we forget the other verses that present the demands of Jesus Christ.”  One of those demands of Jesus which is being so overlooked in today’s society is the truth regarding hell.  Universalist are preaching an easy-believism gospel in which there is no eternal consequence for not abiding in Christ.  Yet, Jesus, in His final hours told His disciples that if anyone did not abide in Him, they would be thrown into the fire and burned.  In other places we know that they are not burned up, but will for all eternity suffer the painful consequences of not being a citizen of God’s Kingdom and surrendered under Jesus’ authority.  Now keep in mind everything Jesus has been telling these disciples in the previous five verses.  Why do you think Jesus is now telling them about hell and the consequences of those who are not in a relationship with Him?  It is because Jesus wants His disciples to feel the anguish of their not sharing the gospel.  He wants to them to recognize the urgent need to share the gospel.  He wants His disciples to see and feel what He sees and feels regarding lost people.  He wants them to have a compassion toward the lost that is so great that they would not want even their worst enemy to spend a second in that eternal place of pain.  But if we preach a gospel like Ortiz describes, then there is no urgency for us.  All we become then are sales people for Jesus.  Beloved, that is NOT what we are.  We are children of His Kingdom.  We are ambassadors of Christ.  We are a royal priesthood.  We are commissioned by Jesus to be His spokespeople before a lost world.  We are the only ones standing in the gap for their eternal souls.  What kind of gospel are you going to share?

Questions:

1. Do you live with urgency regarding the lost world around you?
2. Are you sharing the gospel with those lost people?

Prayer: Father, just as the New Testament church prayed for boldness in their witness, so now, I pray asking for that same kind of urgency, compassion and burden for the lost that they had.  Amen.