by Prisca | 27 April 2019 08:46 pm04
“Bad, bad,” says the buyer, but when he goes away, then he boasts.”
There is a spiritual lesson hidden even in the simplest aspects of everyday life like buying and selling. In one way or another, we are either sellers or buyers in this world, and God has allowed this reality to reflect deeper truths about what happens in the spiritual realm.
In business, sellers often inflate the perceived value of their goods, knowing buyers will try to bargain for a lower price. Buyers, on the other hand, usually aim to downplay the value of the product to get a cheaper deal.
This back and forth is expected it’s how markets function. A seller tries to set a higher price. The buyer pretends it’s worth less. Finally, they agree on a price somewhere in the middle, usually close to the real value the seller had in mind from the start.
This isn’t just economics it mirrors what often happens in spiritual matters, particularly in ministry.
As preachers of the Gospel, we are, in a sense, offering a spiritual product salvation through Christ. But here’s the problem: if we present salvation cheaply, we shouldn’t be surprised when people treat it as cheap.
If you preach a weak or diluted Gospel, don’t expect the people you draw to Christ to value salvation any more than what you presented. A buyer never expects to pay more than the value he’s been shown.
You cannot preach a casual version of Christianity and expect people to grow into deep holiness. People won’t suddenly become spiritually mature, holy, and disciplined if you never challenged them to grow in Christ from the beginning.
If your message avoids the hard truths if you tell people:
…then what kind of faith are you expecting them to build?
Hebrews 12:14 (ESV):
“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
Many are being taught only motivational messages:
“Receive your miracle in Jesus’ name!”
“Your enemies will fall!”
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper!”
Yet they don’t even know the basic truths of salvation:
You may have attracted them to Jesus but what kind of Jesus did they receive?
A diluted Gospel will only produce worldly, untransformed Christians. You’ll find people who:
And yet, they say, “I’m saved. I gave my life to Jesus.”
Yes, you may have preached to them, but what kind of salvation did you present? Was it the true, costly, holy, transformational salvation of Jesus Christ?
Remember what Scripture says:
1 Corinthians 3:11–15 (ESV):
11 “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”
Don’t just celebrate large crowds or full churches. What kind of spiritual “product” are they buying from you? Is it cheap, weak, and short lived like fake Chinese goods? Or is it like refined gold, costly and rare but enduring?
Preach repentance. Preach holiness. Preach the fear of the Lord.
Don’t hide the reality of judgment. Don’t pretend that the narrow road is wide.
Matthew 7:13–14 (ESV):
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Don’t be afraid to tell people the hard truths:
Let those who come to Christ through your message know what it truly means to be saved. The person who buys salvation knowing it is costly, will treat it as precious. And heaven rejoices over even one soul who repents fully.
Don’t give people what they want to hear. Give them what Christ wants them to hear.
Let us not waste our labor. Let us preach a Gospel of truth, of repentance, of transformation a Gospel that saves not just superficially, but eternally.
May the Lord give us grace to be faithful preachers of the full Gospel.
May we not cheapen the cross, but uphold its full worth.
May our lives and our message be tested and found pure like gold.
Amen.
Source URL: https://wingulamashahidi.org/en/2019/04/27/if-you-are-a-preacher-what-kind-of-salvation-are-you-presenting-to-people/
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