THE UNFAIRNESS OF THE GOSPEL

 

Acts 9:1-19

In an article written in “Revive Our Hearts” this writer wrote, “Ted Bundy was convicted of killing thirty-six women and girls, making him one of the most notorious serial killers of all time. While waiting on death row for his execution, Ted turned his life over to Jesus and became a Christian. He repented publicly for his crimes and spent his final night praying with his pastor. Ted Bundy was a rapist. Ted Bundy was a murderer. Ted Bundy was a liar. Assuming Ted Bundy really did confess his sins and put his whole trust in Jesus, today Ted is in heaven with Jesus. Many people have questioned Ted's conversion. I guess it's hard for our minds to conceive that someone guilty of such evil could truly turn from their wicked ways and run toward Jesus. But I can only assume that Ted's decision to become a Christian was legit. If I'm honest, there's a part of me that is irritated by it. How could Jesus forgive a serial killer? That's not fair! God must have of known I would have this internal tug of war, because He addressed it often in His Word. Though not an easy pill to swallow, here is some hard-hitting truth about who really deserves the gospel and how to wrap our heads around the fairness of God.”

 

Is God fair in forgiving such people? In our selfish, finite minds we would say, “No”, they don’t deserve to be forgiven, they deserve to rote in Hell for all eternity. So, the question comes down to this! Then who deserves to be in Heaven according to you?

People like you?

People who are good looking and wealthy people?

People who claim they are a good person?

People who tithe and attend church regularly?

People who do good deeds, humanitarian?

People who are Senator fans only?

 

By what standard do you make that claim? Because the Scriptures reveal this about every person created in the image of God. “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Rom 3:10-12

 

This puts every single one of us, at odds with a holy God, apart from His saving grace found in Christ alone. We are the ones who are helpless, lost, destitute, and deserving of eternal punishment because of our rebellion and sin. We are the ones who don’t get to choose who will be in Heaven, because we don’t deserve heaven any more then Ted Bundy. We all need a Saviour, this is why He came. The gospel exposes my arrogance, and reveals to me that my heart is lost and desperately needs Him to forgive me. See, the reality is the Good News is for all people because we have all fallen short of the glory of God. “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:8-11

 

Jesus said, “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15-16

 

The gospel is for sinners and for most of us, there is a part of our hearts that questions if God's grace should really extend to those kinds of people. The problem with this thinking is that we are looking through the lenses of a fallible person, who is a natural born sinner. An example of this is when Jesus is sitting with sinners and the religious elites are disgusted with Him for doing that. “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matt 9:9-13

 

Jesus came to save sinners!  Are you a sinner? If you can’t answer that question then the gospel means nothing to you. Because you are saying you’re not a sinner. You’re not a sinner like Ted Bundy, Mike Andrews or someone else, if they don’t line up to your standards of Christianity. Jesus, came to save you from His wrath and judgment which He will pour out in the end on those who are not His. God is pure, holy, and just, in everything He does because He is God, and not fallen man. As one writer wrote, “The gospel is not about making clean lives even cleaner. It's not about making good people even better good people. It is about extending undeserved grace to those who have earned death because of their sin. The end result is that we get to become more like Jesus.”

 

If we continue to look at the crimes and sins of humanity we will come to the conclusion no one is worthy of this grace and that is the point of the gospel. Take the thief on the cross, he was mocking Jesus as they hung on their cross and in the next breath, he is asking Jesus what? “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Luke 23:39-42. And what did Jesus say in return? And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43

 

Did that thief deserve paradise let alone

God’s grace for his evil?

 

If your answer under your breath is no, then you don’t deserve it either. That’s the point when it comes to the gospel. That thief didn't deserve paradise, he never did a single thing to earn God’s grace, more or less forgiveness. He didn't go to church, didn't lead a Bible study, didn't pay back the money he had stolen . . . but God's grace was poured out over him because his heart was convicted with repentance. The gospel does just that, God offers it to us freely because He loves us, not because we've done anything to earn it. The bottom line is that the gospel isn't fair, and not one of us deserve the gift of grace that God so freely offers. The gospel isn’t unfair, its pure grace. Justice means getting what you deserve, while grace means receiving a gift or goodness you did not earn. Caleb and Sol wrote, “A guilty man set free on account of another is that justice? No, that's grace.

God is exceedingly fair.

He treats no one wrongly.

 

What is before us in this chapter is explosive, and off the charts crazy, that God would save an evil man like Saul. A man who was zealot for the Law of God but a hater towards those who followed Jesus. (v1-v2) In the view of the church this man was a “Terrorist”, Saul was described in the Scriptures by some translations as “one who breathing out fire.” This imagery is like a evil fire breathing dragon that seeks to devour or destroy. Breathing threats of murder and destruction, Saul was passionately consumed with persecuting the church community of Jesus Christ. And now that Christianity was growing outside of Jerusalem this caused him to seek the permission all the more to go and bring them in for justice. (v1) So, Saul was hell-bent on destroying Christianity, he set out to Damascus, the ancient city of Syria, which had a large Jewish population, this is evident by the massacre of ten to twenty thousand Jews in AD 66.

 

What we see happen next is exactly what we read in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” God can use those hard times to bring about something good; the church will face great persecution but God brings about something good. Salvation in this man was used for the glory of God from this point on, and he doesn’t even know as he heads out to destroy Christianity. (v3-v9) The question could be asked? Was Saul looking to get saved? Did he deserve to be saved by God? The obvious answer would be “No” He was adamant in arresting Christians, and bringing them back to Jerusalem to be slaughtered for their blasphemous faith in Jesus. Here is the absolute beauty of the gospel, and the power of God unto salvation. What plans Saul had to win favour with God, were not what God would have for him from this point on for the rest of his earthly ministry. The Lord Jesus, Himself confronts Saul, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “Saul, Saul,” is repeated as a sign of personal intimacy, I know you and why are you hurting Me?

 

We read in the Scripture other examples of this personal intimacy. 

When God called out of the burning bush, “Moses, Moses.”

When Abraham was at Mount Mariah and was just about to stab his son on the altar, the voice of God came to him, saying, “Abraham, Abraham.”

When Elisha stood on the earth and watched the ascent of Elijah, he said, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel!”

When David mourned the loss of his son, he cried “Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!”

Jesus on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me.”

 

Jesus at the end of the Sermon on the Mount said that many people on the last day would come and say, “Lord, Lord”, that is, their hypocrisy would be clothed in this hypocritical form of the repeated address, claiming intimacy with Jesus. Not just a passing knowledge of Him, they’ll say, “Lord, Lord!” Jesus will say, “Depart from Me; I never knew you.”

 

Over and over and over again we see this, and it’s always an expression, in the Hebrew tongue, of profound personal intimacy. This was meant to bring anguish to Saul for his crimes against God; this was to point him the heinousness of his crimes before God. This statement from God reflects the inseparable link between Himself, and the His body, the church. Every single act of persecution Saul inflicted on the church was a ultimately being inflicted upon Christ, Himself. Jesus showed him, that hurting His followers is the same as hurting Jesus Himself, because believers and Christ are connected as one body. As Paul would write, “And He is the Head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.” Col 1:18. (v4) in his shame Saul is kneeing on the ground cries out. “Who are you?” this was the beginning stages of Saul’s conversion, orchestrated by God’s sovereign grace. All this time he thought he was doing the Lord’s work, revealed he was against God all along, as the Lord reveals Himself to Saul, by the name Jesus Christ. 

Saul’s worst nightmare came true as God revealed Into his heart the Christ. Christianity was true, the gospel was God’s truth, and he has been fighting God when Jesus revealed Himself to Saul. As God opened his eyes to see Christ and the grace of the gospel, yet he couldn’t see anything for the rest of the journey for three days. (v8-v9) As the hymn song “I once was blind but now I see” It’s here by God divine plan that God sends a man named Annias, to go and prepare Saul for God’s work. (v9-v10)

 

This reveals to us that when God saved

sinners no one is too far gone.

 

But its here Annias questions God about this man named Saul. (v13-V14) He is a really bad man, why do you want me to go to him? What does this question reveal to you and me? The gospel isn’t fair! Why him, of all people, Lord? And here, “Why Him, why you”  is revealed! God did this for one man and even the hardest of hearts can be saved. The story of Saul’s spiritual transformation ought to remind us never to write anyone off as being beyond the love of Christ, yourself included. There is hope for you, and others, who think they are too far gone for God to even save you. That is the great lie from Satan, that’s exactly what he wants you to think. “Did God really say? Does God really love you? Does Jesus really save you from anything? He is a liar from the beginning, and many believe that lie, because this world system blinds them to the truth of God and His redemption. God responds to Annias by saying “He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry My Name before the Gentiles.” (v15-v16) “chosen instrument” The word "instrument" or "vessel" means a tool in God's hands to do His work. Understand as John MacArthur wrote, “The call to the ministry is not based on the whims of men but on the sovereign choice of God.”

 

This answer God said, Annais knew, that is why he went as the Lord told him. (v17) Saul knew this as well when he would write to the church, “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” Gal 1:1. Not only was he chosen by God, he would also suffer, not as a punishment for his past crimes, but for the sake of the true gospel. (v16) 

2 Cor 11:18-31 catalogs the sufferings that soon to be Paul, would endure for the sake of the gospel.

And every bit of suffering he endured Paul would praise God for His goodness and grace in his life. “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.” 2 Cor 11:24-31

 

It is hard to imagine anyone more unlikely to become God’s chosen instrument to proclaim the gospel he sought so zealously to destroy. Yet he did. The men that Jesus chose to proclaim the kingdom of God to the world varied greatly. They ranged from men like Peter the fisherman, Matthew the tax collector, Simon the revolutionary, and Saul/Paul the persecutor. Jesus, took what they were and transformed them; and Jesus used them to transform the world of their day. And same can be said of you and me. 

What a massive change of plans for Saul,

and even for Annias to witness.

It’s funny how the road we travel can be so different from the one we mapped out. Detours lead us in unexpected directions. That is true for all of us, I can completely relate since selling our home, leaving our jobs to pursue ministry that God called me to. God’s ways are much greater than my ways, praise God for that, a God, “who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.” Rev 3:7. Life is the chisel God uses to shape the character of his Son in us, it’s about coming to look more and more like Jesus. (v18-V19) Its here Saul enjoyed his first taste of Christian fellowship, a privilege not a right; an absolute joy to be with God’s people as he stayed there several days. The plans we had, or have, can be changed on a dime and its humbling, I have been humbled many times by God when it comes to going and where He wants us to be, versus where I want to go.

They are painful and discouraging at times, but in the end, it produces such fruit, because its all about Him, and not me. Take John Newton, I am always blown away with his testimony as God humbled, an evil, sinful man to his knees to see, and taste, the grace of God, when He saved him by amazing grace. John Newton openly admitted he was rebellious and lived a life of depravity. For several years he worked on a slave ship, captured slaves for sale to plantations. His lowest point he became a slave himself, captive by another slave trader. Later in life he would be a captain of is own ship troubled by the reading a book by Thomas Kempis which led to his conversion. It is from there he to become a leader in the evangelical movement in the eighteenth century in England, alongside the Wesley brothers, George Whitefield and William Willberforce. On John Newton’s tombstone, are the words he wanted inscribed on them… “John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and Libertine, a servant of slavers in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach faith He had labored to destroy.” When he penned “Amazing Grace” he knew firsthand the truths it proclaimed. Amazing grace (how sweet the sound) that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

God makes then a new person and

gives them a new purpose.

Is the gospel unfair? Yes. Because He saved me, and that’s what makes the gospel all the more precious to me, because He called me, even when I didn’t deserve it. God came to save bad people, some worse than others, but ultimately, we are all bad. But Christ is infinitely Perfect; and the gospel changed all that when He died on the cross for the sins of the world. Paul would later confess to Timothy in his letters to him about God saving him. “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 

1 Tim 1:12-15

 

Praise God for making the gospel unfair, because all glory goes to Him, in saving us by unmerited grace. The question I want to leave with you to think about is this…. If a repentant mass-persecutor of Christians came to our church, would you be ready to accept them? Only when you truly understand the gospel will you be able to give an answer to that question.