During this season of Lent, I’ve been truly blessed to have helped manage and coordinate a daily digital devotional, with submissions from members and staff at the church where I work. In doing so, I’ve received new insight and appreciation for the personal stories of several church members and learned more about my own faith along the way. We’re nearly half-way through the Lenten season, and I’m honored that I’ve been able to write a handful of submissions to fill in some gaps in our daily devotional.
On Feb. 22, we published my first contribution. I wanted to save it here, but also share it out so that others — especially those, perhaps, who had similar church upbringings like mine — could have the benefit of hearing a different spin (repudiation?) on a commonly-used evangelistic tactic.
Those who were raised in the KJV-only, Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) community circa 20-30 years ago will likely find this experience familiar, and probably even personally recognize the face of the Gospel tract shared as this post’s featured image.
Good News: God’s Gift of Grace
by Matt Comer
February 22, 2024
Romans 3:21-31 (KJV, NIV, NRSVue, CEB)
“If you died right now do you know for sure that you would go to Heaven?”
That’s what was emblazoned in bold, red text on the front of the little Gospel tracts we’d distribute as we knocked door-to-door on “Soul-winning Thursdays.” The independent, fundamentalist Baptist church in which I grew up placed a high priority on certainty. The answer to that Gospel tract’s question was always a clearcut yes or no — no shades of gray or doubt were ever accepted.
“In one minute, I can explain to you how you can know for sure that if you died today you would go to Heaven. All you have to know are 4 things…”
This salvation theory was based on a dry and formulaic, fear-based logic. All one had to do was add up the right pieces and say and pray the right words in order to secure the only right and true answer saving you from an eternity of torment and hell. Know and understand those four components, then say a little prayer, and presto chango! You’re saved! Yet, their message never seemed to get to the Good News. If we somehow managed to get someone to church, all they’d hear were sermons fixated on sins and shortcomings, fire-and-brimstone condemnation, guilt, and God’s vengeance. Lessons on humility, grace, love, forgiveness, service, and fellowship were few and far between.
The first piece of their soul-winning formula is found in today’s Scripture passage: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
It took many years for me to unlearn this hostile understanding of God’s grace and salvation. I ran away from passages like this and other writings by Paul, because of the ways they’d been misused to abuse others, myself included. As I’ve grown older and I revisit these portions of Scripture, I’m repeatedly reminded of the true Good News I’ve come to understand from these passages.
Yes, we have all sinned. Yes, we all fall short of what God expects of us. But Paul didn’t end there. There’s a whole second part to that message! “…they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
A gift — a beautiful, treasured gift! We didn’t do anything to deserve it. We can’t ever do anything to earn it. It is there, wrapped in a beautiful and sparkling bow, waiting for us to accept it — not because we’re hated and loathed, but because we are loved! And, because we are loved beyond our wildest imaginations, we are saved and set apart — ordained to carry God’s life-giving Good News to others.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10, NRSVue)
As you can imagine, we had more doors closed in our face than opened to conversation back on those “Soul-winning Thursdays.” We were pointing people to Jesus, perhaps, but we certainly weren’t delivering Good News. Our news was of a god of fear and death, of rigid dogma and strict legalism. We were boasting, coercing, and threatening, and very bad at evangelism. Our actions — what should be the good works that flow from the wondrous gift of God’s grace — simply did not align with our words. We never got to the good part of the Good News.
During this Lent, I’m reflecting on what it means to be a witness for Christ and my responsibility in emulating the example Jesus set for us. How am I living my daily life so that others, seeing the joy of Christian living, might be drawn closer to God?1 Is my life a testament to our Living God of Good News?
Dear God,
Thank you for the gift of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for his example of love, service, and sacrifice for others. Thank you for allowing us the grace to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, worshiping you, and proclaiming your Good News to the poor and the oppressed. Help us remember the joy and peace we felt in receiving your grace and, in so doing, allow your Spirit to guide us in living our lives as a testament to your love. Amen.
- When I became a member at St. John’s Baptist Church, I was given a framed copy of our church covenant. I hung it up in my home office, and I consult it regularly as a reminder of my own responsibilities for my faith journey and to my home church, where it is also often referenced. This particular line of the devotional is directly inspired by a portion of that covenant: “We will, with God’s help, so live our lives that others, seeing the joy of Christian living, may seek to know Jesus Christ our Lord.” Read the full covenant here. ↩︎
