Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Must a person understand that he or she is a sinner in order to be saved? How about admitting—is it necessary to admit that you are a sinner to be saved? Is forgiveness of sins the main issue in the acquiring of eternal life? This is Grace in Focus and thank you, friend, for joining us today. Grace in Focus is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find us at faithalone.org. A website full of information about us and how we can serve you. One thing you’ll find there is our magazine published six times per year, a beautiful magazine with great articles and it’s free. We want you to have it. It is also called Grace in Focus and all you need to do is sign up for it on our website. It is free all except if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States you have to pay the postage. Once again, we want you to have it. Find it. Get signed up at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here’s Bob Wilkin along with Ken Yates. 

KEN: Bob, we have a question from Carol, a question that, we get this all the time. It’s worded in different ways. And we also see it in gospel tracts and certainly in gospel presentations, even in the Southern Baptist Convention, when they give the gospel a lot of times their tracts, say ABC and the A is—

BOB: Admit you’re a sinner. 

KEN: Admit you’re a sinner. And that’s the question that Carol is asking here. She refers to her daughter and son and they have told her that a person must understand they are a sinner before they could be saved. And obviously what she means by that is receiving eternal life. And the question is very simply, is that true? 

BOB: Okay. So first off, let’s admit that in Christianity in general, I’d say well north of 99% would say yes, right? Roman Catholics would say yes. Eastern Orthodox would say yes, well unless of course in their view, you get into the church by infant baptism. So maybe you don’t need to admit you’re a sinner when you’re three months old. 

But if you’re entering as an adult, yeah, you would have to admit you’re a sinner before you could be baptized. And in their view, they believe that you enter the church via baptism. But you would also find that among Calvinists, right? Most Protestants, and I would say even in free grace circles, many if not most of them would say you need to recognize you’re a sinner and that Jesus’ death on the cross pays for your sin problem and that He has removed the sin barrier. 

I remember I had a friend who has a doctorate from Dallas Seminary and he met with our board. I think you were there. One of the things he said is, Christ died on the cross potentially for the sin of the whole world, but actually, it only counts for those who believe He died for their sins. 

KEN: Right. And so you’d have to recognize you’re a sinner if he’s right on that. 

BOB: So that’s a limited atonement. And he said, oh, no, no, no, no, I went to Dallas Seminary. That’s what you call unlimited atonement. I said, no, if you’re saying that Christ’s death only counts if you believe it, then that’s limited atonement. That’s what the Calvinists say, right? It’s only the elect believe, but still. And of course, they say belief is a gift, and you know, yada, yada.

But my point is when you’re getting to Christianity, how many people would agree with Carol’s kids and say, yeah, you have to admit you’re a sinner. Well, part of the problem with that is they make the issue in terms of being born again are sins. They don’t make the issue our being dead. 

KEN: We don’t have life. 

BOB: Right. If the issue is we’re dead, we need life. Then what we do is, we would go to the gospel of John and we would say okay, what did Jesus do? When He talked to Nicodemus, how many times in John 3:1 through 18 did He mention sin?

KEN: Zero.

BOB: Zero. That seems kind of odd if it’s essential. How many times did he mention sin with the woman at the well in John 4:1 through 26?

KEN: Zero.

BOB: Zero. Now he did mention she’s had five husbands and she’s married, but he didn’t mention that to prove she was a sinner. He mentioned that to prove he was the Messiah. 

KEN: He knew all about her. He was showing that he knew. 

BOB: Yeah, and she went on and said, “Come see a man who knows all things. Could this be the Messiah?” And so you don’t find that in John 5, John 6. You don’t find it anywhere. When Jesus talks to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He doesn’t say anything about sin. 

Sin is never an issue when Jesus is proclaiming the saving message, the message of life in John’s gospel. Nor is it a message in Ephesians 2:8-9, where do you have sin there? You don’t. Where do you have it in what must they do to be saved? Acts 16:30, the answer? 

KEN: You don’t. And by the way, on that one— 

BOB: You don’t get sin. 

KEN: Like take for example the guy in Acts 16:30, Philippian jailer. Now it doesn’t go into his life, but here is a pagan jailer in Philippi in the Roman world. My guess is he wasn’t a very morally upstanding person. 

BOB: He’s certainly ready to kill himself. 

KEN: Exactly. He’s ready to commit suicide. He lives in this pagan culture and wouldn’t Paul say, hey, listen, you need to understand you’re a sinner before I tell you what you can be saved and he doesn’t. And I think that’s very telling. And so yes. 

BOB: Now a lot of people hearing this, you’re probably saying, but Bob and Ken, if someone doesn’t recognize they’re sinner, how would they think they need a Savior? Don’t we need a Savior from our sins? 

KEN: Yeah, that’s very common to hear. What is He a Savior from? 

BOB: Right. Of course, that’s what lordship salvation says. Therefore, if you’re still living in your sinful lifestyle, He’s not saved you. And so what they say is you must turn from your sins and clean up your life in order to be saved. 

KEN: And if you’re going to clean up your life and turn from your sins, then obviously you got to know that you’re a sinner. You got to know that these things that you’re doing are sinful activities before you can turn from them. 

BOB: Having said all that based on John chapter 16, verses 8 through 11, where the Lord Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, I take it that it’s universal that people already know their sinners. Now, in some cases, they suppress it. I’ve met people who say they’re not sinners, you know, because they become humanists or whatever and they don’t believe there is life after death, they don’t believe God. And it’s pretty hard to sin if there’s no God, right? 

ANNOUNCER: We will rejoin in just a moment. But years ago, Zane Hodges wrote the Gospel Under Siege. Sadly, this is still true. And GES president Bob Wilkin has recently written its sequel. Bob’s new book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege, is a book about theological clarity on the Biblical teaching about eternal salvation. It is available now. Secure yours today at the Grace Evangelical Society’s Bookstore. Find it at faithalone.org/store. That’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s content.

KEN: Do you take that in John 16 when he says concerning their sin because they do not believe in Me? Or are you saying it’s their actions? In other words, is the Spirit convicting the unbeliever of unbelief, because they do not believe in Him? That that’s the sin that He’s convicting them of? Or are you saying He’s convicting—

BOB: Is that the way you take that? 

KEN: I take the sin there of the unbelief. 

BOB: Yeah, see, I think it’s saying He convicts them of sin because they don’t believe in Me, meaning that they recognize they’re dead in their sins. Remember, He says, if you don’t believe I am He will die in your sins, John 8:24. I don’t think He’s saying you’re going to die because of your sins, although that’s true. Believers die because of it, right? The wages of sin is physical death. And we all die physically. I think what the Lord was saying there is, if you don’t believe I am He, you will go to the grave as a slave of sin. That’s why he says in John 8:30-32, the truth will set you free—

KEN: From the power of sin. You no longer have to serve it. 

BOB: And then they say, well, we’ve never been slaves of anyone, not those believers, but the unbelievers and Jesus says, he who is a slave of sin is enslaved. Of course, in Romans 6, Paul says, we’ve been set free from sin’s bondage. We’re now slaves of righteousness. 

KEN: Talking to the believer.

BOB: Right. But in order to experience that, you must yield your members to God as instruments of righteousness—

KEN: By walking by the Spirit. 

BOB: Right. And you must reckon yourselves dead to sin. So it seems to me that what the Lord was saying when He said, “Convict the world concerning sin” is, I don’t think that sin is what produces spiritual death or He’s trying to say that. I think what He’s saying is that I am a slave of sin. And that’s what He convicts people of. And it’s because I don’t believe in Him that I’m a slave of sin. 

Now it could be the way you’re saying. It sounds like what you’re saying then is convicting them, sin is convicting them of unbelief? 

KEN: Yeah, the sin of unbelief, that’s a problem that they need to believe in Him. 

BOB: That’s possible. I’ve never heard that. Maybe you need to write a book on that. But I’m open. But it seems to me that from what I’ve heard on missionaries, et cetera, that it’s widespread that when a missionary shows up with a people that have never heard a word from the Bible, they already have the concept that they fall short of God’s glory. 

KEN: Certainly in our generation, it would have been very, very, very hard to find anybody, I’m talking about unbelievers, who didn’t realize, because we grew up in a Judeo-Christian culture. Now it may be different with a more postmodern culture. I suppose that an unbeliever today in a postmodern world would be like, well, there is no right or there is no wrong. But most of the people that we’re familiar with, they already knew they were sinners, to piggyback on what you said earlier. 

BOB: Right, so if you’re going to witness to someone who’s a church person, let’s say Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, they’re Mormon, they’re Jehovah’s Witness, they all believe they’re sinners. Muslims believe they’re sinners, right? The people of most religions believe that they’re sinners. So in most cases, we don’t need to convince anybody that they’re sinners. And even if we do, there’s a problem. 

Because let’s say I start out saying, you know, you’re a murderer, you’re an adulterer, you’re an immoral person, you’re this or that and they want the person to get that. Where is the emphasis in our evangelistic presentation, if that’s where we start?

KEN: On our works. 

BOB: Right. And so you’re basically giving the impression you need to turn from your sins. And not only that, what I would say is, Jesus took care of our sin issue. It’s no longer a barrier. John 1:20, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Once He died on the cross, sin is no longer the issue. That’s what I would tell people, but that’s not what these people say. 

KEN: Exactly. They say sin is the issue. 

BOB: They say sin is the issue. And you need to turn from it. And you need to promise that you’re not going to continue to live that old way. You need to live the new life. Jesus never started with sin. Not only didn’t He start with sin, He didn’t bring it up in the whole conversation. 

KEN: Think about, do we evangelize children? If you got, you know, an eight or nine year old, I got to let you know how big a sinner you are. And they’re thinking, well, I did what, pull my sister’s hair, pony tail? I mean, what does that look like? And how much of your sin do you have to realize, how big a sinner do you realize you have to be? 

BOB: And who made sin the issue? Pastors makes sin the issue, not the Bible. We don’t find the Lord or the apostles saying that sin is the issue in evangelism. 

KEN: Well, Carol, what Bob and I are telling you is you can tell your daughter and your son that they’re wrong. The issue is not to admit you’re a sinner or to be, even though many unbelievers already do it. But the issue is the unbeliever does not have life. They do not have eternal life. 

BOB: Have them point people to the gospel of John. 

KEN: Have them read John 3.

BOB: And have them pray about it. Lord, is it really that simple? Because there’s nothing in here about I need to clean up my life, I need to turn from my sins, I need to admit I’m an ABC. 

KEN: Right. Jesus talking to Nicodemus, you must be born from above by believing in Christ for eternal life. There it is. It’s that simple. Thank you for the question, Carol. And we hope this helps. And remember, keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Be sure to check out our daily blogs at faithalone.org. They are short and full of great teaching, just like what you’ve heard today. Find them at faithalone.org/resources/blog. We would love to hear from you. Maybe you’ve got a question, comment, or some feedback. If you do, please don’t hesitate to send us a message. Here’s our email address. It’s radio@faithalone.org. That’s radio@faithalone.org. And when you do, very important. Please let us know your radio station call letters and the city of your location.

On our next episode: is the new covenant operative today? Please join us. And until then, let’s keep grace in focus.