Last Sunday evening I preached on Romans 3:9-20. The effect of Paul's argument ought to be the shutting of our mouths and the realisation that we are, personally, on account of our sins, liable to prosecution. Paul has presented the witness of creation, the witness of our moral constitution, and the witness of God's revealed commands to demonstrate that we are all guilty and without excuse before God and therefore all in need of the gospel.
I began the sermon with a series of questions that are vital to think through. Until we do so we will never understand ourselves, our Maker, and where we stand before him. I think that they are important evangelistic questions, and I first heard them asked ten years ago by a friend in a kebab shop:
One of the most important questions we can ever ask is “What does God think of me?”
What does he think about my life? My attitudes? My actions and reactions? The way I treat people? The way that I treat him? Have you ever asked those questions? Do you think that he approves of you? Does he consider you and your ways acceptable? Have you ever seriously thought about those questions?
Actually most people spend their time considering what other people think of them (what they wear, how they look, what they think of you as a person). We want to know how we measure up in the eyes of others. In fact for some people that is a major source of tyranny, the concern with having someone else's approval.
But, when you think about it rationally, how could that compare with knowing what God thinks of us? Shouldn't that be of much greater concern to us?
What does my Maker think of me? What is his assessment of my life?
No comments:
Post a Comment