Answering Gospel Objections

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Gospel witness always meets with objections. The mind of the natural man is not only an idol factory, it is an objection factory. It fights hard against the truth. It argues against the truth. In fact, it has no capacity to submit to the truth. Romans 8:7 (ESV) 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. This is true whether the person being evangelized comes from a secular point of view, or from a religious point of view. Paul not only knows this; he has met with this; and he saw the need to prepare the church for it. God saves. But God saves through means. Salvation requires the new birth. But salvation does not bypass the mind. God uses His truth, presented in a way that answers questions. So, Paul writing to believers in the book of Romans, doesn’t just explain the gospel to the Roman Christians, he also answers the anticipated objections. By doing that, he not only strengthened the faith of the believer, by giving reasons for our hope; he also strengthened the witness of the believer, by giving answers to the objections that would surely come. In the earliest years of the church’s witness there were unique challenges to the gospel that had to be addressed. It was a very unique time. Unrepeatable. A nation of people who had been given a special status by God, and special privileges by God, had crucified their own king. They had rejected the very Messiah that God had prepared them for, promised to them, and then brought to them. And, in terms of what was happening in salvation history, the aftermath was astounding. The Old Covenant, under which God’s people had worshipped and served God for ages, was no longer in force. That is not to say that the Old Testament ceased to be the Word of God. Rather, it is to say that the Old Testament is now understood and obeyed in the light of the coming of Jesus Christ. All of the ceremonial elements of the law are fulfilled in Christ. The nation Israel is no longer the vehicle that God is using to make Himself known to the world. It is the church that is the pillar and support of the truth. There was a great transition that occurred in terms of corporate worship. Jesus spoke about it in His conversation with the woman at the well in John 4. John 4:21–24 (ESV) 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” No longer would worship occur that required the priests of Israel, or the sacrificial system, or the temple. WHAT THIS ALL MEANT, WHEN THE GOSPEL WAS PRESENTED TO A JEW, WAS THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE NATION HAD MISSED THE POINT OF THE LAW, AND THAT THE MERE POSSESSION OF THE LAW WOULDN’T SAVE, AND THAT PHYSICIAL CIRCUMCISION WAS NOT THE DISTINGUISHING MARK OF THE COMMUNITY OF FAITH. IT MEANT THAT THE JEW AND GENTILE STOOD ON EQUAL GROUND BEFORE GOD IN THEIR NEED FOR SALVATION.