The Quantifiable Gospel

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Little games
present themselves on a popular social media site—one I’ll not name. It’s the site
where some people scroll at length when they ought to have their face in a book
instead. No, I’m not bashing social media. It offers valuable information,
contact with friends, opportunities for marketing, videos of adorable animals,
and glorious pictures displaying the splendor of our world. It also provides a
platform to share our convictions, whatever they may be.
But back to
those games—innocent little quizzes designed to help you learn more about
yourself. They’re laughable and rarely accurate. Nobody’s gullible enough to
take them seriously. I admit I’m more an observer than a participant, so I’ve
never clicked on such a quiz. But I have been amused by the results quantified for
some of my friends. Then I scroll on and snicker at a kitten smacking a
Rottweiler’s nose. I don’t like Rottweilers.
Neither do I
appreciate it when a simple game meant for entertainment perpetuates a common
misunderstanding of the gospel. So, I wasn’t amused when I noticed a quiz titled,
“Are you Going to Heaven or Hell?”

One of my
online friends had taken the test and the results totaled about 120 deeds under
“sins” and 500,000 or so “good deeds.” This meant my friend was well prepared
for eternity. Good outweighed bad and the gates of Heaven were opened.
Promptly considering
my own life, and the lives of the Christians in my real-world circles, I
concluded 120 sins was probably a low number, and 500,000 good deeds seemed a
stretch. Using these quantities, 4,166 good deeds were needed to cancel out one
sin. Of course, it’s not to be taken to heart. Christians who know anything
know their salvation is not based on works, but on the finished work of Christ.
But that harmless little quiz might give somebody the idea their long-held
belief that good people go to Heaven was right after all.
Before I’d
moved past my indignation over the “Heaven or Hell” quiz, another post shared
on social media muddied the matter even further. This one came from a teacher
of the Word, from a supposedly trustworthy site aimed at Christian edification.
The quiz—however misleading it might have been—was just for fun. But this
devotional piece was meant to reach into the minds of God’s elect, the ones
saved by grace.
The lesson
of the day: your salvation is not assured. If you sin, you need to get saved
again. Do we live a cycle of sin—repent—get saved—sin—get unsaved—repent— get saved—sin—get
unsaved, and on and on until we die? If this is how to quantify the gospel,
then on any given day I could get hit by a bus and go to Hell because I sinned just
before stepping into the street and I didn’t get a chance to repent.
That’s not
the gospel I know. It carries the same fallacy as the quiz. One suggests your
good deeds will get you into Heaven. The other claims that even though you’ve been redeemed, your bad deeds might keep
you out of Heaven. Both hang on the deeds of the one seeking salvation, rather
than on the unmerited favor of the giver of salvation. 
For by grace
you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians
2:8,9
I’m not very
good at math, so I’m sure I’d get it wrong if I tried to cancel out my bad
deeds with good ones. And while I know when I’ve sinned it might take me a few
minutes, or longer, to allow the kindness of God to lead me to
repentance. And a bus might hit me. I’m glad the gospel is quantified in the
simplest terms. The good deeds and the bad don’t figure into the equation.
Neither does the up-to-date repentance ledger.
That doesn’t
mean I can forget about good works and confession. It means my good works grow
out of love for my savior. It means I confess with thanksgiving because the
price for my sins was paid once and for all. To add to the gospel is to
subtract from it until all you have is a knock-off. An imitation. Here’s a calculation
shared among Christians who meet in the cyber world and in the church building,
and if the gospel must be quantified, this is the only solution:
Jesus +
nothing = everything.
Contemplate the good and the bad going on in your life. God cares and so should you. Repent
of your sins as soon as you can. That’s what you’re supposed to do. But don’t
give up your freedom in Christ to live in fear of not bringing enough to the
equation, because there is nothing you can bring. If you’re His, He’s got you
covered.
“Truly, truly, I
say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has
eternal life. He does not come into judgment,                                but has passed from
death to life.”
John 5:24

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