This week on the Evangelist Podcast, we're talking about the wonderful news that we're condemned already.
SPEAKER_01The Evangelist Podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you. With Andy Brinkley and Glenn Scrivener.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to the Evangelist Podcast. We're looking at uh the wonderful news that we're condemned already. What do you mean by that, Glenn?
SPEAKER_00Uh well, we're kind of in a series where we're kind of exploding some myths really about uh about evangelism. We talked about the you know the terrible danger of uh being polished. The dread the terrible trap of talking about God. Uh last week we we thought about the pitiful practice of gaining converts. So we're being mischievous here, but it's the titles you're going for. It's the ty it's the titles we're going for. Grabbing people. Yeah. Um but you know, I think Yeah, there is there is good news actually to the fact that we're condemned already, and we'll try and unpack that.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So where does the phrase condemned already come from?
SPEAKER_00Uh so in John chapter three, straight after Jesus, you know, spoke the most famous verse in the Bible, God so loved the world he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Then verse 17 says, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Then verse 18, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. So you've got here, you know, God loving the world, but the world is condemned already. Uh lost in sin, uh cut off from God, separated, estranged in the dark. Uh, and John chapter three, verse eighteen is emphatic. Humanity is condemned already. The verdict has already been handed down, the sentence is already already passed, uh the human race is already lost. The gavel has fallen, uh court is adjourned, there's no higher judge, there's no appeals process, there's no loopholes, there's no going back, there's no ifs or buts, or it we're just condemned. Perfectly, completely, irreversibly condemned. And you know, you you you want to ask, you know, are you a human being? Yes, well then you're condemned. Condemned already. Uh if you want a retrial, stiff bickies, as they say in Australia, um that's it, that's you. In the world we are condemned already. So uh being condemned already is is terrible news, isn't it? Uh no. Uh actually, really counterintuitively, um there is good news here, and um we unpacked a little bit of it when we um talked about uh two in the gospel presentation three two one, that was episode twenty-eight, we talked about Adam and being born into Adam. But it's essentially the the good news of being condemned already is the good news that actually my behavior does not determine eternity. If if I was born you know into a neutral state, in which, okay, it's everything to play for, and maybe if I do enough good deeds, they'll outweigh my bad deeds, and God's gonna grade me on a curve, and and maybe um that would be a crushing weight on me, um, and none of us are in a position to actually earn that kind of salvation. You know, you can spit at the moon um all you like, but you'll just you know end up with an eye full of spit. You know, you you can't make those sorts of choices that are gonna earn your way to heaven. We might think it'd be great if I was born in a neutral state and I just had to earn my way. Actually, that would be the terrible news. That would be the horrible news. The good news is we're condemned already. All of us. All of us. And and and so it's a very level playing field. Uh very level playing field. Um the the good news is the only thing you need in order to be saved uh is to be a sinner. Right? Like that's that's the one contribution we make to the equation, you know. When Jesus looks at us and he says, Well, I've got I've got salvation for you. What what have you got to offer me? Oh really, all we've got is is to be a sinner. Good news, everyone's a sinner. Like everyone. We're we're already born in sin, already born in Adam. We're actually already born into uh our qualification for salvation. You know, this is this is actually a truth that enfranchises the world. The whole world is condemned already apart from our behavior. Our behavior, according to Jesus, is is like the fruit that comes out of us. But our being is like the tree that we are. And the Bible says that we are born in uh bad trees. We're born as bad trees, and that is our being, and and the amount of fruit that we kind of produce as those bad trees is of secondary importance. What is absolutely decisive eternally is what kind of tree we are. Our being is what's important, not our doing. And so the good news comes in at this point because it says, well, listen, it doesn't matter how many good deeds you try to do. You know, doing good deeds is like tr trying to staple plums onto a cactus and and trying to pass it off as a plum tree. I've never tried that kind of thought. It doesn't work. It's not fooling anyone. And uh but that's that's that's what it is to try to earn your salvation when you don't understand this truth of being uh condemned already. So the good news is there's nothing you can do to be saved. The even better news, obviously, is that a saviour has been provided to you in your sunken states, there in the pits, absolutely condemned, nothing you can do about it. Jesus is offered to you right there, and at that at that stage, being condemned already starts to be good news.
SPEAKER_02So what are the implications then for evangelism?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think massive implications for evangelism. So much of our evangelism kind of treats listeners as though they are spiritual consumers who are shopping around and they're trying to make a good decision, and you're trying to make a sale, so you're trying to, you know, give the benefits of Christianity, and and you know, now we're thirty percent more salvation than the Buddhists. And like and and what we're assuming about our listeners is that they have these capacities for for choosing life. Which again is like thinking that the cactus has the ability to produce the plums. It it just it just doesn't. But so much of what we do in evangelism is is kind of play to a perceived capacity that our listeners have for for choosing rightly. But instead, if if we believe that we're condemned already, then then really we are addressing condemned criminals who are in the dock and the gavel's already fallen and they're about to be marched off to their punishments, and at that point we come running into the courtroom with the pardon. Like, here's the king's pardon, like it's for you, have it, take it, take it, take it, take it, take it. And you know, and at that point only a fool would not, you know, would would not take that. But um it's it's far more that's that's what evangelism is, as opposed to treating unbelievers as these mighty decision makers with eternity in their hands. Um no, actually they're they're lost. And and in a sense, we don't sort of preach to them so much that there is a a a future judgment hanging over them, though though that that is true, that's absolutely true, but it's also something that they're already sunk in. It's also something that they already know. You know, um Jesus goes on in John chapter three to say the wrath of God remains on this world and rests on this world. And you know, I've had non-Christians tell me, you know, that I just feel cursed. I just feel cursed. And and and actually I think they are feeling something of that condemned already kind of thing. And and and I think when we do evangelism, I I think if we bear in mind that we're talking to no matter how erudite they seem, no matter how much they think they are the clever one, you might be talking to uh an atheist with, you know, 17 PhDs to their name and and that kind of thing. But actually, at the core of our heart we should be thinking, this person is pitiable, this person is condemned already, this person needs help. Not so much great arguments at this point, but news of a pardon. So I I think it has massive implications for the for the way that we do evangelism. We're we're not looking for so much for decisions from neutral consumers where we're offering rescue to lost sinners. So how would you actually sort of practically explain this to non-Christians? Uh yeah, it's tricky, isn't it? Because uh some sometimes people kind of hear what what you're saying and they go, Oh, is that that ancient medieval, like horrible doctrine called original sin? Is that what you're talking about? And at that stage I usually sort of say, Well, what do you mean by original sin? And and usually they say, Well, it's that that nasty medieval doctrine that babies are born evil and they need to have their sins washed away in baptism, and that's why that's why they baptize babies and that kind of thing. Um and at that stage you go, nope, nope, nope, no, it's not that, it's not that. Let me tell you what it is. And and sometimes, you know, I use my own story and and kind of say, you know, Anne Forbes, my great-great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, um, stole ten yards of printed cotton from a London market and she was deported to Australia. And so here's this one woman who committed one crime and she was exiled for it, and now I was born, like seven generations later, I was born in exile. I was born far from the mother country. And what's sort of being condemned already is is saying is that, you know, just as I didn't s like sit a test in order to become Australian, we don't sit a test in order to be saved or damned or anything like that. It's it's just we're we're just born in exile. We just are. Now that might start to sound like really bad news, except that in this story, the king wants to join us in exile. Okay? So it might be terrible news. If I was if I was born in Australia and what I needed to do was by hook or by crook, I need to get back to England, then that's that's tricky. But what if the gospel is the king decides to exile himself and join me in God's country, Australia, which obviously he would want to. Um that because that's actually the gospel. The the gospel is Romans chapter 11, verse 32, God has bound all people over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. God puts us in that position of being condemned already, so that we qualify for his salvation. So that, you know, the one qualification for salvation is you've got to be a sinner. Are you a sinner? Ah, everyone is. Everyone qualifies. So I'd I'd start talking in those sorts of terms. And I'd also this is useful in all kinds of evangelism and answering all kinds of questions, but um asking the person, well, what what would it be like if the opposite was the case? So if someone says, Oh, yuck, born condemned already, horrible. Just start to think with them, okay, well what what would it be like if the opposite were the case? What would it be like if we were born neutral? If we were born neutral, then suddenly we we live in a world in which performance is everything, and God is waiting with a clipboard to assess, you know, how you develop this blank slate that he's given he's given you a chance, you know, how are you gonna develop this? But if you go for the born in sin position, actually you're you're in a in a world in which God's grace is everything. You know, you're living in a world in which to use the illustration about going to Australia, in in which you're just banking on the king to emigrate. And then suddenly it's not really about you and your behaviour, it's about the king and what he's gonna do. So actually initially it might sound like the harsh option is the condemned already option. Actually, the born neutral position is the really harsh doctrine, especially once you become aware of your own sin. Like if I'm aware that I am I am a sinner, which world do I want to live in? If you know that you are a sinner, do you want to live in a world in which you've got to earn it? Or do you want to live in a in a world in which you must bank on the grace of God? Like which world do you want to live in? And at that stage, if if you've got your wits about you, if you're a sinner, you want to live in the world in which original sin is true, actually. So one of the things to do is is just to sort of talk about, okay, well, the whole Adam thing. You might not think that's true. You might not think that's fair, but do you think it's happening? Do you think that you actually do perpetrate the sins of Adam today? Like do you do you think that just as Adam was suspicious, you're suspicious? Do you think that just as Adam was selfish, you're selfish? Do you think that just as Adam was self-justifying, you self-justify? Uh let's talk about your sins now. Do you do you do you recognise that you're a sinner now? Okay, if you do recognise you're a sinner now, then I've got good news for you. It's good news called condemned already. It's good news called original sin. Um I think one of the reasons why we don't like the idea of original sin is because we don't think we're sinners. If we don't think we're sinners, then maybe being born neutral is good news because, you know, there's still life in the old girl yet, and maybe I can climb to heaven. But if you are very aware that you are a sinner, it's wonderful news that you're condemned already. Because, you know, the the the verses in John 3 uh in which the condemned already thing uh are framed, it it's all about God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. That whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jesus comes, you know, in in the analogy about England and Australia, Jesus is the King who having exiled our forefather, then comes and joins us and makes, you know, Australia into the into God's own country. Makes Australia into into you know paradise, who would have thought? Um and and at that stage, the world that you want to live in is the world in which condemned already is true. Because the flip side of condemned already i i is that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Um there's good news to be had once we understand that we're condemned already.
SPEAKER_02So uh you've talked about people who would say that they're born neutral rather than born in sin, but what about people who believe they're born perfect? Yeah. Because some people say, Well, you know, I'm I'm I'm good enough for God, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm I'm I'm going to heaven.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And at that point, don't seek to convince them of original sin, just seek to convict them of present sin, and that shouldn't be too hard. I don't Well Well, I mean, all these kinds of things are works of the Holy Spirit, but you know, it wasn't wasn't that Spurgeon who had somebody come up to him and and somebody came up to Spurgeon and and said that he had attained Christian perfection and and Spurgeon just stepped on his toe and the man swore and not suggesting that that's that's that's not definitely the thing that you should do. But yeah, I think at that at that stage, um yeah, we're just we're just seeking to to convince convince people that they are not the people that they ought to be. You know, and we we fail even our own standards, don't we? There was the great illustration that was used by um Francis Schaefer. He said, just just imagine if all your life you had a little tape recorder hanging around your neck, and every time you ever told someone what they should do, the tape recorder made a made a a recording of it. You know, you could update the illustration and say there's an app on your phone or something. Like an on your phone, this app records every single judgment you make of somebody else. If you if you ever say you shouldn't raise your child children like that, that's dreadful. You know. And and it just sort of accumulates all these judgments that you've made of other people. This is not about God's judgment of humankind. It's just it's just you know the the judgments that you make. And then imagine that judgment day was just Jesus hitting play on all the judgments that you've made. Like, how would we fare? Even even using our own standards, and like none of us, none of us would would fare very well at all. So yeah, if you if someone thinks that they're born perfect, yeah, again, maybe the first step is not to convince them of of original sin, just convince them of committed sin. But once once you are aware of your sin, actually the world in which you want to live is the world of original sin. Because that's the world where you bank on God's grace, and God's got more than enough grace for all your sins.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that's that's great. We'll uh we'll close there and we'll be looking at uh The liberating truth that I don't need to evangelize. Yep. Okay, before we close, I wonder if you get our free daily prayer bulletin. It's a small twenty-four-page booklet that tells thirty-one stories of what God is doing around the world. You can get it free of charge either in the post or you can get it via email. Just go to revivalmedia.org slash bulletin. Thanks for listening today to the Evangelist Podcast. If you like today's episode, why not share it with someone? You can email or post the link. It's at revivalmedia.org slash TEP41.