What of the gravest failures in ministry is the failure to properly or carefully explain the Gospel to young people. Come to think of it that applies to all people, not just young people. All too often, sweet, goodhearted, and well-intended people trying to simplify the Gospel go too far. Their desire is maybe a little misguided and they over-simplify the Gospel until it is something less. It becomes something less than a saving Gospel. Fortunately, God looks at the heart and sometimes despite our inept explanation of God’s Gospel people are still born again. That said, let us never mistake God’s grace for God’s approval.
What does a watered down Gospel look like? Here’s what I call the “Magic Jesus” formulation. Here Jesus is almost presented like a genie in a bottle in a fairy tale:
Jesus loves you. He wants to be your friend. He wants to make your life better. He doesn’t want a heaven without you. If you pray to ask Jesus in your heart He will change your life from the inside out and you will go to heaven and He will make your life better and or make you a better person. In the end you’ll be better off or happier… or find contentment. Do you want to trust Jesus? Pray along with me to ask Jesus (i.e. receive Jesus into your heart)… you’ll be glad you did.
Years ago I read a story about a pharmacist who began watering down prescriptions just a bit. His motives were wrong, unlike the well-intended folks I refer to above. His results were harmful, just like the well-intended folks I refer to above. This is not a strong enough dose to save as it is missing key ingredients. The "Magic Jesus" scenario is more of a sales presentation of what Jesus can do for you rather than what you need to understand to be saved. As Christians, we want to avoid this kind of presentation at all costs. A heavily diluted Gospel loses efficacy, like heavily diluted prescriptions. The results can be of eternal consequence.
What are the key ingredients? As you look at these you'll see the ones that are typically absent in the “Magic Jesus” Formulation below. Here they are:
God. God made the universe and everything and everyone in it. Everything He made was in perfect harmony—very good. Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Later it says that God saw all that He made and it was very good.
The Bible. We know this from the Bible. The Bible is His book, written for us and to us. It’s a love letter from another world. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says that God’s word came from Him and is useful for understanding God and God’s ways and knowing how to serve Him.
Mankind. God created mankind, humanity, to know Him, to serve Him, and to take care of what He made. He made human beings as reflections of His glory and “specialness.” He created us to relate to Him perfectly and always. Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that God created man in His own image and likeness, both male and female persons.
Sin. For reasons hard to understand and believe the first people (and all who came after them) chose to reject God’s love and care and to get out of serving Him. In so doing they violated God’s law and rightly received a penalty of condemnation for their hate crime against God. It’s like getting a death sentence. Romans 3:23 says that all people have sinned and Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin (the consequences of sin is death).
Salvation. For these reasons man needs to be rescued or saved from the consequences and results of sinning against God. But to save others someone has to be sinless and have never rebelled against God. They have to have lived a life of perfect obedience against God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that Jesus took our sin in our place that we might become righteous.
Savior. Jesus, God in Human form, came to earth to die for us as a gift in our place, rescuing us because we needed rescue. It’s His gift to us that we don’t deserve. And if we will trust Him and turn to Him for rescue we will be saved. We read this in Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9, and in Romans 10:9-10. Jesus is the only Savior or Rescuer there is (Acts 4:12; John 14:6).
If you can cover all these elements in your own words (of course) it’s unlikely you’ll end up watering down the Gospel into a “Magic Jesus” presentation. It’s okay to simplify something but you’ve got to avoid oversimplifying it. That’s as true of the Gospel as it is true of anything else. If a person doesn’t understand that all people are sinners in need of a Savior, they’ve missed the heart of the Gospel of God’s grace. Just like you never want to offer a vaccine that doesn’t work, you don’t want to offer someone a Gospel substitute that gives them a false sense of security because they prayed a formulaic prayer based upon the wrong prescription!
We are going to be offering Gospel presentation design training in the coming months on Zoom! Stay tuned.