by Tom Wacaster
Several years ago I came across this little advertisement for Wheat Chex: “Mothers of America, rejoice! Wheat Chex is guaranteed to contain no premiums, no whistles, missiles, rockets, or ruckus. No beanies, B-Bs, heebies, or jeebies. Not a ball, bat, hat, or gat in any package of this crunchable, munchable whole wheat cereal. Wheat Chex is made so the fun is in the flavor. You get taste instead of toys, and nutrition instead of noise” (original source lost). When I was a child, I thought as a child, and the best cereal (in the humble opinion of a 7 year old boy) had to be the one that included the best toy or trinket in the box. Flash Gordon figures, a racing car, or a mystery ring were enough to convince me that the cereal itself simply had to be good. The bottom line is I was not attracted to the cereal but to the gimmicks and gadgets packaged with the cereal. The lover of truth will be attracted to the gospel for what it is and what it provides for the soul that is hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Matt. 5:6). What is the drawing power of that simple message contained in that wonderful book we call the Bible? Using the letters contained in the English word “GOSPEL,” consider this acrostic as a sampling of why the Gospel Attracts.
G – The Grace It Extends: Without doubt, the gospel is a message of divine grace. Grace has been properly defined as God giving us what we do not deserve. In spite of man’s rebellion, God was willing to extend His grace to lost humanity and offer a way of salvation and reconciliation (Eph. 2:8). It was God’s grace that gave us the Bible. It was the grace of God that sent His Son. The grace of God contained in the Gospel attracts anyone who is poor in spirit and searching for the truth (Matt. 5:3).
O – The Opportunity It Affords: Adam introduced sin into the world, and because all men choose to follow in his steps, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). All men are provided an opportunity to find God, however small that opportunity might be or in what form it might come. A man living in a remote part of the earth might look up at the starry sky and using his reasoning capabilities conclude there is a God Who made the heavens. Will he now take advantage of that opportunity and begin his search for God? Or will he, like those ancients old, choose to exchange “the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23)? Adapting the words of Mordecai and using them in a slightly different context, “Who knows whether this opportunity has come to you for such a time as this?” Any opportunity, if rejected, may forever block one’s search for God. For the most part, humanity in this century has almost unlimited access to the Gospel, regardless of where one might live. The world-wide-web can now take the Gospel to places where no man has gone before giving men more opportunities to find God. Thanks be to God for His gift of the Gospel. May all men take advantage of this opportunity to find God.
S – The Salvation It Offers: The Gospel is not a gimmick to make men rich. The very essence of the Gospel is the salvation it brings to men. Paul tells us that the Gospel is the “power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16, emphasis mine, TW). The great challenge we face in this century, especially among developed nations, is convincing men of the need to be saved. “Saved from what?” they often ask. Modern man has everything he needs. His creature comforts are provided, and he enjoys unprecedented opportunities for pleasure. He has a chicken in every pot, and even more than that in the freezer. He has a car in every driveway because his garage is filled with “stuff” he has collected through the years. But without the Gospel, mankind remains in spiritual poverty. Until a person recognizes his need for salvation from sin, he will never be drawn to the Gospel.
P – A Power That Is Endless: Our nation uses more than 80.8 quadrillion BTU’s of energy each year. Our electric and gas companies struggle to keep up with the demand. Not so with God’s kingdom. The Gospel is the power to save (Rom. 1:16), the power to guard us (1 Pet. 1:5), the power to preserve (2 Tim. 1:12), and the power to strengthen (Eph. 3:16 and 6:10). It meets every demand and provides every need so as to make the man of God “complete, furnished completely unto every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16).
E – The Enlightenment That Is Enriching: Paul wrote, “having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling” (Eph. 1:18-19). A young boy of 9 was sitting in his father’s workshop watching his dad work on a harness. “Someday Father,” said Louis, “I want to be a harness-maker, just like you.” “Why not start now?” said the father. He took a piece of leather and drew a design on it. “Now” he said, “take the hole-punch and hammer out this design, but be careful that you don’t hit your hand.” But when he hit the hole-punch; it flew out of his hand and pierced his eye! He lost his sight in that eye. Later, as fate would have it, sight in the other eye failed. Louis was now totally blind. A few years later, Louis was sitting in the family garden when a friend handed him a pinecone. As he ran his sensitive fingers over the cone, an idea came to him. He became enthusiastic and began to create an alphabet of raised dots on paper so that the blind could feel and interpret. Thus, Louis Braille in 1818 opened up a whole new world for the blind. So it is with the Gospel. Those who read and study it will have a whole new world opened to them.
L – The Love It Evokes: “We love, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). One of the most famous tombs in the world is the Taj Mahol in India. It took 22 years to build using more than 20,000 skilled laborers. It was built on the order of a Mogul emperor in memory of his wife of 19 years. Such incidents attest to the words of Solomon, “Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death... Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can floods drown it: If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, He would utterly be contemned” (Song of Solomon 8:6-7). The Gospel is the greatest love story ever told: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son” (John 3:16). God’s love can never be surpassed, and it is the ultimate drawing power of the Gospel. Jesus Himself said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself” (John 12:32). The Gospel attracts because of the love it evokes.
The late Joe Gilmore observed: “We do not need a new gospel, neither do we need a supplement to the message we already have. We have an unchanging man in an unchanging world, exposed to an unchanging malady, sin, kept alive by an unchanging adversary, Satan. We need the gospel of the first century preached in all of its plainness and purity, without compromise, without apology, without speculation, addition, or subtraction. Only that will draw men to Christ.”