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by Charlie Wolcott

Jesus lambasted the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and false teachings that not only showcased their own problems but made their followers the two-fold sons of Hell than they were. The Pharisees were bad enough, but their students were even worse. Why? Because when a sinful person sees someone deemed a righteous man open the door for liberalism and some sin, that person will take that door and open it even further.

This will be my final post on the deadly consequences of getting sin wrong before I return to the true definition of sin and go into the proper response to sin. I am going to make a bold and seemingly harsh statement: ANY PERSON who does not have a Biblical understanding of sin – knowing full well what it is, how severe it is, what it does, and what the consequences are – has absolutely no business being in any form of ministry. The results of any kind of ministry that does not understand nor take sin as the Bible describes it lead to utter failure and destruction. Jesus warned anyone against leading the youth astray and James said anyone in any teaching position is going to be held to a higher standard. That standard means they will be held responsible for anyone who listens to what they say and follows them. This is why Paul said to “imitate me just as I imitate Christ” but that also gives a hint that we are not to imitate him in any other way. If I am not pointing towards Christ, I don’t want people following me.

I understand that no one has a perfect understanding of sin, but anyone who has a remote working knowledge of the Bible should know enough to know what sin is. They also should know to have warnings go off anytime someone attempts to excuse sin, cover it up, or to literally re-define it to mean something else. I just spent blog posts #6-11 of this series going over examples so you would know the flavors of this we are currently dealing with.

Ultimately, the situation is like this: people have a deadly disease with only one possible cure. Doctors know what the cure is supposed to be, and because they know people won’t like the diagnosis or the medicine, they soften the diagnosis and tell them it is actually something else. Then to make it worse, they give medicine that fits the new diagnosis instead of what fits the actual disease. Now, sin is NOT a disease that one simply contracts, but the analogy works here for this purpose. We have preachers, missionaries, and evangelists who tell people how great they are and how much God loves them but never actually addresses their malady and what is wrong with life. And that person will hear the message, thinking they are safe, but will continue to go through life without ever getting a real solution. And to make it worse, those people will become hardened to any real presentation because the last “Christian” who spoke to them told them a flat out lie.

When we get sin wrong, we get evangelism wrong. But let’s get more practical here on earth too. What about counseling? What about identity politics? Why are states trying to ban churches and pastors from sex conversion therapies? The answer is because the root of every one of these problems is sin, and the answer to every one of these problems is the cross. So if we get sin wrong, we get the root of the problem wrong, and thus any attempt to solve the problem will only be a band aid at best.

People who hear false teachings and are impressed by the opinions of this world will ask: “How will you get the experts to listen to you when you know they reject your secondary teachings?” Usually this question is asked about origins. How can we possibly evangelize the scientific community when they believe that a 6-day creation and a 6000-year history is utterly impossible? My answer is, “If they are going to reject creation, what makes you think they are going to accept the cross? And why are we worried about what they think? They are sinners and they are LOST. Why are you taking counsel from a lost person?” Frankly, those people are ashamed of the Gospel and of Christ before men. I seriously ask them, if that is their approach, why bother believing the rest of what the Bible says that “modern science” doesn’t agree with either? That’s in academics. What about in practical life?

A marriage starts to fall apart, and the world is only going to offer trivial solutions if not break it apart. A friend of Worldview Warriors president Jason DeZurik was a musician in a Christian band who came out as a homosexual and abandoned his wife and kids to go public about it. As bad as that is, I had an indignation rise up in me like I rarely get when I found out that two pastors (one was a Progressive Christian) encouraged him and advised him to do this instead of dealing with his real issue – sin. They had a false view of sin and did not consider homosexuality to be a sinful lifestyle, so they gave him bad counsel which led that young man into further sin.

While I don’t want to boast about myself, but my book Biblical Foundations has already saved a marriage and I didn’t even write about marriage. How did I do that? I didn’t do anything but write about what being a Christian really entails and what it means to have your foundation in Scripture. This couple read my book, got their lives back in order with God, and out of that their marriage was saved. That was not me; that was God who used me because I was not ashamed of the Gospel and not ashamed to speak of what sin is and what the solution to sin is.

It is the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. How was the thief on the cross saved? By recognizing his own sin and also recognizing that Jesus, being without sin, was the Savior. He didn’t use theological language, but he realized his need for a savior even in death. The Gospel’s power lies in correctly identifying sin as being sin and that the hope from that sin is found only in Christ Jesus. I believe I speak for all of us at Worldview Warriors when I say that we are not ashamed of the Gospel. We are not ashamed of the message that Christianity teaches, and we will speak that message no matter what it may cost us. We love the truth, and we love people enough that we will tell them the truth no matter what they may think of it. And that means that we have to tell people what their sin truly is and what it is like. That is what I will do next week. I will go back to what sin truly is and how utterly and completely wicked it is; only when we understand that can we have a proper response to it.

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