Evangelistic Urgency

Last weekend, we put up a new swing set in our back yard. Actually, it is a small two story home that has swings attached to the South wing. As a father who loves my children, I am often conflicted about toys like swings. On the one hand, as a child, I had a certain fondness for swinging-maneuvering my body to pump higher and higher, feeling the breeze in my hair (yes I had hair then), and enjoying the feeling of virtual flight. As a child, I never worried about injuring myself or someone else. As a parent, I now see the danger. When little ones wander, unaware, beneath the fast-moving pendulum, I visibly cringe. I can almost hear tears and see blood. When I perceive that harm is imminent, I become singularly focused. I will call out to the child or seek to draw her away as soon as possible.

Why don't I have the same sense of urgency for lost souls in danger of hell? I read these words from Jonathan Edwards today, from a sermon entitled The Eternity of Hell's Torments:

• Do but consider how dreadful despair will be in such torment...After you shall have worn out the age of the sun, moon, and stars, in your dolorous groans and lamentations, without rest day and night, or one minute's ease, yet you shall have no hope of ever being delivered. After you shall have worn a thousand more such ages, you shall have no hope, but shall know that you are not one whit nearer to the end of your torments...Your souls, which shall have been agitated with the wrath of God all the while, will still exist to bear more wrath. Your bodies, which shall have been burning all this while in these glowing flames, shall not have been consumed, but will remain to roast through eternity, which will not have been at all shortened by what shall have been past.

I believe in the reality of hell and I believe many souls will be sent there for eternity. I believe God sent his son Jesus Christ to bear the ransom of many and that it is only by grace, through faith that we have any hope. I also believe that Jesus' blood served as a propitiation (1 John 2:2), appeasing God's wrath and turning it to our favor. I believe that many unsaved people in this world are playing gleefully in the face of danger, unaware of their own precarious situation. I believe I am commanded to share with them, with a sense of urgency, not only the despair of hell, but the hope of heaven.

Yet, too often, I keep silent--fearing that I might offend someone, or that I have the wrong "packaging" for the gospel. I happily discuss God when the topic arises, but I am less inclined to actively tell others about the good news of Jesus. I tell myself that the gospel, presented directly and strongly, is offensive and turns people off. In truth, if I felt the same sense of desperation that I do when my kids are playing beneath the swings, I wouldn't worry about offending. My only desire in those moments would be an acute need to keep them from getting kicked in the teeth.