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ONE QUESTION WITH TWO ANSWERS?

            The Bible’s approach to evangelism is, from one angle, quite simple: we need to realise that we are sinners who cannot save ourselves from sin, death, and judgment, so we must cast ourselves on the mercy of the God-man, Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all and the One who saves all who call upon His name. In his farewell speech to the Ephesian elders, Paul summarised his message as ‘testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ‘ (Acts 20:21).

            The trouble with human beings is that we are fallen, and even when we are convinced of the truth of the gospel, we manage to fina a way of distorting it. Let us look at four questions raised in the New Testament, which are inquiries about salvation.

            First, in Luke 10 a lawyer stands up to ask Jesus: ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ (Luke 10:25). This sounds remarkably like the question later posed by the rich young ruler of a synagogue: ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ (Luke 18:18) Rushing through the book of Acts, we might see much the same question coming from the crowd on the Day of Pentecost: ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ (Acts 2:37) Fourthly, there is the well-known question of the Philippian jailer, addressed to Paul and Silas: ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ (Acts 16:30)

            On the surface, they look like four versions of the same question. Yet the answers provided are very different. To the lawyer in Luke 10, Jesus counters his question with two of His own: ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ (Luke 10:26) The discussion moves on to the two great commandments concerning a whole-hearted love of God, and loving one’s neighbour as oneself. After telling the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus commands the lawyer to show mercy to his neighbour. So, is the answer to the question about inheriting eternal life to be found in loving one’s neighbour?

            To the rich young ruler in Luke 18, Jesus says something not dissimilar – inheriting eternal life is connected to keeping the commandments, even the command to sell all one has in order give to the poor (Luke 18:18-22). Again, inheriting eternal life appears to be a matter of discipleship, of what we do.

            Yet in Acts – written by the same man, Luke – the answer on the Day of Pentecost is given in terms of what we receive: ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:38). The Philippian jailer is also told: ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household’ (Acts 16:31).

            How do we untangle this? The answer is to realise that there are not, in essence, four versions of the one question, but two questions, which demand two different answers. The lawyer in Luke 10 asks the right question but his motives are corrupt. He wants to put Jesus to the test (Luke 10:25) and is seeking to justify himself (Luke 10:29). Clearly, he is religious, but is confident of his own capacity to please God. The same can be said for the rich young ruler. When Jesus summarises the commandments, he responds: ‘All these I have kept from my youth’ (Luke 18:21).

            Those who want to merit salvation need to realise that God’s standard is not 50%, or a reasonable attempt at goodness, but 100%, which is the perfect achievement of goodness. We need to take to heart what the rich young ruler did not, that ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God’ (Luke 18:27).

            In the two passages from Acts, there is a telling difference. The crowd at Pentecost are ‘cut to the heart’ when they realise that they had condemned the One who is Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36-37). Years later, the Philippian jailer looked over the abyss, and very nearly suicided. When he asks his question to Paul and Silas, he, like the crowd at Pentecost, is ‘trembling with fear’ (Acts 16:29). Self-confidence before God is non-existent in these two episodes in Acts.

            This takes us back to Acts 20:21, and the proclamation concerning repentance and faith. We do not have one question with two answers, but two questions with two answers. ‘Self-desperate, I believe,’ wrote Charles Wesley in one of his hymns. To those who are confident in themselves, a dose of more law may crack the Pharisaic heart. To those who are self-desperate, rest and comfort in Christ is what is needed. In testifying of Christ to others, this distinction needs to be very clear in our minds.

– Peter Barnes