This is a serious question! Conventional wisdom for thousands of years will tend to say yes. The masses have always considered the Good News to be impossible. This is evident in the fact that they generally take the broad way that leads to destruction and avoid the strait and narrow way (the way of faith) that leads to eternal life. (Matthew 7:13,14)
Jesus makes a fantastic promise, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.... And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues [languages, Greek]; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mark 16:15,17)
Matthew gives another version of what Jesus said: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.... And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And John adds what he remembers hearing the Lord say, which is even more astounding: "He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father." (Matthew 28:19,20; John 14:12)
Are these promises too good to be true? The Good News is that they will be fulfilled, without fanaticism and without extremism, in the glorious final message proclaimed by the fourth angel of Revelation 18:1-4. If the Bible is true, the whole world is to be "illuminated" with the glory of a powerful message. It would not be fair for Christ to return unless everyone has had a fair opportunity to hear it and to prepare for His coming.
The key to the fulfillment of these promises is in two significant phrases: (a) a people must "preach the gospel," not legalism and not human philosophy; and (b) the fulfillment will come to him "who believes in Me." 'The gospel of Christ... is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16). "He who believes in Me" means "he who has true faith," the kind that works in transforming the life. In other words, there is tremendous power in true righteousness by faith.
God's people must not be impotent in the face of the moral and spiritual plagues that afflict society today. The world faces no end of human disorders now known as addictions—drug abuse, alcoholism, marital infidelity, sexual immorality, corruption, compulsive eating disorders, and widespread psychological depression. A steady and increasing deterioration of the human spirit is bringing millions close to the place where they may be mentally unable even to comprehend the everlasting gospel.
The Bible promises adequate power to cope with these tragic needs. That power is in the gospel. The Holy Spirit has promised to bless with His presence its true proclamation; but if the message is adulterated with legalism or spiritualism so that in any way it is a distortion of the true gospel, to that extent the Holy Spirit's blessing is negated.
Meanwhile the Lord has instructed "four angels" to "hold" the "four winds" of human passion "till we have sealed the servants of our God" (Revelation 7:1-4). The sealing described in Revelation is the final work to be accomplished by the gospel.
The loosing of those "four winds" is a very sad thing, the complete breakdown of social order, decency, morality, fidelity, economic and political security. The Bible says it will be "Babylon" dropping into the sea like a millstone, the end of weddings, Christmases, shopping, sports, materialistic orgies, vacations, sensuality (See Revelation 18). Already we see around us the beginning of this final break-up of order and morality. Psycho-criminal gangs are terrorizing large cities and police are increasingly frustrated in their efforts to maintain even a minimum of security for law-abiding citizens.
Meanwhile, the special message which the three angels of Revelation 14 proclaim is "the everlasting gospel" in the setting of the cosmic Day of Atonement and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. Heaven is concerned about very serious business—getting ready for the end.
The point is simple: if His people will faithfully proclaim that pure gospel message, the Lord has promised that He will do His part to restrain the exploding evil in the world. But if they do not faithfully proclaim the message that alone can prepare a people for the return of Christ, He cannot hold in check those near-exploding global forces of evil. Merely to proclaim a message that prepares people for death is not good enough. That has been done in all past ages. The time must come when there is a message that prepares a people for His second coming.
Surely it was never His will that World Wars I and II should unleash such mayhem and pain in the world, as well as the horrors and violence that are so common in many lands today. The world has been starving for "the everlasting gospel," and still is. It has been said that it is hungry animals that fight.
God's plan is that His people will make a great impact on the world by proclaiming a unique message that Heaven can fully endorse. They must be like little David with five smooth stones facing Goliath, and they will be as successful. The gospel power to prevent those storms of human and national passion is to be in the message itself, not in church institutions, budgets, electronic stimuli, clever advertising, or even organization.
Speaking of power, there are also in the world numerous "faith-healers" and charlatans who prey on people's self-centered motivations. Christ has warned us that in the last days Satan will perfect his clever technique of deception to such an extent that even faithful Christians can be in great danger of being fooled: "False christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect." (Matthew 24:24)
Revelation further enlarges on this scenario, describing this power that "performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast." (Revelation 13:13,14)
The point that Jesus makes in His warning is that this world power (symbolized as a beast) is not some blatantly non-Christian force such as Communism or Satanism. It professes to be Christian, is very popular, and therefore has tremendous potential for deception. And since it brings the last test just before the return of Christ, the stakes are high. It is a false christ! There will be no second time around to undo our error if we are deceived the first time.
Now is the time to get ready to meet this test by making certain that we are rooted and grounded in what Paul says is "the truth of the gospel." (Galatians 2:5,14)
Revelation tells us that the final test will be related to a true understanding of the cross of Christ. "All who dwell on the earth will worship him [the beast], whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). The Lamb is a symbol of the crucified Christ.
The false christ will skillfully employ the names and associations of the Christ of the Bible, but his character will be different than that of the One who sacrificed Himself for our redemption. One who truly believes in Christ will appreciate His love (agape) to the extent that his own pride will be humbled. Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ." (Galatians 2:20)
The result? The believer in Christ gladly dedicates all to Him, and henceforth delights in obedience to all of God's commandments. He loves the Lord supremely and his neighbor as himself. This experience will be lacking in the "ministry" of the false christ. Pride, love of self, arrogance, and love of the world, will characterize the counterfeit.
Satan can work miracles and even give his followers light and much power, but no sweet love, joy and peace. But there is good news lurking beneath this shadowed truth. The presence of the counterfeit only proves that the genuine is in existence somewhere.
How a Pure Gospel Message Can Have Power
Everywhere the early apostles preached, something happened—either a riot or a revival. The reason they could turn "the world upside down" was not their cleverness or their personalities. The power was in the content of their message.
Peter's sermon at Pentecost reveals the source of their power: they understood what the atonement implies. Not just the Jewish leaders, but all in the Gentile world were declared to be guilty of the rejection and murder of the Son of God. Pentecost was the corporate guilt of all humanity exposed. Enmity against God had blossomed into the supreme crime of eternity. The apostles minced no words in telling it. It was the proclamation of that truth which catalyzed humanity.
The latter rain gift of the same Holy Spirit will come before the grain can ripen, as Pentecost was the early rain that caused it to germinate. The truth of the gospel will do the work. (Cf. Galatians 2:14)
Some of the human problems which the gospel of the apostles solved were the same ones that perplex psychiatrists and social scientists today. We have noted the miracles in Corinth that were greater than mere physical healings (See 1 Corinthians 6:9-11). These same problems afflict the human race today, but they have become worse.
These problems are not mere occasional moral lapses. Each becomes a compulsive obsession or addiction, with roots going down to people's toes. Addicts seem powerless to break their slaveries. How were those problems solved in Corinth? Paul gives the answer in his letter to the Corinthians: by the message of justification by faith. "You were washed ..., you were sanctified ..., you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus."
There was frightful moral depravity in the days of the pagan Roman empire. Citizens and slaves were so violently cruel that they revelled in watching human beings fight wild animals and each other to the death. The more blood the more fun. Prostitution was sanctified as a part of religion. But through the proclamation of the gospel, "grace did much more abound," and reigned "through righteousness [by faith] unto eternal life" (Romans 5:20,21). The story of the cross touched secret springs hidden deep in Gentile and Jewish hearts and released latent God-given capabilities undreamed of.
The message placed "under grace" people who were shackled by all kinds of compulsive sin, including that of "abusers of themselves with mankind" (KJV, homosexual lifestyle). Now a new compulsion shackled them willingly and gladly to Christ.
The result was a happy one. "Sin shall not have dominion over you," said Paul, "for you are not under law but under grace." (Romans 6:14)
Since 1956 the American Medical Association has said that alcoholism and other addictions are a disease. Proponents of this theory search for hidden biological or hormonal deficiencies in body chemistry, hoping to find a drug that can cure the "disease." Treatment of alcoholism alone costs more than $1 billion a year and is often ineffective. There may well be physiological or chemical factors which become involved in developing addictions, but according to the Bible, the primary initiating cause is a sinful, selfish choice somewhere.
A team of Columbia University psychopharmacologists and psychiatrists reports that a history of depression is a major predictor of addiction. People who have trouble quitting cigarettes generally confirm the relationship between depression and nicotine addiction. Women are more prone to depression than men, says Columbia's Dr. Alexander Glassman, suggesting that depression may lie at the root of addictions. They also have greater difficulty in quitting cigarettes.
Depression is a psychological term that relates to the Biblical term "unbelief." The medicine needed? Something more potent than pharmaceutics: Biblical faith.
What Truth Does a Message of Grace Emphasize?
The apostles' message of grace proclaimed what is often neglected or denied within the church today—the truth of Christ's human nature being like, not unlike, ours. What impressed those people was the reality of the Son of God coming nigh at hand, taking their nature and being tempted as they were, suffering in their place, accepting their poverty that He might give them His wealth, conquering their temptations by faith but with the same equipment they had. Christ was never depressed, but the Bible assures us that He was tempted as we are (Hebrews 4:15). Paul reminded the Corinthians of what they had learned from him: "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9)
Here was a power that gripped human hearts as nothing had done in all previous history. Here is how the most hopeless captives found deliverance. The cross-reality burned its way into the deepest recesses of human consciousness as a spiritual catharsis. A new sense of self-respect emerged that nothing could destroy. The pure gospel will do the same work today.
This is why it is not the personalities of the speakers or hierarchical pressures that have such "power." It is the message itself.
Needless to say, the enemy of Christ opposes such a revelation and would suppress it, and thus keep it from the world. He is determined to make us believe that his clever invention of sin is invincible.
God's Flan for His People
The heart of God yearns for all the heart-burdened captives of Satan in the world today. Christ paid the price for their deliverance, and yet millions, yes billions, are virtually ignorant of His work as High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. He must depend on His people to proclaim and to demonstrate that unique message so as to deliver from Satan's grip. He has promised that they are to be the avenue through which His much more abounding grace is to be communicated to the world. This is a grace greater than is understood by those who have no knowledge of the special ministry of Christ in cleansing the sanctuary:
It shall come to pass afterward [in the last days] that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.... And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls. (Joel 2:28,32; Acts 2:17)
The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)
We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15,16)
The angel swore by Him who lives forever... that... in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to his servants the prophets.... Then the seventh angel sounded ...: Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged.... Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple.
I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory.... And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her [Babylon], my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues." (Revelation 18:1,4)
Note that word, "having great authority." In the original language it is the same word that Jesus used when He told His disciples that "all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." Now, in this time of His closing work of atonement, He is finally able to communicate that "authority" through His people on earth so that in His name they will be empowered to do the "greater works" than He did on earth. The world is to be "illuminated with His glory" through a clear, unadulterated, uncorrupted proclamation of His Good News, not by impressing them with physical miracles.
The pure, true gospel of the grace of God had such power on Paul that he found it impossible to go on living for self. It made him a "new creation." To be reconciled to God, to have the invisible barrier removed that had beclouded his soul all his life, was totally joyous. The cross captured him forever, and he begs us not to look at it and yawn in boredom: "We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain." (2 Corinthians 5:14-6:1)
The unique message of righteousness by faith that the Lord sends begins to reproduce in modern human hearts the same selfless devotion that motivated Paul long ago.
Let us immerse ourselves in Paul's message of grace so that we can feel those gospel waves rolling over us:
For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.... It is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all... those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all....
Through our Lord Jesus Christ... we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.... The grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many....Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ....Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord...
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it... ?
Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are... under grace? (Romans 4:13,16; 5:2,15,17,20,21; 6:1,14,15)
We must not try to re-write Paul and force him to teach the helpless legalism of try-harder-to-be-good, try-not-to-sin. Astounding as it may seem to us today, he is saying that the power of sin is broken by grace. Note what is implicit in this passage:
- Righteousness by faith is not cold theology. It is the ministry of grace.
- Faith provides access into this grace, that is, a heart appreciation of the love of God opens the gates of access to hope and glory. Here is plenty of reason for self-respect.
- "The gift by the grace ... abounded to many." ... All who choose to breathe this life-giving atmosphere of grace will live, and grow up to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
- Grace is greater than our sin. (That is stupendous!)
- Believed and received, grace reigns in the life like a king.
- Grace abounding makes it impossible for the believer to continue living in sin. Obsessions, captivity to evil habits, alienations, are disarmed.
- Grace thus imposes a new captivity which is an unending motivation to holiness of life.
How Can You Be Sure That You Are Included in This Grace?
Not one human soul in all the world is left out. See how the ministry of grace reaches every human soul:
The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11-14, NIV)
To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. (Ephesians 4:7)
Let us examine these jewels:
- The Holy Spirit imparts to "all men" an intruding sense of the kindness and mercy of God, knocking for entrance to all despairing, depressed, worldly hearts, and also to hearts that are arrogant and self-sufficient. Their time of depression is also sure to come—perhaps when healing will be too late. Listen, look, don't slam the door shut, pause to appreciate that grace, and you will find yourself beginning to cherish it.
- In this passage there is an insight that the Supreme Court needs to see. Much as we may excuse ourselves by thinking that addictions to alcohol, drugs, or lust are merely a "disease," they are in reality volitional. The problem is that the human will is held captive. But there is Good News: the grace of Christ actually teaches us how to exercise a controlling volition, how to "say no" to impulses to evil. Again, it is understanding the cross that makes this little-understood power become reality.
No addict in all the world faces a more terrible compulsion than Jesus felt as He knelt in Gethsemane and prayed, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39). And a few hours later, the compulsive temptation to come down from the cross and abandon His suffering was even stronger. No one has ever felt such tugging at the soul. No sinful patterns of response to temptation that we have acquired even through a lifetime of repeated failures can be stronger than the Saviour's power of salvation.
- When the grace of God teaches us also to say what Jesus said to temptation—No—this is not a vain choice. When grace teaches us to say that powerful word, the result is guaranteed: we henceforth "live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age," even with alluring sensual temptations all around us. It would be no great achievement to live such lives in perfect surroundings, but Paul adds that God's great salvation is demonstrated in a wicked world, as wicked as the one that crucified the Son of God.
- This deliverance by grace fills the heart with "the blessed hope" of seeing Jesus face to face at His return. Paul's righteousness by faith is linked to the hope of Christ's return, and the message which prepares for His return is the message of the grace of Christ.
- Thus the secret of this marvelous power is in that sacrifice where "He gave Himself for us." This penetrates deeper than all the psychiatry in the world in probing to the source of our sin and alienation. The believer actually achieves union with Christ.
- The Saviour does a good job when He saves; no lingering root of "wickedness" is left in the heart to produce a future fall from grace. He is like a skillful surgeon who removes all of the cancer. Hear this plea from a writer who understood at least the beginning of that abounding grace:
Do you want to be like Jesus? Then receive the grace that he has so fully and so freely given. Receive it in the measure in which he has given it, not in the measure in which you think you deserve it. Yield yourself to it, that it may work in you and for you the wondrous purpose for which it is given, and it will do it. It will make you like Jesus. (Alonzo T. Jones, Review and Herald, April 17, 1894)
Salvation from sin certainly depends upon there being more power in grace than there is in sin.. .. Wherever the power of grace can have control, it will be just as easy to do right as without this it is easy to do wrong.
No man ever yet naturally found it difficult to do wrong ... because man naturally is enslaved to a power—the power of sin—that is absolute in its reign.... But let a mightier power than that have sway, then ... it will be just as easy to serve the will of the mightier power.
But grace is not simply more powerful than sin.... There is much more power in grace than there is in sin.... Just so much more hope and good cheer there are for every sinner in the world. (Ibid., September 1, 1896)
Is this too good to be true? Beware lest you let yourself think so, for it is dangerous to doubt how good the Good News is.