Crossway Interview on Chosen for Life (4)
May 29, 2007
Crossway: You present a solid, biblical case for grace and repentance as gifts of God. In the process you show that a failure to see grace and repentance as gifts results in a sinfully pragmatic approach to salvation. Will you provide us here with an overview of your insights?
The bottom line is that if we believe faith and repentance are ultimately in the power of the human will, we will become pragmatic in our evangelistic methods. In fact, we have! If we think a tactic or strategy will work, i.e., will bring someone to make a decision for Christ, we use it. It doesn't matter if it is biblically illicit or manipulative or involves undue pressure or detracts from the necessity and sufficiency of divine grace. So long as it gets the evangelistic job done, we approve it. All too often, this results in spurious "conversions" and a man-centered practice in which we congratulate people for their choice rather than praise God for his.