A (Partially?) Judgmentless Gospel-S. Feister

In the “Gospel of Salvation,” the preacher starts off with reading John 1. Through this chapter, the pastor explains how it gives us seven revelations of Christ. These are that he is pre-existent, he is personal, he is powerful, he is life giving, he is light giving, he is the saving word, and he is the incarnate word. He then goes to explain why God had to become man. He explains that this is the only way God could become sin. He had to become one of us in order to take our sins and transgressions upon himself. He emphasized that Jesus said “it is finished” on the cross and there is nothing we can add to the work of the cross. There is nothing for us to finish, all we need to do is receive and accept Jesus and he will lift us up out of the pit and wash us with his blood.

I believe that this speaker, by leaving so much out of his gospel presentation, is inadvertently presenting, in part, a Judgmentless Gospel.  I believe this presentation could be put in the category of a Judgmentless Gospel because it makes it seem that repentance and obedience are of no importance. It seems that the speaker’s short sermon was meant to be attractive to those who simply want to hear that everything is taken care of by God and we are off the hook if we accept him. There is no mention of the reason for God to take our sin upon himself. In fact it leaves out why we are in need of saving as well as why God took our sins and transgressions upon himself. He did not mention that God saved us because of his love and grace, not because of our special worth or the good things we do. Overall I believe what he said about the Gospel was accurate, but the way he left out judgment, as well as our response of repentance and obedience, makes this gospel presentation seem detrimental.