News

Solas and Scripture Union Scotland’s Equip! Events

by Editor

At Solas we’ve enjoyed working with Scripture Union Scotland over the last few years. Andy Bannister has spoken at Equip! Edinburgh and at the SU staff leaders retreat, while Gavin Matthews has spoken at various camps and conferences. So we were delighted to renew that friendship recently when Gavin was invited to speak at the Equip! East and North events.

Scripture Union Equip! events started a couple of years ago when the Edinburgh Schools team realised there was a great need to young people (S3-S6) to be equipped to respond to some of the huge questions they face. They wanted the young people to understand Christian perspectives on the questions being raised by their peers and to have confidence that the Bible’s message is both relevant and reliable.

SU’s Jenny Thomson noted: “The Edinburgh event grew to include the Lothians and the Borders and Glasgow began their own event, using the same topics and sometimes the same speakers. When the first lockdown hit we quickly joined forces to produce Equip Online, deciding to open it up to all of Scotland’s young people in S3-6, as many SU Regional Workers were on furlough. With the return of those Regional Workers three events began, East, West and North, each with it’s own way of doing things but with collective thinking on topics and speakers. We’ve enjoyed having input from both Andy and Gavin from Solas at our events.”

Gordon Roy’s “North” area event might well stay online even after lockdown – as covering “Stirling to Shetland” isn’t really feasible in person. However, with speakers from places like Solas, LivingOut and the Evangelical Alliance and the positive way the young people have engaged with breakout rooms for discussion, there seems to be an appetite to continue meeting in this way.

Gavin Matthews from Solas said, “Friday night was exhausting but hugely enjoyable! I did the same two talks on the way Jesus is Good News in a pandemic – looking at the gospel and the uniqueness of Jesus, first for the East group and then the North group. I was encouraged by the feedback from the breakout discussion groups too. One comment in particular stuck with me from a young person who picked up on the desirability of the gospel and was asking how we know it is true. In preparing the talks I had been speaking at length with both David Nixon and Kristi Mair about youth culture in the UK today. Both of them had referred me to a famous quote by Blaise Pascal:  ‘Make religion attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is.” They observed that for many younger people today, truth questions are further down their agenda than questions of whether the gospel works in practice. As such we need to answer truth questions, via the desirability issue. The fact that this young person had seen the desirability of the gospel encouraged me greatly!

Regular Equip! meetings for each region of Scotland take place online, but for safeguarding reasons booking need to be via parents/guardians. All the information can be found here.

Why is God Against My Sexual Freedom?

by Solas

“Why is God against my sexual freedom?” is a question we often hear and no wonder, for we live in a society in which sexual intimacy is often held up as the highest form of human experience. But whilst the Bible is clear that sex is one of God’s good gifts to us, is there more to life than sex? Does sexual intimacy have a place and a context? And are there bigger issues of freedom than just sexual ones? Solas Director Andy Bannister tries to shed some light on all these difficult questions and more in this Short Answers film.

In the film, Andy mentions the book “A War of Loves” by David Bennett: check out this Solas webinar with David here.

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Frontlines / Christians at Work: “The Sport Participation Manager”

by Editor

Our series on Christians sharing their faith in the secular workplace continues here. Gavin Matthews spoke to Amy Kirkhouse who is a sport participation manager with basketballscotland.

Solas: Tell us a little about your job? What are your roles and responsibilities?

AK: I’m Amy Kirkhouse and I work for basketballscotland, which is the governing body for the sport across the whole of Scotland. We manage everything that goes on in clubs, in competitions, schools programmes and so on and I’ve worked there for five years. I’ve had several roles in basketballscotland, and I’m currently the “Participation Manager”, which means that in normal times I run programmes and initiatives to try and get more people playing basketball. Some of that is with adults, but a lot of that work is around schools, especially on the female side of the game. Getting women and girls involved in the sport is a big passion for me, so that is exciting. Of course, as basketball is an indoor team-sport, it has been particularly badly affected by the Covid-19 restrictions, so we’ve had to support clubs through all of that this year too.

Solas: What’s the best part of your job?

AK: I’m particularly keen on promoting the women and girls game, so a big part of my job recently has been writing a ‘female strategy’ to encourage their participation and identify where the game needs to change to make that happen. Actually lockdown has really moved that forward, I’ve been working on that for two years or so, but recently there have been many more opportunities to speak to clubs online and it’s been really exciting to see progress in this. I’ve done research and run events around this, and it’s something that really inspires and motivates me.

In normal times we’d run lots of competitions, which I’d be involved with too. I run the junior NBA programme, which is the youth participation strand of the NBA brand. We get loads of primary school kids involved in that, and it’s really cool to travel around the country and do those. Primary 6&7 competitions have an equal gender split, they all get great basketball kits – and they just love it! I like my office work, but I really do miss getting out and seeing those kids competitions and events.

Solas: What are some of the challenges that you face at work – and how does your faith in Christ help you to navigate those?

AK: In the first couple of years working at basketballscotland, when I was trying to settle into the role I felt very much the new person there. I was quite young, only 22, when I started, and I’m naturally quite shy, especially when it comes to meeting new people. I felt a good bit of anxiety around being in that new place, and not knowing the people, the organisation and being the ‘newbie’. That’s actually where my faith was super-helpful; because it helped me to not be overwhelmed by that, not let that define who I was, and for me at that time – being able to trust Jesus with that was significant. Everyone has peaks and troughs in their working life, and having that consistency and stability in my life that comes from my faith in Him has been helpful.

I am fortunate to have a job that I absolutely love, and very good colleagues and bosses who actually care about me – and that is great!

Solas: Do people you work with know that you are a Christian? How do they react to that?

AK: Yes, most of them do – and they’ve all learnt that I am a Christian in different ways. (I was about say ‘found out’, but that makes it sound like a secret!). When I was working in the office before lockdown, I found it quite easy to say to people that I’d been to church; when they asked what I’d been up to at the weekend. I’d say things like, “I had twenty people round at my house for a Bible-study last night!”. Some people say, “OK, cool”, others have said things like, “What?! Why would you do that with your time?!?” But generally just accept it.

Solas: Have you ever had opportunities to share your faith with people you know through work? What things have helped you to have good conversations about faith?

AK: I have had opportunities to chat to colleagues about my faith at a deeper level, but generally not in the office. The office work-ethos, and the office-banter don’t really allow those sorts of conversations to take place. It’s when we are out working at an event, or travelling –or we’re out socialising together, that more important conversations tend to happen. It’s in those contexts where you have more time, you get to know people better, to ask questions and to find out what people think.

I sometimes worry what people will say, or what they will think – or what I will say if they ask a question that I don’t know the answer to. But in fact, all the chats that I’ve had with people have been really positive, and people are really interested. A lot of people have got a little background knowledge, from attendance at Sunday School or from a Christian grandmother, or from Scouts attached to a church; and so they sometimes connect that with what I’m saying.

Each conversation I have had has been different too. Some have been disheartening, while others have been really encouraging. There have been one or two where I have felt threatened by what people have said, but generally they have been positive. So when I feel anxious about having a conversation about my faith, I have to remind myself that this is fine, and that you’re just telling people who you are and what you believe in. And people actually really appreciate that, and they find the fact that I have convictions about things interesting. I think they are especially intrigued to hear Christian convictions coming from a younger person.

Solas: Did you deliberately set about to have these conversations, or did they occur naturally?

AK: A bit of a mix! Usually I would happily wait until things come up naturally. Although recently, since March I’ve had some of the best conversations when I’ve been slightly more intentional about it. Perhaps there is something about being online when you feel a bit less inhibited maybe! We did a team exercise on a Zoom call in which we were all asked to share something we’d been doing under lockdown that was helping us maintain mental wellbeing. So it wouldn’t make sense for me not to talk about prayer. So I mentioned to a couple of Christian friends that this team call was coming up, and they encouraged me to be honest and share. Then my flat-mate prayed with me before the call. I was quite nervous because I felt quit exposed; but I did the call and spoke about praying. I thought everyone would think I was a complete weirdo, but actually one of my colleagues texted me and said that he’d like to chat further about that – which we did. So, for me, it would have been weird not to have been honest on that call. So speaking intentionally about my faith actually opened the door for further conversations.

Solas: Do folks ever raise objections when you talk about your faith?

AK: Well I have colleagues who have opinions, and definitely know what they do and don’t believe. And then some who have had bad experiences of church or Christians, and not been afraid to say that to me either – which I actually appreciate. I’m not naturally an argumentative person, but we have had honest conversations about what we believe and the differences there. No-one has responded in a really aggressive way, or anything like that, but they’ve definitely disagreed and we’ve had more robust conversations, which is good! I actually prefer that to apathy, you can’t go anywhere with the apathy that just says “cool”, shrugs its shoulders and wanders off!

Solas: Why do you want to talk to colleagues and friends about Jesus?

AK: Well one reason is that I have been placed where I have to work, and to do my work well and please God in that. The other is that I’m there to build relationships with my colleagues to share with them. And if I really believed what I believe – then I would probably share things a whole lot more readily! But when little opportunities come up, the more I get to know my colleagues, and the more I grow in my own faith – the more willing I am to share. It actually makes no sense to me, not to share my faith because it is so central to who I am. Not to share that with the people who I spend more time with than anyone else would actually be ridiculous. That doesn’t mean it is easy, but it makes sense. Of course Jesus calls us to share what we believe too, and Christians all go about that in different ways. I am always trying to work out how to do that in ways that are both natural and intentional.

Solas:  What advice would you give a young Christian entering your field of work who wants to be faithful to Christ there?

AK: If a young Christian was coming to start out in my role, I’d advise them to be natural and honest about who they really from the very start. Don’t hide your faith, but be honest about who you are! Don’t be weird about it, but on the other hand, just don’t hide. Early on, take opportunities to drop things into conversation such as your church, or other things which will open up opportunities. I wish I had done that a bit earlier on, and been a bit more open from the start; rather than having to sort-of catch up, and bring into the conversation who I really was. So while you are new in the office, don’t be pushy and get ahead of yourself; but equally don’t present a version of yourself-minus-your-faith, which is misleading. If someone asks, answer honestly, you do not need to hide.

Solas: Thanks Amy!

PEP Talk Podcast With David Nixon

by Solas 1 Comment

It seems that in our culture today, it is all too easy to offend a person by disagreeing with their ideas. This fuels our fear of rejection, broken relationships, consequences for career or reputation when it comes to discussing our faith. What can we do to foster respect, humility and love that wins the heart of a person, instead of winning an argument? Today’s guest urges us to look to Jesus for a great example.

With David Nixon – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

David Nixon is Associate Pastor at Carrubbers Christian Centre on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. After studying Law at the University of Edinburgh, David went on to study Theology at the Faith Mission Bible College and London School of Theology, while also training and working in church-based ministry. He regularly writes for the Solas website. David is a husband to Kirsty and father to two energetic young boys.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.

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The Assurance Gap

by Editor

“It’s no more difficult than walking along a plank” said the climbing instructor. I was on a week’s walking and scrambling holiday on the Isle of Skye, attempting to climb all of the Munros on that most dramatic of all the Scottish islands. (I didn’t manage them all by the way, but that is a story for another day!) A thin rocky ledge, with a breath-taking drop on either side stood between us and the final ascent to one airy mountain summit. The group stood anxiously waiting to see who would go first. We were all seasoned hillwalkers, but none of us had done much climbing, and we all stood motionless. That was until the instructor cheerily added, “but don’t worry, I’ll go first and you’ll all be roped”. At once the situation changed completely. We all went from picturing ourselves falling to certain death, to merely imagining the embarrassment of dangling from a rope for a few minutes if we lost our footing.

In terms of the adventure of sharing our faith, the same picture applies. So many of us are stuck motionless, because we feel afraid. In this series of articles, we are looking at many of the things which provoke fear-based responses in us, but in this piece, I would like to turn our attention to the safety rope. That is the precious, and much neglected Christian teaching about ‘assurance of salvation’.

Christian Assurance is the deep, unshakable confidence that God loves you, that Christ died for you and rose again, that your sins are forgiven, that you will be with The Lord forever, and that nothing can take that away from you. In other words, you are completely, totally safe in the love of God. The reason that that is liberating in evangelism is that it removes the fear of failure, of abandonment, or of losing your faith – if you lose an argument. Most significantly it means that when we are rejected by people, for Christ’s name, we will still be OK, held safely in the love of God.  Evangelism always feels risky, knowing that we are undergirded by a Divine safety–net is liberating!

There are three elements to Christian Assurance that we need to grasp, which will help us go joyfully and confidently into God’s mission God in this world.

The first is that assurance comes by believing the gospel of Jesus. The Christian faith is categorically not a matter of saying, “I have done enough, so God will accept me, I am basically OK”. Rather we enter God’s family when we understand just how deeply flawed and sinful we are, and find no relief for that condition other than the forgiveness won for us on the cross by Jesus. If the gospel was about making ourselves worthy recipients of God’s favour, assurance would be a presumptuous conceit! Who could possibly claim to be acceptable to God on that basis, never mind be securely in His love? Even if someone could possibly do enough to earn God’s favour, surely no-one could ever remain pure enough in thought, word or deed to stay there! If this ‘pelagian’ view of salvation was true, it would mean that there could be no safety-net, and that mortal danger would be around every corner. The only response to this would be to hide from the world, avoid unbelievers, and never engage with the arguments of sceptics!

But the New Testament insists that, “nothing in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.[1]” How is that sort of confidence possible? The answer is that the Bible is not commending self-confidence, but confidence in Jesus to save us. Paul later wrote, “ 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast[2].” In other words, real assurance is not based upon ourselves; but begins by fixing our eyes on Jesus himself. If you are struggling to deeply and profoundly know that you are loved, saved and secure in the love of Christ, start by taking your eyes off yourself and ask Jesus to forgive you. Not because you deserve that, but because He promises it. Shift your understanding from the instinctive impulse to think that in order to be loved you must become ‘lovely’, and become grounded in the truth that you are loved by God, because He Is Love[3].

Secondly though, there is a place for looking at ourselves – if we handle this very carefully. The truth is that while we receive the grace of God, not on the basis of our record, but because Jesus shares his righteousness with us; (and that is God’s work, not ours), this does demonstrably begin to change us over time! When we encounter God, by His sheer, free grace – He puts His Spirit in us; and we cannot help but begin to change. Ask yourself some questions. Do you love the Bible more than you used to? Do you love meeting together with God’s people for worship? Do you want to tell others about Jesus? Are you instinctively more generous, and compassionate to the poor and vulnerable than you once were? Are you less enamoured with sin that you used to be? Do you love the name of Jesus?!

I remember once overhearing a conversation in our local hospital, between two nurses.

“What has happened to Judy?” one asked.
“I don’t know”, said the other, “but she went to that Christian event at the football stadium; I think she’s had some kind of religious experience”.
“What on earth…?.”,
“I don’t really know what’s going on, but she doesn’t say “Oh My God!” anymore, and gets upset if anyone says “for Christ’s sake”.

This lady had been a Christian for only a couple of days, but God had started to change her. I know that you and I are not perfect – there is still plenty of sin and corruption lurking in your heart; but are you aware also of a power in you which has begun a good work in you, changing you?  You can be absolutely certain that the world, your sinful nature and the devil do not want you to glorify Jesus, enjoy fellowship. love the Bible or care for the poor. This is demonstrably the work of the Holy Spirit in you  – the outworking of the new life in Christ that God has given you. But note this. If you are not aware of any changes that the Holy Spirit has made in you, don’t try to work harder, do more, or get to work to fix this – that’s missing the point because what we are talking about here is a gauge not an engine.

When I was a kid, I had a tour of Concorde, in its hanger at Heathrow Airport. At the front of each compartment there was a display which showed how fast the aircraft was travelling. It would sit for a long time at Mach 0.9, tantalisingly just below the speed of sound. Passengers would apparently get up and in frustration tap the display, wanting it to reach the magic “Mach.1”. Of course, fiddling with the gauge wouldn’t actually affect the speed of the plane! To do that, would require going into the cockpit and pushing back the throttle. If today you find no evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit changing you, then go back to the source of the power: Jesus himself. Seek Him, find Him, trust Him, and ask Him to come into your life with his renewing power.  If on the other hand, you can say for certain that the Spirit’s power has done some work in you, then take great courage. The wonderful gospel of Jesus is yours. You are in Christ and He is in you. He is yours and you are His. You are utterly safe in his love.

Thirdly, there are precious times in the life of the believer when the Holy Spirit bears direct witness to us of our assurance of salvation.  The New Testament says

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[f] And by him we cry, “Abba,[g] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.[4]

That is, that while we begin with trusting Jesus (not ourselves) for salvation, we then observe the effects of this upon us – there are also times when we experience the love of God too. Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great Welsh preacher, was fond of quoting the Puritan writer Thomas Goodwin on this point. Goodwin asked us to imagine a father his young son walking down the road together, when spontaneously the father picks up the lad and hugs him. The boy was no more or less a son of his father before the hug; but there was a moment when that relationship was especially enjoyed. So it is with us. We are the children of God, yet there are times when the Holy Spirit seems to help us enjoy that relationship to its fullest extent. The Holy Spirit makes us first grateful worshippers, who then become natural evangelists.

Jesus said these words: 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”[5]

The application is far from complex… !

The end point is this. Processing doubts, and questions about the gospel, and our salvation is an important and inevitable part of the Christian life. However, the more we grow in confidence in the gospel and its work in us, the less we will be hampered by insecurity. Just as we will take fewer risks without the assistance of a climbing rope, so we will never be able to take the risks needed for evangelism, if we do not know the treasure of assurance. That comes in three ways as we have seen: Firstly grasp the gospel firmly. It’s about Jesus, about grace, and is about forgiveness for your sins and adoption into God’s family; not about you or your moral performance. Secondly look honestly and see if there is any evidence in you that you have really believed it. Thirdly ask God to fill you with his Holy Spirit, to witness to your spirit that you are a son of God.

The experience of the most winsome and quietly effective witnesses for Jesus, is that it is when they are secure in Christ, and know His Spirit upon them, that they are bursting with love; and able most naturally to speak of their Saviour.

Further reading;

Sinclair B. Ferguson, “The Whole Christ”, esp. ch9
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The Sons of God” Exposition of Romans 8: 5-17
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The Final Perseverance of The Saints” Exposition of Romans 8:17-39

[1] Romans 8:39

[2] Eph 2:8-9

[3] 1 John 4:8

[4] Romans 8: 11-13

[5] Luke 11;11-13

Doesn’t Christianity Impede Moral Progress?

by Solas

“Society is progressing morally, getting better year by year!” some atheists have claimed (often adding “and religion threatens to hold this progress back”). But what do we mean by ‘progress’? Can one even use the word without first knowing what the destination is? In this Short Answers film, Solas Director Andy Bannister tackles a number of common myths about goodness, justice, and ethics — and shows how Christianity offers the best answer to the question ‘What is the purpose of human life?’, a question without an answer to which we can’t talk about these things meaningfully in the first place.

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Please share this video widely with friends or family and for more Short Answers videos, visit solas-cpc.org/shortanswers/, subscribe to our YouTube channel or visit us on Twitter Instagram or Facebook.

Support

Short Answers is a viewer-supported video series: if you enjoy them, please help us continue to make them by donating to Solas. Visit our Donate page and choose “Digital Media Fund” under the Campaign/Appeal button.

Frontlines / Christians at Work: “The Pilot”

by Editor

in the first of our interviews with Christians sharing their faith in the secular workplace, Gavin Matthews spoke to Rebecca Macdonald Ots.

Solas: Rebecca, thanks for speaking to us. Firstly tell us a little about your job.

Rebecca: I am a long haul airline pilot.  Normally I would be flying the B747 all over the world but sadly they retired that beautiful aircraft from passenger travel due to Covid. So I will hopefully be trained onto a newer plane sometime next year when flying picks up again.

Solas: What’s the best part of your job?

Rebecca: I’d say, the best part of my job is the team work involved in planning for a journey. Then safely and skilfully executing the take off,  climb, cruise, approach and landing into our destination airfield.  There is a unique camaraderie that pilots share and that’s one of the things I love.  It’s more than just a job for us. It’s a passion, a lifestyle.

Solas: What are some of the challenges you face at work and how does your faith in Christ help you to navigate those?

Rebecca: I face all kinds of challenges in my work ranging from dealing with the jet lag and fatigue due to working across time zones and very antisocial hours,  to navigating difficult airport procedures when you are tired.  It can also be quite lonely at times, being away from home for long periods of time with different crews every time.

My faith in Christ helps me navigate these challenges. I always bring my bible and Jesus with me. He truly is my closest friend and I have had many very precious encounters in his presence in my hotel room.  Also i have a strong network of family and friends who pray for me and keep me grounded in my faith .

Solas: Does being a Christian make a difference to the way you approach work?

Rececca: Yes! As with every job there are the boring and low periods of workload. At 2am across a vast Atlantic Ocean in the cruise, it can be easy to get tired with the jet lag and frustrated. I try and remember that my attitude should still be a good and positive one. Also sometimes in conversation, if my colleagues are being quite critical of the company and management, it can be easy to be drawn into gossip, so I try my best to refrain from this.

Solas: Do people you work with know that you are a Christian? How do they react to that?

Rebecca: In my job we fly with different pilots every trip. Sometimes we have met each other before and sometimes it’s for the first time. This is common in the aviation industry and in large airlines. The people I have flown with before definitely know I am a Christian, and even a lot who I haven’t met before probably because I do stand out as different.  I get a mix of reactions from intrigue and interest to poking fun or being apathetic.

Solas: Have you ever had opportunities to share your faith with people you know through work? What things have helped you to have good conversations about faith? Did you deliberately set about to have these conversations, or did they occur naturally?

Rebecca: In my job you are sat with one or two other pilots for a long period of time.  You are working together in a very confined and dynamic environment. This gives rise to lots of conversations. So I have had many opportunities to share my faith. Pilots talk about everything on a trip. During the cruise and then down route gives lots of time to chat. We find out a lot about each other and talk about everything from sport to politics to relationships.  I am very open with my faith and if ever asked for advice I tend to give it from a Christian perspective, which sometimes leads to very deep conversations.  Also the amazing sights we get to see from the flight deck gives rise sometimes to an open questions.

Solas: How do people react when you talk about your faith in Jesus? Interested? Angry? Apathetic? Do they ever raise objections…. What were they and how did you respond?

Rebecca: I get a mix of reactions when I talk about my faith. Some are intrigued, some will just change the topic of conversation, others will poke fun at me. The environment in the flight deck tends to be one of banter and something you just have to be quick to give a funny or smart answer back, in a light hearted way. Often that leads to a conversation later on in the bar.  A couple of occasions this has risen to a heated conversation down-route because the other person has become quite agitated with my answers, even although they kept asking the questions. I always try to give an answer for my faith if asked in a loving way.

Solas: Why do you want to talk to colleagues and friends about Jesus?

Rebecca: I love sharing my faith and Jesus with my colleagues because often I have come across an open willingness in them to think about the ‘what if there is something more’ because many do have frustrations with life and relationships and although they have it so good with a well paid job and fun lifestyle, deep down they are searching.  Sometimes a colleague will share with me about a sick loved one and I will as them if they would like me to pray for them in my church prayer group. I have never had anyone say no.  They may brush it off but they won’t say no.

Solas: What advice would you give a young Christian entering your field of work who wants to be faithful to Christ?

Rebecca: The advice I would give to a young Christian entering my field of work is that  there is beauty in being different, and from experience I get more respect and intrigue out of my colleagues for it. They may not agree with what I believe but they admire my strength and resilience and as a result I often have colleagues who open up and share things, knowing I won’t gossip but keep it discrete.  For guys especially it can often be easier to get things off their mind by chatting it through with a stranger than with a friend or family member.  Everyone is struggling with something and we should always act with love and  kindness yet be firm.

Why Did Jesus Have To Die For Me?

by Editor

THE HEART OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

At the heart of the Christian faith lies an incredible claim: that Jesus died on a cross to forgive our wrongdoing, our evil, and our brokenness, what the Bible calls “sin”. From the very beginning of the Christian church, Christians claimed that Jesus had died for our sins.

THE SCANDAL OF THE CROSS

It is all too easy to miss how startling this Christian focus on Jesus’s crucifixion was. Jesus had claimed to be the Jewish Messiah. The first Christians—most of whom were Jewish—claimed Jesus was this Messiah. However in common Jewish belief, the Messiah was supposed to overthrow the Roman’s who had conquered and oppressed the Jewish people—not supposed to get crucified by them.

Furthermore, in the ancient world, crucifixion was one of the most painful, and most humiliating ways to die – reserved for criminals and outcasts. Thus for Christians to claim that their Messiah, their Lord, their God, had been crucified was scandalous.  Indeed, the New Testament recognises this:

We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. (1 Cor 1:23)

Why did the early Christians boldly and shamelessly and in the face of persecution preach that Jesus had been crucified, killed for our sins? There is only one historical explanation: because that is what happened and however unpalatable it was to Jews, Romans and to Pagans, Christians faithfully stuck to the historical story.

Jesus himself had also predicted his own death on many occasions, for example in Mark 10:45 where he says that he, did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. According to the Bible, Jesus himself, 2,000 years of  Christian witness and the testimony of two billion Christians today; Jesus died for us.

OBJECTIONS TO THE DEATH OF JESUS

But to many modern people, this seems ludicrous. I hear two common objections. First, “I’m not a sinner, there’s nothing wrong with me. How dare you suggest I would need ‘forgiveness’. The second is “Why can’t God just forgive us?” Why did Jesus need to die? Why was his sacrifice on the cross necessary?”

ALL HAVE SINNED

Let’s start with the objection to the death of Jesus for our sins “there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m a basically good person.”

The truth is that human beings go wrong in all kinds of ways—I do and you do, we all do. You are, if you’re honest with yourself, basically a pretty mixed bag, as am I. Or as best-selling author and film writer, Nick Hornby, put it:

I’m a good person. In most ways. But I’m beginning to think that being a good person in most ways doesn’t count for anything very much, if you’re a bad person in one way.

In 2009, golfer Tiger Woods gave his first press conference, after his multiple affairs and lies had been uncovered. A journalist asked him: “How could you lie to so many people for so long?” He replied: “Because I first learnt to lie to myself.”

Imagine if you had to watch a cinema screening of your entire life; every thought, word and deed. Some bits would be great, other bits would make you cringe with embarrassment—all the stupid decisions, all the rude hurtful things you said about others, all those secret thoughts and selfish ambitions. All the things you did—but also the good things you didn’t do. Imagine then, if everyone you ever met was invited to the screening and asked to judge you. The truth is that God sees every aspect of our lives like this and says:

 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

He says that every one of us, needs forgiveness. No exceptions.

WHY CAN’T GOD JUST FORGIVE US?

So why can’t God just forgive us? Why isn’t it enough for us to simply say “sorry, God” and for God to forgive us—why did Jesus have to die?

Well, notice something for a moment. Real forgiveness, genuine forgiveness is always costly. Imagine you reverse your car into mine in a car park and dent it, causing a thousand pounds worth of damage and your insurance has expired. Taking pity on you, I forgive you the debt and let you off—you have been forgiven but your forgiveness came at a price. I paid the price so you could be forgiven. Your forgiveness was not free.

Or consider a wrong that isn’t economic. Imagine somebody insults you, shames you, and damages your reputation. What happens at this point?

You could make the person suffer. In this age of Twitter shaming, for example, perhaps you could engage in hash-tag justice and round up a social media mob to hound and harass the person who hurt you, in order to get even.  Or, in other parts of the world, maybe you even take things a stage further and employ vengeance to get even at the person who hurt you..

The only alternative to the spiral of hatred and violence that comes from responding to violence with violence, or hatred with hatred, or betrayal with betrayal, is to forgive. But forgiveness always carries a price. If you choose to forgive the other person, you have to carry within you the cost of forgiving them and turning away from vengeance. You have to pay the price for forgiving and not holding onto your pain or your honour.

Corrie ten Boom lived with her father and sister in the Netherlands, where her father ran a watchmaker’s shop. Committed Christians, Corrie and her family began helping to smuggle Jews away from the Nazis, hiding many in their home. In 1944, they were discovered and were arrested and shipped to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp where her sister Betsie died an agonising death.

Corrie survived and began a post-war career as an evangelist, speaking about God’s love. But one day, something shocking happened. Let me quote Corrie’s own words:

“It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former SS man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing centre at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain- blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fräulein”, he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your Forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on Christ’s.”

Forgiveness always comes at a price. Corrie discovered she didn’t have the resources within her to pay that price, faced with one of the guards who had done what he had done. But she found in Jesus somebody who was able to provide them.

Couldn’t God just forgive us?

Nobody just forgives. You can’t just forgive, because forgiveness always comes at a price. Always. Forgiveness means that you bear the cost so that the perpetrator doesn’t.

When you forgive somebody, you effectively bear sin—you bear the wounds so you can forgive them. So it should come as no surprise that when God chose to forgive us, rather than to punish us for all the ways we have wronged him and wronged one another, that he would go to the cross in the person of Jesus and die in our place.

As New York Times best-selling author Tim Keller writes:

On the Cross we see God doing visibly and cosmically what every human being must do to forgive someone, although on an infinitely greater scale. I would argue, of course, that human forgiveness works this way because we unavoidably reflect the image of our Creator. That is why we should not be surprised if we sense that the only way to triumph over evil is to go through the suffering of forgiveness, that this would be far more true of God, whose just passion to defeat evil and loving desire to forgive others are both infinitely greater than ours.[1]

In Jesus Christ—whom Christians have always understood to be God in the flesh—God took our pain, our violence, our evil, into himself, absorbed it, bore the wounds and paid the price, so that he could forgive us and, eventually, destroy all evil without destroying us. That’s why Jesus, God with us, God in the flesh, God who stepped into space and time, gave his life on the cross as a sacrifice.

THE PERFECT SACRIFICE OR A LIFE THROWN AWAY?

If you’re walking with a friend on a bridge over a river and your friend suddenly says, “I love you, let me show how much” and they dive over the side of the bridge, into the river, and drown. I think your reaction would be “What! Why? Why did you do that stupid thing. How did killing yourself possibly show you that you loved me?”

But think of another type of sacrifice. For example, in 1916, Billy McFadzean, a 20 year old soldier was fighting in the First World War in the Battle of the Somme. A box of hand grenades slipped into a crowded trench, dislodging safety pins in two of the grenades. Realising what was about to happen, McFadzean threw himself on top of the grenades, which exploded, killing him, but his action saved the life of dozens of his comrades. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

What makes the difference between throwing yourself pointlessly off a bridge, or what Billy McFadzean did? What matters is if you sacrificed yourself because it was the only way to save others.

When we look at what Jesus did when he went to the cross, we have to ask the question. Was Jesus foolishly throwing his life away in some meaningless action? Or was Jesus doing it because he knew it was the only way to save me, to save you, the only way we could be forgiven?

The Bible puts it like this:

God demonstrates his own love for us in this—while we still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

When it comes to forgiveness there is always a cost. There is always a price. And that’s why Jesus paid the price he did, for our forgiveness, because of God’s great love for us.

FREEDOM FOR THE CAPTIVES

In his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens describes two characters, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton – who look almost identical. The climax of the complex story comes when Darnay is imprisoned and facing death but Sydney arranges a swap so that he is imprisoned and faces death in his place. Sydney loved Darnay’s wife Lucie to the extent that he was willing to die to save her from widowhood.

I don’t know about you, but I find stories like that incredibly powerful. They move us deeply, But they don’t change us.

Stories of great self-sacrifice in history or literature often make me wonder if I’d be that brave if ever the test came. But examples can’t change us.

Even ethics can’t change us either because we consistently fall short of our own standards. We look at Sydney Carton’s story, or Billy McFadzean’s, and we gulp and we feel small.

But the historical story of what Jesus did is different. It’s not supposed to be an example that stirs us to do better. Or inspires us. Or makes us go misty eyed at Jesus’s love and courage. Or make us want to be nicer to our neighbours.

The story of Jesus isn’t that kind of story. In fact it’s not just a story, it’s our story. We need to see ourselves in it. We are the Charles Darnay figure, imprisoned and facing judgement. We are imprisoned, condemned, by our pride and self-centredness, by our privilege, by our meanness, by our pettiness, by our desire for power and to be god in God’s place. But Jesus comes to us and whispers “Let me take your place. Let me pay the debt you can’t pay. Let me set you free. Let me give you forgiveness as a gift.”

Jesus offers us forgiveness, peace, reconciliation and friendship with God but he does so at a tremendous cost. He did it for us.

Stories of great courage can inspire us. Stories of great sacrifice can move us. But when you realise that you’re part of Jesus’ story and part of the reason he went to the cross was for you, it can change you. So often as human beings, we’re driven by fear and by pride. But Jesus’s story, Jesus’s death destroys both.

You and I are so bad Jesus had to die for us. That destroys pride.
But we are so loved, that he was willing to die for us. That destroys fear.

Don’t let fear or pride hold you back from all that Jesus has to offer and from discovering what Jesus’ death, for you, means and from the new life that can flow from that.

[1]        Timothy Keller, The Reason for God (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2008) p.192

PEP Talk Podcast With Craig Dyer

by Solas

Today we hear from Craig Dyer about how the popular Christianity Explored courses have adapted to life in a pandemic. How can we best use these evangelistic tools, still make connections online, and meet people where they’re at during a difficult period for us all? Craig also shares about the unique opportunities his home church in Glasgow has to reach out to asylum seekers.

With Craig Dyer – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Craig Dyer is the Training Director for Christianity Explored, where he provides evangelism training for gospel-hearted churches around the world by developing a network of qualified trainers. Prior to this position, having graduated from Irish Baptist College in Belfast, he served as Pastor of Bellshill Baptist Church for just under 6 years and Harper Church in the south side of Glasgow for 13 years. He still serves there as an Associate Pastor. Craig and his wife Margaret have three daughters.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.

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The Guilt Gap

by Editor

Of all the things we talk about in church, there are three subjects in the Bible which I have seen make people especially uncomfortable. In each of these areas, I have sat in the pews trying to avoid the preacher’s gaze; and also been the preacher opening the awkward text. The three I have in mind are lust, financial giving and evangelism. Those topics don’t have a huge amount in common, other than this: many Christians feel a secret sense of shame about failures in these areas, and wouldn’t especially want those failings to be made public!

This article is about the third of those things – our failures in evangelism, and how we process the sense of guilt we so often feel when the subject is raised.

The problem is that as well as being draining, joyless and exhausting; guilt can be utterly paralysing. I am aware of ‘evangelism-training’ events in which a fearless and extrovert evangelist has berated ordinary Christians for their timidity and left them so battered that they have been even less likely to speak for Jesus after the event than they were beforehand! And yet – the guilt we often feel about evangelistic failures is not easily dismissed because we recognise the sting of truth in the warning of Jesus about those “who deny me before men”. Because we all have.

I can remember some specific times when I was given opportunities to talk about my faith in Jesus – and bottled out. One was with a friend who I had prayed for over many years, hoping for the conversation to head towards a gospel opening. But when my prayers were answered I failed. Worse still, I can remember a period of my life when I concealed my faith from my colleagues. Peter’s dreadful night of denial before the cock-crowed three times was nothing compared to my year of treachery. The result was that when anyone spoke about our role in the Great Commission, all I felt was paralysing guilt.

In the Bible, in myself and in others I have observed three ways of responding to this sense of evangelistic failure. The first two are unhelpful ways of processing guilt, but the third I have found to be liberating.

The first of these responses is hiding. This should hardly surprise us, as the first sin mentioned in the Bible was almost immediately followed by the first human attempt to hide from God. It is sometimes more comfortable to have a debate about the literal nature of Adam and Eve’s hiding, than it is to face up to the fact that we spend too much of our lives doing exactly that now. Lingering in a sense of inadequacy and sin, we shrink back from prayer, shuffle uncomfortably in our chair during communion, and trudge joylessly through life with little thought of sharing Christ. Unsurprisingly we find this folly of fallen humanity elsewhere in scripture too: the great King David (no less!) described the period after his sin and before his confession as like his “bones wasting away” and of “groaning all day long”. (Psalm  32:3). Now, that imagery is strikingly and poetically vivid but, which of us has not sat in unconfessed sin feeling dirty, shamed, tired and frankly a bit grumpy!? When we have denied Jesus, and failed to take up the cross and play our part in telling others of him – then denial and hiding is a self-destructive way of processing guilt.

The second and equally dangerous way of processing our sense of shame or cowardice is by seeking to take ourselves in hand; applying ourselves to the task and doing evangelism by sheer force of our willpower. Go back to the guilt-trip evangelism-training session from the ebullient-evangelist I described earlier. The medicine he prescribed for those failing Christians who weren’t doing evangelism, was works. He might as well have said, “you are guilty, sign up and join my mission-team and your guilt can be removed.” Such an approach is devastating, because while he might have preached a gospel of grace to sinners outside the church, he laid a burden of works upon sinners in it! And that is no gospel at all.

What then is a more helpful approach?

I am convinced that one of the reasons that we so often fail to speak for Jesus is that we haven’t really grasped the extent of the grace of God towards us in Christ, the power of the cross to reconcile us to God, or the implications of that for the Christian life. King David’s guilty-misery described in Psalm 32:2-4 didn’t persist however.  Verse 5 continues, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” David ended his Psalm in song and rejoicing, not because he worked off his debt to the Lord; but because The Lord forgave him.

And here is perhaps the key sentence in this article:

The same gospel which we seek to tell our friends; that Jesus’ death on the cross can do away with all their sin and reconcile them to God; is the same gospel which deals with all our failures – including our evangelistic disasters and denials.

I am not saying that sanctification and discipleship don’t require effort in a way that justification doesn’t! Progress in the Christian life is a co-operative effort requiring input from us in a way that receiving forgiveness does not. However, our reliance on God’s grace, for forgiveness of sin is the same throughout. In fact, as we mature in the Christian faith our sense of our reliance on God’s grace grows all the more. All the good works we do (including evangelism) must flow from this, not come before it. One of the scenes in the gospels which moves me the most is John 27:15-17 in which Jesus meets Peter again after Peter’s denial. Jesus firstly restores Peter’s relationship to himself and then recommissions Peter to speak for him. The gospel we share that says that all our friends’ sins can be washed away by Christ, is the same gospel which deals with our sins too.

The fact is, we cannot share what we do not have! If the reality of our daily Christian lives is that we think we need to earn away our sin – we will be paralysed with a sense of guilt that seems irremovable. Furthermore we will be gloomy, introspective and anxious and not exactly a walking advert for the Christian faith. These blessings don’t come from trying harder, doing more, or pushing ourselves ever further – they come from confessing our failures to the Lord, asking for His forgiveness and allowing Him to restore us.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones addressed the subject of miserable, ineffective Christians in his 1964 classic book, “Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure”. While stylistically it is very much a product of its era, it is nevertheless a source of continued help to many people today. In it he says: “Have you realised that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”

What did he mean and how is it of help to us here?

The point is this. If we listen to ourselves we will hear guilt, failure, and condemnation. But what we can speak to ourselves is the gospel of Christ with all its cleansing power. “If I confess my sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn1:8-9) is a sermon I have had to preach to myself many, many times!

When we ask God to apply the gospel, with all its beauty, grace and liberating power to us first – then we will not find ourselves hiding, nor making evangelism an irksome burden of works-righteousness; but rather a privilege and a joy.

Guilt paralyses us, but Jesus liberates us. So if like me, you find evangelism difficult, and you have a tendency to beat-yourself up with guilt about every missed opportunity and failed conversation. Don’t hide from God, don’t attempt to expunge your guilt through effort – first come back to the cross and bask in the love and grace of God in Christ. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us.” (Eph 1:8). We need to learn and learn again that God does not begrudge the grace He gives us – which He wants to “lavish” upon us.

Now that really is something to share with a dying world!

Further reading:

When We Get It Wrong by Dominic Smart
From Fear to Freedom by Rose Marie Miller
Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortland
Spiritual Depression by D M Lloyd-Jones

Christianity’s Unique Response to Suffering: Andy Bannister’s talk at Jesmond Parish Church

by Editor

Viral pandemics and the lockdowns which followed in their wake, have caused great angst and suffering across the world. Of course, human suffering and anxiety are nothing new and people have wrestled with trying to understand this for thousands of years. Andy Bannister was invited to speak about this at Jesmond Parish Church, in the heart of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Sadly, he wasn’t able to travel there in person, because of the restrictions in place, but joined them online from his study in Dundee.

In his talk, Andy noted that the global health crisis of 2020-1, has exposed the fragility of the belief-system that most people use to navigate life. Many people live today with the assumption that reasonable job security, sustained economic growth and personal freedoms are the norm and that as ‘decent people’ they deserve them all. The sudden loss of many of these comforts has lead to a resurfacing of the great questions of life – which as Douglas Murray notes – our society “has left largely unaddressed”. With the unfolding crisis, Bible sales have gone up, spiritual searches on Google have too – and media outlets and commentators from The New Statesman to Russell Brand have commented on the resurgent thirst for spiritual answers.

The fact is that people who reject God do not cease to be worshippers, they simply enshrine at the centre of their lives, substitute ‘gods’ such as money, sex, power, career or family. The crisis of 2020 has done enough to reveal that under pressure these false gods fall short at providing answers to the great questions of “why?”, or resources with which to navigate life’s trials. Secular gods are hollow. Other faiths and worldviews are problematic too. Atheism denies that the great “why questions?” (the asking of which is one of the key things which mark humans as a unique species) even really exist. Naturalism seeks to reduce everything to physical causes and can only describe a world in which things are as they are, and has no genuine space for questions of meaning and purpose. Other faiths wish to suggest that all suffering is the result of judgement or karma, and is essentially blame the victim, which is problematic too.

What then is the unique Christian response to the question of suffering, or to put it in a more contemporary way: Where is God in the Coronavirus World? Andy looked briefly at four things.

  1. The resurrection of Jesus means that Christian hope is not vague optimism or wish-fulfilment but a real, concrete thing. Andy said, “We can know, with confidence, that death is not a broken world’s last sneering laugh, but that the power of death has been broken because of what Jesus did.”
  2. The Bible provides a realistic account of the state of the world which makes sense. The brokenness of humanity and creation (stemming back to the ‘fall’) means that the world is not functioning as we all deeply feel it should. As a result Christianity has endured countless wars, plagues and crises – and today is thriving in the world’s most difficult places. Andy noted: “Christians believe that God has a dramatic plan, put into action through Jesus’s death and resurrection, to redeem and renew our world, and to heal and forgive us.”
  3. Christian hope is a lived-experience because Jesus is present with His people now. Andy noted the way in which the ‘secular gods’ of money, wealth and security have fled in the face of the pandemic. Jesus is the opposite. The solidarity with us that Jesus demonstrated in his incarnation; and his death on our behalf to save us from our sins, is foundational to our relationship to him. That relationship is not now a distant or remote one but a living reality. “Jesus carries us through the darkest times” Andy said.
  4. Finally, Andy explored the way in which Christian hope animates us in the middle of the sufferings of life. Drawing on his own testimony he said, “it was only the comfort and hope that Jesus brought that carried us through the darkest of days”.

Andy concluded his time with the folks at Jesmond saying, “God hasn’t moved, it’s we who have at times turned our backs—and sometimes it takes something dramatic, like a pandemic to wake us up to the fact that without God, there is no hope, no meaning, and no peace. But with God, there is. In and through Jesus, we can have all of those things. To those of you this morning who are hurting, or struggling, or despairing, or searching, Jesus said: Come to me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you peace.”