UNVEIL THE TRUTH

After waiting for close to an hour, the trotro finally got full. Unfortunately, my discomfort was just about entering another phase. Another preacher was about to make a journey an unbearable one. For the record, I love a good sermon, I don’t hate listening to the word of God. But I sure don’t cheerlead a sermon that doesn’t uphold the truth. And I have had more than enough encounters with bus preachers to know that it’s either the truth is amiss or Ekuro bewu ointment is hiding in the briefcase.

So this preacher, a woman this time, got some resistance from me in the beginning. I had my giant light green headphones on, which made me stand out and anyone could conclude I wasn’t prepared to listen like most people on the bus. Well, they’d be wrong because I listened to the preacher woman with the volume turned down. I’ll be honest, I did this to confirm my presumption.
She practically spent the whole time talking about how perverse the world has become (as if that wasn’t already obvious). She talked about the usual; the foreign hair extensions and hairstyle trends, the long mame-water-like acrylic nails, today’s fashion, sexual immorality, homosexuality… you know them, all the extra koo mini ni. “Obonsam is using all these things to twee Nyame mma into obonsam gyam”, she vividly painted.

During her 18 years of preaching on buses, she had had only three testimonies of souls saved to share. She blamed it on a lot of factors but there was something wrong with this picture. I knew in my spirit, the reason for her disappointment. She wasn’t preaching the good news, her message was anything but good, it lacked God’s love and the person of His grace, Jesus; hence no power for salvation (Romans 1:16). She had been preaching fire and brimstone for almost two decades with the sole aim of getting people to get right with God so they can enter heaven, her idea of salvation.

19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.  21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Romans 3: 19 – 26 (KJV)
Now let me make this clear, all this hype of do’s and don’ts being a passport into heaven is just CRAP! It is really a laughable attempt to win over a holy and righteous God. Okay, assuming we got all the women in the world to throw away their trousers and opt for kaba and slit, or say give up makeup for nkuto, would that pay for sin?

It is clearly shown in the passage of scripture above that even by keeping God’s perfect law; His very own standards engraved on stone, justification isn’t guaranteed before Him. For all those at sea, by the law, I mean the 10 commandments. And for those of us probably thinking “how hard could it be? we’ve got it all covered”, Jesus addresses you by relating lack of brotherly love to murder and lustful thoughts to adultery (Mathew 5:21-28). Making matters worse, James 2:10 reveals how breaking just a single one makes you guilty of all. You can argue out your law keeping capabilities all you want but God’s law was given to shut every mouth and brand the whole world guilty before Him (verse 19). Our inability to perfectly keep the law is God’s brilliant way of showing man his inherent corrupt nature of sin and the dire need for a Saviour. (verse 20)

Praise the Lord for the fact that our justification is now free in Christ Jesus (verse 24), praise the Lord that our righteousness is a gift from Him (Romans 5:17). I’m glad that the sins of the whole world have been completely dealt with, and that all we need to do is believe in the Saviour and his finished work; the overpayment for our debt (Hebrews 10:12). I’m also thankful for our eternal redemption obtained in Jesus (Hebrews 9:12), our timeless forgiveness of sins and the grace to live for Him forever beholding the magnitude of His love.

I’m really feeling blessed behind the laptop just typing the truth. This is the gospel; the good news of my Lord Jesus Christ; the glorious gospel that a lot of well-meaning preachers for some reason are failing to radically proclaim. Ironically, like the preacher woman on the bus, they expect fruition from seeds they never planted. Making people feel condemned and unworthy of God’s love because of their shortcomings has never been in the plans of God. Unfortunately, some preachers clearly don’t see it that way. I’m not try to belittle anyone’s work but speaking the truth for 18 years would have seen more than 3 souls saved. God wants people saved more than we can ever dream of. That’s why He has commissioned his children with the gospel. Again, I’m not trying to compare but Peter proclaimed the joyful news of Jesus Christ and saw 3000 people saved in one day. If he had burdened the crowd with a message of getting cleaned up on their own before they could have a relationship with God, yelled out that He was angry at them for not obeying His law perfectly and that fire and brimstone awaited them on judgment day, the results wouldn’t have been the same. When we proclaim the truth, the Spirit of God convicts the hearts of men to turn to the Lord. It’s not even in our power to talk them into repentance. God does all the work.

There is absolutely no fear in love, believers have boldness in the day of judgement because our born again spirits are exactly like Jesus at this very moment (1 John 4:17,18). This is what the bible teaches! I pray anyone perverting the sweet gospel of our Lord gets a revelation of what they are missing out on. They would know why we aren’t always eager to give them audience and hopefully change their ways. Light has been shown through a few scriptures, but there are more of these truths where they came from; the bible. And Like Jude admonishes, I will contend earnestly for the faith (Jude 1:3), especially when misrepresentations of God and constant veiling of His unending love bombard us at every turn.

Surely, this is the kind of blogpost that doesn’t get its topic exhausted, I’ll just quit typing…

Or not…

Quote: The gospel is music to the uninitiated, it’s sounding brass to the status quo. ~Brian Houston