In this post I will present an analogy that illustrates the truth about the gospel, the Good News! I will follow this up in a few weeks with a post that illustrates the truth about how God's law is related to the gospel.
Imagine a father, with many children. Imagine that all his children have a disease that is known to be fatal. This disease is also known to distort the thinking and destroy the mind. In fact, it so destroys the mind, that it is entirely correct to say that those who have the disease are slaves to it, they have no freedom of thought or will. The disease also destroys the body, and without proper treatment it kills quickly. Thankfully, there is a cure! The father has the antidote that will return the mind and the body to perfect health. Now, suppose the father should say, "I must not overrule the free will of my children, so I will only give the antidote to those who ask for it." What would you think of such a father? At the very least, you would think he must not be very intelligent. Most would rightly consider such a man to be a monster beyond description! Yet, notice that this is precisely how every pastor, evangelist, and teacher of every kind in the church, describes our heavenly Father! They rightly tell us that sin is a fatal disease. They rightly tell us that it destroys not only the body, but that it also brings spiritual death and binds the will in slavery to sin (a dead man cannot ask for the Antidote and a slave has no free will). And yet they tell us that not one person receives the new birth/Holy Ghost/quickening to new life, that not one person receives Christ within their sin-ridden hearts, without expressly asking for Him to come in. In doing this, they make our Father in heaven out to be an even more monstrous character than the human father described above, for the human father is allowing for the destruction of the bodies of his children, while these false teachers portray a heavenly father that would wilfully allow for the eternal destruction of not only the bodies but also of the souls of His dear children. Sadly, presently, there is not one master in Israel who understands and teaches the truth about the gospel; not one.
Here is the truth of the gospel: the Father has administered the Antidote (Christ) into all of His children, without even one of them having asked for it, for not one of them could ask for it. And with the Antidote now working within each one to clarify truth to their minds (their wills only thereby freed from the bondage they were in), He bids them cooperate with him for their full recovery! This is the Father we have! All praise and honor and glory belong to Him, now and forevermore! That's the truth of the Everlasting Gospel! Believe it! Live it!
Ephesians 4.7-8, Colossians 3.11
