Copyright © 2017 by David Platt and Radical, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Published by Radical, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the ESV ® Bible

(The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright © 2001
by Crossway. Also used: Christian Standard Bible (CSB),
copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

THREAD 1: THE CHARACTER OF GOD 4

THREAD 2: THE SINFULNESS OF MAN 10

THREAD 3: THE SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST 23

THREAD 4: THE NECESSITY OF FAITH 34

THREAD 5: THE URGENCY OF ETERNITY 45

CONCLUDING QUESTIONS 54

NOTES 57

ABOUT DAVID PLATT 58

ABOUT RADICAL 59
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Introduction
I’ve got to admit that I was a little nervous as we sat in an
upstairs room at two o’clock in the morning, surrounded by
Muslim men I’d just met, in a country where it’s illegal to share
the gospel with Muslims.
And yet, there we were, discussing the most contentious,
provocative, and even insulting truth of the gospel for many
Muslims—the deity of Jesus Christ. Surprisingly, these Muslims
were actually open to listening, and it was because of the way
that people like Mark, Kim, and Robert were living their lives.
These believers had earned the right to be heard because of the
way they worked together in a business that operated in this
country. They were honest in their work, and they honored the
people they worked with. They also cared for the people around
them in striking ways. The gospel had been woven consistently
into the fabric of their interactions with these Muslims. As a
result, people were coming to faith in Christ.
Now you might be wondering, How is that possible in a
country where it’s illegal to share the gospel?

WEAVING THE GOSPEL

Mark, Kim, and Robert explained to me that their goal each
day is to weave gospel “threads,” that is, the core truths of
the gospel, into the fabric of every interaction they have with
Muslims. In every conversation, in every business dealing, in
every meeting, they look for opportunities to speak about who

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 Introduction

God is and what He has done for them in Christ. Of course, not
every conversation involves a full, hour-long gospel presentation.
Instead, they aim to saturate their interactions with various
threads of the gospel.
The prayer of these missionaries is that, in time, God would
open the eyes of Muslim men and women around them to behold
the tapestry of the gospel that has been woven before them. As
I watched this “gospel weaving” in action, I was amazed at how
natural (or should I say supernatural) sharing the gospel could
be. But that made me wonder, Why does sharing the gospel seem
anything but natural for many followers of Christ?

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
Why don’t authentic followers of Jesus passionately and
consistently share Jesus with unbelievers? At least two reasons
come to mind, and these reasons get at the heart of why this book
was written.
First, some of us don’t share our faith because we don’t have
a firm grip on the core truths of the gospel. Sure, we know Jesus
died for our sins, and we see changes in our lives, but beyond
that, things start to get hazy. We struggle to communicate what
the Bible says about God or sin or salvation. That’s why this book
provides a brief explanation of five major truths, or what we’re
calling “threads,” of the gospel. These threads include (1) the
character of God, (2) the sinfulness of man, (3) the sufficiency of
Christ, (4) the necessity of faith, and (5) the urgency of eternity.
These are truths every disciple needs to know. We won’t share
regularly what we don’t understand clearly.
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A second reason we don’t share our faith, and this may be the
primary reason, is fear. In many places around the world, there’s
a fear of the repercussions of identifying with Jesus. As a result,
persecution often silences the spread of the gospel. However,
we don’t have that level of persecution in our own context,
certainly not anywhere close to what many of our brothers and
sisters around the world experience. Yet, we still fear.
We often fear rejection, and maybe even more than that,
we fear awkwardness. The fear of awkwardness seems to be
ingrained in our culture and in our relationships. We avoid
awkward conversations like the plague. Talk about Jesus at the
workplace or bring Him up with your neighbor out in the yard,
and things can get awkward pretty quickly. But they don’t have to.
The “threads” of the gospel are not intended to be an
awkward intrusion into our conversations. Instead, they can be
woven into the fabric of everything we do and say. At the end of
each chapter you’ll find practical suggestions for weaving these
threads into your everyday interactions. Remember, though,
there is no formula for sharing the gospel that will guarantee
results. Salvation is God’s work, so we must rely fully on Him as
we share the only message that has the power to save (Romans
1:16). That’s what weaving gospel threads is all about.

* This resource is adapted from David Platt’s sermon series titled “Threads,” which can be accessed
for free at radical.net.

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 T H R E A D O N E

The Character of God

Sometimes the best place to begin is at the end. Here’s how the
last book of the Bible, Revelation, describes the end goal of our
salvation:

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will

dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God
himself will be with them as their God. (Revelation 21:3)

There it is, the final reward for every follower of Jesus

Christ—dwelling with God forever. In resurrected bodies that are
without sin, sorrow, or suffering, we will enjoy fellowship with
God in a never-ending new creation. That’s what He has made
possible through the gospel.
But God is not only the end goal of the gospel; He is also its
author. In fact, He is the author, or creator, of all things and all
people, including you and me (Genesis 1–2). As our Sovereign
Creator, He owns us (Psalm 100:3). It only makes sense, then,
that we would want to know this God who created us and who
offers us eternal and uninterrupted fellowship with Him through
the gospel. The question we should be asking, indeed, the one that
every person on the planet should be asking, is, What is God like?
Thankfully, we don’t have to guess when it comes to God’s
character. He did not leave us in the dark. As we’ll see in Thread
1, God has revealed Himself to us in His Word, and the portrait is
stunning. Below we’ll look at three attributes of God, attributes

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that are critical if we want to understand the gospel rightly and

share it accurately.

GOD IS HOLY
When we describe the character of God to someone, there is no
better place to start than with God’s holiness. This attribute gets
at the heart of what makes God, well, God. In Isaiah 43:15, for
example, God identifies himself this way:

I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel,

your King.

So what does it mean for God to be holy? It means that He

is utterly unique, the only one of His kind. He is unlike us, and
not only because He is the Creator and we are creatures, but
also because He is morally pure and separate from sin. Yes, we
are made in God’s image, which means that, in a sense, we are
a reflection of Him. The Bible refers to believers as “saints”
(Colossians 1:4), which literally means “holy ones.” However,
God is also very different from us, for there is nothing wrong in
God (1 John 1:5) and he is exalted far above any creature.
When the prophet Isaiah got a glimpse of the enthroned Lord
sitting in His heavenly temple, the angels were calling to one
another,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

The whole earth is full of his glory! (Isaiah 6:3)

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 The Character of God

But praising God for His holiness is not only the business
of angels. It’s also a major theme of our worship. The psalmist
exclaims, “Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool!
Holy is he!” (Psalm 99:5). Jesus himself taught us to pray, “Our
Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy” (Matthew 6:9,
CSB). Our lives, in other words, should be motivated by a desire
to see our Heavenly Father honored for His holiness. To miss or
to downplay God’s holiness is to have a distorted picture of the
God revealed in the Bible.

GOD IS JUST
Another important aspect of God’s character is His perfect,
inflexible justice. Proverbs 17:15 tells us,

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the

righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

As a good judge, God justifies the innocent and condemns the

guilty. Injustice is an abomination to Him. God only does what is
right and just. This picture of God as a perfectly just judge should
stop us in our tracks.
Scripture says that God will “render to each one according to
his works” (Romans 2:6), a scary thought given that each of us
has fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), having been born
dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). So we’re left with the Bible’s
ultimate question: How can a just God look at guilty sinners and
call them innocent?

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If a judge in our court system knowingly declared guilty

criminals to be innocent, then we would remove that judge from
the bench in a heartbeat. Why? Because he’s not just. Likewise,
if God simply overlooks sin, then His justice and holiness are
completely compromised. He is no longer God. We’ll see how
this tension is solved in a later chapter, but for now we need to
see and feel it. A just God cannot simply sweep sin under the rug.

GOD IS GRACIOUS
If God’s holiness and justice were His only attributes, then we
would have no hope. And we certainly wouldn’t have a message
of hope to share with the world. This is why the third attribute of
God, His grace, is such good news. Titus 2:11 says,

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for

all people . . . .

Titus is talking about God’s grace as demonstrated in the

coming of Christ. But what does it mean for God to be gracious?
Grace is one of those words that can seem ambiguous, but it is
critical for understanding the gospel.
For God to be gracious means that He shows the guilty
free and unmerited favor. He not only spares the guilty the
punishment they deserve; He gives them that which they could
never deserve. Paul says in Ephesians 1:7 that our redemption
and forgiveness are “according to the riches of his grace.” He
also says that we are declared righteous “by His [God’s] grace

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 The Character of God

as a gift” (Romans 3:24). That word “gift” is important, because a

gift is something that, by definition, cannot be earned.
Religions all around the world are built on doing certain
things, taking certain steps, and observing certain rules and
regulations, all in order to earn the favor of God (or the gods). The
good news of the gospel, however, is that God does not require
anything from us in order to earn His favor. As Paul says, “[God]
saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but
according to his own mercy” (Titus 3:5). Grace, the unmerited favor
of God, is our only hope.

WEAVING THREAD ONE: THE CHARACTER OF GOD

Acknowledge the glory of God in creation every chance
you have.

Acknowledge the presence of God in specific facets of

your life.
• God is working in my life (in this way) . . .
• God is blessing me (in this way) . . .
• God is leading me (in this direction) . . .
• God is guiding me (to make this decision) . . .
• God is teaching me (this truth) . . .
• God is showing me (this realization) . . .

Talking about the holiness of God . . .

• Speak about God with reverential awe.
• Speak about yourself with genuine humility.

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• Draw attention to attributes that distinguish God from

people in this world.
• Draw attention to ways in which God reigns above the
gods of this world.

Talking about the justice of God . . .

• Express confidence in God before others even when
things go wrong.
• Express remorse before God and others when you do
something wrong.
• As you work for justice in the world, speak about the
Judge of the world.
• As you observe evil and suffering in the world, speak
with hope about the world to come.

Talking about the grace of God . . .

• Constantly point out evidences of God’s grace in and
around you.
• Consistently credit God as the source of everything good
in and around you.
• Continually acknowledge your need for God’s grace.
• Unceasingly express your gratitude for God’s grace.

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 T H R E A D T W O

The Sinfulness of Man

We don’t like to admit our own faults. If someone happens to
point out that we’re in the wrong, we often deny it or attempt to
shift the blame. It’s no wonder Thread 2, the sinfulness of man, is
so unpopular.
Like a mirror that’s squeaky-clean, a biblical view of God’s
character (Thread 1) reveals our unsightly blemishes. It’s an
unflattering experience, which is one reason many Christians
don’t want to take an honest look. It’s also why they find it
difficult to talk about sin with unbelievers. After all, who wants
to hear about their own shortcomings? However, exposing man’s
sinfulness is necessary if we want people to see their need for
God’s grace and forgiveness. A patient will not embrace the cure
if he is unaware that he has a serious illness.
As we consider the Bible’s teaching on man’s sinfulness in
Thread 2, we’ll also find answers to questions like, “Who am
I?” and “What’s wrong with the world?” Such questions are
central to every religion and worldview, for it’s easy to look out
at the world and see that things are not right. Greed, murder,
selfishness, exploitation, dishonesty—the list goes on and on. In
the face of these realities, the Bible offers a unique diagnosis.

A BIBLICAL PARADOX
The fact that we sin does not mean that we are worthless in God’s
sight. Man is both depraved and dignified. This is a paradox that,
I’m convinced, resonates with us at the deepest level. We might

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also state it this way: we are each created by God, but we are all
corrupted by sin. That statement needs some unpacking if we
want to understand it and communicate it to others.

Created by God
All people—including unbelievers with whom we plan to share
the gospel—have inherent value as individuals created for God’s
glory and made in His image (Genesis 1:26–27). This idea of
being made in God’s image distinguishes us from animals,
nature, and everything else in creation. God commanded Adam
and Eve (and, through them, the entire human race) to multiply
and have dominion over creation (Genesis 1:28–30), thus
forming unique covenant relationships with His image-bearers.
Plants and animals don’t have this kind of relationship with God.
As humans, we have the capacity for rational thought and
moral choice. We have a conscience by which we discern good
and evil, and we have the ability to choose between the two.
We have a capacity for hard work and artistic creativity; we are
innovative and imaginative; we create, we construct, we draw
and build, dream and dance, write and make music. We also have
a capacity for social relationships—we long for love. But, sadly,
that’s not the whole story. We also have the capacity for sin.

Corrupted by Sin
Despite all of our dignified traits, each of us is corrupted by sin.
It’s a sad paradox: God’s image-bearers instinctively engage in
sinful thoughts, harbor sinful motives, and commit sinful deeds.

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John Stott put it this way:

We are able to think, choose, create, love and worship;
but we are also able to hate, covet, fight and kill. Human
beings are the inventors of hospitals for the care of the
sick, of universities for the acquisition of wisdom, and
of churches for the worship of God. But they have also
invented torture chambers, concentration camps, and
nuclear arsenals.

This is the paradox of our humanness. We are both noble

and ignoble, both rational and irrational, both moral and
immoral, both creative and destructive, both loving and
selfish, both Godlike and bestial.1

In order to understand Thread 2, the sinfulness of man,

it’s the second part of this paradox that we need to focus on.
More specifically, What does it mean that each of us has been
corrupted by sin? That’s a question we must face squarely if we
want to understand and communicate the gospel.

A SOBERING REALITY
Many people feel like their greatest problem in life is something
out there. Whether it’s their job, their marriage, their financial
struggles, or something else, they feel unfulfilled due to some
external factor. Even many Christians think about sin primarily
in terms of what goes on out there in the world. However, when
it comes to what’s wrong with the world, Scripture forces us to
look inward.
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Everything about us has been corrupted by sin. That’s a

difficult diagnosis for most people to accept. After all, who wants
to hear about all his faults? Many people think of themselves as
essentially well-intentioned and good-hearted, even if they mess
up now and then. Scripture, on the other hand, paints a much
darker picture of our spiritual condition. Below we’re going to
consider three aspects of sin’s corruption in our lives.

1. We have rebelled against God.

Scripture doesn’t pull any punches when it describes our
sinful rebellion. In the midst of a long discussion about man’s
sinfulness, the apostle Paul says in Romans 3:12, “All have
turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does
good, not even one.” That’s a stinging indictment of humanity—
some would even say an unfair indictment.
Really, no one does good?
The key to understanding Romans 3:12 is to notice that first
phrase, “All have turned aside.” We have turned aside from God.
That is, none of us has glorified God as God. We have all rejected
Him, and in our rebellion we are re-enacting the very first sin on
the pages of Scripture. God told Adam and Eve not to eat from
the tree, but they did it anyway (Genesis 3). They didn’t want
God to be Lord over them. And neither do we.
Stop and think for a moment about the God we’re saying no
to. This is the God who beckons storm clouds, the God who tells
the wind when to blow, the God who commands the rain where
to fall. He says to the mountains, “You go here,” and to the seas,
“You stop there,” and they do it—immediately! Everything in
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all creation responds in obedience to the Creator, until you get to

man. You and I have the audacity to look God in the face and say
no. This is the essence of sin—turning from God to self.
Sin reverses the order of God’s good design. Instead of
putting God first, our neighbor second, and self last, sin leads
us to put self first, neighbors second (often for our own selfish
gain), and God somewhere in the background at a distant third,
if He’s even in the picture. Of course, we probably wouldn’t
say, “I worship myself,” but an honest look at our lives and our
vocabulary tells a different story.
We have (literally) hundreds of words that start with self:
self-centered, self-esteem, self-confidence, self-advertisement,
self-gratification, self-glorification, self-pity, self-applause,
self-will, self-motivation, and so on. Apparently we need a rich
vocabulary to express the extent of our preoccupation with
ourselves. Two ways this self-preoccupation manifests itself is
in our self-indulgence and our self-righteousness. See if you can
identify one (or both) of these two sinful impulses.

Self-Indulgence
Self-indulgence is what I’ll call the irreligious impulse. Many
people rebel against God by living life however they want. They
delight in breaking all the rules, indulging in whatever pleasures,
pursuits, and possessions their hearts desire.

Self-Righteousness
As sinful as self-indulgence sounds, there’s an equally sinful

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and maybe even more dangerous expression of our rebellion

against God. It’s called self-righteousness. I’m primarily talking
about religious people. Regardless of which religion they follow,
these people try to do whatever God wants. They strive for good
(and for God) by keeping all the rules, assuming that if they
live morally, then God will bless and save them. Sadly, many
professing Christians fall into this category.
Many who claim to follow Christ believe that if they pray,
read the Bible, and attend corporate worship, then God will
show them favor and give them eternal life. But this seemingly
“Christian” approach is actually rebellion against God because
it is an attempt to save yourself through good works. Self-
righteousness misses the gospel just as much as self-indulgence.
Whether we love to break the rules in self-indulgence or keep
the rules in self-righteousness, the core problem is that it’s all
about us. We want what we want and we (think) we know how to
get it. However, what we thought would lead to our good and to
our freedom has led each of us into slavery. Jesus said it this way
in John 8:34: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” That
may sound like an overstatement, but it’s actually the way all sin
works.
Consider the case of an alcoholic: the man begins drinking
and thinks he has found the path to freedom and satisfaction. No
one can tell him what to do. But before he knows it, his desire for
another drink is out of control. The obsession is literally killing
him. The man who thought he was free is actually a slave. And
such is the case for everyone who is apart from Christ, for we are
“slaves to impurity and lawlessness” (Romans 6:19). In the end,
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all our pursuits of joy and freedom apart from Christ are only
symptoms of a deeper slavery. We are rebelling against the only
One who can satisfy our souls.

2. We are separated from God.

The consequence of our sinful rebellion against a holy God is
separation from Him. This separation, according to Romans
3:23, is a reality for each one of us: “For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God” (emphasis added). We may not want
to admit that we are separated from God, and we may not always
feel this separation, but we know instinctively that the Bible’s
diagnosis of the human condition is true.
Our separation from God is evident in the way we relate to
Him. We know deep down that something is wrong, and so we
recoil from God. We respond the same way our first parents did
in Genesis 3 when sin was introduced into the world. Adam and
Eve disobeyed God and they felt the separation acutely:

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and
made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his
wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God
among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called
to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said,
“I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked, and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:7–11)
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Notice the shame, guilt, and fear caused by sin, reactions that
are familiar to each of us.

Shame
After Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately felt a sense of
shame, and they tried to cover themselves by sewing together fig
leaves and making loincloths in order to hide their nakedness.
We do essentially the same thing. We try to do good things in our
community to make up for our selfishness in marriage. Or we give
money to a good cause in order to deal with the guilt of cheating
on our taxes. We might even use religion, hoping that our church
attendance will mask the sinful things we’ve done in the past.
There are countless ways we attempt to cover over our shame.

Guilt
Adam and Eve not only had a sense of shame; their sin actually
made them guilty before God. And each of us feels this guilt,
for we know that we do things that are wrong. To overcome this
guilt, we use a number of different strategies.
Many people try to deny that there is such a thing as right
and wrong. We are free, they say, from fixed moral standards and
the guilt that comes from violating those standards. However, no
one can successfully erase the sense of right and wrong God has
written on the human heart (Romans 2:14–15). Our consciences
bear witness to the truth. Besides, those who claim that ethics
are relative or arbitrary are trapped in a contradiction: they argue
that it is right for you to agree with them and wrong for you to
disagree!
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Another strategy we use to combat guilt is to convince

ourselves that certain moral standards and expectations are
unrealistic. We fail and do wrong because, hey, we’re only
human. Or there’s the claim that certain moral principles are
outdated and need to be redefined. Stop living in the ethical Dark
Ages, they say. Greed is not a bad thing; it’s part of ambition.
Exalting yourself is the name of the game, so don’t feel bad
about it. Lust is natural for men and women, so don’t expect sex
to be confined to marriage. The list goes on and on.
We deal with our guilt in physical ways as well. Drinking and
drugs can serve as an escape for our guilty consciences. Or, as a
less extreme option, we often turn to busyness, devoting ourselves
to games and hobbies and sports so that we can make light of
our guilt. Perhaps we like to keep the TV or music on all day and
night as a constant barrage of sound and sight that guards us from
the silence of a guilty soul. Our smart phones have made this a
convenient option. Finally, we cover up our guilt with religion and
attempt to placate God with our religious performance. We think
we can make up for our sins. Yet, deep down inside, despite all our
zealous efforts, we know that guilt still separates us from God.

Fear
Sin not only leads to guilt and shame, but also to fear. Adam
and Eve found themselves hiding from God after they sinned,
afraid of appearing before Him to take responsibility for their
disobedience. This kind of fear is universal. I’ve seen fear
expressed among animistic and tribal peoples who try to keep
various spirits and gods appeased through dances, prayer
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festivals, and sacrifices. Witch doctors and priests hold spiritual

sway over entire peoples who are captivated by fear. While our
response may look different, each of us has fears to deal with—
failure, loneliness, emptiness, sickness, pain, disease, or disaster.
Ultimately, though, we fear death. The fear of our own mortality,
and of what lies beyond the grave, is a reality for every human
being.
Our shame, guilt, and fear are the result of being separated
from God in our sin. And, to make matters worse, this separation
is not something we can remedy.

3. We are dead without God.

Dead. That sounds extreme. Could we not just say that we have
messed up, or that we need some spiritual healing? After all, we
don’t always feel dead. Many unbelievers are optimistic, kind,
and, from an outward perspective, full of life. However, the Bible
is clear about our spiritual condition apart from Christ: “And you
were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked”
(Ephesians 2:1). It also refers to death as the wages we have
earned by our sin.
Think of sin as our employer: we work hard for him, year
after year, sometimes with great excitement and sometimes with
great disappointment, and yet, at the end of all our hard work, our
compensation is death.
This idea of being dead apart from God is expressed in two
primary ways: physical death and spiritual death. Every human
faces the reality of (eventual) physical death, a tragic reality that
comes as a result of the first sin in Genesis 3. But physical death
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is not the ultimate punishment for sin. When the Bible refers to
death as the wage we earn for our sin (Romans 6:23), that wage
is ultimately paid out in eternal, spiritual death. That may sound
like an unfair punishment, but it makes sense when you consider
the One you’re sinning against.
God is infinitely just and holy, so committing one sin against
him warrants an infinite punishment. And we have committed
millions of them! Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse,
the Bible also teaches that we are completely unable to save
ourselves from this awful condition. A dead man cannot give
himself life.
If our problem is simply that we’ve messed up or done a few
bad things, then any religion with a list of good works to do will
suffice. But if our problem is that we are dead without God, then
only the life-giving gospel of God’s grace, a grace that comes to
us, will suffice. That’s why we so desperately need to hear about
Thread 3 in the next chapter.

WEAVING THREAD TWO: THE SINFULNESS OF MAN

Speak respectfully to and about all people as individuals
created in the image of God.

Look intentionally for opportunities to encourage others by

the grace of God.

Share confidently in view of the regenerating power of God.

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Talking about our rebellion . . .

• Acknowledge the reality of sin in and around you.
• Acknowledge the root of sin in and around you.
• Speak honestly about our propensity to sin.
• Talk about sin in all of its forms.
• Talk about sin in light of its force.

Talking about our separation . . .

• Speak humbly about the seriousness of sin.
• Let the effects of sin inform the way you talk about
salvation . . .
- In conversations about guilt, talk about forgiveness
in Christ.
- In conversations about shame, talk about honor
in Christ.
- In conversations about fear, talk about freedom
in Christ.

Talking about our deadness . . .

• Respond to the death of non-Christians . . .
- With appropriate honor, biblical honesty, personal
humility, heart-breaking anguish, and life-giving
resolve.
• Respond to the death of Christians . . .
- With profound sorrow, abiding joy, sincere worship,
and unshakeable hope.

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 The Sinfulness of Man

Constantly point to our dependence on God.

Constantly point to our desperation for God.

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The Sufficiency of Christ

Some questions keep us awake at night. Who should I marry?
Which job should I take? How am I going to be able to pay my
bills? Or, if you’re thinking on a larger scale, How can there be
peace in a world that seems so troubled and torn? Those are
important questions, for sure, but from the standpoint of the
Bible, there’s a much more important question. In fact, it’s the
most important question, the world’s ultimate dilemma:
How can a holy God save rebellious sinners who are due His
judgment?
Unfortunately, that’s not the problem most people are
concerned about. How many people do you know who are losing
sleep over how a holy God can love sinners like us? Instead,
most people are pointing the finger at God and asking, “How can
you let good people go to hell?” They don’t even give a second
thought to the fact that a just God is letting guilty people into
heaven.
When we understand the first two threads of the gospel—the
character of God and the sinfulness of man—we no longer ask
why God finds it difficult to forgive our sins. Instead, we start
asking how God finds it possible to forgive our sins. The fact
that God is holy and perfectly just means that our sin must be
punished (Romans 6:23). That’s what it means for God to be a
just judge. But God is also gracious, showing free and unmerited
favor to the guilty (Titus 2:11). So how can God demonstrate his
saving love when His just character necessitates condemning us?

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 The Sufficiency of Christ

This tension sets the stage for Thread 3, the sufficiency of Christ.

GOD’S SOLUTION TO THE DILEMMA

We live in a world filled with religious options, and many people
believe that, in the end, all of them lead to the same place. No
religion is superior or inferior to the others. In fact, the very idea
that Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to God is perceived as
preposterous, antiquated, arrogant, narrow-minded, and, many
would even say, unjust. Surely, they say, there’s more than one
right way.
However, once we understand who God is and who we are,
only one solution emerges. Jesus alone is able to remove our sin
and restore us to God. So what makes Jesus uniquely qualified
for this role? Below we’ll look at the two qualifications that set
Him apart from every other religious figure in history: (1) who
Jesus is and (2) what Jesus has done. Herein lies the key to the
divine dilemma.

Who Jesus Is
Quite frankly, we are dealing with a mystery when it comes
to explaining who Jesus is. On the one hand, we see Jesus’
humanity. His humble character was apparent to all, for even
secular scholars would say that Jesus was a good man in
religious history. People identify with Jesus because he didn’t
live a sheltered life. He was familiar with sorrow, struggle, and
suffering.
People not only identify with Jesus—they admire him. Even
for people in the twenty-first century, this first century Jewish
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figure is attractive:
• He was loving and kind.
• He championed the cause of the poor and the needy.
• He made friends with the neglected, the weak, and the
downtrodden.
• He hung out with the despised and the rejected.
• He loved His enemies, and He taught others to do the
same.

When Jesus was fiercely and unfairly attacked, He never

retaliated. Yet, in the middle of such humility, any honest look at
Jesus also reveals a corresponding egocentricity.
Jesus was always talking about Himself. “I am the bread of
life” . . . “I am the living water” . . . “I am the good shepherd”
. . . “I am the light of the world,” etc. And He was constantly
calling people to “Follow me.” “Come to me,” He would say, and
have your burdens lifted (Matthew 11:29–30). Here we see Jesus
drawing attention to His deity, even making extravagant claims
about Himself:

One of the most extraordinary things Jesus did in his

teaching (and he did it so unobtrusively that many
people read the Gospels without even noticing it) was
to set himself apart from everybody else. For example,
by claiming to be the good shepherd who went out into
the desert to seek his lost sheep, he was implying that the
world was lost, that he wasn’t, and that he could seek and
save it. . . .
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 The Sufficiency of Christ

. . . These are breathtaking claims. Jesus was by trade

a carpenter. Nazareth was an obscure village on the
edge of the Roman Empire. Nobody outside Palestine
would even have heard of Nazareth. Yet here [Jesus of
Nazareth] was, claiming to the be savior and the judge of
all humankind.2

There is no doubt that Jesus believed He was unique and

divine. His claims, then, leave us with limited options. If, as C.S.
Lewis reminds us, the extraordinary claims of Christ were false
and He knew they were false, then Jesus was an outright liar.
If, on the other hand, these claims were false but Jesus thought
they were true, then Jesus was a lunatic, a raving narcissist who
actually believed He was the Savior of the world! But if Jesus’
claims are true, then He is indeed Lord of all:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really

foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready
to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t
accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must
not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort
of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man
who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the
Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this
man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or
something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you
can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at
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his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come
with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great
human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did
not intend to.3

There is no one like Jesus, but it’s not only who He is that
sets Him apart. He is also unique because of what He has done.

What Jesus has Done

So what has Jesus done that makes Him unique? We’ll focus
below on three key aspects of Christ’s saving work—His life, His
death, and His resurrection.

1. Jesus lived the life we could not live.

Jesus was and is fully human, just like you and me. However, He is
set apart from other every other man and woman in history because
He had no sin. The apostle John put it this way: “You know that he
[Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no
sin” (1 John 3:5, emphasis added). Unlike us, Jesus never rebelled
against God. He was tempted in all the same ways we are, yet He
never gave in. He was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
It is good news for sinners like us that Jesus experienced
temptation because He is able to identify with our struggles.
He triumphed over sin, not only by going to the cross, but also
by living a life of perfect obedience to God the Father. Christ is
therefore uniquely qualified to be a substitute for sinners, for all
other religious leaders stand guilty before God. Guilty people
cannot pay the price for other guilty people.
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 The Sufficiency of Christ

2. Jesus died the death we deserve to die.

As we saw in a previous chapter, our sin before an infinite
God is worthy of infinite condemnation (see Thread 2). Only
Christ, God in the flesh, is able to pay the infinite price due men
and women in their sin. Jesus is uniquely qualified to be our
substitute because He is fully divine.
The Christian faith puts a special emphasis on the death of
Jesus. For other religious leaders in the world, the focus is on
their lives, teachings, and examples. Their deaths were the tragic
end of the story. Whether it’s Muhammad at age 62, Confucius at
72, the Buddha at 80, or Moses at 120, the deaths of these leaders
marked the end of their respective missions. With Jesus, though,
it’s completely the opposite.
Jesus was constantly talking about His own death, and the
Gospels spend a disproportionate amount of time on the days
leading up to His crucifixion. No wonder the central symbol of
Christianity for the last two thousand years has been the cross; no
wonder the church’s gathered worship includes a piece of bread,
signifying the breaking of Jesus’ body, and a cup, signifying the
shedding of His blood. But this still leaves us with a question,
namely, How is the death of Jesus good news?
Death is the payment for sin (Romans 6:23), but Jesus had no
sin. Therefore, His death had another purpose:

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we

might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds
you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24, emphasis added)

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Jesus died in our place for our sins. He took the punishment
we deserve. If the essence of sin is man substituting himself
for God, then it follows that the essence of salvation is God
substituting Himself for man. That’s the answer to the divine
dilemma.
God can save rebellious sinners who are due His judgment by
taking that judgment upon Himself. At the cross, God expresses
His judgment upon sin, endures His judgment against sin, and
enables salvation for sinners. At the cross, God’s holy justice and
holy love meet. In holy justice, God fully pours out the judgment
due our sin. And in holy love, God, in the person of His Son,
pays the price for our sin.
Does God hate sin? Yes, look at the cross. Does God love
sinners? Yes, look at the cross.

3. Jesus conquered the enemy we cannot conquer.

I want to be careful not to imply that Jesus’ death was a
temporary defeat, as if the victory didn’t come until the
resurrection. That’s not the way the gospel tells this story. Jesus’
death, in and of itself, was victory. God nailed “the record of
debt that stood against us” to the cross, and in so doing “He
disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame,
by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:14–15).
Jesus obeyed the Father all the way to the cross. The devil
never gained a foothold on Him. The cross was, in a very real
sense, the victory won, and it set the stage for that victory to be
vindicated and declared three days later when Jesus rose from the
dead. Hear the triumphant words of Jesus in Revelation 1:18:
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 The Sufficiency of Christ

I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the

keys of Death and Hades.

This is where Christianity stands or falls—the resurrection

of Jesus Christ. If Jesus did not rise, then followers of Christ
are “of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). The
resurrection was God’s public validation of Christ’s life and
death. He was announcing to the world that Christ’s sinless
life and sin-bearing death were acceptable. The resurrection
vindicated everything Christ taught, including his predictions that
he would rise again. Without the resurrection, on the other hand,
our entire belief system is meaningless. But if Jesus did rise from
the dead, then this single event has massive and far-reaching
implications for every person on the planet and every person
throughout history.
Just to clarify, when the Bible talks about Jesus’ resurrection,
it’s not talking about resuscitation or reincarnation. Christ was
put to death on a cross, prepared for burial, and placed in a stone-
sealed tomb. Then, after three days, the stone of that tomb was
rolled away, and the body of Jesus was gone. He was alive, and
he appeared (physically) to many people (1 Corinthians 15:5–8).
That’s the kind of resurrection the Bible talks about.
So how should Christ’s resurrection affect the way we view
Him? Consider three different ways. First, Christ’s resurrection
means that He is Lord over life and death. No one else can
determine how long he lives, nor can he will himself back to life.
But that’s exactly what Jesus did.

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Second, Christ’s resurrection means that He is Lord over sin

and Satan. Satan uses death as a weapon to cause us to fear, but
Jesus has disarmed Satan. Christ destroyed “the one who has the
power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered all those who
through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews
2:14). So whether we face life or death, sin or Satan, we can
confidently say,

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is

your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of
sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians
15:55–57)

Third, and finally, Christ’s resurrection means that He is Lord

over you and me. This is the fundamental Christian confession
in the New Testament: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus
is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9–10). The resurrection
shouts loud and clear that Jesus reigns over us supremely and that
He loves us deeply.
Jesus came to live the life we could not live, die the death we
deserved to die, and conquer the enemy we could not conquer—
death. And He did all of this to save us from our sins. He is a
sufficient Savior.

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WEAVING THREAD THREE: THE SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST

Intentionally talk about Jesus.

Talking about Jesus’ life . . .

• Look for opportunities to highlight Jesus’ example for us.
• Look for opportunities to acknowledge Jesus’ work in us.
• Look for opportunities to point out Jesus’ identification
with us.

Talking about Jesus’ death . . .

• Never stop emphasizing the gravity of sin.
• Never stop talking about your gratitude for Christ.

Talking about Jesus’ resurrection . . .

• Speak about difficulties with hope.
• Speak about death with joy.

Talking with Pluralist Paul (someone who claims that all

religious roads lead to the same destination) . . .
• Highlight the all-important distinctions between taste,
tradition, and truth.

Talking with Open-Minded Olivia (someone who claims that

God would never send people to hell) . . .
• Explain the pursuing love of God in the perceived
narrowness of the gospel.

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Talking with Nominal Nancy (someone who claims to be a

Christian but shows no evidence) . . .
• Point out how a privatized faith in a resurrected Christ is
practically impossible.

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 T H R E A D F O U R

The Necessity of Faith

Imagine for a moment that you have a long-lost uncle who is
extremely rich. Rich as in the fortune he leaves behind will be
more than enough to cover your needs (and wants) for life. Then
imagine that, much to your surprise, this rich uncle mails you
a letter informing you that he wants to make you the heir of his
estate. The house, the cars, the bank account—all of it!—will
soon be yours. Only one thing stands between you and a massive
inheritance.
You have to open the letter.
This unexpected gift will do you no good unless you look
inside the envelope. If you toss it in the trash with the rest of
the junk mail, then you will miss your fortune. This generous
inheritance is a gift, but it must be received.
We saw in Thread 3, the sufficiency of Christ, that God’s gift
to undeserving sinners is salvation through the life, death, and
resurrection of Christ. However, like any gift, the gift of eternal life
must be received. Not everyone is going to heaven simply because
Christ died, a sobering reality we’ll explore in Thread 5. For now
the question we need to ask is, How can I receive the salvation
God has provided through His Son, Jesus Christ? Answering that
question is the point of Thread 4, the necessity of faith.

AVOIDING TWO EXTREMES

According to one poll, about three out of four Americans identify
as Christians.4 That’s seventy-five percent of the country that

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claims to have faith in Christ, which sounds encouraging.

However, the definition of the word “faith” varies widely, both
in our culture and in the church today. Add to that the many
different conceptions of God in our culture, and you can see
why such statistics can be deceiving. We need the Bible to sort
through the confusion.
When it comes to defining faith, we have a dangerous
tendency to swing back and forth between two extremes. We
either dilute the biblical definition of faith or we complicate it.

Diluted Faith
It’s possible to so lower the bar for what it means to have “faith”
that the word becomes meaningless. Just about every drunk
person I’ve ever met on the street believes in Jesus. Scores of
people around the world say they believe in Jesus, but their
hearts and their lives are far from him. Even demons in hell
believe (James 2:19).
We dilute what it means to believe in Jesus when we assume
that someone is a Christian simply because he or she agrees
intellectually with certain truths or says certain words. This error
is common in our day, but it isn’t new. Jesus said that many
people will stand before Him on the last day and call him “Lord,”
and they will even claim to have done great things in His name.
Yet, tragically, He will tell them, “I never knew you” (Matthew
7:21–23). This kind of diluted faith is deadly—eternally deadly.

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 The Necessity of Faith

Complicated Faith
In an attempt to guard against the error of diluting faith, some
well-meaning Christians swing completely to the other end of the
spectrum. They so complicate faith that it becomes difficult to
know if someone actually has it. For example, if faith in Christ
involves commitment to Christ, then how can I know if I’m
committed enough? Or if faith involves surrender to Christ, then
how can I know if I’m surrendered enough?
In the process of trying to take faith seriously and push back
against the low cost of discipleship in contemporary Christianity,
we can unintentionally over-complicate faith. The result is that
followers of Christ stay endlessly frustrated or anxious. We
desperately need the Bible to give us the right perspective on
faith.

GETTING THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE

We will not understand true, biblical faith until we get two things
straight: (1) the goal of faith and (2) the role of faith. These
two aspects of faith are captured in this simple (yet profound)
summary statement: We can be restored to God only through
faith in Jesus. We’ll begin by unpacking the first part of the
statement—we can be restored to God—in order to identify the
right motivation for believing.

The Goal of Faith

It may surprise you to learn that the goal of believing the gospel
is not happiness or joy or peace or satisfaction. It’s not even
heaven. These things are not bad, of course, but they are not the
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goal of the gospel. The goal of the gospel is God. Being restored
to Him is why we come to Christ in the first place. Of course,
there are many blessings that flow from being restored to God,
not least of which is that our sin problem is dealt with.
You may recall from Thread 2, the sinfulness of man, that
sin has plunged man into guilt, shame, and fear. All that changes
when we are restored to God. As a just Judge, He cancels our
guilt; as a good Father, He removes our shame by adopting us
into His family; as a conquering King, He overcomes our fear
by conquering death itself. God does all of this based on the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (see Thread 3), which
brings us to the second half of the statement we’re unpacking.
Our restoration to God comes only through faith in Jesus.

The Role of Faith

Many people in our culture claim to have faith, but we need to
ask the question, Faith in what? Faith in ourselves? Faith in
some vague notion of a God who is watching over us? Faith in
our own faith? None of these answers captures the biblical idea
of faith, the kind of faith that restores us to God. To understand
the proper role of faith, let’s consider faith in relation to three
different aspects of our salvation: the basis of our salvation, the
means of our salvation, and the evidence of our salvation.

1. The Basis
We will completely miss the gospel if we do not see that Jesus
is the basis of our salvation. We could never stand before God
and claim to be righteous on our own, for there is nothing we can
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do—no matter how committed or radical we might be—to cover

up the fact that we have rebelled against God. We do not rely on
ourselves, or even our own faith, to make us right with God. The
only way anyone can be declared innocent before God is based
on someone else’s innocence, namely, Christ’s. We are restored
to God based solely on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

2. The Means
If Jesus is the basis of our salvation, then what role does faith
play? Faith is the means by which the salvation of Christ is
applied to our lives. If we think of salvation as a gift, then faith is
the hand that receives the gift. But why is faith the only means of
salvation? Why not love or humility or joy or wisdom? Because
faith is the anti-work.
Faith is the acknowledgement that there is nothing you can
do except trust in what God in Christ has done for you. Faith
is the one attitude of the heart that is the exact opposite of
depending on yourself. Faith says to God, “I give up! I can never
make myself right before You, so I trust You and depend on You
completely to do what I cannot do myself.” This kind of faith is
altogether incompatible with the idea that our good works can
somehow give us a right standing before a perfectly holy God.
However, as we’ll see below, that doesn’t mean our good works
and obedience are irrelevant to following Christ.

3. The Evidence
If Christ is the basis of our salvation, and faith is the only means
for receiving salvation, then how do our works fit into the
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equation? Instead of seeing our works as a way to earn salvation,

as other world religions teach, the Bible teaches that good works
are the evidence of salvation. Biblical faith necessarily leads to
good works. In other words, faith works. That’s what the book
of James tells us repeatedly: “What good is it, my brothers, if
someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that
faith save him?” (James 2:14). The implied answer is no, which
is why James calls the kind of faith that doesn’t produce works
“dead” (James 2:17).
When your soul is resting upon the grace of Christ, then you
begin to love as Christ loves, to walk as Christ walks, and to lay
down your life for others as Christ laid down His life for you.
And these are not works that are done in some vain attempt to
earn the favor of God. You are justified before God based solely
on Christ’s work; your works are the fruit, or the evidence, of
faith.

SEEING THE FULL PICTURE

We have clarified the goal of faith—God—as well as the
role of faith in our salvation, but there’s still a dangerous
misunderstanding we need to guard against. It is possible to
believe that Jesus is the only way to God, and even to want Him
as your Savior, while refusing to turn from your sin and submit
to Christ’s lordship. In fact, this is what faith looks like for many
who claim to be Christians. But it’s not biblical faith. As we’ll
see, there is no faith without repentance. Jesus cannot be your
Savior if you refuse Him as your Lord.

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Repentance and Faith

To see the close relationship between repentance and faith, we
need look no further than Jesus’ first words in Mark’s Gospel:

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;

repent and believe in the gospel. (Mark 1:15, emphasis
added)

Repent and believe. These two words show up repeatedly

throughout the rest of the New Testament.5 For instance,
when Peter preaches the first Christian sermon, the people are
convicted and respond by asking, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
The first word out of Peter’s mouth is “Repent” (Acts 2:37–38).
However, in other passages we are told to respond to the
gospel by believing. (It’s the same word translated as “faith” in
the New Testament.) When a Philippian jailer asks the question,
“What must I do to be saved?” Paul responds by saying, “Believe
in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31, emphasis
added).
“So which is it?” you might be wondering. “Do we repent or
do we believe?” And the answer, of course, is both.
Believing in Jesus cannot be separated from repenting of sin.
When we place our faith in Christ to restore us to God, we are,
simultaneously, turning from sin and self. It’s impossible, then,
to claim to have faith if we refuse to repent. So, practically, what
does repentance look like?
When we repent, we confess our sinfulness. We acknowledge
that we have rebelled against God and that we are therefore
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separated from Him. We confess that, apart from His grace, we

are spiritually and eternally dead. Instead of attempting to fix
ourselves, repentance admits to God, “I can’t fix myself. I have a
sin problem that only You can solve.”
Repentance means that we not only turn from our sinfulness,
but that we also die to our selfishness. We saw in Thread 2 that the
essence of sin is self—putting ourselves on the throne instead of
God. To repent, then, is to put God at the center of one’s life. Of
course, this doesn’t mean the struggle with selfishness is over. The
desire to put self back at the center of our lives is always a strong
temptation, one we must battle daily. That’s why repentance is
continually necessary in the life of the believer.
At this point it may sound as if repentance only has to do
with what we turn from. But repentance also means turning to
something, or, more accurately, Someone. Biblical repentance
requires that we trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord (Romans 10:9).
Trusting in Jesus, however, is not something that may or may not
happen after we repent, nor is it something that happens after a
certain period of time has elapsed. Repentance and faith happen at
the same time. As we turn from sin and self, we turn to Jesus. You
can’t do one without the other; it’s a package deal.

Savior and Lord

Just as biblical faith requires repenting and believing, so also it
involves trusting in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Here’s how Paul
puts it in Romans 10:9:

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If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and

believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.

Jesus is our Savior, for He is the One whom God raised

from the dead, accomplishing for us what we could never do for
ourselves. Implied in this reference to Christ’s resurrection is His
death for our sins (see Thread 3). However, we not only believe
in Jesus as the Savior who died for us, but we also submit to
Jesus as the Lord who rules over us.
“Jesus is Lord” is a basic Christian confession. That word
Lord is foundational to Christ’s identity as we see it in the New
Testament. He is the “Lord of all,” according to Romans 10:12,
and Paul says that everyone who calls on “the name of the Lord”
will be saved (Romans 10:13). While Jesus is called “Savior”
two times in the book of Acts, He is referred to as “Lord” ninety-
two times. Without question, the dominant title used for Jesus in
the New Testament is Lord. This idea of Christ ruling as the Lord
of our lives is captured beautifully by Paul in Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who

live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live
in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me.

Paul says that he lives by faith in Christ, which means that

faith is not a one-time feeling or a mere momentary response that
has no effect on the rest of one’s life. An initial moment of faith
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in time leads to inevitable growth in faith over time. To be clear,

we are restored to God, or saved, at the moment when we repent
and believe. However, genuine saving faith continues to bear
fruit in our lives. How could it not if Jesus is our Lord?
Perhaps you’re reading this book and you have never turned
from your sin and yourself. You’ve never trusted in Jesus as your
Savior and submitted to Him as your Lord. The good news is,
you can do that now. Simply repent and believe, and you will
be restored to God forever (John 3:16). To learn more about the
eternal urgency of your response, turn the page to Thread 5.

WEAVING THREAD FOUR: THE NECESSITY OF FAITH

Take advantage of every opportunity you have to tell your
story.
• Keep it simple.
• Keep it focused . . .
- On the greatness of God.
- On the threads of the gospel.
• Keep it understandable.
• Be humble and prayerful.
• Be passionate and be yourself.

Talking about restoration . . .

• In conversations about guilt, talk about forgiveness in
Christ.
• In conversations about shame, talk about honor in Christ.
• In conversations about fear, talk about freedom in Christ.

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Talking about turning . . .

• Point to the mercy of Christ when people around you see
their sin.
• Point to the presence of Christ when people around you
come to the end of themselves.

Talking about trusting . . .

• Encourage people around you to see the lordship of
Christ.
• Urge people around you to receive the love of Christ.

Talking with children about faith . . .

• Maximize interaction.
• Utilize illustration.
• Use repetition.
- Constantly emphasize the threads of the gospel.
- Continually encourage a posture of turning and trusting.

Talking with cultural Christians about faith . . .

• Ask thought-provoking questions.
• Avoid (or at least clearly define) over-familiar terms.
• Invite them to study the Bible with you.
• Expose them to good, gospel-saturated community and
resources.
• Boldly and graciously call them to turn and trust.
• Intentionally and humbly weave gospel threads.

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 T H R E A D F I V E

The Urgency of Eternity

Sometimes one wrong turn can make all the difference. If you’re
not paying attention, or if you don’t know where you’re going,
then an unexpected split on the highway can change your entire
day. Staying in the left lane will get you there on time. Merging
right, on the other hand, will put you on a road heading in the
wrong direction, a road that has no exits for many miles. Your
response is critical, at least in terms of your schedule.
In Thread 5 we will be thinking about a much more critical
fork in the road—our response to Jesus. More specifically, we
need to address a question that has been lying just below the
surface in the previous threads: Why is our response to the gospel
so important? Furthermore, why is it so important for followers
of Christ to weave the threads about God, sin, Christ, and faith
with others? Why risk comfort, embarrassment, awkwardness, or
fear just to tell others what we believe?
Because our eternal destiny hinges on our response to Jesus.
I realize that’s a bold statement, but it is the teaching of
Scripture. The place where you will spend eternity—billions and
billions of years without end—hinges on your response to Jesus.
That’s why Thread 5, the urgency of eternity, should affect the
way we think about weaving the other gospel threads. Below
we’ll look at what happens to those who turn from Jesus, and
then we’ll look at what happens to those who trust in Jesus. The
stakes could not be higher.

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 The Urgency of Eternity

A DREADFUL REALITY
When we talk about the destiny of those who are not followers
of Christ, we are wading into a subject that is neither popular
nor politically correct in our day. The idea that some people will
be separated from God eternally in a place called hell is a tough
pill to swallow. The world finds the very idea of God’s judgment
either repulsive or irrelevant and outdated. Even some professing
Christians feel the need to apologize for hell.
Maybe you’ve heard the argument that hell is only associated
with the God of the Old Testament. Jesus, it is claimed, blazed
a more loving trail. However, Jesus did talk about hell—a lot.
He told his disciples to “Fear him who can destroy both soul
and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). And he warned them of the
eternal consequences of living in sin:

And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better

for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go
to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes
you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame
than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye
causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter
the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to
be thrown into hell, “where their worm does not die and
the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:43–48)

More examples from Jesus’ teaching could be given,6 but the

point is clear: hell is a dreadful reality for those who turn from
Jesus. Tim Keller notes, “If Jesus, the Lord of Love and Author
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of Grace spoke about hell more often, and in a more vivid, blood-
curdling manner than anyone else, it must be a crucial truth.”7 The
apostle Paul likewise used startling images to talk about God’s
judgment. He said that Christ would come . . .

in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do

not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel
of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of
eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his might. (2 Thessalonians 1:8–9)

This kind of imagery is sobering, and it is all over the Bible.

However, there’s a lot of debate about whether the Bible’s images
of fire, darkness, and destruction are intended to be taken literally
or symbolically. But even if these descriptions are symbolic,
they are pointing to something literal. The purpose of symbols,
after all, is to represent something that is real, often something
that is difficult to describe. Regardless of how we understand the
imagery related to hell, the Bible teaches that the reality of hell is
sure and sobering.

Continual Rebellion
To some people, hell sounds like an arbitrary or cruel punishment
administered by an angry deity. But according to the truths we’ve
looked at in previous threads—particularly God’s holiness (Thread
1) and man’s sinfulness (Thread 2)—hell is the natural outcome of
our rebellion against God and of our separation from Him. It’s not
as if God refuses our cries for mercy. We choose to rebel against

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God and, as part of His judgment, He gives us over to our sinful

desires. Hell is a place of continual rebellion against God.

Final Separation
If hell is a place of continual rebellion, then it must also be a
place of final separation. One of the most sobering aspects of
being separated from God at death is its permanence. Hell is
eternal. That may sound like an overly harsh punishment, but it
fits the nature of the crime. One sin against an infinitely holy God
is worthy of infinitely eternal justice and condemnation. This is
the consistent testimony of Scripture.
Jesus refers to a place where the “worm does not die and
the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48); He calls it an “eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41); hell is
“eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46). Paul likewise speaks of
“eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Then, when we get to
the last book of the Bible, John says of those who reject God that
“the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they
have no rest, day or night” (Revelation 14:11). Reflecting on the
eternal duration of God’s judgment, the Puritan Thomas Watson
said,

Thus it is in Hell; they would die, but they cannot. The

wicked shall be always dying but never dead; the smoke
of the furnace ascends for ever and ever. Oh! Who can
endure thus to be ever upon the rack? This word ‘ever’
breaks the heart.8

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Many people, including some Christians, hear what Scripture

teaches about hell, and it strikes them as unjust. But before
we point the finger at God, we must realize who we are and
who He is. God is perfect in knowledge, wisdom, holiness,
and righteousness. We, on the other hand, are finite beings
who are limited in our understanding. Moreover, our thoughts
and motivations have been distorted by sin, so we are not in a
position to question God. He is the source of all wisdom and
knowledge. We must trust that His judgment is always just
(Genesis 18:25).
In summary, Scripture teaches that hell is a dreadful, eternal
reality for all who have not repented of their sins and put their
faith in Jesus Christ. But by God’s grace, hell is not the only
option for sinners.

A GLORIOUS REALITY
The good news of the gospel is that although we deserve God’s
punishment for our sin, He has taken that punishment on Himself
in the person of his Son. Christ’s death on the cross, and his
victory over death in the resurrection, gives believers eternal
hope. Heaven is a glorious reality for those who trust in Jesus.
We can say with Paul, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians
3:20). So if our citizenship is in heaven, then it only make sense
that we would want to know what heaven is like.

Full Reconciliation
Whereas hell is a place of continual rebellion, heaven is a place
of full reconciliation. Hear the words of Revelation 21:3, the
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consummation of the biblical story: “The dwelling place of God

is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will dwell with
Him.”
The Bible begins by telling us about Adam and Eve’s
experience of dwelling with God in the garden of Eden (Genesis
1–2), but this relationship was ruined by sin (Genesis 3).
However, when we get to the end of the Bible, we learn that
God’s dwelling with man will be fully restored (Revelation 21–
22). The imagery is glorious: we will be with God, like priests
living in the temple, like a bride joined with her husband, like
children united with their Father, like heirs of a King enjoying
their inheritance with Him, like participants in the banquet of all
banquets. These analogies help us see what full reconciliation
looks like.

Complete Restoration
As if full reconciliation was not good enough, the Bible also
tells us that heaven is a place of complete restoration. Spiritually
speaking, we will be completely free from sin, no longer touched
by temptation. We will be utterly free to obey.
Heaven is a place where sin will be unthinkable, and
ultimately undesirable. Yet, the reality of spiritual restoration
should not make us think of heaven as some ethereal land where
spirits are playing harps on clouds. Heaven is also a place of
physical restoration.
Sadly, many Christians find the thought of heaven to be, well,
boring. They imagine a static, disembodied existence that lasts
for endless ages. Thankfully, God gives us so much more to hope
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for than that. The Bible portrays heaven as a new earth, a restored
earth, where we will eat and drink and work and play and explore
and discover new things in glorified, resurrected bodies in an
entirely new creation. And our restoration will also be mental and
emotional. Mentally, our knowledge of God will be absolutely
accurate. Emotionally, our desires will be completely satisfied
and our wants will be totally trustworthy. There will be no
conflict between what we want to do and what we should do.

Ultimate Reunion
Finally, in addition to being a place of full reconciliation and
complete restoration, heaven will be a place of ultimate reunion.
In other words, heaven is not simply your reward as an isolated
individual. Paul says, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians
3:20, emphasis added). This corporate aspect of heaven is
captured by the author of Hebrews:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable
angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the
firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the
judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made
perfect . . . . (Hebrews 12:22–23)

Heaven is a place where God’s people will recognize and

love one another as a family before a Father. It will be a reunion
of people from every nation and from every generation. We will
reunite with those we have known and loved, as well as brothers
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 The Urgency of Eternity

and sisters in Christ whom we have yet to meet, and the joy will
be unending. This is heaven, the sure hope for all who turn from
sin and self and put their trust in Christ.

A CRITICAL RESPONSE
If you’ve never put your faith in Jesus Christ, then hopefully the
Bible’s teaching on heaven and hell in Thread 5 has opened your
eyes to what’s at stake in the gospel. Eternal life and death hang
in the balance. Each of us must answer the question, Will you
turn from Jesus or will you trust in Jesus?

Turning from Jesus

There are different ways to turn from Jesus. You can verbally and
publicly reject Him, or you can agree mentally with the facts of
the gospel, all the while refusing to submit to Christ’s lordship.
You can even be an active member of a church that believes and
proclaims the gospel without knowing Jesus Christ. In the end,
the result is the same. If you choose to live without Christ now,
then you will die without Christ forever. But, thankfully, that’s
not the only option.

Trusting in Jesus
If you turn aside from your sin and yourself and put your trust
in what God has done for you in Christ—His life, death, and
resurrection—then you can die with Christ now and live with
Christ forever.
I urge you to take this second option. Turn from your sin and
yourself and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Whether you’re

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8, 18, or 88 years old, you will die, and Satan would like nothing
more than for you to be distracted from the urgency of eternity.
He loves using TV shows, video games, Facebook pages, and
anything else that might keep you from thinking about what
really matters. Wake up to the reality of eternity. You will either
experience eternal joy or you will face eternal wrath.

Are you ready?

WEAVING THREAD FIVE: THE URGENCY OF ETERNITY

Minimize your conversations about temporal things.

Maximize your conversations about eternal things.

Talking about hell . . .

• Speak about God’s character with humble confidence.
• Speak about God’s judgment with healthy fear.
• Speak about God’s wrath with honest compassion.

Talking about heaven . . .

• Talk like this world is not your hope.
• Live like this world is not your home.
• Talk about your anticipation of being with God.
• Talk about your realization that dying is gain.

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 Concluding Questions
It would be easy to finish this book and feel satisfied that you’ve
learned a few things, or at least been reminded of some important
truths. Hopefully you have a better grasp of God’s character,
man’s sinfulness, Christ’s sufficiency, the necessity of faith, and
the urgency of eternity. But to stop there would miss the point.
The goal of this book is not simply to learn about the gospel
threads, though that is a necessary first step. The goal is to weave
the gospel threads into our everyday lives and conversations,
which is why we need to close by asking three important
questions.

1. Do we realize people’s condition apart from Christ?

Do we really believe that the people we live next to and work
with, the people we see in the stores and restaurants around
us, are going to hell without Christ? And not just the people
we see, but the billions we don’t see who have never heard of
Christ? Out of the approximately 7 billion people in the world,
about 1/3 claim to be Christian (according to the most liberal
statistics). Even if 1/3 of the world is genuinely Christian, which
is extremely doubtful, that means there are still 4.5 billion people
on the planet who are under the judgment of God and, unless
something changes, will go to hell forever. We don’t have time to
waste our lives, our families, or the resources of the church on a
nice, comfortable, Christian spin on the American dream. There
is an urgency to eternity (Thread 5).

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2. Do we possess the heart of Christ?

Knowing people’s condition apart from Christ should compel
us to weave the threads of the gospel, but that can’t be our only
motivation. Our passion to reach unbelievers will be shallow
and short-lived if we do not possess the heart of Christ. Each
of us has been scarred and stained by sin. We’ve been full of
self-indulgence and self-righteousness. But God has changed us.
He has reached down His hand of sovereign mercy and saved us
from the judgment we deserve. He has transformed our hearts
and turned our lives upside-down. So the question is, Do we long
to see Him do the same in others’ lives? Surely we who know
the love of Christ should be compelled by the heart of Christ to
extend that love to others!

3. Do we want our lives to count?

Knowing people’s condition apart from Christ, and possessing
the heart of Christ, will we risk our reputation, face our fears,
overcome awkwardness, or do whatever else it takes, to lay down
our lives for the sake of the gospel? It’s the kind of perspective
that says with the apostle Paul,

I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to

myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry
that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the
gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24)

Paul didn’t care about comfort, safety, or security in this

world. Instead, he wanted his life to count for the spread of the
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 Concluding Questions

gospel. Will we look back ten trillion years from now and wish
we’d made more money? Wish we’d been more comfortable?
Wish we’d lived more for ourselves? We stand on the porch of
eternity:

When you know the truth about what happens to you

after you die, and you believe it, and you are satisfied
with all that God will be for you in the ages to come, that
truth makes you free indeed. Free from the short, shallow,
suicidal pleasures of sin, and free for the sacrifices of
mission and ministry that cause people to give glory to
our Father in heaven.9

Surrender your life to God and ask Him to make it count for
the spread of His gospel in your city and to the ends of the earth.
This is the only reasonable reaction for those who believe in the
character of God, the sinfulness of man, the sufficiency of Christ,
the necessity of faith, and the urgency of eternity. Let’s sew these
threads and ask God to use them for others’ eternal good and for
his eternal glory.

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 NOTES

1. John Stott, Why I Am A Christian, 76.

2. John Stott, Why I Am a Christian, 42–43.
3. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 56.
4. Frank Newport, “Percentage of Christians in U.S. Drifting
Down, but Still High,” Gallup, December 24, 2015, accessed
July 6, 2017, www.gallup.com/poll/187955/percentage-chris-
tians-drifting-down-high.aspx.
5. See the emphasis on repentance in the book of Acts as the gos-
pel spreads across the known world: Acts 3:19; 5:31; 8:22; 17:30;
26:20.
6. For other references to “hell” by Jesus, see the following passag-
es: Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 16:18; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Luke 12:5.
7. Tim Keller, “The Importance of Hell,” The Redeemer Reports,
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, August 2009, www.redeemer.
com/redeemer-report/article/the_importance_of_hell.
8. Thomas Watson, Farewell Sermons of Some of the Most Eminent
of the Nonconformist Preachers, 220.
9. John Piper, Future Grace: The Purifying Power of Living by Faith
in Future Grace, 369–370.

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 ABOUT DAVID PLATT

David Platt serves as Lead Pastor of McLean Bible Church in

Washington, D.C. He is the founder and chairman of Radical,
an international ministry that serves the church for the cause
of Christ—to glorify God by making disciples and multiplying
churches among all nations. Resources from David Platt and
Radical can be found at radical.net.

David Platt is the author of Radical, Radical Together, Follow

Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Before
You Vote, and he is the author of several volumes in the Christ-
Centered Exposition Commentary series.

David Platt received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist

Theological Seminary. Along with his wife and children, he lives
in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

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 ABOUT RADICAL

Radical exists to serve the church for the cause of Christ—to glo-
rify God by making disciples and multiplying churches among
all the nations.

The end goal of God is His glory known and enjoyed among all
the nations. Therefore, the end goal of every Christian and every
local church is the spread of God’s glory among all the nations.
The plan Jesus has given for accomplishing this goal is the Great
Commission: making disciples and multiplying churches among
all the nations. And the nations are filled with urgent spiritual and
physical needs. Billions of people in thousands of people groups
are unreached by the gospel, and many of them are suffering in
unimaginable ways.

Therefore, Radical seeks to help train and equip Christians and

churches to spread gospel hope on the front lines of urgent need
among the nations.

To learn more about Radical and David Platt, visit radical.net.

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60
 DAVID PLATT serves as Lead Pastor of McLean Bible Church in
Washington, D.C., and he is the founder and chairman of Radical,
an international ministry that serves the church for the cause of
Christ—to glorify God by making disciples and multiplying
churches among all nations. He holds a Ph.D. from New Orleans
Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Radical, Radical
Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to
Change, Before You Vote, and several volumes in the
Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.

For more gospel-centered resources from David Platt, visit

radical.net