Do Not Try Jesus

I am fan of Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce.  There is only one reason for this: a coupon.   During my days in seminary, Emily found a coupon for it so we gave it a try.  The sauce is the boss!  All of this is a classic marketing strategy.  Free samples are regular features in the marketplace because the only thing better than a word-of-mouth reference is a tastes-good-in-my-own-mouth experience. 

This is a great approach for food and other products.  But this is a terrible approach when it comes to evangelism.  Yet, it is not uncommon to see church signs and bumper sticker type statements calling people to give Jesus a try.  Why is this so wrongheaded?  There are at least four reasons.

     1.  Lordship is not something you sample

The thing about Lordship is it is absolute.  In techno terms, it is digital not analog.  It is either on or off.  It is there or it is absent.  If Christ is Lord of someone’s life, there are no terms and conditions.  There is no expiration date.   You can’t opt out at some point.  Jesus said that if you are not with him you are against him (Matt. 12:30).  This is not to say that true Christians cannot disobey.  They can and do and it is a huge contradiction.  But at the fundamental level, a true Christian will submit to Jesus’ absolute Lordship.  Jesus also said that he who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of Him (Luke 9:62).  This Scripture is describing a kind of sampling.  It is trying one thing, while keeping all the options open for other things.  But if Christ is Lord, all other options are closed.  Sampling is the activity of the consumer; but Jesus is not a product to be consumed.  He is the Lord to be worshiped and obeyed.  "Trying" Jesus is in essence offering another Jesus, a Jesus that can be questioned, critiqued, and sampled.  Offering another Jesus would be offering another gospel, which Paul said in Galatians 1 “is really not another.”

     2.  Trying Jesus is a total confusion about the nature of man and sin

What if a person really could try Jesus?  What would happen?  The Bible is very clear about this; they would recoil in revulsion.  The worst possible thing to sinners is holiness.  John 3:19 says, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”  A sinner trying Jesus is like a slug trying salt, or a cotton ball trying fire.  In John 7:7 Jesus said “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”  Not only does the world hate Jesus, but Paul said that when unbelievers catch a whiff of Jesus they smell death; “the fragrance of Christ [is]…to one an aroma of death to death…”  Each person in his natural and fallen state will never want Jesus.  God must begin to graciously draw him and do the regenerative work of new birth in him.  The offer to “try Jesus” displays a radically deficient understanding of sin and man.

     3.  Trying Jesus fits with Satan’s deceptions

Satan’s specialty is deception, and an offer to “try Jesus” plays right into his schemes.  As discussed above, no one can actually try Jesus.  It is simply incompatible with the Lordship of Christ.  Therefore, when the offer is made, what is actually being offed is a deception.  People are led to believe that they really are trying Jesus, when in reality they are trying an idol.  They are trying some watered down version of Jesus that will be more palatable.  Maybe they are trying a moralistic Jesus who helps you do good things, or an inspiring Jesus who gives encouragement to do hard things.  Perhaps they are trying a revolutionary Jesus who opposes injustice and oppression, or a social-worker Jesus who cares for the poor and weak.  These options are as diverse as the people who create such idols.  And the problem with them all is they are not the true Jesus.  These idolatrous versions of Jesus will always be insufficient for all of life.  Every idol will let you down eventually.  Only the triune and infinite God will be sufficient for this life and the next.  This plays into the devil’s plan because he wants to deceive people about Jesus.   He wants them to think they really have tried him.  This way they are doubly inoculated against the true gospel when it is put before them.  They won’t want it because it is offensive, and also because they think they have given it a try and found it wanting. 

     4.  People have been tasting grace every day

One more reason why “trying Jesus” is ridiculous is because they have been living in his grace every day.  This is the doctrine of common grace and it teaches that life, breath, food, rain, sunshine, and countless other pleasures unbelievers regularly enjoy are from the hand of God.  Things people take for granted like science, freedom, government, logic, and music are all from Christ who upholds all things by the word of his power and flow out of a biblical worldview.  Yet, they still willingly reject or ignore him everyday.  Are you really going to offer them something better than the incredible list above?  I don’t care how cool your church is, the world can usually imitate and outdo what the church has.  What the church has that the world does not is the power of the gospel, the unity of the saints in Christ, and the preached truth.  But as stated above, you can’t try these on like a pair of pants.  Yes, Hebrews 6 talks about tasting these things, but a taste can still lead to final condemnation as Hebrews 6 says.  Many Pharisees were amazed by the power of Christ and even benefited by it, but were finally lost because no man can just sample this.  Psalm 34:8 says “taste and see that the Lord is good” but the context shows that it speaking to those who will fear him alone and take absolute refuge in him.  This kind of tasting is not a sampling, but the full experience of God’s salvation. 

Therefore, my call to you is to abandon this deceptive and unbiblical offer.  Don’t tell them to “try Jesus”, tell them to repent and trust in the only Savior.  Tell them to give up all their possessions or they cannot be a disciple of Christ.  Tell them to take up the cross and follow him, loving him more than life and family or they are not worthy of him. These are the ways Jesus called people to himself, and we will do well to follow him in this.