“One thing I do not like about these three people [see Luke 9:57-62] is that none of them appears to have any sense of sin. Nothing is said about repentance or about their deep need of a Saviour. I regret that there should be so many persons outside of my text who have no repentance. They seem to jump into their religion as men do into their morning bath and the jump out again just as quickly, converted by the dozen and unconverted one by one till the dozen has melted away – not really converted. Otherwise they would never be unconverted again.”

Charles Spurgeon wrote those words more than 130 years ago, but it could have been written in 2021.

Spurgeon preached the gospel, clearly and strongly, to thousands every Sunday, yet he knew that far too many of his hearers attended week after week for years before ever coming to Christ. Why? Some perhaps out of curiosity, but most because it was the respectable thing in those days to attend church. Beyond that, it didn’t mean a whole lot to them.

In our day, we have a growing number of churches and leaders who name the name of Christ, but they know little of the real Christ of the Bible. Their “Christ” has been dumbed down, watered down, and de-formed beyond recognition, to suit the itching ears of people who do not want the truth.

Even in the better churches, Christ is often presented as the one who will help you live a better life here on earth. “God loves you just as you are; He is begging you to come to Him; you don’t have to quit smoking or taking drugs or… [you fill in the blank] … Come as you are.”

But is this true?

In one sense, it is true. We don’t somehow make ourselves healthy before we go to the doctor for help. Nor do we fix ourselves before we go to the Great Physician. That is exactly what we cannot do! We don’t have the ability, until we are in Christ and He does it.

But in another sense, it is not true. What we must understand is God’s absolute hatred of sin. Outside of Christ, we are an abomination to Him. That is what makes true conversion a miracle.

“6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly… 8 But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:6, 8-10)

Notice what the Apostle Paul says here. Outside of Christ, people are without strength, ungodly, enemies of God, in need of salvation and reconciliation to God.

Christ died to save us from our sins, yes, but far more important, He died to save us from the wrath of God – the wrath of a holy and just God, who cannot forgive sin unless someone without sin pays the price. The only one who could do that was His Son, Jesus Christ. We are in desperate need of salvation, not only to be freed from the particular sins that keep us in bondage today, but from our very sin nature we were born with. We need Christ to transform us, and change our very nature, so we will want to be like Him.

That is what is missing from today’s gospel. Christ died on the cross to save us from the wrath of God, because we were dead in our sins, and could never have paid the price ourselves. We were rotten to the core, and there was nothing in us that could change that.

And that is what Jesus meant when He said,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6)