SHARP KNIVES, DULL HEART

Last time my son Benjamin was home for a visit, he sharpened the kitchen knives. The blades are so sharp now they slice through soft bread or the skin of a tomato as easily as through warm butter. I thought my knives were sharp before; now, they cut like razors. I did not understand before how fine a knife edge could be.

My knives were perfectly useful before Ben sharpened them, but I usually opted for a serrated blade to slice bread because a regular blade would smush a soft, warm loaf and even my sharpest knife mangled tomatoes. My dull blades worked more like pointy-edged bludgeons than like proper knives.

I have been learning anew the past several months how razor-fine an edge there is between the Gospel and the Almost Gospel. The true Gospel is, like God's Word, "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). The Almost Gospel, on the other hand, is little more than a pointy-edged bludgeon.

A couple of observations:

I am one of those people who is prone to cut myself when I work in the kitchen. I can testify that cutting yourself with a dull knife is very painful. A cut from a razor-sharp blade - you hardly even feel it; in fact, you may not realize there's a cut until you see blood. The first is traumatic and damages surrounding tissue; the other, surgical, precise, clean. A cut from a dull blade takes a long time to heal; the cut from a sharp blade heals much more quickly.

Sort of like the difference between the Almost Gospel and the true Gospel.

I thought my knives were plenty sharp before Ben's visit. I was so wrong! Now that I've used a finely sharpened knife, I realize how atrociously dull they were before.

Which makes me wonder...

Where do I unwittingly reach for the dull blade of the Almost Gospel today, thinking it's plenty good enough to meet my needs, instead of reaching for the razor-sharp blade of the true Gospel?

After some thought, I have come to the conclusion that I am holding onto the Almost Gospel whenever:

• I feel like I have to justify myself to others.
• I insist that others must justify themselves to me.
• I make excuses for or minimize my own sin.
• I talk about and exaggerate the sins of others; I become preoccupied with how others have offended me.
• When confronted about sin in my life, I try to redirect the conversation to how the person confronting me does not measure up to God's standards, either.
• I am slow to repent and ask forgiveness when I wrong another person.
• I demand that another must repent and ask forgiveness from me.
• I am reluctant to examine my past, to deal with past sins for which I have not repented and asked forgiveness.
• I resent the God-appointed consequences of my sin; I insist that those consequences either should not exist or are contrary to the Gospel.
• I am hyper-critical of myself and/or others.
• I feel good about myself only when I am confident I am doing everything right (or at least, doing most things mostly right!)
• I feel negatively towards others when I think they are not doing things right.
• I question another person's salvation when they do not do what I think they should.
• I believe the lie that my personal happiness revolves around another person, instead of Christ.
• .......

Aaaaugh! This list could go on forever! God, have mercy on a sinner like me!

What's to be done with a drawer full of dull kitchen knives? Hand them over to Benjamin, and he will give them back to you sharper than when they were brand new.

What's to be done with a heart full of Almost Gospel? Hand it over to Jesus to file away the dullness that is anything less than the true Gospel: Christ, Christ, Christ alone; Christ in me, the hope of Glory!

What if today I discover that, yet again, I have embraced the Almost Gospel? God tells me that today "is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). This is as true for me, his child, as it is for the person who is hearing the Gospel for the very first time.

Today, Lord, sharpen my heart. Today, Lord, give me Jesus.

* * *

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." Hebrews 3:13-15

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16