Simplicity In Jesus
Submitted by Frank Williams
October 21, 2024
2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
About a year ago, I submitted a few words on The Jesus of Scripture from these verses. Today, the focus is on the words the simplicity that is in Christ.
Life was pretty simple in Eden before sin. Adam and Eve had a happy home and a happy marriage. But then sin entered in, and they were cheated out of their happy state. They lost their lovely home—and much more.
Scripture and experience teaches us that sin is never simple, and it carries such complicated consequences. It breaks our hearts to see so many being deluded in the same manner as Eve was, to think that happiness is found in sinful and wrong choices. Oh, how such choices confuse people’s lives!
To put it simply, sin is crafty, subtle, and tricky. It has a multitude of tenacles connected to it. It leads people into an infinite maze from which, without supernatural intervention, there is no escape.
Pr 5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
How subtle the serpent is! Paul’s warning is to believers in the Corinthian church. He even feared for them, knowing how easily it is for our minds to be corrupted into believing wrong doctrine.
Yet, there is simplicity in Christ. His gospel is simple. The source (grace) of it is simple. The channel (faith) of it is simple. The power of it is simple because it is the power of God (Rom 1:16). We don’t give it power, and it doesn’t become the power, but it IS the power.
May the Lord help us to not complicate things with unbelievers. We try to convince them of the wrongness of abortion and the rightness of creation. We try to convert them to the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Of course, these are good and righteous things, but they hold no power to convert a lost soul. Winning an argument is not winning a soul.
Jesus' life was a simple one. His teaching and preaching was simple. The all-knowing One knew how to put profound truth on the bottom shelf. His love was simple enough to attract the harlot, the fishermen, the publicans, and the wealthy leaders.
We may wonder why more lost people are not getting saved these days.
Consider – The answer may be because we talk to them about everything under the sun—but don’t give them the gospel.
