a hard viewpoint

Dan Phillips recently wrote a list of 15 things we can know about non-Christians. Reading this list may lead some to a knee-jerk response and certainly summarizing hard-truths in this manner is far from popular. But as I read this I thought it a timely reminder to help us not get swallowed up in popular world views. In fact, in his post, Phillips even outlines a couple of consequences of not being mindful of these truths. The consequences:

• I will be led off into the wrong path; and
• I will be, at best, absolutely useless to you and, at worst, positively harmful to you.

The things we know about the non-Christian are as follows - and before reacting, please reread the 9th, 10th, and 11th points and add to that all Christians were once as follows - this is nothing to be puffed up about.

• I know that you were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), and still bear that image (Genesis 9:6), though sin has warped that likeness (Genesis 5:1, 3; cf. Ephesians 4:24), and though you try hard to efface it (Romans 1:18-32).
• I know that everything you will tell me will come from a heart that is (A) self-deceived, and (B) definitionally unaware of that self-deception (Jeremiah 17:9).
• I know that you are at war with God, and hate Him (Romans 8:7).
• I know that you are under the wrath of God (John 3:36; Romans 1:18; Ephesians 2:3).
• I know that you are dead to God (Ephesians 2:1).
• I know that it is natural to you to resist the truth of God, and to warp truths about God into forms that do not threaten your war against God (Romans 1:18).
• I know that your very ability to see and understand the truths of God is so mangled by sin that you could effectively be said to be blind to them (Psalm 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 4:17-19).
• I know that you are blinded to the beauty and truth of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
• I know that what you most need from me is to be loved (Luke 6:26-27).
• I know that the specific expression of love you most need from me is not for me to affirm nor enable your self-destructive errors, nor for me to tell you about myself (2 Corinthians 4:5a).
• I know that the specific expression of love you most need from me is that I tell you the good news about Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:5b), and that if you do not hear that good news, you have no hope of being saved from God's wrath (Romans 10:8-17).
• I know that Jesus Christ came to save people exactly like you (Luke 19:10; 1 Timothy 1:15).
• I know that if you believe the Gospel and come to Jesus Christ the saving Lord, in repentant faith — and only then — you surely will be saved (Matthew 11:28-30; John 6:35, 37, 40; Acts 16:31; 17:30).
• I know that if you do not come to this saving faith, you have no hope whatever (John 3:36).
• I know that you must do this, and that you can only do this if God does a gracious, miraculous, life-giving work within you (Matthew 11:25; John 3:3; 5:25-26; 6:37, 44-45, 65; 2 Corinthians 4:5-6; Ephesians 2:1-10).

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