"I have been sent to you with bad news." 1 Kings 14:6

"Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day." Psalm 96:2


"God…has given us the ministry of reconciliation… and…

the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ,

as though God were pleading through us:
We implore you on Christ’s behalf,
Be reconciled to God. 
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us,
That we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

While our roles differ greatly in this hostile world, all born-again citizens of heaven are called to be "ambassadors for Christ." Our mission is "the ministry of reconciliation." Our message is "the word of reconciliation." In its most distilled form, our message from God to the nations is this: "Be reconciled to God!"

But there is a problem. Relatively few of earth's citizens recognize their need to "be reconciled to God." Most are blissfully ignorant of their perilous predicament as sinners separated from their holy Creator and loving Owner. They do not know who God is, nor do they see themselves as God sees them—as "children of wrath,…dead in trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:3,1) The average person's concept of God concurs with the Muslims at a mosque in Canada who have a beautiful sign over the entrance which reads: "We welcome everyone and tell no one that he is a sinner." Consequently, were I to stand on a street corner and simply preach, "Be reconciled to God! Be reconciled to God!" —few would understand my message.

The Scripture makes it clear: before folks can believe the GOOD NEWS about the Savior who can reconcile them to a loving God, they must acknowledge the BAD NEWS about their sin which separates them from a holy God. That is why God gave the Law before He gave His Son. That is also why the prophet Isaiah wrote, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one to his own way" before he wrote, "And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6). And that is why the Lord Jesus first preached, "Repent [change your mind; own up to your sinful, helplessly lost condition], and then, "believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15). It is also why the apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, uses more than 1200 words to expose man's problem (Romans 1:18-3:20) before he begins to explain God's provision (Romans 3:21…).

The best of seed will not germinate in hard, unprepared soil. The good Seed of God’s Word only produces eternal fruit in prepared hearts. Consider the rich young ruler who came running to Jesus asking, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16). The Lord Jesus did not follow popular witnessing models. Knowing that the young man had not yet recognized his helpless condition as a sinner separated from a holy God—Jesus applied the Ten Commandments, making it clear that God's standard was nothing less than perfect righteousness. Jesus, who "loved him," told him to "be perfect," and then let him go away "sad" and "sorrowful". (Mark 10:21,22; Matthew 19:21) There is no “eternal life” for those who think they can earn it by doing some “good thing.”

Let us not miss the point. As ambassadors for Christ and ministers of God's good news of reconciliation, a vital part of our ministry is to communicate the bad news— helping folks see that they are lost, helpless sinners, eternally separated from their infinitely pure Creator. Before folks can understand why it was necessary that the Lord Jesus become our sin offering and rise again from the dead, they must understand something about God's righteous character and sin's deadly consequences.

One of the best ways to help people see their need for God's way of reconciliation is to do with them as the Lord Jesus did with His confused disciples on the day of His resurrection. "And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself… 'Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations…'" (Luke 24:27,46,47)

Jesus' chronological teaching from key Old Testament stories cleared up their confusion. At last they saw it! Just as God, for millenniums, had required substitutionary animal sacrifices to cover sin, so the Messiah had shed His blood to abolish sin's penalty once for all. It made sense now! How else would the hundreds of symbols and prophecies ever have been fulfilled? If the Messiah had not died on the cross and conquered death for us, how could we be forgiven of our sin debt and have the perfect righteousness necessary to live forever in God's presence? Oh how wonderful to understand why the Messiah had to suffer and die! "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32)

Over the past couple of decades, in Senegal and elsewhere in the Muslim world, we have watched God's Word and Spirit clear up folks' confusion in a similar way— through selective, chronological teaching "beginning with Moses (Genesis)." As folks hear key Old Testament stories (Creation, Fall, Cain & Abel, Flood, Babel, Abraham & Isaac, Moses, Israel, Passover, Ten Commandments, Tabernacle, etc.) and grasp the fundamental truths embedded in these stories (concerning God, man, sin, judgment, salvation, sin offerings, faith, the promised Messiah, etc.), many have had their thinking radically changed, and have come to trust in the divine Person and finished work of Christ.

A couple years ago, we were privileged to teach a Senegalese middle-school math teacher in this way. Having come to the Ten Commandments in which we clearly saw that God demands perfect righteousness and that observing the Law cannot make us righteous, the school teacher, with a level of frustration in his voice, said, “OK, so the Bible teaches that we are helpless sinners before God who is holy and must judge sin, and that we cannot save ourselves by praying and fasting and good deeds. So then… what IS the solution?? How CAN we be made acceptable to God?” As we moved into the New Testament, God's Provision became clear to him. He became a believer in Christ. The bad news prepared him to receive the Good News.

In the summers of 2003 and 2004, I flew from Senegal to Togo (also in West Africa) to help teach several chronological workshops for Christians—showing them how to present a clear Gospel to unbelievers. Like every nation on earth, Togo desperately needs God's "word of reconciliation." 70% are animist, 10% Muslim, and 20% "Christian". Even among many who call themselves Christians, confusion abounds. Many give their businesses names like "Jesus Loves You Pizzeria," "Thanks to God Bar," "Jesus Saves Grocery," yet relatively few have a clear understanding of who God is and why Jesus had to die for our sins.

In the workshops, we taught through the French version of All that the Prophets have Spoken—a book which uses the Lord Jesus' Emmaus Road method. These chronological seminars include teaching believers how to use a variety of simple, indigenous visual aids—which serve to grab and hold people's attention, as well as help them to understand and remember God's story and message.

Among a few dozen visual aids, one of my favorites is THE BRANCH. It's a readily available, effective object lesson which can help people understand their lost position as helpless sinners separated from their holy Creator.

The use of the branch illustration is not limited to the classroom setting. While traveling in the interior of Togo, our team made a rest stop where several men were seated under a tree, near a mosque. As we chatted with them, before long, I broke a branch off the tree and asked them, "So what do you think? Is this branch dead or alive?" I had their full attention. One of them answered, "It's dying." Another replied, "It's dead." I chided them, "How can you say it's dead? Look how green it is! It looks alive to me!" One responded, "It looks alive, but it's really dead because it is separated from the tree, which gave it life." Bingo! I was then able to ask them, "Did you know that you have just given an accurate definition of DEATH according to the Scriptures of the prophets? DEATH is not annihilation, but SEPARATION—from the Source of Life."

Next, we reviewed the story of the Garden of Eden. "God had told Adam, 'You may freely eat of all the trees of the garden, except one. In the very day you eat of this one tree, you will surely die!" I asked them, "What did God say would happen to Adam if he sinned against God? Did He tell Adam that if he ate of the forbidden fruit, he must start doing religious rituals, praying and going to a mosque or church?" "No," they answered, "God said Adam would die."

"You are right," I told them, "God made it clear: the payment for sin was not doing religious activities. It was DEATH. But, tell me, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, did they fall over dead that very same day?" "No!" they answered. "Well, then, what did God mean when He told Adam, 'In the day you eat of this fruit, you will surely die!'?" I was able to go on from there and tell them the bad news about three separations which are included in the Bible's definition of death—three awful consequences of man's choice to sin against his Creator-Owner.

1. Spiritual death: SEPARATION of man's spirit and soul from God.
The same day that Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually. Like a branch separated from the tree, Adam and Eve's close relationship with the LORD God was finished. It was dead. "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you..." (Isaiah 59:2) Adam and Eve had become sinners. They no longer wanted to be with their holy and loving Creator. And because God is holy, He could not act as though everything was OK. A single sin is as repulsive to our Creator as it would be to us to have a rotting carcass of a pig in our bedroom, or a drop of poison in our tea. And just as spraying perfume on the decaying carcass or adding pure water to the contaminated tea will not fix the problem, so no amount of religious deeds or good works can remove man's sin and make him spiritually alive and pure again. Sin separated Adam and Eve from their God. But the news goes from bad to worse.

Look again at the severed branch. What part of it is "dead" as a result of being separated from the tree? Yes, the whole branch is dead— including the little twigs at the tip of the branch. If those twigs and leaves could talk, perhaps they would say something like, "Now wait a minute! It's not our fault the branch got separated from the tree! We are not affected by what someone else did!" But they are affected. In the same way, since Adam is the head of the entire human race, we are all affected by his sin. As descendants of Adam, we are all members of the same dead "branch." Sin is a part of our human nature. That is why even little children commit sin… naturally. When Adam sinned, the entire human race yet to be born was separated from God. Even before we die physically, we are spiritually "dead in trespasses and sins."

2. Physical death: SEPARATION of man's spirit and soul from his body
The day Adam and Eve sinned, they also began to die physically. Even as the leaves on this broken branch do not dry up instantly, so Adam and Eve's bodies did not drop dead the day they sinned, but death's grip had taken hold. Death's power had installed itself in their bodies. Sin's consequences included the fact that all living creatures must now "die and return to their dust." (Psalm 104:29) The Scripture is clear that “…in Adam all die.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

3. Eternal death: SEPARATION of man's spirit, soul and body from God forever.
A living branch's purpose is to bear leaves and fruit. Dead branches have no real purpose. They are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. When man sinned against God, he forfeited the awesome purpose for which he was created: to glorify God and enjoy close fellowship with Him forever. Unless the LORD provided a solution for Adam and Eve's sin problem, once their bodies died, they faced the awful prospect of being eternally separated from God in the lake of fire which had been prepared for the devil and his demons. The Bible calls this "the second death" since it occurs after physical death. "The lake of fire...is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:14,15) If the concept of eternal punishment seems unreasonable to us, perhaps it is due to our failure to comprehend the foulness of sin and the holiness of the God of Eternity. "But there shall by no means enter [God's presence] anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." (Rev. 21:27) Just as God's established natural laws cause a severed branch to die, wither and be burned, so God's spiritual laws demand that sin be paid for with DEATH—spiritual, physical and eternal separation from the Source of Life. (Note: These three separations are similarly explained in chapter 4 of both The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, and in All that the Prophets have Spoken. www.goodseed.com )

This is the bad news that I shared with the men under the tree next to the mosque.

However, before we left them and continued on our journey, I was able to summarize God's Good News—about what the sinless Lord Jesus Christ did for us on the cross by paying our sin debt in full and then by conquering death itself on the third day. And that all who believe that Good News will be grafted back into the Source of Life itself. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:22) A couple of these men (from a "Christian" background) already knew John 3:16 by heart. As we shook hands and said goodbye, one of the men, with deep sincerity in his voice, told us, "Thank you! Thank you! You have helped us to understand many things today."

A few days later, we used "the branch" again—this time with some Togolese restaurant workers who joined us at our table (we were the only customers). After listening intently to sin's bad news and God's Good News for more than an hour, the cook testified that, for the first time in his life, he actually understood why Jesus had to die on the cross for our sins. He also made it known that he believed and had the assurance that he was now "out of Adam" and "in Christ" and on his way to heaven.

Do you see why it is critical that folks understand the bad news about man's sin, before they can appreciate the Good News of God's salvation? Can you see how an object as simple as a broken branch can help us communicate the law of sin and death, and illustrate why the sinless Lord Jesus suffered and died for our sins, crying out from the cross, "My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?" Of course, none of us can fathom the utter horror and desolation of those dreadful, pitch-black hours when the infinite Son of God was separated from His Eternal Father as He suffered for us the eternal death penalty that we deserve. But that is exactly what He did so that we might be "reconciled to God!"

So snap off a branch and tell someone the bad news...

pdb - 2005