God's Concern for the Lost

When I was five years old, my parents sent me to Sunday school with a six-year-old neighbor girl. One set of parents took us to Sunday school, and the other set picked us up. One Sunday, there was a mix-up. No one picked us up. The six-year-old, sensing her maturity, was sure she could lead me home. After all, it was only a mile-and-a-half walk in a small city of 32,000. We started south, but our homes were actually east. About an hour later, my frantic mother and two frightened kids were reunited outside the police station. To this day, the fear of being lost still haunts me.

There are people in our world who are lost—apart from God—and uneasy because of it.

When Jesus prayed for his disciples in John 17:11, he addressed God as “Holy Father.” God is holy. People without grace are sinful. There is a gap between a holy God and sinful people. God is also Father. He loves us, and he is patiently trying to reach us in our lostness.  Matthew’s Gospel was written especially to Jews. For this reason, he shows how Christians are Abraham’s seed. The ancient promise of Genesis 15 is honored: “Count the stars . . . So shall your offspring be” (15:5). As the spiritual descendants of Abraham today, we are to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).  Michael Green contended in Matthew for Today that so strongly does the God of the universe and the ages feel this that through he teaches us: to see (9:36), to care (9:36), to pray (9:38), to receive words from the Holy Spirit (10:19–20), and to go (10:5–6).

God is concerned.

Concern for our sin (Romans 3:23) and spiritual death (6:23) caused God to make a way for us to come to him. Christ tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Conversely, “Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, [but] God’s wrath remains on him” (3:36).

Some have asked if people can be saved without Christ.

In his book Nothing to Do but to Save Souls, Robert Coleman answered that such knowledge has not been disclosed to us. God may do what he wants, within his nature, but we can only act on the word of Scripture that he has revealed to the world. As Robertson McQuilkin has explained, to teach people to expect another way of salvation is dangerous.

Coleman also observed that a Christian witness may be compared to a security guard whose job is to protect the tenth-floor residents of a nursing home. He has a floor plan with the fire exits all marked. What if fire breaks out? Can you imagine the guard discussing with the residents the possibility of other escape routes besides those on the map?

Some today teach that because God loves, he forgives everyone, under all circumstances. Henry Cook wrote in The Theology of Evangelism that these teachers “[have] emptied His love of all its desperate seriousness, and have made the cross unintelligible. If God is so kind as to forgive under any circumstances why did Jesus have to die?”

If God sent his Son to die for us, then we who follow Christ must be concerned for the lost. Michael Green articulated in Evangelism in the Early Church that “if you believe that outside of Christ there is no hope, it is impossible to possess an atom of human love . . . without being gripped by a great desire to bring men to this one way of salvation. We are not surprised, therefore, to find that concern for the state of the unevangelized was one of the great driving forces behind Christian preaching . . . in the early church.”

Christ summarized His ministry this way.

“The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). To His followers Christ says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). Jesus’ concern for lost mankind was so great that he told the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son in Luke 15. Here we learn no one is so worthless but that the Lord is deeply concerned for him or her (15:4). No effort is to be spared to recover the lost (15:4).

Nothing brings as much joy to Christ and to all of heaven as when one sinner repents (15:7, 10). Notice the great searching love displayed in Jesus and the Father in these parables. His love actively seeks us even in our separation from him.

In the southwestern United States, a man named Seth and his three sons, Mark, Milton, and Matt, owned and operated a large cattle ranch. Because the ranch included mountainous areas at an elevation of more than 7,000 feet, winter storms could develop suddenly and without much warning. Seth’s family had a winter emergency plan just in case this happened.  One day, a storm moved in faster than the weatherman predicted. Seth immediately implemented his plan. He designated their home as headquarters. The four then left in different directions to secure the ranch. The corrals were to be opened for the cattle to come in. Water was to be made available. They were all to meet promptly back at headquarters in two hours. The absence of one man after two hours was the signal that he was in trouble.

They left early in the morning. With a hard wind blowing, both snow and the temperature were falling fast. It was a typical southwestern blizzard. After two hours, three men returned to the ranch house. Mark did not arrive. Seth and his two sons waited nervously around the fireplace to get warm. After 15 minutes passed, Seth put on his coat again. “Wait here,” he told his boys. “You’re finished. I’m going out to look for Mark!” His middle son stopped him at the door: “Dad, until everybody’s home, nobody’s finished!” The three went to search together. They followed the designated route. Soon they saw Mark, his truck blown off the road and stuck in the snow. In a short time, Dad and all three boys were at the ranch home —safe, around the fire’s warmth.

Can you see that God is like this? Whether it is seeking the lost sheep, the lost coin, or the father running out to meet the lost son, the truth is the same. “Till everybody’s home, nobody’s finished!” The Father isn’t finished. The Son isn’t finished. The Spirit isn’t finished. I’m not finished. You’re not finished. As long as there is a lost friend or loved one or lost person anywhere, “Till everybody’s home, nobody’s finished!”

Adapted from The Bible Speaks to Me about My Witness by Dr. Charles “Chic” Shaver in the Discipleship Place