Many in today’s evangelical church have become so concerned over the world’s sensibilities that they can’t preach the Gospel and walk on society’s politically correct eggshells at the same time. It’s as though we’ve lost sight of this world’s enmity against God and concluded that the only hindrance to world-wide revival is poor Christian salesmanship. If we could only peddle the Gospel in a more palatable way this fallen world, which crucified Christ, would immediately convert to Christianity.

In John 5:41-44, Jesus reveals to us the secret motive behind all unbelief. Why do men fail to see God in Christ or Christ in the Scripture (see John 5:36-40)? Why do they fail to hear the voice of God when He speaks or to understand anything that He says? Why do they refuse to come to Christ who went to the cross for them? According to Jesus, it is because they look for “honor from men” and to make a “name” for themselves rather than for “honor from God” and to glorify his “name.”

Herein lies the secret motive of all unbelief; namely, the self-seeking ambition of the unregenerate heart of man. Unlike every other faith in the world, which teaches man’s ability to secure his own salvation on the basis of his own goodness, Christianity teaches that man’s only hope of salvation is God’s grace. The Christian faith, unlike all others, teaches us that we cannot earn our own salvation, make ourselves acceptable to God or pave our own way to heaven with our own goodness. Instead, our only hope is in Christ. It is all about who He is, not who we are, and all about what He has done for us, which we could have never done for ourselves.

If we will turn to Christ as our only hope, acknowledging our helplessness to save ourselves, God will give us the gift of eternal life. Salvation is a gift given by God’s grace to all who reach out in faith to receive it. It cannot be earned, no matter how much or how hard we try. This divine welfare serves as an offense to the prideful, unregenerate heart of man. The unregenerate man refuses to swallow his pride, come to Christ on his knees and accept a nail-scarred handout.

All of this serves as proof positive that the Christian faith is the one and only genuine faith in all of the world. Unlike all other faiths, the Christian faith cannot possibly be the invention of the self-seeking, prideful and unregenerate heart of man. No man would have ever imagined or invented so unflattering a faith. Neither would any man ever turn to such an insulting faith apart from the miracle of divine regeneration.

Here, we can clearly see the reason for our world’s peculiar and militant hostility toward the Christian faith. Men are offended at the biblical teaching that their “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9). Men are offended to learn that their “righteousness is as filthy rags” in the eyes of a Holy God (Isaiah 64:6). 

Men are horribly offended by the cross, or as Paul puts it in Galatians 5:11: “the offence of the cross.” Why is the cross of Christ so offensive to the world? Is it not because it serves as proof positive of man’s total depravity and complete inability to make himself acceptable to God? Is it not because it serves as proof positive that man’s only hope of salvation is to swallow his pride, stop trying to save himself and trust Christ to do for Him what he can never do for himself.

Along with the cross, our modern-day world also finds the mere mention of the name of Jesus horribly offensive. Why is the name of Jesus so offensive to our modern-day world? Why are we, just as Jesus predicted, being “hated of all men for [His] name’s sake” (Luke 21:17)? Is it not because the miracle of salvation leaves us with no credit, but God with all of the glory? Is it not because the miracle of salvation makes no name for ourselves, but only magnifies the name of Jesus?

This fallen world did not “honor” Christ, who came “in His Father’s name”; that is, to glorify God the Father. It will, however, “honor” one who “comes in his own name”; that is, to glorify himself. Why are men like this? Is it not because they love themselves and “have not the love of God in [them]”?

Many believe that Christ is alluding here in this passage to one who will ultimately be received by men as the end-time leader of the world.

• One who will come without divine commission, but in selfish ambition.
• One who will not perform the works of the Lord, but lying wonders.
• One who will not seek to glorify God, but will seek to be glorified as God.
• One who will be a counterfeit Christ, but confessed and confused as the Christ.
• And one who will be the ultimate advocate of self-love and antagonist against God’s love.

In these insightful words of our Savior tucked away in John’s Gospel, we learn a most necessary truth for these perilous times and politically correct, last days. The spring of unbelief is the heart rather than the head. This is why the Bible teaches us to: “Keep [our] heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). It is much easier to convince the head than it is to ever subdue the heart or the will.

In light of the above, we may safely conclude that men’s objections to the Christian faith and rejection of Jesus Christ have little, if anything, to do with poor Christian salesmanship. Instead, it has everything to do with the pride and sinfulness of the unregenerate heart, something that can only be subdued by the power of God, never by the power of our persuasion!