The Messengers

The past few weeks I have been following a new reality show on TLC entitled The Messengers. The stated purpose or goal of the series is to find the next great inspirational speaker. Each week, the “messengers,” who come from all walks of life, are given a topic to speak on such as charity, struggle, etc. After hearing all the speeches, which are no more than two (2) minutes in length, the audience then votes one (1) of the messengers off.

While I have enjoyed the show and agree that the art of public speaking needs to be recovered by our culture, the messengers ultimately leave me empty. You see, the central criteria given to the audience for judging the messengers is “did it move you” and did it “come from the heart.” Frankly, that scares me a little because, if the producers of the show were honest with themselves, Hitler, along with a long list of historical tyrants, would be superstars based on that standard.

When I hear a speaker, I am looking for them to present to me not so much how they feel about something as much as an objective truth. I know that their hearts are deceitful and wicked just the same as mine (Jeremiah 17:9). That is, of course, where the Gospel comes in. The Gospel stands outside of me as declaration made by God. Left to myself, there is only condemnation and weak excuses. Michael Horton writes in God of Promise, “Every person carries around within himself or herself the tarnished recognition of the covenant of works, the law written on the conscience. The gospel, by contrast, comes as news from outside of us, brought to us by a messenger. It is not natural to us, but utterly foreign. Law cannot bring life. Religion is the house of bondage. Yet the gospel brings good news about what someone else has done for us” (p. 191). How beautiful are the feet of those who bring it (Romans 10:15)!