Reflections

Obstacles Taken Away

Do we need to be prepared to receive Christ? This question seems to be an issue again in the churches in the Netherlands, but it is also current in North America. Sometimes it is said that in the Netherlands Reformed Congregations one needs so much before he is ready to receive Christ. And some criticize bitterly that in our circles you may not come to Christ unless you qualify.

Those thoughts are not new. Already in the time of Thomas Hooker (1586-1647), Reformed preachers were called “preparationists.” This term must have come into use after Hooker published his book, Soul's Preparation for Christ, in 1632. Some went so far that they accused Hooker and other Puritans of being Roman Catholic, as if they were teaching that the good works were rewarded by God, the good works being the tears and the feeling of misery. So this is nothing new!

It is interesting how our forefathers responded to those accusations. Their answer was simple and to the point. It is this: No one is ready to receive Christ by nature, and therefore the obstacles need to be taken away to make room for Christ. Is that not a beautiful answer? Let me expand on it.

No one is ready to receive Christ by nature, and therefore the obstacles need to be taken away to make room for Christ.

Some make it look as if people are ready to receive Christ, but in the Netherlands Reformed Congregations we put obstacles between those poor sinners and the Savior. This is not so, my friends! We do not put up obstacles. May the Lord keep us from doing so! But the obstacles are there already since our fall, since our very beginning. People are not ready! The statement that we are placing something between Christ and the sinner suggests that there is nothing between them. Our critics give the impression that sinners are always ready to receive Christ and that no one needs to be prepared. What a misconception!

Why do we think John Bunyan pictured the strait gate at quite a distance from the City of Destruction? Why did he not put that gate right at the exit from the city? Pilgrim could have more quickly gone through the gate if it had been closer at hand. Dear reader, Bunyan knew that usually (and there are exceptions) there is a considerably long way that leads to Christ, not a way of putting up obstacles, but a way of taking the obstacles away.

Are you not ready to receive Christ? Is your pride still in the way, your self-righteousness? May the Lord take it away. We ourselves make the way to Christ so long; may the preaching of law and gospel be a means to take the obstacles away and make room for Christ. We as sinners stubbornly resist this, but may your stubbornness be removed, and may you soon have to give up all hope from your side.

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