Many of us has an image of Jesus as a politically correct person; he is not going to condemn anybody or point out any faults. There is some truth to that. It seems that Jesus is not focused on actions but on the soul of a person.

     Jesus will not be a debater like a Lee Strobel or Ravi Zacarias. Jesus' response to the Sadducees who questioned the truth of a bodily resurrection is insightful. Jesus did not debate the possibility of bodily resurrection or the biblical basis for a future bodily resurrection. Jesus went right to the point and told the Sadducees that they do not know the power of God. Its very probable that if Jesus sees the atheists of today, he will immediately point out that they don't know God, that's why they disbelieve. He will not debate God's existence but would come right out and call them to repentance.

     I think this should give us pause about using the style of apologetics (defense of the faith) that attempts to convince the unbeliever using reason and evidences. There are evidences and reasons for the faith but they should only be given to those who really want to understand why we believe. For those who have made up their mind to disbelieve, we should just come out and point out the unbelieveing spirit and call them to repent.

     Jesus' concern is to call people to repentance, to change from their ways. Jesus favors those who are sorrowful for their sins, he is kind to them. He is harsh to theose who are not sorrowful for their sins. In the parable of the Pharisees and the Tax Collector, Jesus pointed out that it was the tax collector who came to God repentant that is right with God, and the Pharisee is not right with God because he boasted that he is better than the tax collector morally.

     Some people assume that the religious people of today are equivalent to the pharisees and the less religious people (those who don't really care about God's moral standards) are equivalent to the tax collectors. There is a problem with this paradigm. Jesus dealt with repentant sinners who are sorrowful for their sins (he favors them and feels sorry for them), unrepentant hypocrites who thought they are morally superior (he was harsh with them). However, scriptures are silent as to what Jesus felt about unrepentant sinners- people who know they are sinners and don't care. It seemed everyone cared about their standing with God.  

     I'm sure there are people who don't consider themselves religious who actually care about whether they are right with God or not. However, there are also sinners today who don't care that they are. I wonder how Jesus would approach them. I speculate that Jesus would just come out and point out the unrepentant soul, just like he did with the disbelieveing Sadducees. Then I predict that what would happen next would surprise us. I think some of those we think are hardened sinners will actually repent. Such is the power of God's word which convicts of sin and produces faith. On the other hand, some of the hardened sinners will get even more hardened and act like the Pharisees who persecuted and killed Jesus. 

    I believe we should follow this paradigm as we confront sin in the world. We should point out, not primarily the sinful action, but the soul opposed to God. Sinful actions are symptoms of the unrepentant soul. We should not confront sin as moralists but as fellow sinners calling others to repentance, just as we are also repentant.