How does using gospel clichés without the full truth lead people astray?
Using gospel clichés without the full truth leads people into false security. Phrases like “take Jesus as personal Savior” or “believe in Jesus” are safe only if they carry the whole gospel: the Son of God became flesh, shed His blood, was buried, and rose again. Without understanding His cross, the words are empty.
Les explains that people have coined expressions like “take Jesus as your Lord and personal Savior,” even though no verse says exactly that. He says such clichés are not necessarily wrong if the whole body of truth is packed into them—that the Son of God became flesh, went to the cross, shed His blood, was buried, and rose from the dead. Likewise, “believe in Jesus” raises the question, which Jesus? The Jesus of the three years He ministered to Israel, or the Jesus who went to the cross and rose again? Les warns that “take Jesus into your heart” is only valid when the person understands that Christ can be in the heart only because of what He did on the cross; otherwise it is all for nothing. He is scared that people are being led into a false security by taking clichés without knowing the full truth. This connects to being saved by the power of God from the preaching of the cross, while God destroys the wisdom of the wise and makes foolish the wisdom of this world.