J.C. Ryle on 21st Century Religion

I say, then, in the first place, that a scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to that vague, dim, misty, hazy kind of theology which is so painfully current in the present age. It is vain to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity nowadays which you cannot declare positively unsound, but which, nevertheless, is not full measure, good weight and sixteen ounces to the pound. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably 'something about Christ and something about grace and something about faith and something about repentance and something about holiness', but it is not the real 'thing as it is' in the Bible. Things are out of place and out of proportion. As old Latimer would have said, it is a kind of 'mingle-mangle', and does no good. It neither exercises influence on daily conduct, nor comforts in life, nor gives peace in death; and those who hold it often awake too late to find that they have got nothing solid under their feet. Now I believe the likliest way to cure and mend this defective kind of religion is to bring forward more prominently the old scriptural truth about the sinfulness of sin. People will never set their faces decidedly towards heaven and live like pilgrims, until they really feel they are in danger of hell...Let us bring the law to the front and press it upon men's attention. let us expound the Ten Commandments and show the length and breadth and depth and height of their requirements. This is the way of our Lord in the sermon on the mount. we cannot do better than follow His plan. We may depend upon it, men will never come to Jesus and stay with Jesus and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whome the Spirit has convinced of sin. without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world. - J.C. Ryle
From Holiness, chapter 1

I sure wish they knew how to use the journalist's paragraph back then. Two-three sentences and then a new paragraph.

But I think the good bishop has put his finger right on the issue of Christianity at the beginning of the 21st century. We are so afraid of offending our friends and family, not to mention those who listen to us, that we have watered down the real issue in coming to faith in Christ.

Not that we should beat people over the heads with sin and dangle them over the flames of hell, but we should not be afraid to step and note sin when it happens and be willing to name it when we see it. It is hard to offer grace and mercy when the reason it is needed is belittled. Sin is real. Let's call it for what it is using the Bible's standards as our definitions.