Weekend Talk: Writings on the wall

The phrase “writing on the wall” is an idiom suggesting that something unpleasant is approaching.

For example, we may say, “Now that hero-worshipping has increased in independent churches these days, the writing is on the wall for Christianity.”

That phrase evolved out of the time the Babylonian King Belshazzar feasted with a thousand officials while drinking from the sacred vessels looted from the Lord’s Temple.

Suddenly, a hand appeared on the wall with the ominous writing: “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,” meaning: “You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.”

I like to read writings on walls, but “Mene, Mene Tekel…” is one writing I wouldn’t want to read, for it promises disaster and delivers it.

On reception wall

Last week, I chanced upon an inscription on the reception wall of the Wesley Towers, the new headquarters of the Methodist Church in Accra.

The writing was distinctly different from what Belshazzar saw thousands of years ago.

What the king saw announced his downfall, but what I saw at the Wesley Towers reception wall proclaimed life and hope.

It read: “All people need to be saved; can be saved; can know they are saved; can be saved completely.”

The statement carries four truths of equal importance.

As people went in and out of the reception area, I stood in a corner and gazed at the writing, overwhelmed by its spiritual depth and simplicity.

The fact that they inscribed the message at the reception was indicative of the need to reach the thousands who would go in and out of the Towers.

The need

The inscription starts with “All people need to be saved.”

This declaration is at the very core of scripture and has engaged Christendom for centuries.

It is this need that sent missionaries around the world in response to the Lord’s command to “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

At the peril of their lives, the missionaries traversed the world, not counting their lives as worth anything to them.

They just wanted to fulfil their ministry—the ministry of declaring the Good News of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).

When Jesus said he came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10), and that he came that we may have life and have it in abundance (John 10:10), he was declaring the need for all people to be saved; for unless we are saved, we are lost.

Can be saved

The writing declares that “all people can be saved.”  That is not a presumption; it is the truth.

Some people hide from God because they think they are beyond salvation because of their many sins.

But the work of salvation is not self-delivered; it is God-granted, and God is capable of saving anybody who comes to him.

“He who comes to me,” Jesus said, “I will not turn them away” (John 6:37).

We used to sing: “God’s love is so high, you can’t go over it; so deep, you can’t go beneath it; so wide, you can’t get around it, oh what wonderful love!”

The apostle Paul said he was the “chief of sinners,” and if the chief of sinners could be saved, so could anybody else.

Of course, he who will be saved must repent, confess their sins, and accept Christ as Lord and Saviour.

We can know

Then comes one of my beloved theologies of salvation, which the inscription boldly declared:  those who are saved can know that they are saved. It is a fundamental truth that shouldn’t cause any doubt.

If we doubt our salvation, we’ve missed the way.

Because the Lord doesn’t want to keep us in doubt about our salvation, he caused John to write: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13).

This is assurance double sure!

Saved completely

If our salvation were only a percentage certain, we would be insecure.

Imagine being told, “You are saved 50 per cent on earth and will be given the remaining 50 per cent if you make it to heaven! “

If our salvation were based partly on God’s grace and partly on our good deeds, we could never be sure of being completely saved, for our good deeds would fail us miserably.

But thanks be to God that we can know we are saved and that we are saved completely.

In a way, the inscription on the reception wall at the Wesley Towers is a timely warning.

While the writing is far from King Belshazzar’s “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,” it is nevertheless enough warning.

To those who reject the Lord’s invitation to get saved, the writing is on the wall!