Robert Wilkin's Latest Attack On The Gospel

Mark asked me to post this here...


The latest attack on the Gospel from the Robert Wilkin/Zane Hodges led Grace Evangelical Society (also known as Free Grace Theology) is found in their newest newsletter. In it, he offers a critique of The Way of The Master, a ministry of Rey Comfort and Kirk Cameron (see here) Apparently, Mr. Wilkin takes exception to, and is offended by, Christians telling non believers that they are sinners, or that they will be judged for their sins. It is an insult to the cross, Wilkin writes. In the article, Wilkin makes a number of incredible statements. One of the more audacious is this:

Jesus often never even brought up the issue of sin when He evangelized. Look at what He told Nicodemus in John 3. He never even mentioned sin there.

That is a very incredible statement that leaves one wondering if Mr. Wilkin has actually read the chapter in question.

Before going on in the text, let’s sum up Mr. Wilkin’s thinking on this: John 3 does not have anything to do with sin because sin is not mentioned there. Roman Catholics use this same type of thinking – since nowhere do you find the words “Mary sinned,” Mary was therefore Immaculately Conceived and lived a sinless life. Where does such thinking stop? We could go on: there is nowhere in scripture that mentions Nicodemus eating food, and since we do not find those words, then Nicodemus never ate. That type of thinking always leads to foolishness.

It should be quite obvious to all but those caught up in the extremism that pervades the Free Grace movement (if one would even want to call their “society” a movement) that the assertion made by Wilkin is completely ludicrous. Jesus equates His being lifted up to that of the lifting up of the bronze serpent in the wilderness in Numbers 21. Perhaps Mr. Wilkin is either a) unaware of the events of Numbers 21, or b) does not understand that the raising of the bronze serpent had to do with the judgment of God on sin. We all know the story, and how that fits with the theme of John 3. We are all under judgment due to our sin just as the ancient Israelites were under judgment, and it is to the Lord Jesus lifted up who we are to look to so that judgment on us for our sin may be removed.

Yet this is what Mr. Wilkin doesn’t understand – the very basics of God’s wonderful salvation. To him, there is nothing in the passage that speaks of sin. May God open his eyes.