"To bury the lede (lēd) refers to hiding the most important and relevant pieces of a story within other distracting information." (source)
"Bury the lede is an expression that means to fail to mention the most important or interesting part of a story or anecdote right at the beginning, and instead insert it at some other point in the telling, as if it weren’t that important... Still, a person might be said to have buried the lede after intentionally trying to downplay information that might be bad for them—by burying it between other parts of their story, for example." (source)
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." - Romans 5:8-9
The media is really good at burying the lede. Clickbait has replaced honest headlines.
Commentary and opinion have replaced reporting the facts. All are intended to elicit an emotional response and distract us from the truth - distorting how we perceive reality.
As Christians shaped by our cultural moment, we often bury the lede. Albeit usually unintentionally, it is buried nonetheless. We are all guilty to some extent.
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When was the last time you heard a sermon on God's wrath?
When was the last time you felt the heavy conviction of God's Word upon your conscience?
We don’t hear much about God’s wrath today. We hear a lot about God's love and mercy.
The prevailing sentiment of modern evangelicalism is; "My God would never... (judge, be wrathful, hate sin, punish unrighteousness, or send the unrepentant to hell)." After all, if we told people about God's wrath and judgment against sin, people may not come to church.
When the headline is "feel-good Christianity" or "Jesus get's us" or "God wants me to live my best life now", we are not reporting the facts of biblical faith. Our theology has devolved into a marketing strategy cloaked in religious jargon. We are burying the lede.
By telling the lost, "Jesus is your buddy" we are offending a Holy God. Yes, the Bible says that we can become a "friend of Jesus" (John 15:15) and even goes on to say we are "heirs of Christ's Kingdom" (Romans 8:16-17, John 1:12) but only though His payment on the cross!
We often fail to share the full story of the Gospel... As a result, people fail to grasp the 'Big Picture' of Scripture. The 'Big Picture' tells the over-arching Story of Redemption with Jesus Christ's death and resurrection at the center - from first Creation (Genesis 1) to the New Creation (Revelation 21-22). We are on a recovery mission.
Recovering The Story must include God's wrath and judgement. They are fully part of His love and mercy. You can't have one without the other.
Devoid of wrath and judgement against sin, God's love and mercy are meaningless and our faith is empty. Frankly, God would not be 'loving' if He wasn't wrathful against sin.
We must reorient our hearts and minds to love God's wrath and judgement because it drives us to His love and mercy through our Savior, Jesus Christ!
As Christians we must resurrect the buried lede and guard against ever burying it again.
Reflection and Meditation on God's Word:
And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. - Revelation 20:15
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. - John 3:36
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." - Romans 5:8-9
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. - Romans 5:1
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Great article. Super reminder to find the "Led" in all stories but especially in the Church. Not only must we find it, we must demand, as followers of Christ, that it not be buried.
Great article. Super reminder to find the "Led" in all stories but especially in the Church. Not only must we find it, we must demand, as followers of Christ, that it not be buried.