A Banana Buyer's Guide to Salvation

(The following dialogue is to read comically and with plenty of sarcasm. It is not the main point of this writing, so get confused when it makes no sense. It is only here to make us think logically about the proceeding argument. The dialogue presumes that you are in grocery store buying bananas.)

What if I were to ask you if you were buying bananas? Your answer: “Well, yes I am.”
Then what if I asked you, “If we were to ask anyone randomly walking down this isle if you are buying bananas or grapes, what would thy say?” Your answer: “Bananas.”
My next question: “Why?” “Because these are BANANAS and I’m BUYING them! How many times do I have to say BANANAS?!”

This is an absurd dialogue, and we would probably all call the interrogator an idiot for obviously missing the obvious! However, this closely reflects the conversations we have many times when inquiring about one’s salvation (what we call “witnessing”). But in our experiences, it is the buyer who is missing the obvious. What is it about the preceding dialogue that makes it so absurd? The questioner keeps looking for proof of the existence of bananas when they are right in front of his face. The buyer’s ultimate response revolves around the fact that the long, yellow fruit he/she is holding is in face a banana. That fact is hard to ignore as he/she references it several times. In fact, no matter how absurd the interrogator becomes the buyer always refers back to the bananas.

Now contrary to what you may be thinking right now, I am not trying to build an argument for the existence of God. Instead, I’m trying to make us think about the reasons we give for the existence of our salvation. A common series of questions used to determine if one is saved goes like this: are you saved, if you died right now would you go to Heaven or Hell, and why? Hopefully (…and in the Bible Belt, usually…) the answers to the first two questions are “yes” and “Heaven”, respectively. But then comes the biggest of all questions, “why”. The usual response goes something like, “Well, I’m a good person”; or “I’m not as bad as some people”; or “I go to church…sometimes”; etc. But do these explanations make any sense? The buyer’s answers revolved around and were rooted in the fact of the presence of bananas. When asked why, he/she came right back to the bananas. However, in the arguments for salvation, we turn away form the “banana” argument and, in effect, show ourselves to be bananas. We start off confirming the spiritual and power of God (i.e. salvation, Heaven) which are all made possible through the presence of God. But to answer the question why, we leave God behind and start tooting our own horn (i.e. I’m good, I’m better, I go to church)! When the banana buyer was asked why, he/she pointed right back to the presence of the bananas. When we are asked why we are saved, we start grasping at straws, so to speak. Is not the logical thing to do is point right back to the presence of God?!!

Then why don’t we? Simple. The banana buyer was totally, completely convinced that there were bananas in his/her shopping cart. He/she had sought them out, picked them, and put them there. His/her purpose for coming to the grocery store was fulfilled in their purchase. We, however, don’t have God’s presence in us without salvation. Therefore, we start grasping at straws and reach out for the only thing we have if we have not God…ourselves. We start singing our own praise, even though earlier in the day we were fussing at ourselves for something stupid we had done. The answer to such questions MUST MUST MUST come back to Christ. We MUST understand what it is to have God seek you out, pick you, and put you in His hand. Just a rehearsed answer without God’s presence won’t do. In such a case, the banana interrogator would have only asked “What bananas? There are none here.” When you’re in the presence of God, you’ll realize the fulfilled purpose of your trip.