So if you haven't read my last blog post, "Building God's Temple Today," I encourage you to do so. We learned that we are to build God's temple today by shining the light of the gospel and winning souls for the Kingdom of God, making them members of the household of God! So you may be feeling the passion bubble to start evangelizing and sharing the wondrous gospel that has saved your soul. I commend you! God says He loves obedience more than sacrifice, so your decision to obey the Great Commission is a beautiful thing. But now comes the delicate and vital part. How to share your faith. In comes the part that can be the difference in a true convert or not. We can easily see the damage done by the modern evangelistic approach in preaching the gospel. The damage has resulted in many falling away from the faith.
The Dangers of the Modern Evangelistic Approach: "Christ promises life-enhancement."
I love a great analogy I learned from my favorite evangelist, Ray Comfort. He says, there were two men who got onto a plane. One was offered a parachute and was told it would enhance his flight. He thought about it and said, "alright, I'll give it a try." So he puts on the parachute and he notices it's rather awkward to wear. It's bulky, uncomfortable, and he even notices some onlookers laughing at him and making fun of him. When the flight becomes bumpy the parachute becomes extra uncomfortable. In disdain and bitterness towards those who told him it would enhance his flight he throws it off of him, declaring in his heart he'll never wear another parachute again! The second man gets onto the plane and is offered a parachute as well, except he's not promised that it'll enhance his flight, but is encouraged to put it on because at any moment he's going to have to jump. This man is not reluctant, but happy to put it on. He's not bothered one bit by the discomfort of the parachute, it's bulkiness, or even the onlookers who mock him because he is going to be safe when he has to jump. And when the flight attendant accidentally spills hot coffee all over him he's not filled with bitterness towards the parachute or those who gave it to him, but rather clutches the parachute all the tighter, even looking forward to the jump.
The same is true of the modern evangelistic approach. People are told to trust in the Lord Jesus because He will enhance their life. They're promised a life of blessings, that Jesus will fill every need they'll ever have, He'll fix their marriage, clean their life and make it trouble free. And when trial, tribulation, temptation, and persecution come they become disillusioned that this "Jesus thing" didn't work, become embittered toward those who offered them this life-enhancing gospel, and sadly, fall away. Rather, we are to tell people to trust in Jesus because at any moment they are going to have to jump. When we expose the true state of a sinner in relation to a holy God, and then we offer them a way to be safe from Judgement the recipient will eagerly trust in Jesus. And when trials, tribulation, temptation, and persecution come he will not fall away because he knows he is safe from the jump. His perspective is that in light of eternity. The importance of securing his everlasting state outweighs the temporary hardships of this life. Thus is the state of a true convert. So how do we lead one to Christ and in what fashion should we present the gospel?
The Biblical Evangelistic Approach: A tool right under our noses!
Well there is a tool right under our noses...and of course it's Biblical. It's the law! God's moral law, the 10 Commandments given to Moses on Mt Sinai is the greatest tool to utilize when drawing sinners to the Cross. Psalm 19:7 says that the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. That word "converting" means to turn back or get again. So how does the law of God bring us back to God? Romans 3:19,20 answer this. It says, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." That word "knowledge" means awareness. The Law brings awareness of sin. And the awareness of sin shed's light on the sinners true state in relation to a holy God- one that is not right. In turn, the sinner will see his great need to repent and discover his great need for a Savior. For the Bible says in 2Cor 7:10, "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death."
Romans 3:19,20 applied
When you examine the 10 Commandments the mouth of the self-righteous begins to shut. Often when you ask someone if they believe they're worthy of going to heaven most boast that they are (Proverbs 20:6 says, "most men proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?") At the end of this Romans 3:20 we see the point of the law- "...and all the world may become guilty before God." A quick look into the mirror of God's law reveals our true spiritual condition. Ever lied? check the box for breaking #9. Ever stolen anything (irrelevant of it's value)? Check box #8. Ever used God's name in vain (even "Oh my God")? Check box #3. So as we can see we are all guilty. And that's only 3 Commandments. And not to mention that Jesus magnified the law on the sermon on the mount and called lust adultery and hate murder. Whew! Who can be innocent!? And when you meditate on God's Word you see that these sins that we may consider to be trivial are definetely not to God, Who's throne has Righteousness and Justice as it's foundation (Psalm 97:2). For the Bible says all liars will have their part in the Lake of Fire. And that no thief will inherit the Kingdom of God.
So, Romans 3:20 says, "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight..." This simply means that no one can keep the law, therefore no one is justified by the law. So if you don't take time to take people through the law they may be walking around with a Proverbs 20:6 attitude of a false security that they are not guilty before God. For "by the law is the knowledge of sin."
But why, you might be wondering, is it so important for people to realize they are guilty before God? Well imagine a criminal who is committing crimes. Now he knows these things are wrong, but doesn't understand the legal ramifications. He falsely expects the judge to take pity on him and extend a pardon because he has a misconception that if the judge is good, he will just be gracious and not charge him with his crimes. We can see how ridiculous this sounds, right? Of course we would expect the judge to punish the criminal according to the demands of the law. We would call the judge "good," precisely because he is just. We would deem him corrupt if he just turned a blind eye to crime. Many think this way of God. They know they are at best "not perfect" (when in reality they are much worse than this, for the Bible speaks of the heart as being deceitfully wicked and that we drink iniquity like water), but grossly underestimates God's legal ramifications. People expect God to be good (as they define it), and so conclude that He will overlook people's sins and just let them in. This is soooo far from the truth! And if people falsely believe that the Judge of the universe is somehow less just than an earthly judge then they are having a false sense of security that they are going to heaven when they are not! Imagine the expectant sinner dies, and to their horrid surprise they find themselves in hell, eternally!? That horrifies me just thinking about it. Precisely because God is good, He must punish sin. So when someone realizes they are a criminal in God's courtroom and that they can do nothing to justify themselves (make them legally right), then this brings them to humility and exactly where they need to be- at the mercy of the Judge.
Paul in Galatians 3:24 says, "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." That word "tutor" means guardian, teacher, or schoolmaster. So here we see how salvation makes sense. From the time of Moses, the law served as a guardian and a teacher to bring us to Jesus. It served to show us we could not get into heaven on our own merits. It showed us that like the tower of Babel, man's efforts to enter heaven on their own are in vain and points us to our great need of a Savior. Once we see that we (and all) are guilty and that there's nothing we could do to justify ourselves then we can see our great need for God's mercy- for a Savior. And so we see that we come to Christ because we need saving from the jump. NOT to make this temporary life great. Yes Jesus does make life great but that's not the initial premise for which we come to Him.
The Repercussions of the False Gospel
So what happens if you tell someone to come to Christ based on the promise that He will enhance their life?? They won't repent. There won't be a need to because sin (transgression of the law) was never emphasized as the real problem. The Bible says, "Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity," (2Tim 2:19) Jesus will turn away those who, though they call themselves Christ's, yet practice lawlessness, and declare to them, "I never knew you," (Matt 7:21). Plus, many who come to Christ on the false premise that He will improve their life will fall away when trials, tribulation, temptation, and persecution arise. They figure, "well I gave this Jesus thing a try and it didn't work..." They never saw their need to flee from the wrath to come because God's holy and just nature was left out.
The True Approach to the Gospel really is GOOD NEWS
Once the realization that a sinner stands guilty before the Judge of the universe and that Justice demands that they deserve hell, the sinner can be given the Cure to their eternally terminal condition- the good Gospel. Now is light of the sinners just demise the Gospel really is good news! That's what gospel means- "good news," but it can't have much value until the sinner understands the bad news. The bad new is that we've broken God's law, but the good news is that Jesus stepped in, paid our fine with His life's blood, balanced the scales of Justice so that we could be pardoned! Now is the time to call this sinner to repent of his evil- to recognize how he really has grossly violated God's holy law, to turn and forsake his sin and place his faith in Jesus. Now the Good news of the Gospel makes perfect sense and one can correctly appropriate it and appreciate it. This stands in stark contrast to telling someone that they should come to Jesus because He wants to make your (temporal) life great. No, mentioning sin by utilizing the tutor- the Law- to bring the knowledge of sin will lead to repentance and trust in the Savior. AMEN?! Now of course there is truth that life becomes more meaningful once we come to Christ and that we now have access to a deep joy and peace that we never knew before, but that's not the premise by which we initially come to Him. He died to save us. We come to Him for saving, and the rest is the benefits of being His redeemed one's.
So, now that we understand (from my prior blog) that it is our job as Christ's body to built His temple by bringing people into the household of God, we can now also see an effective way to do that. When you talk to someone about the gospel take the time to take the listener through the law. Help them see the seriousness of their sin to a holy God. That sin was so serious to God that it cost the life of His Son to bring forgiveness to us. I know this can be difficult because when we mention other's sin there's chance they will not like it. They may reject your message all together, but remember they're not rejecting you, but Jesus. Also stay tuned for a future blog where I will be discussing the fear of man and how we need not do so. After all, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is upon us to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8), so we have Him with us. But if you do this biblical method of using the law you will be doing the listener a great favor, perhaps an eternal one.
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