People
ask me all the time what I think about evangelism. Should we tell people they
are going to hell and to turn from their sins or should would just preach the
Love of Christ? The truth is that people are asking the wrong question.
This
question comes from a wrong view of God and a wrong view of repentance. Telling
someone to turn from their sin IS the Love of God, and preaching the Love of Christ
IS repentance. It is two sides of the same coin.
The
problem is that we do not understand the reason for the commandments of God. We
do not believe that He is good and what He tells us to do is for our own
benefit. To tell someone to turn from their sin is one of the most loving
things you could ever do for a person. We also have a wrong view of correction.
Gentle, loving correction is actually a good thing and one of the best
indications that we are loved by God (Heb. 12).
God
gave us commandments to follow so that we could be in relationship with Him. He
also gave provision for the times when we fail. Furthermore, He also gave us a
way to walk out His commandments called the grace of God and fellowshipping
with the Holy Spirit. He set up the entire plan that would make it impossible for
us to fail if we do what He says.
When
people ask this question, they must first have this basic understanding before going
further. Next, they need to realize the question they really want answered is a
pragmatic one—how do I present the Gospel? For this question, there are several
responses.
Number
one, we must have God’s heart for people in order to properly convey His Word
in a way that will draw them to Him. Even if you give a difficult word of
correction and turning to someone, if you have God’s heart for them and have
truly experienced the need for forgiveness in your own life, then you can
deliver the difficult word in a way that the person feels loved, edified, and
empowered to draw close to Jesus.
Secondly,
we must tell people to turn from their sin. This is an absolute necessity for
preaching the Gospel. In our humanistic culture, people do not realize their
need for a savior. They believe that man is inherently good and that they will
get to heaven for doing good things. This is a lie from the pit of hell, and we
cannot passively allow it to permeate our lives and surroundings.
However,
we also must be careful in how we speak to people. I was stopped by a young man
in the grocery store last night who found out I was in ministry and asked me
what I thought about the haunted houses happening downtown this month. I said, “Well,
I believe that the people attending are longing to be fascinated with something,
and they are being fascinated with fear. I believe there are much better things
to be fascinated with.”
My
answer stunned him. He said that when he asks believers that question, he hears
something about them all going to hell, and he does not understand what the
problem is with people going to a haunted house. I told him that people have
longings in their heart that can only be filled by God, but they try to fill
them with everything else. I said that the longing must be filled with God
first, then the rest of your life will line up; however, if you try to fix the
lifestyle before the longing, it will never work.
The
young man was astonished and by the end of the conversation, he was asking me
how to join our bible school—and I do not even think he was saved yet.
If
we remember how God rescued us and forgave us, we can come to people with
humility and love that will turn their hearts to God regardless of the words we
have. We can have all the correct doctrine and theology in the world, but if we
do not have the lifestyle God desires, then our words will fall to the ground
empty. We also must not water down the truth of the gospel, trying to be
culturally relevant. If we have His heart for His people, we will be able to
speak what they need to hear, and there will be power to back it up. We can
tell people to turn from their sin and they will feel so loved that they will
run to Jesus.
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