A Well-Dressed Theology And Other Stories From The South: November 2010

"Evangelism is man's work, but the giving of faith is God's."
-J.I. Packer

Recently I have been doing some thinking about evangelism, or more precisely, what is it and what is it goal? I would like to be able to first define evangelism and then discuss the goals, but as hard as I try I can't separate the two. So instead I will discuss what I used to think evangelism was, why I was wrong, and then explain what I think evangelism is now and why I am right.

My whole life I thought of evangelism as way of talking about Christ so that people would want to accept him as their savior. I knew Christ did these wonderful things while on earth, like die on a cross, but it was my job to make these events come alive to the unbeliever. Which put enormous pressure on me to find the right words to say, and caused me to present the Gospel in different ways to different people. I thought if only I could say the right thing then I could convert the person. So when I got done talking and the person looked at me as if I just told him the dumbest thing ever, I was embarrassed and ashamed. I thought to myself, I must have said the wrong thing. Which in turn lead me to feel as if I had failed. I had been up to bat and struck out.

Which got me thinking about a question every Christian should ask themselves, "Why do I believe, but others don't?" It is a very simple question but it is of infinite importance. Is it because I am smarter? Of course not. There are defiantly smarter nonbelievers than me in the world. Maybe it is because I am dumber or more gullible? Maybe. But I am probably smarter than at least one nonbeliever. Also, I am not a very gullible person in others areas of life, so why would I be gullible in the biggest? The other thing is, there are defiantly smart people who are Christians--like Ivy League smart. So salvation doesn't depend on intelligence. Maybe it depends on location, access, or up bringing. But we know that isn't true because people are Christians all over the world and in all different situations. Salvation must be dependent on one thing and one thing only--God. God must open up the ears and eyes of the believer so that the Gospel looks attractive. Kierkegaard said that the Truth is so confusing and goes against everything logical we have ever heard that the only way we will ever find it appealing is if we recognize how sinful we are and that their is no hope for us in our sin. So we need God to take the scales of our eyes and reveal to us how sinful we are in order to find the Gospel appealing. Which most of the time God's revelation of our own sinfulness is His grace. Until someone realizes their own sinfulness their is no hope for their salvation.

One thing that Americans will always struggle with is the absolutism of the Gospel. The Gospel says that their is one truth and that truth is the only way. When America was founded it was founded on the principle that people are best off when they can decide for themselves what is best. Patriots thought their was no way for a king across an ocean to tell them what was best for them. They thought it was their God-given right to decide for themselves what was best. In other words, it was the people that gave the Government power. Thanks John Locke. And when it comes to secular and trivial things, I couldn't agree more. I love voting and I want a say in certain aspects of my life. The problems come when we start to think that we should have a say in our salvation. So when someone comes up to you and says, this is the the right and only way, we tend to get defensive.

Because we know people will get offended by the Gospel, we tend to beat around the bush so that we don't offend them. However, when we look at the scriptures we see that the Gospel is offensive and people are often turned off by it. Matthew 19:16-22, the story of the Rich Young Man, comes to mind. This young man comes up to Jesus and says he want eternal life and then proclaims that he has kept all the commandments, therefore he is expecting eternal life. Jesus doesn't hesitate with his response though and tells the young man to, "sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." When the young man heard this he left "sorrowful, for he had great possessions". Jesus knew that this man valued his earthly things a great deal, and that his things would always be a stumbling block for him. It isn't that Jesus didn't want this guy to believe, because he desires everyone to believe, but he knew that until his eyes were opened to his own sinfulness he could never truly believe because he would continually place his things above God and above others. This is the perfect example of the Gospel being offensive and going against the grain. This young man went to Jesus expecting Jesus to praise him for his following of the commandments and probably even for his wealth. Instead, Jesus tells him the truth and the truth hurts and is hard to swallow.

Does that mean that because the young man's feelings were hurt that Jesus wasn't acting out of love? Of course not. Telling someone the truth about the gospel is always an act of love. This is the most important decision in someone's life and if they don't hear the truth they will die, not an earthly death, but an eternal one. Yes, in the short run, it might hurt their feelings, but in the long it could save their life. We should always seek God's glory before we seek man's approval. Sometimes these line up, other times they don't.

So our job in evangelism is to simply present the truth, so that the Holy Spirit can take that truth and change the will of the person. We don't change our way of evangelizing, or change the Gospel, so that nonbelievers find the gospel attractive. Rather we evangelize so that God can change the nonbeliever so that he finds the Gospel attractive. The Gospel changes people, the Gospel doesn't change for people.