Putting the Authority Back in the Gospel

I sat across the table from a young man with whom I have been having Bible studies for about two months— I will call him Dave. He was not a believer but clearly interested in the gospel message. I did not need to cajole him to meet with me. We had been working through The Exchange—a four part gospel presentation that starts with the holiness of God, moves on to the justice of God, then the love of God, and finishes with the gospel message of grace. It is an excellent presentation that introduces people to the nature of God and appropriately emphasizes the nature of sin.

I have found as I do these studies with people that they are often ready to trust Christ after the third study, but not the case with Dave. He answered every question. He explained back to me what the holiness of God is and the condemning nature of his sin. He clearly understood what Christ did on the cross.

“Are you ready to place your trust in Christ?” I asked.

“I am not sure yet. I don’t think I am quite ready.” he responded.

I knew that his sister, brother-in-law and other family members had also been sharing Christ with him. I marveled that he could be so close and not yet there.

The next week as I finished the final Bible Study, I diligently prayed as we conversed. I was afraid Dave would delay again. I have always dreaded this. The more people put off the final step of trusting Christ, the more opening there is for Satan to snatch away the seed of the word of God sown in their hearts.

So I prayed as I talked. Then the thought crossed my mind that Dave understood the gospel, but he did not yet fully understand the urgency and desperate nature of his present condition. He saw trusting Christ as—for lack of a better term—optional. He did not yet comprehend that rejecting the gospel message is disobedience to the direct command of God—it adds sin on sin and is THE sin that sends someone to hell. And it’s hell that he is missing too!

We have reacted to abuses of the past.

The canned gospel presentations of the past, especially in certain realms of fundamentalism and evangelicalism, were manipulative presentations designed to get people to pray a gospel affirming prayer—whether they truly understood it or meant it or not. Such presentations led to bitterness, false professions, and in the worst cases, a false sense of security based upon a false profession of faith.

It became a psychological ploy rather than a true work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. It became “prayerism” equating the salvation moment to the uttering of a prayer as if the prayer were some sort of magic spell if the words were spoken in just the right way. Often, it was just annoying, with some people praying just to get this guy out of their face and away from their front door.

In our own ministry, we have moved more toward relational evangelism in recent years. There are reasons for this. Most people who do get saved come to Christ through people they know, not the urging of strangers. However, we should never discount the possibility of people trusting Christ in the first conversation—like the Philippian jailer or the woman at the well did.

Also, we live in an increasing pagan society that is characterized by biblical illiteracy. There was a time when even unsaved people knew the definition of many gospel terms. There was a common sense of what sin is, for example. With many today, we must approach them as if they had never even heard the name of Christ—except as an expletive. True understanding takes a lot more explanation.

However, we may have lost some important elements in the process.

The Bible commands the lost to believe.

I find myself falling into this trap. I asked people to repent of their self-dependence and trust Christ. However, the scriptures don’t ask, they command. These words are imperatives, “come, believe, ask, trust.” I realized during this conversation with Dave that I needed to tell him that this is what God commands him to do.

The reality of hell is part of the gospel message.

Jesus didn’t merely offer eternal life when He called people to salvation. He also was very blunt about the consequences of rejecting that message.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them. John 3:36

It is Jesus who gave us the most graphic description of what the wrath of God looks like in his account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. Unbelievers are commanded to believe the revelation already given or eternal suffering in hell awaits. This is the core message of that story.

I have often avoided talking too specifically about hell when giving the gospel. It’s not that I don’t believe everything the Bible says about it, it’s just that I often fear that it will become a distraction.

“So you are saying that my dear grandma, who died last year is in hell? I won’t believe that!”

When someone shuts down the conversation like this, it tends to make a soulwinner gun shy about the hell conversation in future gospel presentations. And yet, Jesus did not hesitate when he talked about judgment, hell, and eternal fire.

There is no substitute for asking for wisdom and the leading of the Spirit in sharing the gospel.

So, I prayed for wisdom and the leading of the Spirit.

“Dave. In a moment, I am going to ask you to trust Christ as your Savior. Just to be clear, do you understand what that is?”

“Yes I do” he answered.

“I just want to express to you the desperate urgency of this moment. We have talked about the blessing of becoming a child of God, but I also want to show you what the Bible says about the consequences of rejecting His command to believe.”

We turned to Luke 16:19-31 and talked through Jesus’ description of hell. We talked about the concern of the rich man for his brothers.

“Maybe you think you some people who you know are in hell.” I said.

“Just like the rich man in this passage, if they could speak with you right now, they would beg you not to follow them there. You do not have a guarantee of tomorrow. The risk of another day without Christ is no gamble anyone should take.”

We then turned to 2 Corinthians 6:2. I asked him to read it.

“When is the accepted time?” I asked.

“Now.” He replied.

“When is the day of salvation according to the word of God.”

“Now” again he responded.

“Will you obey God’s command to believe. Will you truly believe the word of God regarding your sin and God’s answer for it. Will you place your confidence completely on Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul?”

With a big smile, he said, “yes.”

And there and then, Dave bowed his head and place his faith in Christ. We went over passages of assurance and then embraced one another for the first time as Christian brothers.

when sharing Christ with people, I constantly ask God to help me avoid putting “strange fire” on the altar. I do not want to manipulate people into a false profession of faith.  However, I also want to be as direct as the Bible is regarding the desperate consequences of sin, the reality of eternal punishment, the urgency of the gospel, and God’s command for people to place their dependence on the finished work of Christ for forgiveness of their sin and restoration to God.

This direct approach was exactly what Dave needed.

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The audio version of this post is here: Putting the Authority Back in the Gospel