by Fr. Robert Barron

The most basic content of evangelization is the breathtaking assertion that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. From this assertion flows another equally astounding bit of good news: Jesus is who he said he was.

Though it is all the vogue in academic circles today to say that Jesus was put to death because he befriended the marginalized or upset the social conventions of his time, the fact is that he was executed because he consistently spoke and acted in the very person of God. The most basic charge against Jesus was not political insurrection but blasphemy. What impressed the first Christians to a life-changing degree was how the resurrection validated the extraordinary claims of Jesus concerning himself.

But what precisely were these claims? Before healing the paralyzed man, Jesus said matter-of-factly, "my son, your sins are forgiven." Shocked, the Pharisees responded, "how could this man say such a thing? Only God can forgive sins." They were right, of course, which is the whole point.

If you had hurt me, I could with some legitimacy offer you my personal forgiveness; but if someone else had harmed you, I could scarcely offer that person my forgiveness for his sin against you. The only way that such a statement could be anything but blasphemous would be if I were the one who is offended in every sin, only if I were God. And this is just what the Pharisees correctly intuited.

In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus makes the jaw-dropping announcement: "unless you love me more than your mother and your father, more than your very life, you are not worthy of me." At the limit, we could imagine a religious leader or founder saying something like, "you must love God more than your very life," or perhaps, "you should reverence my ideas more than you do your father or mother." But Jesus said that he himself must be loved above even the greatest values in this world, implying thereby that his person is itself the highest Good. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus ecstatically declared, "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away." Who could coherently utter such a statement except the one who is himself the very incarnation of the eternal Word of God?

Having considered these statements of Jesus, there is, of course, a legitimate option that remains, namely, that he was mad, that he was a dangerous blasphemer. Let's face it: lunatic asylums are filled with people who think they are God. And this is precisely what Jesus' enemies concluded and why they hounded him to his death. What Jesus' claims about himself rule out—as C.S. Lewis so clearly saw—is the bland middle position that, though he isn't divine, he is a kindly and wise ethical teacher, one inspiring religious figure among many. If he isn't who he says he is, he isn't admirable at all, and this is why Jesus, more than any other of the religious founders, compels a choice.

The Buddha claimed to have found a spiritually liberating path; but Jesus said, "I am the way;" Mohammed could say that, through him, the final divine truth had been communicated to the world, but Jesus said, "I am the truth;" Confucius could maintain that he had discovered a new and uplifting form of life, but Jesus said, "I am the life." Neither the Buddha, nor Mohammed, nor Confucius, nor Moses ever claimed to be God—and this is to their infinite credit. But Jesus did, and therefore, we have to decide: are we with him or against him?

The classical apologetic tradition put it this way: "aut Deus, aut malus homo" (either he is God or he is a bad man). The first Christians saw that God the Father had made the choice clear in raising Jesus from the dead, and it was this divine ratification that they presented as good news to the world.

St. Paul summed up the Gospel in the deceptively simple declaration "Jesus is Lord." We have become so accustomed to this turn of phrase that we might miss its radicality. "Lord" (Elohim) is the title used throughout the Old Testament to refer to God, the one whose proper name cannot be spoken. Utterly basic to the ancient Jewish consciousness is that nothing here below—no country, no leader, no king, no culture—is God and that idolatry in all its forms must, consequently, be avoided.

Paul, trained at the feet of one of the leading rabbis of his time, was steeped in that tradition. That he could blithely identify the man Jesus from Nazareth as "Lord" reveals, therefore, all of the poetry and challenge of the Christian faith.

Do you believe that Jesus is God? If you don't, you're not a Christian. If you do, you must make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, and you must declare him in season and out. You must, in a word, evangelize.

About The Author:

by Greg Laurie

So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
- Acts 26:30–31

When Philip shared the gospel with the Ethiopian dignitary, he demonstrated something that is often lacking in evangelism, and that is tact. Many Christians just fire away with everything they have. They don't engage the people they speak with. They don't establish a dialogue. They don't build a bridge. They just present all their arguments and all of their statements, and they feel so impressed with themselves. Meanwhile, people are looking forward to their shutting up and going away.

Later, the Christian thinks, Boy, I really blew them out of the water when they said this and that. Wasn't that great? No, it wasn't great. In reality, it was quite stupid, because our job is not to win the argument; it's to win the soul.

If we want to effectively share the gospel with people, then we need to engage them. What did the master evangelist Jesus do as He talked with the woman at the well in Samaria? He engaged her in conversation. It was give-and-take. He spoke . . . He listened. She shared her heart with Him . . . He revealed truth to her.

When we share the gospel with people, it is a dialogue - not a monologue. It is not just talking; it is also listening. It is offering the appropriate passages from Scripture and statements from a heart filled with love so that person can come to believe in Jesus Christ.

No one ever will be argued into the kingdom of God. They are going to believe because the Holy Spirit convicted them of their sin. Our job is to simply bring them the essential gospel message.

When the apostle Paul addressed the Greeks on Mars Hill, he took stock of the situation and presented his message accordingly. He used tact - and so should we.

by John Piper

First of all, why am I asking this question? Three reasons:

1. Because in our delicate and dangerous setting of global religious pluralism, how we speak about our aims can get us kicked out of a country or worse.

2. Because we want to follow Paul's pattern of honesty: "But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God" (2 Corinthians 4:2).

3. Because we need biblical clarity about our role in converting others to Christ, lest we shrink back from the aim of conversion for mistaken reasons.

Let's begin with a definition.

Christian conversion is the act or process of being changed (without coercion but through our own volition) into a person who believes and treasures Jesus Christ, his saving work, and his promises above everything else, including all that we were believing or treasuring before conversion.

Given that definition, my answer to the question is Yes, all Christians should aim to convert people to faith in Jesus Christ. This is one of our aims in all we say and do. We hope and pray that everything we say and do will have this effect. In other words, our aim is not to say things and do things that are ineffectual. We desire—we hope, we yearn, we pray—that what we say and do will have this effect: that people will treasure Christ above all. Not to want this is either unbelief or lovelessness.

But to say that Christian conversion is our aim does not yet define what our role is in bringing conversion about. That's what needs clarifying from the Bible.

And here I only want to bring one clarification: The fact that God is the ultimate and decisive cause in conversion does not mean we are not causal agents in conversion. We are. And as God's agents in conversion we aim at it—we choose what we do and say in the hope that it will be used by God to bring about conversion.

The fact that Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father" (John 6:65), does not mean we are not instruments in bringing people to Christ. "The Spirit and the Bride [the church] say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come'" (Revelation 22:17).

The Bible does not infer from God's causing people to come that we should not say, "Come." Our aim and effort is that they come. And God is decisive in whether they come. To say that we are not aiming that they come contradicts the command of Jesus (Luke 14:23), contradicts the human instrumentality of the gospel (Romans 10:13–15), and contradicts love.

Consider five other ways that the Bible talks about our role in the conversion of others.

1. Christian conversion involves spiritually blind people being able to see the glory of Christ. Though God opens the eyes of the spiritually blind (2 Corinthians 4:6), Jesus sends Paul to open their eyes.

I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins. (Acts 26:17-18)

For Paul to say that his aim is not to open their eyes would be disobedience to the mission Jesus gave him.

2. Christian conversion involves winning people from treasuring anything above Christ to full devotion to Christ. Though God is decisive in changing people's affections (Jeremiah 24:7), Paul says his aim is to win people.

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. (1 Corinthians 9:22)

For Paul to say that his aim is not to win people to Christ would contradict his mission.

3. Christian conversion involves bringing people back from the path of sin and destruction. Though God is the one who decisively brings us back to himself (Jeremiah 31:18; Isaiah 57:18), the Bible speaks of us bringing people back from sin and death.

Whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:20)

To say that we do not aim to bring people back from sin and death would put us out of step with this text and imply we don't care about the death of unbelievers.

4. Christian conversion involves turning the heart toward the true God away from wrong ideas about God and wrong affections for what is not God. Though God is decisive in turning the human heart to himself (2 Thessalonians 3:5), John the Baptist was commissioned to turn the hearts of Israel to God.

He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." (Luke 1:16–17)

For John the Baptist to say that he does not aim to turn the hearts of the people to God would make him disobedient to his calling.

5. Christian conversion involves being born again. Though the Spirit of God is the sovereign cause of the new birth, blowing where he wills (John 3:8), nevertheless, Peter explains that this happens through the preaching of the gospel by human beings.

You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. . . . And this word is the good news that was preached to you." (1 Peter 1:23–25)

For the preacher of the gospel to say that he is not aiming at the new birth in his preaching would put him out of step with the Spirit and contradict the design of God in how people are born again.

Therefore, I conclude that it is unbiblical to say that we are not aiming at conversion because God is the decisive, ultimate cause of conversion. He is. But we are his agents, and he calls us to join him in this goal. Not to aim at it is to put ourselves out of step with his command and his Spirit.

by Eric C. Redmond

Sharing one's faith often is the mature believer's Achilles' heel. As we grow in grace in all other areas of the faith, we tend to lag behind in preaching the Gospel to unbelievers in our workplaces and neighborhoods. Excuses for our lack of obedience in this area abound.

While we see the immediate benefits that sharing our faith has toward unbelievers, we do not see the immediate benefits that sharing our faith has toward ourselves. Yet the benefits toward our own walks with the Lord should move us to share. Here are four benefits:

Sharing Expands Your Study of the Bible and Theology

As you share your faith with unbelievers, especially those less familiar with Christian culture and jargon, they are likely to raise questions about the Christian faith. In particular, they are likely to raise questions related to evil in the world or current events. But we do not always have the answers. So then we have to go back to the Scriptures, pull out commentaries, apologetics books, and systematic theologies so that we can be better equipped for answers to future questions. "Why is it that you must believe in theism in order to be morally good when many atheists seem to be upright citizens?" "Is Cain's wife a problem for the trustworthiness of Scripture?" You will need to study in order to answer these questions and give reason for your hope (1 Pet. 3:15). In the process of study, your own knowledge of Scripture and theology will deepen.

Sharing Encourages You to deepen in Prayer

Regularly sharing your faith quickly will lead you to people who are hostile or simply will not listen to reason. Unfortunately, when we run into such people, we might be tempted to "win" an argument rather than explain the Gospel. This is prideful response - a one that focuses on oneself and the desire to be victorious rather than defeated. In effect, we act as if the Lord would be glorified only by our power to convince another. We fall into this self-centered response due to a lack of dependency on the Spirit (cf. Mk. 14:38). In contrast, the Spirit's power comes through prayer (Acts 4:31).

Sharing Fosters Humility When We Realize our Weakness to Rescue a Soul

Being full of the Spirit through prayer does not guarantee the conversion of the one with whom we are sharing. Even our clearest presentations of the Gospel with the most loving approaches toward the unbeliever cannot make someone respond to the truth about Christ. A heart that is blind to God's glory, corrupt in its thinking about God, hateful toward its creator, and completely unregenerate is not overcome by the craftiness or perfection of our speaking. Only the power of Christ opens lost eyes to salvation in Christ; it is a work of divine grace and mercy, not of human skill.

For someone burdened for the souls of the lost, this can be frustrating. However, it should be humbling, for our lack of ability to convert a soul shows that we are yet helpless. Being helpless, we are unable to view ourselves as significant, important, or powerful. Instead, we are insignificant, unimportant, and weak. With this view of ourselves, we are prepared to receive great grace, "for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (Ja. 4:6).

Moreover, Christ told his disciples that they would reap [souls] for "harvest" (salvation) where others had sown [the Gospel] (Jn. 4:38). When we witness someone's eyes open to Christ as a result of our sharing the Gospel, even then it is because of work on the part of God through others. We, weak as we are to save a soul, only have been vessels of the Gospel.

Sharing Sensitivity to Lostness of World - to the Experiences of Others

Sharing my faith is a great vaccine against ministering to others in a manner that is overly influenced by my level of social mobility, healthy family background, or measure of grace given to my marriage. While sharing my faith, I run into people who have given up on "church" and "religion" because "life" has dealt them a bad hand - a hand with which I often have no personal experience. As the people on the other end of my sharing of the Gospel relate to me stories of childhood molestation, abandonment by a parent or spouse, their family's fall into poverty at the death of the breadwinner, or of growing up fatherless, I am moved to pity for them. However, if I stay in my isolated and protected world of a strong Christian church, and a faithful and loving family, I will miss hearing of the ravages of sin in the lives of others. By sharing the Gospel I stay sensitive to the various forms and consequences of sin in the lives of people.

Sharing Makes You Faithful to the Great Commission - to Giving Gospel to the lost

The most obvious benefit to ourselves is that we are obedient to the Great Commission (Mt. 28:19-20), and thus to the Lord. This comes with the added benefit of the promised presence of God himself: "I will be with you always, even until the end of the age."

Share your faith with others. You will bless them with the offer of the Lord's love, grace, mercy, joy, and peace through the preaching of the Gospel. In doing so, the sharing will bless you too.

About The Author:

Eric C. Redmond is Executive Pastoral Assistant and Bible Professor in Residence at New Canaan Baptist Church in Washington, DC.