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Paul Christensen

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There seems to be disagreement between some groups of believers in how the gospel should be shared.

One group says that we need to show that God is a God of love, give them Bill Bight's Steps to Peace With God, and everything will be all right after saying just a little "sinners" prayer. The problem with this approach that out of all the decisions made, only 5% or less actually go on to become long-term church members. Bill Bright himself acknowledged that he had made an error in his Four Steps method of leading souls to Christ.

The other group say that we have to apply the law in the form of the Ten Commandments to humble the person and challenge their view of personal goodness, and once they are humbled before a holy God, then the good news of the gospel can be shared with them. This is putting the justice of God before the love of God for the unsaved person.

But how did Jesus deal with a similar situation?

Let's look at Luke 18:18-23 and unpack it:

18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
So, here comes the young man, falls down at Jesus' feet and asks him the question. For many Christian workers this would be a wonderful opportunity to lead the young man to Christ, and they usually apply the Four Steps, and lead the young man in a short sinner's prayer, and then tell him he is saved. But let's look at Jesus' response:

19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
Jesus immediately challenges his view of goodness by telling him that God is the only Person who is good. Most people believe that there is some good in them, and this needs to be challenged before any progress can be made to point them to the gospel.

20 You know the commandments:

Jesus immediately points him to the Ten Commandments. This is the way that He is challenging the young man's idea that he has some goodness in him. This is contrary to those who believe that God's love has to be presented to an unsaved person instead of the Ten Commandments.

‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’”

Jesus lists just five of the Commandments. It doesn't take listing all the Commandments to show an unsaved person that they are not as good as they think they are. Even just one is enough.

21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”

The young man is under the impression that he has kept all these Commandments, but as a Jew under the law, he was required just to keep the rules in his actual conduct, but not from his heart. If Jesus wanted to test him on his observance, He could have asked the following questions, "Have you ever looked on a woman with lust? Have you ever hated anyone without cause? Have you ever taken something that doesn't belong to you irrespective of the value? Have you ever told any lies, including little white lies? Have you ever disobeyed your parents?" The young man would have to honestly answer "Yes" to all five questions because every person has broken these Commandments at some time in their life,

22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor,

Jesus then bores into the area which He knows which Commandment the young man has definitely broken, and that was coveting, in that he had gathered much personal wealth.

So, Jesus could have quite correctly said, if the young man had admitted breaking the other five Commandments in his heart, that he is a lying, murdering, parent dishonouring, thieving adulterer at heart. That would have shown that he was nowhere near as good as he thought he was, and would have had to humble himself before God.

When Jesus challenged him over the very thing that showed the true treasure of his heart, he could not let those things go. This is true of many unsaved people who turn away from the gospel of Christ. They don't want to give up their favourite and most pleasant sins. This is why when the unsaved person is willing to acknowledge that he or she is not good, the fact of death and judgment to follow needs to be stressed; that if there is a judgment after death, how would that person be found - guilty or not guilty, and if guilty, how would they feel about that. This can have powerful results as the power of God through the gospel works in their conscience. This is vital for the person to be made fully aware of their state before God and what will happen to them in the judgment if they remain as they are.

and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Notice that Jesus then says, what will happen if he is prepared to forsake his coveting; and for any unsaved people we talk to, that they will repent and forsake their sinful lifestyle. Jesus then says "follow Me". This is where we explain to the unsaved person that Jesus came and died on the cross to take upon Himself the penalty for their sinful lifestyle and enable them to receive a complete pardon on the day of judgment.

23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

This shows that Jesus did not press the young man into making a decision to follow Him. He gave the invitation, and sadly, the young man decided not to take it up.

Many witnessing training programs give the Four Steps to Peace With God, and then go to "closure" which involves the person making a decision for Christ. This involves asking the question, "Will you accept Jesus as your Saviour now?" And they would give the impression that they could die any moment and they need to make the decision as soon as possible. Often an unsaved person may be pressured into a decision before they are ready, and such a decision will not last.

If a person acknowledges that the presentation of the gospel is making sense to them, the person witnessing may ask, "Are you going to think seriously about what we have talked about?" If the person says, "Yes", then the worker may ask, "When will you do that?" The person may reply, "Today". Then the worker can ask if he would like to pray with the person, and usually if they have got to that stage, there would be agreement. But this is not leading the person to Christ, it is praying with him that God will show him the truth and help him to decide for Christ.

If the person doesn't appear to want to think about it "today", then the worker will say, "I appreciate the time you have taken to talk with me", shake his hand and let him go on his way.

Many Christian workers would feel that they have failed if they have not achieved decisions for Christ as the result of their sharing of the gospel, but the Scripture does not say that we should "proselytise", in that to try to get recruits for Christianity. The instruction is to proclaim and tell people the gospel. The choice has to be up to the hearer and to let God's power through the gospel do its work. Telling people the gospel is sowing the seed, and while one person sows the seed, another may reap later on. Therefore it is important that we don't undo all our hard work by pressuring the hearer into making a snap decision before he or she is really, because that person will be "ruined" for the next Christian worker or associate to come along and perhaps reap the initial sowing that we have done.

In this case, although the young man was sad that he could not give up his great wealth, and Jesus was sad about that too, He had to let him go. Perhaps someone down the line was able to reap what Jesus sowed; we don't really know.

This is what I believe how we need to tell the gospel to others Biblically, and doing it this way better insures eventual success long-term.
 

Paul Christensen

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What did Jesus Himself Say He Did, ALL THE TIME?

(and Jesus Instructed/ Taught His permanent disciples likewise)
He never made it easy for people to believe in Him. He taught right from the Ten Commandments, and He said it is more than just following the rules in their outward conduct, but their righteousness had to be greater than that of the Pharisees who were so strict they followed the law blameless in their outward conduct. Paul said that about himself as an unconverted Pharisee, and the rich young ruler said the same.

But when Jesus said that they needed to follow the law from their hearts in order to be His disciples, many found that too difficult and departed from Him.

He saw through the people in the crowds who were following Him just for the free lunches and the available healing on request. When He got down to the nitty gritty of being identified with His death (eating his body and drinking His blood, symbolic of identification with His death), many walked away because they didn't want to go that far because it didn't suit what they wanted.