Telling people that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives is an important part of sharing the gospel but that is only half the truth of the message of the gospel. Sharing this thought with an unbeliever is the easy part, but if that is all we do then we have done them a great disservice. For you see this is only half the truth and sharing half the truth is in reality no truth at all.
The other part of the gospel states that God hates sin and will punish unrepentant sinners with eternal torment. Now that’s the hard part in sharing since no one wants to be told that they are sinners that are in desperate danger as well as being open rebels against God. Any gospel presentation that avoids or fails to define and confront the severity of personal sin is a deficient gospel and often leaves the person we are sharing with the false idea that they must be OK with God since God loves them.
My friends the gospel by definition is an offensive message that often will initially cause many people to take offense with not only the message of sin, but with you for sharing it. But praise God there will be some, whose hearts have already been prepared by prayer, and the moving of the Holy Spirit to be receptive to the full gospel message and want to hear more.
Sharing the gospel is risky business since it can cost us being called hateful, narrow minded, and in some cases cause, even friendships to be severed. But the alternative to not sharing the full gospel message is even more risky because many nonbelievers will live with the false impression that they are basically good people that God must love. As a result, these individuals are headed to an eternal torment in hell and don’t even realize it.
As believers in Christ our job isn’t to save anybody since this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is to simply share the full gospel message with those people God places in our path and to pray that the seeds we plant will find good soil, that hearts will be receptive to our message, and that souls will be saved.
Fellow Christians it is time to take stock in our evangelistic efforts, become risk takers for the kingdom of God, and be prepared for persecution. But also know that by sharing the gospel we are planting seeds and gaining approval from God.
If I can leave you with one encouraging thought from the Scriptures it would be this: “Blessed, are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12).
Thank you for this. Also, I would love to read about a simple way to share the gospel.🙏🥰
Romans Road covers the material discussed in this article. Starting however, with John 3:16 & 18 (words of Christ) set the stage:
Romans 3:10
Romans 3:23
Romans 5:6-9
Romans 6:23
Romans 8:6-8
Romans 10:9-13
Culminating with 1 John 5:12-13 summarizes the whole.
Another common witnessing passage is 1 Corinthians 15:1-4ff which is fine, but leaves more question that are better answered with the Romans Road. Essentially, the key to giving the Gospel is to start with why we need it, our inability to achieve it, how Christ overcame it, and that we need to believe it!
Jesus Christ is Lord!
Well said!