A Message About Christ and Salvation (Evangelism Series 4 of 6)

Message of Christ’s Saving Life

We begin looking now at what we’re calling the Gospel Events, beginning with Jesus’ birth. This is the theological doctrine of the incarnation.

His Birth

When describing Jesus’ birth, people often say, “God became a man.” There's a sense in which that's true. But you need to understand that in the incarnation, the Triune God didn't become a man. Instead it was the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God who took on humanity, meaning a human soul and body. The eternal Son of God humbled himself and assumed the fullness of humanity but without sin.

His Life

One of the reasons the eternal Son of God took on the fullness of humanity is so that he might live a sinless life in our place. At Jesus’ baptism, when John the Baptist was hesitant to baptize Jesus, Jesus said to him, “Let it be so now to fulfill all righteousness.”

John the Baptist is looking at him in astonishment and saying, ”Me, baptize you?” It’s important to realize that Jesus came to do what Adam, and we who are in the lineage of Adam because of the imputation of Adam's sin, failed to do. Jesus came to live a sinless life in our place.

Notice what Paul writes in Romans 5: “Through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made (or declared) righteous.” The concept here that is often missing in the contemporary gospel is that Jesus saves you just as much by his sacrificial life as by his sacrificial death.

Jonathan Edwards put it this way: “Every act of Christ's obedience was propitious.” To propitiate is to satiate something. In his death Jesus satiated the wrath of God we deserved. And God did this to manifest the fullness of His holy justness.

To understand the gospel means to understand not only the good news of Christ's death for you, but also understand the good news of his life for you. He saved you just as much by his life as by his death.

Hear this good news: in every way that we have faced the reality of God's moral commands, been tempted to sin and failed, he has come to that same place, was tempted and suffered horribly resisting that same temptation, but he won, in other words he was severely tempted but without sin, Hebrews 2 and 4 tells us.

And therefore, through a process of many years of suffering against sin, he earned a perfect record resisting temptation and obeying God in our place.

This is why, in a strict sense, God cannot ever love unconditionally or he would be unjust. Let me try to clarify. The Christian understanding of God is not that God can do anything. There are several things the Bible teaches that God cannot do. God cannot lie. God cannot be tempted. God cannot change. And it’s also not possible for God to love unconditionally or He would no longer be just.

As a seminary professor, I would often tell the students that if I preach in their future churches they should know ahead of time what my sermon title will be. It will be

“God's Conditional Love” with a subtitle “How we can only be saved by good works.”

Throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, God has always and only saved people by good works. That’s because God can only save people by good works.

But the good news is that it's not your good works. We can only be saved by the good works of Jesus Christ.

In other words, God cannot grant, what we call today, amnesty. And a lot of people misunderstand that the good news of the gospel is that God somehow winks at sin, or like a political leader, just grants amnesty.

Never forget, there are certain things God can't do. He can't change. He can't lie. He can't be God and not be God. He can't be tempted. And he can't grant amnesty. You know what unconditional love normally communicates to people? Amnesty.

And people wrongly say things like, “You know what grace is?” We've been legalistic and moralistic, and now we're discovering grace. Basically, “Do you not know the depth of God's amnesty for you?”

Why do you think this kind of statement makes me angry?

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Message of Christ’s Saving Death

One of my theological mentors, and my primary advisor for my doctoral dissertation was a Systematic Theologian named Roger Nicole. I’ll never forget him saying to me and many others, “Dear brother, hold dear the biblical concept of Jesus Christ’s substitutionary atonement because it is at the very heart of the nature of the Gospel.”

So far, we’ve looked at Jesus’ active obedience for us. Now we're looking at what's traditionally, historically, and theologically called his passive obedience for us, his laying down his life under God’s just wrath in our place.

Isaiah writes, “He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds, we are healed.”

When John Stott was asked, “What is the most succinct summary of the Gospel? He said it's the good news of “God's self-satisfaction, through God’s self-substitution.”

The dilemma, the profoundest of problems, was solved. You know how it was solved? God satisfied his own justice by substituting himself. That is the mystery of the gospel.

And Stott says that is the heart of the gospel.

In the gospel we not only see the volitional intent of the eternal Son willingly taking on humanity and laying down his life to take on himself the just punishment we deserve.

We also see the volitional intent of the father. Hear the good news: In Romans 8:32 we read “He (the Father) who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Understand Paul’s reasoning here. He’s asking the question, “How will the God who satisfied himself by substituting his one and only Son, for whom he had the deepest, incomprehensible, eternal love, and on whom he poured out the fullness of his wrath, how would he do that for you and somehow not give you something else you greatly need, like enough money, or somehow leave you hanging, or somehow not be coming through for you?”

Do you see the power of that? That good news has power and will change your whole life. That's the transforming power of the gospel.

Notice the Father did not spare him, but even more than that, he actively, intentionally gave him up for us. This is the good news of the Father in the gospel. Jesus didn't just give himself up. The Father didn't just allow him to die for us. The Father intentionally gave him up so that the curse that fell on him would then be literally and actually impossible to ever fall on you. That’s astonishing grace. That’s radical love.

This is why, for you to think that when you're in Christ, that you're also under God’s curse, is an affront to the very work of Christ for you.

It's in this context where we need to understand the absolute fury of God's just wrath. In the garden, Jesus knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.”

Throughout the Old Testament, the cup was the imagery of the fullness of the wrath of God. And to drink from this cup was an existential picture of willingly, intentionally taking this hot coal to your chest.

To drink the cup to the dregs would be to have the fullness and the fury of the wrath poured out on you. Notice that even the thought of it, just the thought of it, caused Jesus’ dramatic reaction in the garden that included him sweating drops of blood.

Try to imagine the actual reality. You can't. It's beyond comprehension.

This is why I have serious problems with Mel Gibson's movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” The movie was trying to show us the depth of God's love by how much Jesus was willing to suffer under the wrath of the Roman government of his day, not under the infinitely far greater wrath of the Father.

People were weeping in the theaters as they saw the character of Jesus whipped and as nails go through his hands and feet, and as he's spit on and tortured. The message of the movie is “Behold, this is the love of God for you in Jesus!”

Do you realize that what you see in the most grotesque of all the movie scenes of Jesus suffering under the wrath of the Romans means almost nothing in comparison to the wrath of God? This is only the wrath of man on Jesus. It’s what took place in the darkness, following the wrath of man, that should make us weep.

After incurring the wrath of man, Jesus experienced the unparalleled fury that makes physical torture look like absolutely nothing. He experienced the outpouring of a level of unparalleled fury we cannot comprehend. This is what should make people weep.

And the Father did this intentionally, on purpose. The Father didn't just let sinful people do this to Jesus. The Father offered him up and poured out the fullness of his wrath on Jesus that you and I deserve so it would actually be impossible for him to ever pour out his fury on you.

Never forget that God cannot change. God cannot lie. God cannot be tempted. God cannot be God and not be God at the same time. And the good news is that God cannot punish you if you are in Christ. He cannot. He does not have the ability to punish you because he has already poured out the fullness of all the wrath you deserve on Jesus in your place. If he punished you now, that would be double jeopardy.

When the depth of that amazing grace begins to sink in, the response will be “Why would I ever disobey the one who loves me this much? I want to give him everything I am and do, not out of fear of punishment, promise of reward, or due diligence, I want to love him and love others out of the love he has showered on me in Christ.”

Then you've got the gospel.

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Message of Christ’s Saving Resurrection

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is evidence that the wrath of God has been satisfied (propitiated), the bondage of Satan and death has been broken. The resurrection is the Father's amen that the work of the Son is fully acceptable to him. And so, the good news is that he is risen. It's time to celebrate, Satan and death have been conquered. Jesus has been raised from the dead.

And that's all true, but like so many things we've seen in this course, the gospel is actually more than that. The resurrection has a much more full meaning than simply, the Father's amen or the validation of the work of the Son.

The resurrection of Jesus is also meant to shape your understanding of God’s kingdom in history as the introduction of the new age to come. This was not just an event regarding our personal salvation. It was that, but it’s even more. It was also a redemptive historical event in light of the gospel of the kingdom.

In Romans 8, the Apostle Paul teaches that when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead he was “the first born from the dead.” Understanding what Paul means is critically important in understanding the good news of the resurrection.

Why is it good news that Jesus is the first born of many to soon follow?

The Scriptures teach that when Jesus returns all things are going to be made new, including our bodies and souls. When those who are in Christ die today, their souls go to heaven and their bodies remain on earth.

But there is coming a day when Jesus will return and bring heaven back down to earth like it was at creation. He will then unite our souls with our bodies and he will give us new bodies on a new earth. As we rule on this new earth, we will not just worship but we will work without toil and with great joy for all eternity.

The good news is that the resurrected embodied and now ascended Christ is the first born of many of us to follow. He is what theologians call the “theanthropos,” the God-man, the foretaste of what is to come when Jesus returns to make all things new.

The good news is that in Jesus’ resurrection, the kingdom has finally come to earth in a way it never has before. The God-man has become the first born of what is to come. So the good news of the resurrection is not simply that death has been conquered. The good news of the resurrection is also that the new age has dawned and the first born of many is now reigning at the right hand of God. And the kingdom has already come, even though it has not yet come in all of its fullness.

Jesus said things like, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.” And “The kingdom of God is coming.” Understand that in his resurrection Jesus has given evidence of the new age, the new day has dawned.

We must be careful not to leave Jesus’ ascension out of the gospel. You hear a lot of gospel presentations today, that don’t say a thing about Jesus’ sinless life, the resurrection or ascension. The only focus is on his death. The message is, “Jesus died for you. He will change you. You need to ask him to come into your life.” It's a resurrection-less message. 

The promise of the Messiah throughout the ages was that one greater than King David was going to come and sit on the throne and rule over all things. That was the hope of the Jews, that the promised Messiah would come and he would rule from his throne over all the earth on behalf of his people. The Jews had a very limited understanding of the coming promised Messiah. His reign was not to be political but spiritual.

The good news in the early chapters of Acts is that when Jesus ascended to the right hand of God, that was the promised enthronement of the long awaited Messiah, the Son of David.  And what was the evidence that King Jesus, the Messiah, was now seated in authority over all things for carrying out God’s purposes for the world?

It was the pouring out of the Spirit of God at Pentecost. The good news is not that one day in the future he's going to come back and rule and reign. No, one day in the future the veil is going to be torn back and his present rule and reign will be manifested in all of its majesty. Jesus, the Christ, is now ruling and reigning over all things for the sake of his church.

In understanding the gospel, you must first enter into the fullness of Jesus’ humiliation all the way down to his temptations and the cross. And then, you can enter fully into his exaltation through his resurrection and ascension.

But don't stop at the cross. And don't even stop at the resurrection. Go all the way to the ascension of Jesus as Lord and King. Only then can you appreciate why Paul, in Romans 10, summarized the good news that was brought to the world by those who had beautiful feet, as “Our God reigns,” a quotation from Isaiah.

That's how the Apostle Paul understood the essence of the gospel: Our God reigns!

Most evangelicals today wouldn’t say that. They’d probably say the essence of the gospel is “God will forgive you!” which is only one of the benefits of our God reigning in Christ over all his and our enemies.

The good news is that the eternal son of God took on humanity, lived a sinless life, died a sinner’s death in my place, and he was raised from the dead showing victory over death, victory over the devil.  And in his resurrection, he inaugurated a new kingdom on earth for the first time. He was the first born among all of us. Then he was lifted up and he ascended to the right hand of God, ruling and reigning over all of his enemies and ours for the sake of the church.

The early Christians used to greet each other, “Jesus is Lord.” What it meant is, Jesus is King. He has come. He has done battle with our enemies. He had defeated them. He has conquered them. Now he rules over them. “Our God reigns!”

A Message About God and Sin (Evangelism Series 3 of 6)

Message About the Kingdom

The Bible presents the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, to us from two perspectives. Both perspectives are found in Scripture so both must be affirmed. One perspective looks at the good new about Jesus Christ from the perspective of God’s redemption in history. This is the good news that the Father’s creation, ruined by the Fall, is being redeemed by Christ and restored by the Holy Spirit into the kingdom of God.

The Bible also presents the gospel to us from the perspective of personal salvation with an emphasis on what happens to individuals within the bigger historical cosmic salvation in history. This perspective presents the gospel in terms of key categories like a message about God, sin, Christ, and faith, and emphasizes key biblical concepts like personal justification and adoption. 

These two perspectives need to be integrated in our thinking as they are in the Bible. This involves seeing God as the creator of all things, but especially humanity as the apex of his creation. It also means seeing the historic fall of humanity as linked to the biblical doctrine of sin that separates humanity from God. And God’s historic work in redeeming all things lost in the Fall through the person and work of Christ, should be linked with God’s individual saving work of believers through his sinless life, sinners’ death, resurrection, and ascension for them.

Notice in Mark 1:15 Jesus proclamation of the gospel saying, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” When you find Jesus using the term ‘gospel’ or ‘good news,’ it is almost always used in the same breath as the concept of the kingdom.

The apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1, “For God was pleased through Christ to reconcile to himself,” not just fallen people, but notice, “to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

This concept of a theology of the kingdom or a gospel of the kingdom includes the good news that our God reigns through Jesus Christ.  And he is now making all things new, and he’s calling everyone everywhere to repent and to be swept up in this cosmic renewal that includes the renewal of human hearts and the fulfillment of the promise of the new covenant of the prophets, that he will forgive our sins and take our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh and put his Spirit within us.

The two-fold impact of the fall was guilt and corruption. And the consummate fulfillment of the good news is ‘our God reigns.’ The new covenant in all of its riches is now here. You can be forgiven and you can have a new heart and a new spirit put within you as a part of God's cosmic renewal of all things.

These are the categories we're going to be looking at in this course. Tim Keller summarizes these categories this way: “God has entered the world in Jesus Christ to achieve a salvation that we could not achieve for ourselves which now converts and transforms individual, forming them into a new humanity, the church, and eventually will renew the whole world and all creation.” Notice the personal salvation perspective of the gospel. And notice the cosmic sense of the good news.

When you ask a lot of people “What is the gospel?” they will often respond to you with a 1 Corinthians 15:3 and 4 kind of answer. My encouragement to you is to see that kind of answer as true but incomplete. This means the gospel is more than simply the gospel events. It's more than simply Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return.

It's also the gospel affirmations that God now makes about Jesus Christ because of what he did. God says that because of what Jesus did God has now made him Lord and Savior.

And what is the highest blessing of the gospel?  Most people would say forgiveness. Others would say adoption. The legal, forensic good news of justification is wonderful. It's wonderful to be declared legally right before God as our judge in the heavenly court.

But it's another far greater thing for the Father to take you to his home. So the highest blessing of the gospel is not forgiveness through justification but it would be adoption.

In his classic book, Knowing God, J. I. Packer argues that adoption is the highest blessing. But Calvin trumps Packer saying the highest blessing of the gospel is union with God through Christ.

The truth is Packer would also affirm this. He was just trying to say that adoption is a higher blessing than justification. Justification is forensic and legal. While adoption is deeply personal and familial.

Make no mistake that the highest blessing of the gospel is being in Christ. Paul writes, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” We’ll see later that those blessings include a new record, a new heart, a new world.

But the highest blessing that you could ever have is that, through faith, you are now in mystical union with the triune God, in Christ. You are in Christ. Therefore, the inner Trinitarian love and fellowship is now yours. It’s astonishing that you’re now a part of the deepest love in the universe.

What will really blow your mind is when you realize that the same love the Father had for eternity for the Son, and reciprocal, with the Spirit as well, is now the love that he has for you because you are in Christ.

It is impossible to break this love. That's the depth of what being “in Christ” means. You are in the Trinitarian relationship, and from that flows every spiritual blessing.  What we're celebrating in this course is the triple blessing to all who are in Christ by faith: 1) a new record countering guilt, 2) a new heart replacing a corrupt heart, and 3) a new new world replacing the corrupt world when Jesus returns.

Later we’ll also look at what John Stott calls “the gospel demands” that answer the question, “How do I appropriate these promises?” We’ll see its through gospel repentance, faith, and gospel obedience.

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Message about God

J.I. Packer writes, “The Gospel is a message about God. It tells us who He is, what His character is, what His standards are, what He requires of us, His creatures. It tells us what we owe our very existence to Him, that for good or ill, we are always in His hands and under His eye, and that He made us to worship and serve Him, to show forth His praise and to live for His glory.”

Francis Schaeffer used to say, “He is there and He is not silent.” Hear the good news: We are not in a closed system. We are in an open system. The good news is that an infinite personal God exists. And this God who has created all things has spoken. He has revealed himself.

How has He spoken? In two ways, primarily. He has spoken in what theologians call general revelation and special revelation.

General Revelation

What is general revelation?  In Psalm 19 we see general revelation as God revealing Himself in all of of creation and nature.

Special Revelation

Special revelation is the good news that God has broken through throughout redemptive history and shown Himself consummated in the ultimate revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word and in scripture, the written Word. He has revealed Himself in nature, in the creation. He has broken through throughout redemptive history and shown Himself at different times, but the ultimate breakthrough was in the incarnate Word culminating in the written Word.

We can't focus on all of the attributes of God, but there are two attributes that are very critical to understand in light of the nature of the Gospel message itself: His holy justice and His holy love.

God’s Holy Justice

This concept of God's holy justice is the revelation of God that He is holy as judge and; therefore, a just judge who must punish sin. He also manifests love. He is a gracious Father who loves to show mercy. The dilemma is not the classic dilemma that's presented in most evangelicalism. The problem of God is up there and I'm down here. How can I ever reach God? Oh, no. That's a serious problem. The greater problem lies within the very nature of God himself. It is the profoundest of problems. God is a gracious Father who loves to show mercy. I have good news for you.

In love, God created us in His image to know Him, to honor Him, to enjoy Him above everything, to cherish Him. God is also a just judge who must punish sin. Although God is merciful and does not want to punish us, see the dilemma? He is just and must punish sin.

Profoundest of Problems

A common question, “Why does God find it difficult to forgive?”

I've had one unbeliever say to me, “Come on. I forgive all the time. Isn't it God's business to forgive? What's the big deal? Why does God find it difficult to forgive?” The real question I would propose is, “How can God find it possible to forgive when you understand His nature as both merciful and just?” In fact, it's been found the profoundest of problems.

Forgiveness to man is the plainest of duties; to God it is the profoundest of problems. You see, there is a duality in God's attributes. God's holy justice is a just judge who must punish sin. God's holy love is a gracious Father who loves to show mercy.

God's duality is shown in Hosea 11.

“My heart is turned over within me. All my compassions are kindled. I will not execute my fierce anger. I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the holy one in your midst and I will not come in wrath.”

What you're actually getting a glimpse into is the remarkable, mysterious, intertrinitarian nature of God facing the profoundest of problems. “How can I be a just judge and at the same time be a loving Father?” How can God express His holy love? How can God express His love without compromising his holiness? On the flip side, how can God express His holiness without compromising His love?

Is the basic riddle of the universe how to preserve man's right and solve his problems, or is the basic riddle of the universe how an infinitely worthy God in complete freedom can display the full range of His perfections, what Paul calls the “riches of His glory,” His holiness, His power, His wisdom, His justice, His wrath, His goodness, His truth, and His grace. What we're saying here is how can God display the fullness of both His mercy and His justice? If you don't understand that, if you don't feel that, you will never understand the riches of the cross.

“God is a Father; but He is no less a judge. Shall the judge give way to the Father or the Father give way to the judge? Which is the more unchangeable and irreversible, the vow of pity that He has taken or the oath of justice? Law and love must be reconciled, the one cannot give way to the other. Both must stand, else the pillars of the universe will be shaken.”

Radical justice. He is more holy than you ever dared to believe.

Radical love. He is more loving than you ever dared to hope. This comes from one of my previous mentors, Jack Miller.

Here is Miller through Keller now, he had a huge influence on Tim. “The Gospel is that you are more sinful and flawed that you ever dared believe, yet you are more accepted and loved than you ever dared hope at the same time, because Jesus Christ lived and died in your place.”

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Message about Sin

Notice each one of these sections begins with a quote from J.I. Packer. Here he says,

“The Gospel is a message about sin. It tells us how we have fallen short of God's standard, how we have become guilty, filthy and helpless in sin and now stand under the wrath of God. It tells us that the reason why we sin continually is that we are sinners by nature and that nothing we do or try to do for ourselves can put us right or bring us back into God's favor. It shows us ourselves as God sees us and teaches us to think of ourselves as God thinks of us. Thus, it leads us to self-despair. And this also is a necessary step. Not till we have learned our need to get right with God and our inability to do so by any effort of our own can we come to know the Christ who saves from sin.”

The degree to which you understand the nature of the fall will be the degree to which you understand the fullness of the nature of the Gospel as well.

What I want to do is talk to you about the threefold ramifications of the fall. This is a biblical theology of the impact of the fall on humanity and on creation.

The Problem of Guilt

Notice the problem of guilt, number one or we'll call that, Jack Miller used to call that, a problem of a bad record. I just need forgiveness of sin. I need the righteousness of another. Martin Luther again called this alien righteousness, an utter foreign righteousness. The righteousness, the law keeping record of the Son of God. His good record is the only antidote to my bad record.

The Problem of Corrupt Heart

The second one, the problem of corruption, heart. I not only have a bad record forensically and legally, but actually I have a corrupt, I have a bad heart and I need a new heart. And you can see where this is going with the Gospel. The fulfillment of the new covenant that was promised by the Old Testament prophets was not only I will forgive your sin, but I will take the heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you. Notice the promise of the new covenant is not just dealing with the problem of guilt. I will forgive you. I will forgive your sin and I will take the heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you.

Now revisit the courtroom with me. There the man is or to make it more personal, there you are, standing before the judge. You don't just have a forensic legal problem with guilt. You don't just stand before the judge with a bad record needing the record of another imputed to you through faith in Christ, that's in Romans one through five, chapters one through five. But you have another problem. You're standing there before the judge, not just with the problem of guilt, but you have a problem of corruption. You're not just standing in the courtroom before the judge having broken the law, like committing a heinous crime. As you stand before that judge, you have terminal cancer.

It's a completely different problem. One is external in the heavenly courts, one is forensic, one is legal. That's the problem of guilt. But you have another problem that's just as serious and that is the problem of spiritual disease. You are, and I am as a result of sin, morally corrupt. You don't just need a merciful judge. You need a merciful and gracious physician. There is a criminal that comes to the bar and is arranged for high treason. The same criminal has a mortal disease that he may die of, though there was no judge on the bench to pass sentence of death upon him for his crime.

If your understanding of the problem is merely guilt, then your understanding of the solution or the good news will merely be good news. You can be forgiven and you can have the record of another. I need to be delivered, not just from my guilty standing before God. I need to be delivered from my corrupt heart.

The Problem of a Corrupt World

Now, let's look at the last one, a corrupt world. And this is another one of those mysteries I don't understand, and we never will fully. But because of sin, man became guilty and corrupt, and for some reason God not only cursed man, humanity, but God also cursed the earth. And so not only is man corrupt because of the fall, but all of the cosmos is corrupt. We live in a broken and fallen world.

It is very common for people to lose, especially in this generation, the depth of the message we're bringing. We are not just simply bringing good news. You're under God's wrath and you can be forgiven. It's very truncated. We're also bringing the message, good news. You are, whether you realize it or not, worshiping something because you've been created in the image of God and so therefore you are intrinsically and inherently a worshiper. So everyone is always worshiping something, sometime. And in evangelism, we're not asking people to go from not worshiping anything to worshiping God through Christ because all people are image bearers, therefore all people are worshipers 24/7.

And when we're proclaiming the Gospel, what we are doing is we are calling people to repent, and that is, to turn their heart affections away from worshiping idols. And these are not graven images and primitive lands. These are the concepts of control and approval and pleasure and comfort. And we're calling them to turn from these idols who are making them false covenants, lies that they cannot fulfill, turn from that idolatry. And those affections are to be turned in repentance and in faith placed on the Living God through Christ.

So you do not fully understand conversion unless you understand it in the context of idolatry and worship because you're calling people to stop worshiping what they're worshiping and to begin to worship God alone through Christ. The greatest battle, the battle of all battles, the battle of the universe, is the battle for the affections of the human heart.

Motives in Evangelism (Evangelism Series 2 of 6)

Motive 1: Obedience to God’s Command

Our first motive for evangelism is simply obedience to God’s command.

J.I. Packer writes, "Always and everywhere, the servants of Christ are under orders to evangelize."

The primary reason we're to be involved in evangelism is because God commands us to.

We are the church militant and we are, as Paul called Timothy, good soldiers of Jesus Christ. We are under orders. And disobedience is a serious offense. Always and everywhere, the servants of Christ are under orders to evangelize.

Gospel Obligation

We all this concept our gospel obligation. "I am obligated," Paul writes, “both to the Greeks and to the non-Greeks, both to the wise and to the foolish."

John Murray puts it this way: "The non-negotiable responsibility binding on all those who receive the benefit of God's covenant with Abraham, is to share those same benefits with the other families or the nations of the earth."

This concept that we evangelize because God commands us to should not be jettisoned from our motives in the name of grace or mercy.

Instead the motivation of obedience should be seen as legitimate but insufficient. In other words, a mere duty to evangelize the lost is a legitimate motivation but it is an insufficient motivation.

Why is that?

Why would I want you to have in your motivational artillery to evangelize, this foundation reason that God commands you, that you’re under orders from Christ as your commander and chief to evangelize?

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Motive 2: Compassion for the Lost

I haven't reached this state of spiritual maturity we find in the Apostle Paul when he writes:

"I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit." Paul writes, "I have great sorrow and," Another translation reads, "I have unceasing anguish in my heart.” Paul goes on: “For I could wish that I myself were cursed.” He’s saying he could wish that he was cut off from Christ, that he would receive the wrath of God. “For the sake of my brothers, those of my own people or my own race, who are outside of Christ."

Paul is not a sterile, theological academic. Look at his words: great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Paul evangelized because he had a deep compassion for those who are outside of Christ.

Mere obligation or duty is often not enough. You can easily forget about people and give up on them.  And when we give up on people, we are actually forgetting the lostness of the lost, and our heart’s brokenness grows very cold and very hard.

One of the goals of this course is to have the scales fall from our eyes, believe again in the lostness of the lost, to believe again in the power of the gospel to save anyone.

We are going to be asking God to give us a new broken heart for those who are outside of Christ in all our networks of relationships. We’re asking God to give us, not just an intellectual understanding, but something close to great sorrow and unceasing anguish, in terms of our renewed heart affections.

Jesus, in Luke chapter 15, confronts the reality of the hypocrisy in his day in the religious leaders, and their cold, sterile nature of their religion. He responds by telling them stories. Oftentimes, we just narrow in on one particular parable, and forget the context of these religious people condemning Jesus because he hangs out with tax-gatherers and sinners.

Jesus responds to them by telling them three stories about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.

Hybels writes, “One of my favorite scriptures that shows Jesus' emphasis on the ultimate importance of people is Luke 15. According to this passage, the religious leaders were upset because Jesus, who claimed to be the holy Son of God, was hanging around with sinners. He shared meals with cheating tax collectors, arrogant merchants, filthy-mouthed tent makers, even prostitutes. When Jesus heard the scribes and the Pharisees grumbling about all his unacceptable associations, he decided to let them know once and for all just how much he loved, and how much he had compassion for, the very sinners that they despised.”

"And so he told them three moving stories: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. In each of the stories, something," hear this, "something of great value is lost, and it matters so much that it warrants either an all-out search, or an anguished vigil. When at last the sheep and the coin are found and the son returns home, the respective households burst into songs of rejoicing. Jesus says, 'In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.'"

In the whole context of Luke 15, what is the overarching message?

It’s basically that lost people matter to God. Hybels writes,

"Lost, wayward, rebellious, cursing people matter to God so much that He wants us to actively pursue them. He wants us to search them out and bring them to Him. Authentic evangelism flows from a mindset that acknowledges the ultimate value of people, forgotten people, lost people, wandering people, up-and-outers, down-and-outers, all people. The highest value is to love them, to serve them, to reach out to them. Everything else goes up in smoke."

My first church-planting context was in an inner city, a high crime zone. I came to Christ at a secular university through aggressive evangelism ministries. So the only thing I knew about evangelism was how to witness to nice, dressed-up, educated young people on a college campus.

And here I was in one of a city's high crime zones, trying to plant a church, and trying to figure out how to do evangelism here?

To make a long story short, a man had been sent in to evaluate the church from Francis Schaeffer's denomination at the time. He met with me and we only had a few days that we could spend together and then he was going to leave. I remember meeting with him. He had been a former church planter, at a university, planted a church and had significant ministries of evangelism and discipleship.

Because I knew that his knowledge of evangelism was rich and deep, as was his experience, I asked him, “Bob, please help me understand the kind of methodology, the evangelistic method you think I should be using here.” He kind of smiled that smile that could be interpreted as smug, but it really wasn't. He wasn't mocking my question. But he knew how totally off-base my question was in a way that I hadn't learned yet.

So I'll never forget him saying to me, “Steve, evangelistic methodologies are going to come and they're going to go, and they're going to fit different contexts. My concern is not about you finding the right evangelistic methodology, curriculum, or approach to reach this inner city. May I tell you what my greatest concern is for you regarding evangelism here?” I said, “Yes. What's that?” He said, “My greatest concern is whether or not God will give you a broken heart for the lost people in this neighborhood.” And then he said, “Steve, listen to me. If God gives you a truly broken heart for all the lost and broken people in this community, almost any method will do.”

My encouragement to you is to fully recognize the lack of Pauline anguish in your heart over the lost and ask God to give you something that you can't conjure up yourself, to give you a broken heart for those outside of Christ.

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Motive 3: Zeal for God’s Glory

That the task before us in evangelism is not merely to raise up converts. At its core it is to align ourselves with the ancient message of the Scriptures, calling people to turn from their idols in repentance and place their affections by faith in the one and true only God who makes himself known in Christ.

We're actually not evangelizing merely to raise up converts but to raise up worshipers. I want us to look closely at these two quotes from John Piper: “A passion for God's mission flows from a passion for God's name.” and “You cannot commend what you do not cherish.”

The premise is simple and profound. God calls us to commend Him. God commands us to commend Him. And we’ve seen that as good soldiers of Jesus Christ we are to obey God. But we are also to commend him because we have true compassion for them.

God calls us to commend Him but we don't commend Him. Why is it that we don't do evangelism? What are the real barriers to evangelism? People usually say, “It’s the fear of man.” Or some respond with, “I'm not sure what to say.” These are all true. But let’s look at the deeper reason, the real reason.

We don't commend Him, not simply because of the fear of man, or not knowing what to say. It’s ultimately because we do not cherish Him.

You can only commend that which you cherish. You have to commend what you cherish. You can't help yourself.

We see this in all kinds of experiences in life. Have you ever found an unbelievable great album or song or artist? Or a wonderful recipe that is melt in your mouth good? You are compelled to share it. You commend the recipe because you the food.

We all called to commend Christ. And we don't commend Him for a lot of reasons. But the core reason is because we don't cherish Him like we should. So, why don't we cherish Him more? It’s because we cherish idols in His place.

These are a series of life changing propositions if you'll allow them to go from your head to your heart. God calls us to commend Him. We don't commend Him because we don't cherish Him. Why don't we cherish Him? We don't cherish Him because we cherish idols in His place.

These idols we cherish aren't wooden artifacts from a primitive culture. These idols are things like the approval of man, possessions, pleasures, comfort, control. Those are the things we truly cherish because they give us security and happiness. And have you noticed that these are often the things we commend. Because we love them so much, we can't stop thinking about them or telling others about them.

So what's our response?  What’s our greatest need that we might commend Christ with new power? Is it to be reminded that we're obligated? No. Is it to be told that we should have broken hearts? It helps. But no. 

It's recognizing that God calls us to commend Him. We don't, because we don't cherish Him. We don't cherish Him because we cherish idols. So what do we need to do? We need to repent and draw near to Christ, in faith, for pardon and for power.

This is the old axiom, the real heart of the matter in evangelism is the matter of your heart. I promise you, no class, no technique, no program, no curriculum will make the changes needed.

What’s needed is a broken heart that acknowledges the only way we’re ever going to be compelled to commend Him to anybody is if we first repent of what we’re cherishing in His place and begin to cherish Him anew.

Goals of Evangelism (Evangelism Series 1 of 6)

1. Salvation of the Lost

The first goal of evangelism is the salvation of the lost. Those who are without Christ perish for eternity. If you truly believe in the lostness of the lost, it would not be possible for you to continue relating to certain people, especially your family and friends, in the same way. This concept is good to be reminded of: the lostness of the lost and the goal of their salvation.

2. Growth of Christ’s Church

The second goal of evangelism is the growth of Christ's church. Foreign to the pages of the New Testament is a commitment to Christ apart from a commitment to Christ visible body, the church We must not be content with a mere proclamation of the gospel as the goal of evangelism. Or see as the ultimate goal of evangelism persuading someone to believe or make a profession of faith. Instead, we should be seeking, praying, and working towards the ultimate goal of evangelism being the new believer’s incorporation into the visible body Christ, a local church, through baptism.

3. Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom

The third goal of evangelism is the advancement of Christ's kingdom. The church is the primary means by which God’s invisible kingdom is made visible in the world. The church and the kingdom are not one and the same. But the growth of the church is the way the kingdom normally advances. The church is a sign and an instrument of the kingdom. The church has been called kind of a preview or a trailer, like for a movie. The church gives the world a foretaste of the kingdom to come. So, a church centered understanding of evangelism should be kingdom centered with the supreme goal being the coming of the kingdom that brings glory and honor to his name.

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From a biblical perspective, when someone makes a commitment to Christ, that commitment should normally be accompanied by a commitment to Christ’s visible body, the Church, displayed in their baptism.

The goal of evangelism should be someone making a credible profession of faith in Christ. But now I want you to think of the dilemma. Who says the profession of faith in Christ is credible? Is it the person themselves? Is it enough for them just to say they made a commitment, a decision or to say, “I prayed a prayer?”

Many people remember praying a prayer “to receive Christ.” And then the question usually surfaces, “I wonder if I prayed it well enough?” Then they say, “I'm going to pray it again.” And when the next worship service or event comes up and somebody offers an invitation, they say, “Why not? I'll ask Jesus again, to come into my life, be my Savior, be my Lord.” And this pattern often repeats and you begin to wonder, “Is my profession real, is it credible?”

This raises a very important question in evangelism: Who determines the credibility of someone’s profession of faith? The biblical answer is the Church.

This focus on the authority of a local church community is often counterintuitive and offensive to much of rugged western privatized individualism in the evangelical church in North America today. Edith Schaeffer used to say, “Christianity is Jewish.” Our God is a communal God. The Christian religion, so to speak, is a communal religion. You should never see the process of evangelism culminating in a mere profession of faith, sinner's prayer kind of profession. Instead you should be one of those rare individuals who holds out for that new believer to make a profession of faith before the ordained leaders of the Church who deemed it credible and through which they incorporate the new believer into the body through what? Baptism.

Evangelism is meant to reach its culmination not in a commitment to Christ that is an existential profession. Evangelism is meant to reach its culmination in a profession of Christ before elders, or pastors, or whatever you're going to call them in your form of government. They meet the criteria in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and in Hebrews 13. They are those who you are called to obey because they will give an account for your soul. You're to be under their spiritual care, you are to be under spiritual authority in a local church, everyone is, whatever denomination you're in. And they are the ones who hold what the Reformers often called the Keys of the Kingdom (Matt 18), and they are the ones who determine those to be admitted to the sacrament of baptism and the Lord's Table.

And it’s those who make a credible profession of faith, not those who can tell a story of when they believe. A credible profession does not require a convert’s knowledge of when they believed in the past. It’s a very present profession now, saying, I look now to Christ and I look to him alone.” And the culmination of this is baptism.

Please don't misunderstand me regarding baptism. I am not saying that someone is not saved when at the very moment they first make a true profession of faith in Christ and possibly pray “a sinner's prayer.” I'm not saying that. I'm also not saying that Christian water baptism saves you. What I'm saying is the culmination of evangelism is meant to be incorporation into the body manifested through making a credible profession of faith before church leaders, followed by baptism.

Heart of Renewal (Gospel Renewal Series 6 of 6)

The history of great awakenings and gospel renewal movements gives powerful evidence that renewal is not a result of our work, but God’s work. And when gospel renewal spreads through churches and communities, the work of God’s Spirit begins in individual hearts.

The revivalists used to say that the secret of revival begins when we take a piece of chalk, kneel down to draw a circle around ourselves and then look up to heaven expectantly, praying, “Lord, send revival, and let it begin right here in this circle.” The old spiritual got it right: “Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”

So the most important aspect of gospel renewal is in understanding how the gospel renews the human heart, starting with our own. Only when the gospel renews our heart can we understand how the gospel renews other hearts and groups of human hearts called churches and communities.

So in this final article, let’s take a deeper look at what the Bible teaches about how the gospel brings personal renewal to the human heart.

We learned earlier that personal renewal comes through obeying God by repenting and believing in the person and work of Christ in reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit. The reason Jesus commands us to “repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15) is because faith in the gospel is the mysterious means through which God ordains the power of his victory as our King to flow in and through our lives.

Through repentance we pull our affections off our heart idols, so that we can place those same affections on the ascended Christ through faith. Paul writes, “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Col 3:1-2).

In Galatians 6:14, Paul gives us a fascinating glimpse into how his faith in the gospel transformed him when he writes, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” John Stott writes:

Paul’s whole world was in orbit around the cross. It filled his vision, illumined his life, warmed his spirit. He “gloried” in it. It meant more to him than anything else. . . . This Greek word translated here as “boast” has no exact equivalent in English. It means to glory in, trust in, rejoice in, revel in, live for. In a word, our glory is our obsession.

Some of us are obsessed with gaining approval or recognition. Others are obsessed with experiencing pleasure and comfort, being in control, having power or possessions. Paul’s obsession was with the gospel. And through his obsession with the cross, Paul experienced the renewing power of the gospel to crucify the idolatrous, dominating power of sin. (Gal 6:14)

It’s only when we learn how to “glory in, trust in, rejoice in, revel in, and live for” the person and work of Jesus, and not trust in our idols, that we will experience the renewing power of the gospel in our lives. It’s not until Christ becomes more attractive to us than the pleasures of sin that our hearts will be set free. The enslaving power of sin will never dissipate until a greater affection of the heart replaces it.

Earlier, we learned that the good news includes not only what Jesus did (gospel events) and who he is (gospel affirmations), but what God now promises (gospel promises) to all who repent and believe in him because of what Jesus did and who he is. These gospel promises are the many spiritual blessings that now belong to all who are in Christ by faith because of the atoning achievement of Christ on the cross. 

When we take a deeper look at the writings of Paul and the apostles on the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross, we find several key words and concepts that bring out the rich, multifaceted meaning of the gospel promises.[1] In these words we find metaphorical language and images drawn from several life situations, intended to illustrate the depth of our spiritual blessings in Christ.

Some of these key New Testament words and concepts related to the gospel include: election, propitiation, justification, adoption, regeneration, redemption, sanctification, and glorification. And some of the corresponding metaphors and concrete images of salvation include a building, a temple shrine, a court of law, a home, a birth, a marketplace, a death and resurrection, and a restoration.

These various biblical terms and parallel images describing salvation display different facets of the gospel reflecting the many spiritual blessings God promises to everyone in union with Christ. The gospel message is multi-faceted. And the many facets of the gospel should not be seen as separable, but as unique perspectives and dimensions of salvation as a whole – as various facets of a multi-faceted jewel.

By understanding these concepts and images we deepen our grasp of the gospel promises and spiritual blessings that are now ours because we are in Christ. When we allow these promises to keep leading us, in ongoing repentance and faith, to the One who promises, we experience personal renewal.

A stone lying in the sun can’t help but grow warm. In the same way as we learn to keep exposing our stony hearts to the warmth and light of the gospel, we can’t help but be renewed. 

We’re called by God to a lifestyle of radical obedience. But our efforts to obey God will inevitably lead us into denial or despair if we do not learn how to cultivate a lifestyle of ongoing repentance and faith in the gospel. This is because the law of God has no power to change us.

Only the gospel renews lives. We are destined to be powerless if we do not allow the gospel to penetrate deeply into our lives to renew our core character–to save us not only from sin’s guilt and penalty, but also from sin’s corruption and domineering power over our lives.

In the gospel we see the multi-colored splendor of our new life in Christ and find the divine remedy for our hearts that has been wounded by conviction of sin. In the gospel we find the streams of living water that well up in the heart of a believer who keeps coming to Christ in faith. (Jn. 7:37,38)

As we learn to drink deeply from the well that is Christ, we will experience the renewal of our hearts and find the living waters of the Holy Spirit flowing through us into others.

This well never runs dry. It’s only here that we find the supernatural power, courage, and strength to be renewed into the image of Jesus Christ. Here are the springs of personal, church, community, and national renewal, as we learn to pray like the old hymn writer William Cowper:

The dearest idol I have known

Whate’er that idol be

Help me to tear it from Thy throne

And worship only Thee

[1] In The Nature of Redemption, theologian Roger Nicole, focuses on this “extraordinarily variegated terminology” used by Paul and other New Testament writers in reference to the redemptive work of Christ in the atonement. In The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, Leon Morris contributes to the meaning and significance of Christ’s atonement found in key New Testament words like redemption, covenant, blood, propitiation, reconciliation, and justification. And in The Cross of Christ, John Stott offers insight into Paul’s message through studies on the metaphorical language used by Paul and the apostles.

Spreading Renewal (Gospel Renewal Series 5 of 6)

Just prior to his ascension to the right hand of God, the resurrected Jesus told his disciples they should soon expect to receive power from the Holy Spirit. The result would be a movement that would spread from Jerusalem to the surrounding regions, and then to the whole world.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

The remaining chapters in the book of Acts show us how the early Christian movement spread from a local gathering of believers in Jerusalem to the surrounding regions of Judea and Samaria, and throughout the world.

Likewise, our vision for renewal must include not only our local church gathering of believers, but also many churches in our nearby regions, and throughout the world. The vision is to see the world become a better place by being saturated with healthy churches through which people and societies are renewed and flourish.

This vision includes starting and developing healthy churches (church planting and renewal) that transform lives (personal renewal) and communities (community renewal) that birth gospel renewal movements. This is the heart of God’s plan to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:16-20).

History has shown that when healthy churches flourish, people and societies flourish. This is because a healthy church is the single most effective way to renew the lives of people and communities under heaven. And this is because healthy churches are the most effective method for evangelism, discipleship, and mercy ministry under heaven.

The Apostle Paul saw the new churches he planted throughout the world as kingdom outposts, through which the spreading flame of the gospel, in word and deed, would be released to make God’s invisible kingdom visible over, not only individual human hearts, but also all spheres of community life.

Paul’s vision was not only to help start and develop one church as a lone kingdom outpost in a region, but to help start and develop clusters of churches in the surrounding regions that would have a much greater kingdom impact than just one church. G. Campbell Morgan describes Paul’s vision and strategy at Ephesus:

Paul at Ephesus was making tents, conducting a great course of apologetics for Christianity, fulfilling the function of the pastor, watching over the flock, admonishing with tears and teaching from house to house; but he was also directing a great missionary enterprise to that whole region round about Ephesus.

Since no single church has the gifts and resources to do gospel ministry effectively to all the diverse people in one community and region, a vision for renewal includes churches working in partnership with other churches.

Richard Lovelace writes, “John Calvin, Richard Baxter and other ecumenical Protestants have rightly insisted that only a united body of Christ in each region can effectively design and carry out ministry.” A vision for renewal includes a unified church in every region where local churches collaborate in gospel ministry.

In the New Testament, the word translated “church” (ekklesia) refers to a group of people who are “called out.” The word can refer to an individual church, but it most often refers to clusters of churches in cities and regions (Acts 9:31, 2 Cor 1:1).

But the problem is that most churches, especially in the Western world, neglect or oppose intentional collaboration between local churches in a community or region. The reasons include fear of theological compromise or losing church members to other churches. But most often it’s because churches don’t see how partnering with other churches would benefit their ministry.

At the end of Jesus’ life and ministry, he prayed to the Father for the oneness of all his followers. (John 17:11) After generations of church divisions and strife, there are now more than 33,000 Christian denominations in the world.[1] The Apostles would be appalled to find the church so horribly divided.

John Frame calls this “the curse of denominationalism that defames our Lord and enfeebles our witness.” He writes, “We must first be assured that Jesus Christ established on earth one church, not many denominations. Further, the unity of the church is not merely ‘spiritual,’ but also ‘organizational.’” Lovelace describes today’s church as the “kingdom divided, a body broken, bruised and constricted at every point by tourniquets of division which cut off the flow of vital fluids.”

So we should not be surprised to learn that, despite the remarkable spread of Christianity worldwide, spiritual darkness, cultural and societal decay are reaching unprecedented levels. Even where the church is growing most rapidly (in Asia, Africa and Latin America) the results are often forms of Christianity with little or no true renewal of individuals and communities. Lovelace writes:

If we tried to run a thousand-acre farm the way the Christian church runs local mission, we would harvest only a hundred acres worth of crops, because the fields would be a hodgepodge of independent plantings and reapings.

Of course there are legitimate concerns, costs, and risks involved in intentional collaboration between local churches in a region. But we must not allow these concerns to justify our lack of vision for a united body of Christ in each community and region that can do ministry more effectively together than alone.

From a practical perspective, it can be helpful for a church to think of partnering with other churches in their community and region by forming a church network and church alliance to help birth a gospel renewal movement.

A church network is an intentional partnership between two or more local churches and ministries that share a denominational and/or theological tradition and a common kingdom vision for renewal in their city and region. The network’s purpose is to fulfill this vision by helping one another start and develop healthy churches that renew people and communities in their city and region.

Since no single network has the ability to do gospel ministry effectively in service to all the diverse people in one community and region, these networks must form a church alliance with other likeminded networks and ministries in their city and region.

A church alliance is an intentional partnership between church networks, churches, and organizations that do not necessarily share a denominational and/or theological tradition, but do share a common vision for kingdom renewal in their city and region. An alliance partnership involves mostly collaborative kingdom prayer and acts of mercy for the common good of their community and region.

When networks and alliances pray fervently for their communities and regions and serve them wholeheartedly through gospel ministries of word and deed, this is the means God normally uses to birth a widespread spiritual awakening, called a gospel renewal movement.

Churches should not only work hard to establish strong, healthy networks and alliances in their communities and regions, but also pray hard, asking God to do what only he can do by his Spirit – birth gospel renewal movements through them.

A gospel renewal movement is a supernatural work of God’s Spirit that glorifies his name and advances his kingdom through his church by the power of his gospel in word and deed. It increases philanthropy and advances all forms of mercy and justice. It makes places of work more humane and reconciliation more hopeful.

[1] Defining denomination as an organized aggregate of congregations of a similar church tradition within a specific country. World Christian Encyclopedia by Barrett, Kurian, Johnson (Oxford Univ Press, 2nd edition, 2001).