Evangelism seems like a terrifying responsibility. If you believe that the difference between eternal life and death hangs in the balance of every man, woman, and child, then sharing Jesus can seem overwhelming. But what if our hesitation to share the Gospel with others stems from the fact that we don’t preach it to ourselves?
So where should begin thinking about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ? I want to suggest that a starting place for evangelism is to “preach the Gospel to yourself.”
What Would Martin Luther Say?
What do I mean? In last Sunday’s sermon, I suggested that the Summary of the Law to love God and to love people were connected. If you love God, then you would love people. And if you learn to love people, that would speak volumes about your love for God. Love is, after all, demonstrated not just spoken.
But in this equation, there is a critical component that we did not consider: YOU! To love God requires YOU. And to love people requires YOU. And that leads us to one of the most significant insights from the 16th Century German Reformer Martin Luther. We must preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to ourselves.
Luther writes:
“The highest of all God’s commands is this, that we ever hold up before our eyes the image of his dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He must daily be to our hearts the perfect mirror, in which we behold how much God loves us and how well, in his infinite goodness, as a faithful God, he has grandly cared for us in that he gave his dear Son for us. Do not let this mirror and throne of grace be torn away from before your eyes.”
“You say that the sins which we commit every day offend God, and therefore we are not saints. To this I reply: Mother love is stronger than the filth and scabbiness on a child, and so the love of God toward us is stronger than the dirt that clings to us. Accordingly, although we are sinners, we do not lose our filial relation on account of our filthiness, nor do we fall from grace on account of our sin.”
Luther knew all too well the shackles that keep Christians in bondage to guilt and shame never living the abundant life promised by Jesus (John 10:10). So to break these chains he realized that true freedom began by daily reminding ourselves of the love and grace available to us. Drawing from our usual routine of looking in a mirror to groom ourselves, Luther encouraged us to look into the daily mirror of our souls and deliberately see our Lord Jesus Christ.
And even when the filth and dirt of sin cover our souls, we must preach to ourselves that God’s grace covers even me. That’s the heart of preaching the Gospel of Jesus to ourselves.
Most of us never share the Gospel with anyone because we never speak it to ourselves. Each Sunday we may attend church, confess our sins, and take communion but leave feeling no closer, no better, and no closer to God. In the words of my granddaddy, “That ain’t right!”
Realizing The Gospel-Centered Life
We go through life believing the “theory” of the Gospel but never realizing the “reality” of the Gospel in our lives. Unfortunately, that makes us no different than anyone else in our world. You see people are looking for real answers to life’s problems. And the road to solving the problems starts with you and me making the Gospel a living reality within us.
So the Gospel-centered life begins by realizing the security we enjoy in our relationship to our heavenly Father, and then living life out of that promise, even when we commit horrible sin.
Preaching the Gospel to ourselves is the beginning point of all evangelistic activity. And once we master this process, then I believe, God will use us in surprising ways to love and serve others.
Gratefully, God knows our weaknesses and timidity to witness to a lost and dying world. And therefore can work even through our insecurities to bring people to faith in His Son. After all, in the story of Balaam, he used his “donkey” to speak on God’s behalf.
That doesn’t eliminate our part in God’s plan to somehow use us in sharing the Good News of Jesus, but it does relieve the unbiblical burden some Evangelicals carry that a person’s final destination is “OUR” responsibility. As “Chapter 8 People” we must always remember that salvation begins with the beautiful image of God “adopting us” as his sons and daughters, (Ephesians 1:3-6). So let us be Ambassadors of God’s Good News where He desires to love and save the world (John 3:16).
