How I Share the Gospel
One of the practical challenges of sharing the gospel with unbelievers is to present it in a way that makes sense. Christians often study the gospel and describe it in ways that are theologically precise and biblical, but not necessarily in ways that are understandable to unbelievers – or that touch the nerve of what it means to actually believe the message. Over the years, I’ve learned some ways to describe the gospel when I’m dealing with those who aren’t very familiar with it. Many of these things come from others.
The four words GOD, MAN, CHRIST, and RESPONSE help us to summarize the main points of the gospel message. They are a simple way to summarize the message in our own heads.
GOD
Everyone is a theologian – and that includes you, even if you don’t know anything about God. What you believe about God is the most significant thing about you, and it affects everything about your life. It affects the way that you think about life, what you prioritize, how you make your decisions, and what you place value in.
Throughout history, there have been two ways that people have sought to learn about God: philosophy and revelation.
Philosophy is man’s attempt to reach God from his own position. In the West, this has often been attempted through logic or metaphysical reasoning. In the East, this often takes the form of meditation or an attempt to ‘detach the mind’ from mental processes in order to attain union with the ‘divine.’ In either case, humans are trying to have a relationship or knowledge of the divine through their own efforts – reaching up to heaven.
We can see the failure of philosophy, since it has produced so many different ideas about God. We can’t agree on anything based on our own attempts to reach God! Instead, we need something more if we are ever going to have an accurate knowledge of the divine.
Revelation is God’s action to reach down to man. While it is true that man can use reason and an awareness of the universe to learn some basic facts about God, that is not enough to have a personal relationship with God. We need God to reveal himself to us. God does this multiple times throughout history, most importantly in the life of Jesus Christ. In the Bible we have the inerrant record of God’s revelation of himself, God reaching down from heaven.
The gospel is a message about God. We must be clear on who God is. God is INFINITE and God is GOOD.
God’s infinity covers his omniscience, his omnipresence, his omnipotence, his unfathomability, etc. He knows everything about you. He is all powerful and other than you. In short, he is without limitations.
God is a creator, and we can see God’s power by observing the creation. The fact that he is creator means that he is powerful over his creation and has the right to direct the creation.
God’s goodness refers to his moral purity. He is not merely great; he is also good. A deity could (hypothetically) be ‘great’ and infinite in his aspects, but also a moral monster. God is not. He is pure, morally perfect, full of love and grace and goodness and kindness. For example, when the prophet Isaiah had a vision of God on his throne, the angels who surrounded him cried out “holy, holy, holy!”
The goodness and power of God mean that he is a judge. He is too good to permit evil to go unpunished. He will not sweep it under the rug. What would we say of a judge who let a murderer get off unpunished? We would say that he is unjust or corrupt. God is fully just and good. He will not overlook sin. This is great news for the universe, but terrible news for evildoers.
MAN
One of the key differences between Christianity and other belief systems is our understanding of the nature of mankind. While God created mankind perfect, Adam and Eve’s sin resulted in all mankind being born as sinners.
How is it that one man’s sin could result in all of us being sinners? The answer is found in Romans 5, and the idea of ‘federal headship.’ This idea can be seen in the ambassador of a country representing all citizens – in the same way, Adam represented all humanity, and his sin has real effects for us also.
Sin is serious. It is not something to be taken lightly. You can think of sin as a cosmic explosion of evil.
Sin is not just something that we do; it is a defining aspect of our fallen nature. It is the default action of human nature. In fact, fallen sinners cannot do anything to please God, not even their best actions are pleasing. “The sacrifice of the wicked” – fallen man at his very best, in worship to God – “is an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 15:8).
Before you think of yourself as a good person, remember James 2:10 – “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” So, what sins have you committed? Your character, then, is that of a lawbreaker – regardless of what else you have done.
Paul describes the human condition in Romans 1-3. His summary of all humanity is blunt: “None is righteous.” These chapters are a good summary of human nature and worth pondering.
Therefore, because of man’s nature, we are all under condemnation. We see the effects of sin around us: death, destruction, suffering, brokenness, addiction, etc. But God’s punishment is awaiting. In fact, ‘the wrath of God’ already abides on those who are his enemies (John 3:36). This is how certain it is.
Jesus warns us much about hell. Unlike many modern teachers, Jesus is continually pointing out that hell is far worse than we expect. However bad we imagine it to be, Jesus indicates that it will be worse, not better.
CHRIST
It is only when we understand the bad news that we can understand why the gospel (which means ‘good news’) is so good. It’s like a doctor who says, ‘you’re cancer free!’ Now, if you assumed that you were healthy, that wouldn’t be anything significant. But if you knew that, at your last appointment, tumors riddled your body, suddenly that is VERY good news! Similarly, we need to make sure that people understand the bad news before if they are going to be captivated by the good news!
We need a mediator – one to go between God and man. Jesus is that mediator. Jesus was born of a virgin and lived a perfect life. He lived the life that God demands of us all, but we fail in. He is truly righteous. Jesus died as a sacrifice. Jesus did more than simply physically suffer. He took the sins of evildoers upon him, and endured spiritual torment. He became ‘sin’ (or ‘sin offering’ – what is punished in place of sin) on behalf of his people.
The resurrection is evidence of God’s acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Jesus is going to come again. A final judgment will occur. Every person will give an account before God of everything that they have done. We cannot work our way to heaven. But salvation is offered through Jesus’ sacrifice. We must accept his work for us, rather than trusting in our own ability to work for our salvation.
RESPONSE
There are two parts to our response to this message of the gospel.
First, repentance – this word means ‘to have a change of mind.’ It’s to have a paradigm-shift, a complete and total restructuring of your thinking. Change your mind about God, your self, your sins, etc. This type of paradigm shift ALWAYS results in a different way of living. When you start to think of sin the way that God views it, sin becomes heinous. You reject it and stop going that way. Repentance can be described like a U-turn. You are going one way, but then – when you have the paradigm shift and realize that you are going ‘the wrong way,’ you turn around and go the other way.
Second, faith – this is the ‘other side of the coin’ of repentance. Repentance and faith go together. Belief, faith, and trust are the same Greek word in the Bible. Faith has historically been defined as having three aspects (using three Latin words):
First, specific knowledge is the first component of faith (‘notitia’ is Latin for ‘knowing’ or ‘knowledge’). It refers to the content of faith: the specific truths actually asserted and believed. Many people ignore notitia when they say ‘have faith!’ or ‘just believe!’ but they fail to clarify what one should have faith in, or what one should believe. Ultimately, just ‘having faith’ does not save you: it is what your faith is in that saves (or doesn’t save) you.
Second, it is not enough to know specific facts; you must actually accept the facts as valid and true. This is where assensus (agreement, assent) comes in. Faith is more than simply having knowledge about something; it also includes agreement with that knowledge. We live in a world filled with truth claims; just because you know what an atheist believes, for example, doesn’t mean that you agree with the atheist. Just because you have heard about a conspiracy theory doesn’t mean that you accept it as valid. You may have specific knowledge (notitia) about something, but you may be lacking in acceptance of those facts (assensus).
Third, fake faith often has specific knowledge (notitia) and agrees with the facts (assensus), but it fails to include trust or commitment (fiducia). This Latin term refers to trust, confidence or reliance, and it is crucially different from merely agreeing with the facts (assensus). Fiducia (trust,, reliance) goes beyond agreement and involves the idea of commitment; it is when you are so confident in the facts that they are willing to commit yourself to the idea, come what may.
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