I have been pretty busy, I apologize for taking so long to get this last installment posted up.
John MacArthur has written an excellent outline of the following six points.
1. Teach them about God’s holiness
2. Show them their sin
3. Instruct them about Christ and what He has done.
4. Tell them what God demands of them.
5. Advise them to count the cost thoughtfully.
6. Urge them to trust Christ.
I think each of these points needs to be addressed when we witness. I believe we have covered all these points in the previous two posts but this really sums it up. You may not like the approach I choose to share the gospel by going through the ten commandments, but however you do share the gospel I think you need to address the following points during your discussion.
Teach them about God’s holiness. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” ( Ps. 111:10 , cf. Job 28:28 ; Prov. 1:7 ; 9:10 ; 15:33 ; Mic. 6:9 ). No-lordship theology misses this point entirely. In fact, much of contemporary evangelism aims to arouse anything but fear of God. “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” is the opening line of the typical evangelistic appeal today. No-lordship theology takes it a step further: God loves you and will save you from hell no matter whose plan you choose for your life.
The remedy for such thinking is the biblical truth of God’s holiness. God is utterly holy, and His law therefore demands perfect holiness: “I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy.… You shall be holy for I am holy” ( Lev. 11:44–45 ). “You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins” ( Josh. 24:19 ). “There is no one holy like the Lord, indeed, there is no one besides Thee, Nor is there any rock like our God” ( 1 Sam. 2:2 ). “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” ( 6:20 ).
Even the gospel requires this holiness: “You shall be holy, for I am holy” ( 1 Pet. 1:16 ). “Without [holiness] no one will see the Lord” ( Heb. 12:14 ).
Because He is holy, God hates sin: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me” ( Exod. 20:5 ). Sinners cannot stand before Him: “The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous” ( Ps. 1:5 ).
Show them their sin. Gospel means “good news.” What makes it truly good news is not just that heaven is free, but that sin has been conquered by God’s Son. Sadly, it has become stylish to present the gospel as something other than a remedy for sin. “Salvation” is offered as an escape from punishment, God’s plan for a wonderful life, a means of fulfillment, an answer to life’s problems, and a promise of free forgiveness. All those things are true, but they are byproducts of redemption, not the main issue. When sin is left unaddressed, such promises of divine blessings cheapen the message.
Some no-lordship teachers go so far as to say that sin is not an issue in the gospel invitation. Sin, they believe, is a postsalvation concern. Others believe it is optional whether we confront unbelievers with their sin. One man who edits a no-lordship newsletter replied to a reader’s question: “No, I do not believe that one must recognize that he is a sinner to be saved. The key word is must. It is conceivable that a person could be ignorant of the fact that he is a sinner and yet know that he was bound for hell and could only be saved by trusting in Christ alone. Some small children might fall into this category.”13
He did not attempt to explain why people with no understanding of their own sinfulness would believe they are headed for hell. But one wonders what sort of salvation is available to those who don’t even recognize their sin. Didn’t Jesus say, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” ( Mark 2:17 )? To offer salvation to someone who doesn’t even understand the gravity of sin is to fulfill Jeremiah 6:14 : “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.”
Sin is what makes true peace impossible for unbelievers: “The wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’ ” ( Isa. 57:20–21 ).
All have sinned:
There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes ( Rom. 3:10–18 ).
Sin makes the sinner worthy of death: “When sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” ( James 1:15 ). “For the wages of sin is death” ( Rom. 6:23 ).
Sinners can do nothing to earn salvation: “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” ( Isa. 64:6 ). “By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight” ( Rom. 3:20 ). “A man is not justified by the works of the Law … by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified” ( Gal. 2:16 ).
Sinners are therefore in a helpless state: “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” ( Heb. 9:27 ). “There is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known” ( Luke 12:2 ). “God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” ( Rom. 2:16 ). “The cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” ( Rev. 21:8 ).
Instruct them about Christ and what He has done. The gospel is good news about who Christ is and what He has done for sinners. No-lordship doctrine tends to emphasize His work and de-emphasize His Person, particularly the aspect of His divine authority. But Scripture never presents Jesus as something less than Lord in salvation. The notion that His Lordship is an addendum to the gospel is utterly foreign to Scripture.
He is eternally God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” ( John 1:1–3 , 14 ). “In Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form” ( Col. 2:9 ).
He is Lord of all: “He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful” ( Rev. 17:14 ). “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” ( Phil. 2:9–11 ). “He is Lord of all” ( Acts 10:36 ).
He became man: “Although He existed in the form of God, [He] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” ( Phil. 2:6–7 ).
He is utterly pure and sinless: “[He was] tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” ( Heb. 4:15 ). He “committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” ( 1 Pet. 2:22–23 ). “He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin” ( 1 John 3:5 ).
The sinless one became a sacrifice for our sin: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” ( 2 Cor. 5:21 ). He “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” ( Titus 2:14 ). He shed His own blood as an atonement for sin: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us” ( Eph. 1:7–8 ). “[He] loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood” ( Rev. 1:5 ). He died on the cross to provide a way of salvation for sinners: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” ( 1 Pet. 2:24 ). “Through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross” ( Col. 1:20 ).
He rose triumphantly from the dead: Christ “was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead” ( Rom. 1:4 ). “[He] was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” ( 4:25 ). “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” ( 1 Cor. 15:3–4 ).
Tell them what God demands of them. Repentant faith is the requirement. It is not merely a “decision” to trust Christ for eternal life, but a wholesale forsaking of everything else we trust, and a turning to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Repent: “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions” ( Ezek. 18:30 ). “ ‘I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,’ declares the Lord God . ‘Therefore, repent and live’ ” (v. 32 ). “God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent” ( Acts 17:30 ). “Repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance” ( Acts 26:20 ).
Turn your heart from all that you know dishonors God: “[Turn] to God from idols to serve a living and true God” ( 1 Thess. 1:9 ). Follow Jesus: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” ( Luke 9:23 ). “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (v. 62 ). “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him” ( John 12:26 ).
Trust Him as Lord and Savior: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved” ( Acts 16:31 ). “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” ( Rom. 10:9 ).
Advise them to count the cost thoughtfully. Salvation is absolutely free. So is joining the army. You don’t have to buy your way in. Everything you will need is provided. But there is a sense in which following Christ—like joining the army—will cost you dearly. It can cost freedom, family, friends, autonomy, and possibly even your life. The job of the evangelist—like that of the army recruiter—is to tell potential inductees the full story. That is exactly why Jesus’ message was often so full of hard demands:
If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace. So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
Luke 14:26–33
Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
Matthew 10:34–38
The free-costly, death-life enigma is expressed in the clearest possible terms by John 12:24–25 : “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.”
The cross is central to the gospel precisely because of its graphic message, including the awfulness of sin, the profundity of God’s wrath against sin, and the efficacy of Jesus’ work in crucifying the old man ( Rom. 6:6 ). A. W. Tozer wrote,
The cross is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men.
The cross of Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took Him down six hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.…
The cross effects its ends by destroying one established pattern, the victim’s, and creating another pattern, its own. Thus it always has its way. It wins by defeating its opponent and imposing its will upon him. It always dominates. It never compromises, never dickers nor confers, never surrenders a point for the sake of peace. It cares not for peace; it cares only to end its opposition as fast as possible.
With perfect knowledge of all this, Christ said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” So the cross not only brings Christ’s life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pattern, in the believer’s life, and brings it to an end. Then the God who raised Christ from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins.
This, and nothing less, is true Christianity.…
We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do—flee it or die upon it.14
“For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” ( Mark 8:35–37 ).
Urge them to trust Christ. “Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men” ( 2 Cor. 5:11 ). “[God] reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” ( 2 Cor. 5:20 ).
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” ( Isa. 55:7 ). “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” ( Rom. 10:9–10 ).
MacArthur, John: The Gospel According to the Apostles : The Role of Works in the Life of Faith. Nashville, TN : Word Pub., 2000
Wes
Galatians 2:20
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