“God convicted me of my sin and my idolatry. But I’m so grateful I’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb.”
“The gospel is all about the grace of God shown to us through Jesus’ work of atonement.”
As Christians, it’s easy to forget how familiar we become with these amazingly rich Christian words and phrases – and how unfamiliar non-Christians might be with them.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news to be shared. In 1 Corinthians, Paul speaks of the wonderful message of salvation which he received and passed on to others:
It is through understanding the significance of these events and by trusting in Jesus Christ that people are saved. But how will people understand the good news if it is not explained in language they can understand?
If we are to articulate the gospel in the most effective and relatable way, we need to have real confidence in our knowledge of the gospel and our ability to explain it so we can remain true to the message. A good first step is to get really familiar with a ‘gospel presentation’ like Two Ways to Live. The best presentations outline how Jesus brings us into relationship with God now and gives us confident hope for eternity.
Once you’ve found a good gospel presentation, it’s great to practice sharing it with a friend. A Christian friend is an obvious choice but even better would be a friend who doesn't yet know Jesus: “As a Christian, I’d love to get better at sharing what I believe with people. Would you mind hearing my presentation and telling me if anything doesn’t make sense?”
One common mistake is to assume that others will understand the Biblical words and phrases we use like: Sin, grace, faith, God, salvation. Often, people will recognise the word but understand it differently from the way we intend. For example, before I understood the gospel, the word ‘grace’ either referred to the prayer we said at mealtimes or something like ‘if God allows’ e.g. “I hope to be there by God’s grace”. It was only as I came to understand the gospel message that I came to see God’s grace as His incredible, undeserved kindness in saving me.
I was once at an evangelistic event aimed at international students. After the talk, I realised that the young woman who was sitting next to me hadn’t really understood what the preacher said. So I did my best to restate the preacher’s message: “Jesus died on the cross taking the punishment we deserve… but then He came back to life…”
I was totally not expecting that. I was so focussed on explaining, that my tone didn’t really match the message – I was stating profound realities as if I was talking about the weather. This young woman’s excited response was entirely appropriate and it made me realise that as well communicating the message, it’s also important to communicate my joy in God’s goodness. That’s not something we can manufacture – it needs to come from our deepening appreciation for what God has done for us through Christ.
One of the dangers with our use of ‘Christian-ese’ jargon is it that doesn’t resonate with real life. We repeat the same formulas among ourselves and fail to truly encourage each other. At the same time we also lose our ability to speak to non-Christians in ways which resonate with them.
I’m encouraged by the fact that even great evangelists like the Apostle Paul sometimes needed several attempts to share the gospel effectively. When he was in Athens, Paul’s attempts to speak about Jesus were met with confusion.
Paul needed to start again using concepts and language more familiar to the Athenians as a bridge to speaking about Jesus. We need to be willing to do the same. That means listening to people and discovering what isn’t yet making sense. In reality, some of the best gospel presentations are a two-way conversation that take place over an extended period of time – that was certainly the case in me coming to faith in Jesus.
LCM shares the gospel alongside the local church of London, equipping everyday Christians to lovingly bring a message of hope in Christ to those least likely to hear it.
Registered Charity No. 247186
