The last couple of weeks I’ve talked about how sin and judgment are two topics that I’ve seen missing in modern-day evangelism. (If you haven’t seen those read part 1 and part 2 here)
This week we’re looking at the 3rd ingredient that often gets left out:
3. REPENTANCE
Getting someone to “accept” Jesus is fairly easy. A vast majority of people in America today “accept” Jesus. They tolerate Him. Some even admire Him or are inspired by Him. That’s not the same as saving faith.
But getting someone to surrender their life and submit to Christ is a whole different story.
Repentance is a God-given gift and heart response to the Gospel message when someone turns from their sin and self-righteousness to embrace Christ as Savior and Lord. It’s the other side of the coin that accompanies faith in salvation.
If you’re not seeing many students come to faith and experience transformation in their lives, it might be because they’ve never repented of their sin.
Repentance in Scripture
Repentance is essential to the message of the Gospel.
We see the danger in Scripture when listeners fail to repent. There were all kinds of “disciples” in the New Testament that followed Christ but never repented of their sin (John 6:66).
In another example, Jesus said the town of Capernaum would be brought down to Hades in the final judgment (Luke 10:15). We have no record of Capernaum ever rejecting Jesus. They tolerated Jesus—even admired Him They just never repented. Jesus wanted us to know judgment awaited them.
I fear when repentance is unclear we have many students who are tolerating, admiring, and even “accepting” Jesus, but who have never submitted to Him for salvation.
Why repentance gets left out…
One of the reasons repentance gets left out is because we don’t ever want to offend someone in our evangelism. We should never be obnoxious, but we also can’t soften the message to make it more palatable.
Studying through the NT, specifically Luke and Acts, has helped me understand my role and mindset as an evangelist. Only 1x in the entire NT does someone “share” the gospel (1 Thess 2:8) — there the word means to give over or to impart.
Instead:
- 27x the gospel is “proclaimed.”
- 24x the gospel is “preached.”
- 13x the gospel is “declared.”
Repentance gets left out when we try to avoid conflict and confrontation. Evangelism is, by nature, confrontational.
Instead of seeing ourselves as spiritual “guides” or “friends” helping others on a spiritual journey, evangelists should see themselves as ambassadors (that’s the biblical term, anyway). We must be faithful to deliver the message and trust God with the results.
With compassion, we represent a kingdom that warns people there is animosity between them and God. By God’s grace, terms of peace are available through Christ. However, one does not receive that peace by continuing on their own journey. It requires surrender.
Sounding the Alarm
Evangelism is like trying to yell and yank people out of a burning building when they don’t know it is on fire. It’s like being a soldier liberating hostages from captivity who don’t realize they are imprisoned. We’re not promoting a message to accept; we’re calling people to turn and run.
This is another reason why the other ingredients of sin and judgment are crucial parts of any gospel presentation. They provide the context for which repentance is necessary.
Do you share the gospel? Or do you proclaim it? I don’t want to get in an argument about what word we use to describe evangelism. I’m talking about having that kind of mindset. Are you willing to confront people with the necessary terms of peace?
Put it Into Practice:
So how can you do a good job of explaining repentance when declaring the Gospel?
Again, if you’ve done a good job talking through sin it’s pretty easy to point back to that and explain the need to turn from those towards Christ. If you haven’t, it becomes more difficult.
When using Romans 6;23 I like to end with the last word of the verse: Lord.
I’ll ask, “What does it mean that Christ is Lord?”
“He’s a ruler or an authority,” they’ll say.
“If I’m honest, when I was in college, I would say I was the Lord of my life. I decided what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I was in charge. When I heard the Gospel I realized I had to submit and follow Christ as the Lord of my life. Let me explain…”
The Pie Chart Illustration
Some of you might be familiar with the “thrones illustration” made famous by Bill Bright and Campus Crusade. I’ve started sharing a similar illustration but tweaked because I think it clarifies what we’re talking about.
I’ll draw two circles.
“Most people view their life like this pie graph. You have time you give towards school, friends, family, career, sleep, and here is faith. That makes up most of your days. Now when I talk to people most people think they need to expand the faith portion of their life. So they think they need to go to church more and read the Bible more and that’s what it means to put Christ first.”
I’ll draw a dotted line to show that portion of the circle expanding.
“A lot of students balk at this anyway, because they already feel like their lives are busy. It feels impossible to add more to their schedule. Priorities aside, at some point it IS impossible to add more to a schedule. But that’s not what making Christ Lord means.”
I’ll point to the second circle and draw the same divisions of schedule.
“What repentance and faith mean is turning from this view of your life and letting Christ be in charge of it all. I’ll draw a Cross over the top of the circle. That means He is in control of how you live your life in all of these areas. He dictates what you do and you follow Him.”
I’ll ask, “Which circle represents how you’ve viewed your spiritual life up to this point? Are you willing to turn and trust Christ as the Lord of your life?”
If you do this, expect to have a lot fewer students “accept” Christ. But know that you are helping them truly understand faith and salvation. They will be confronted with the truth of the Gospel and know what it means to respond. When they do, it will be more likely to be genuine salvation and transformation,
Reflect:
- What have been some of the challenges to helping students understand repentance?
- Try using the “Pie Chart” illustration with someone this week!
