By Larry Rosenbaum
In order for an unsaved person to come to Christ, he or she must be
absolutely convinced that he is a lost sinner, and that there is no
way he can save himself by his own works or by any other means. As
long as he thinks he has found a loophole–that somehow God will accept
him without the need for faith in Christ, he will invariably take
advantage of that loophole. The unbeliever will comfort himself with
the thought that most of the people he knows don’t believe in Christ
and that all these people couldn’t be wrong. As we know, this is a
dangerous deception.
In a similar manner, in order for a Christian to commit himself to
evangelism, he or she must come to the realization that God has commanded
him to do so. If he can convince himself that God has made an exception
for him, that he is excused from obeying the Great Commission, he
will invariably take advantage of this loophole. Unfortunately, the
vast majority of evangelical Christianity has allowed itself to be
deceived into thinking that a Christian who never witnesses for our
Lord can be right with God. Such a Christian comforts himself with
the thought that most other Christians don’t witness, so it must be
Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him
will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32).
Before He ascended into heaven, He gave us the commandment to “go
into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15).
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you
will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The apostle Paul understood the necessity to preach the gospel. “When
I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach.
Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily,
I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust
committed to me” (1 Corin. 9:16-17). He told the Ephesian elders,
“I declare to you today that [1]I am innocent of the blood of all men.
For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God”
(Acts 20:26). In making this statement, he referred to God’s words
to Ezekiel and considered them applicable to us in New Testament times:
“When I say to a wicked man, `You will surely die,’ and you do not
warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order
to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and [1]I will
hold you accountable for his blood.[1] But if you do warn the wicked
man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways,
he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself” (Ezekiel
3:18-19).
I’d encourage you to read the whole third chapter of Ezekiel. Some
will argue that this passage only applied to Ezekiel, but Acts 20:26
is a clear reference to it, and shows that Paul thought the passage
referred to him. The passage in 1 Corin. 9 confirms that Paul considered
that some adverse consequence would fall on him if he refused to preach
the gospel.
It may come as a shock to us that the great apostle Paul was motivated
by the fear of having the blood of unsaved people on his hands in
preaching the gospel. Surely he would have been motivated rather by
his great love for God, by the great joy he had in his salvation that
he couldn’t keep to himself, and by his love for the lost. I’m sure he
was motivated by all these things, but sometimes he needed this
motivation—Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel.[1] Witnessing for
Jesus isn’t always pleasant or convenient. Even Paul at times would
have avoided witnessing if he thought he could have gotten away with
it and still be right with God. After all, it wasn’t fun having people
throw stones at you and being thrown into jail.
Again, some will argue that these scriptures only applied to the
apostles or to those specifically called as evangelists or mis
sionaries. Certainly there are different callings in people’s
lives. But do you think that God has placed this great responsi
bility on Paul, where the blood of others would be on his hands
if he disobeyed, yet He has given you no responsibility whatsoev
er to the lost?
Why do you think God did not take you to heaven as soon as you were
saved? Why must we endure all those trials and tribulations? Yes,
God is purifying us so we will be more like Jesus but His purpose
in bringing about these changes is for us to become better witnesses
for our Lord. When I am in heaven I will be totally like Jesus and
will have perfect fellowship with Him, but it will be too late to
help anyone else. Again Paul wrote, “I desire to depart and be with
Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that
I remain in the body” (Phil. 1:23). The only reason we stay on this
earth is for the sake of others–to help other believers mature in
Christ and bring salvation to the lost. If we are not doing these
things, we are wasting our lives.
I realize that these are strong words. Some have probably stopped
reading this newsletter and are angry at me. Some are still looking
for loopholes. “My ministry is to the church, not to the lost.” No–God
has called you to minister to both. “You’re trying to put me into
legalistic bondage in which I’ll feel guilty whenever someone passes
me by and I don’t witness to him.” Obviously, we can’t witness to
every single person we come into contact with. But we sin both
[1]when we fail to witness to someone God tells us to talk to and
when we fail to give evangelism the priority in our lives God wants
it to have.[1] When we confess our sins of omission in regard to evangelism,
God will forgive us — but we need to change our ways. Thinking about
the blood of others being on our hands may seem crude but Paul needed
it to motivate him and we need it to motivate us as well.
Once we stop looking for loopholes and making excuses for our failure
to witness, we will find a way to witness for Christ as a central
part of our lives. If we need training, we will get it. If we are
fearful, we will overcome the fear. If we are busy, we will find time
to witness just like we find time to go to church, read our Bible,
and pray. Getting past the excuses is the hard part; the rest is easy.
