Evangelism is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with people who do not know him yet. It’s the first part of the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20) because the church cannot baptize and disciple people who are not following Jesus. And because it’s part of the Great Commission, it’s something every Christian should be doing.
There are lots of approaches and methods and ways to do evangelism. One of the most popular methods during the 1970’s and 1980’s was called Evangelism Explosion (“EE”). It started at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida with D. James Kennedy and spread across the country. Many churches and Christians still use this approach today.
EE trained Christians to ask two diagnostic questions when beginning a conversation with someone about Jesus: “Have you come to a place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today you would go to heaven?” And, “Suppose that you were to die tonight and stand before God and he were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ What would you say?”
Let’s turn these questions on ourselves. How would you answer the second question? Would you say, “Because I’m a good person, I go to church, I serve, I’ve been generous, or I’m not as bad as most people.” One time a man asked his five-year-old son why God should let him into his heaven and the son said, “Because I’m dead!” The boy believed in justification by death. He assumed that because he was dead he deserved to be in heaven. Many of us might think this way too. We often assume that someone who never gave any evidence of loving Jesus on earth will be with Jesus in heaven.
There is only one right answer to the question “Why should God let us into his heaven?” It’s pass/fail. The only reason God should let any of us into heaven is Jesus Christ. Trusting in the person and work of Jesus is the only way to inherit the kingdom of God. We can only come into the kingdom empty handed. We bring nothing. Our performance does nothing to save us.
We will only go to heaven if God has graciously saved us through faith in Jesus. This is the beauty and simplicity of the gospel message.
But many of us also struggle with the first question from EE: “Have you come to a place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today you would go to heaven?” This question is about our assurance of salvation. How can we be sure we belong to God?
The repeated teaching of Scripture is that those who belong to God will live new lives. We’re saved by faith in Christ alone. But we can be assured of our salvation when we look at our lives and see a new pattern of living. As Martin Luther put it, we’re saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. Or as the apostle James says, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (2:17).
God makes our hearts new through faith in Jesus and a new heart will always make a new life. Now of course cleaning up our lives is not the same as being made new in Christ. The only way to be prepared to go to heaven is to stop trusting in your performance and to start trusting in Christ’s performance for you.
Are you ready for heaven? Are you resting in Christ alone? Is Jesus changing your life day by day? What people in your life do you need to share the good news of Jesus with? May God establish us in Christ and use us to bring many others to him in faith, for his glory.
With You, For Him,
Pastor John