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The Emphasis in Evangelism:  Knowing Christ, or Deciding Christ?

Jonathan Culley

29 Apr 98

It’s exciting for the Christian to be in a conversation with a non-believer that starts to turn to spiritual matters. Usually, most of these conversations don’t result in the non-believer making the decision to accept Christ as his Savior. However, when it happens, it’s certainly a grand privilege to be the instrument through which God reveals himself to another person and to witness, close up, the saving activity of God.

There are different views on the motivating forces behind evangelism. These views seek to answer the question, "Why should I evangelize?" There are also different views on the techniques of evangelism. These views seek to answer the question, "How should I evangelize?" I think that the how flows out of the why. That is, the techniques that I use in sharing the Gospel are largely dependent on my motivation for evangelism, and how I understand my role and God’s role in the process. As a Christian, what should be my emphasis when I am sharing the Gospel to a non-believer? Should my chief goal be to get the non-believer to a decision-point for Christ, or should my chief goal be to simply reveal (actively communicate) who Christ is and what He did on the cross?

The way the Christian views his own salvation determines his motivation and methods of telling others about Christ. For example, if I believe that my decision to put my faith in Christ was the necessary condition for God regenerating me, then when I evangelize, this conviction will most likely lead me to put a lot of emphasis on the non-believer’s importance in making a decision for Christ. The reason is because the non-believer’s decision has causal power, and this tends to heighten the sense of human responsibility in God’s saving work.

On the other hand, if I believe that God’s regenerating work in me was the necessary condition for my faith in Him, then when I evangelize, this conviction will most likely lead me to put emphasis on educating the person on who God is. This view removes the responsibility of salvation from the person and puts it squarely on the shoulders of God. This lets God do the convicting, compelling, and saving. Then someone will say, "If that’s true, then what is your motivation for evangelizing?" I suggest three things: First, God commands us to evangelize. Second, God gives us the distinct privilege of participating in His redemptive work by operating through our words and actions to bring about conviction and the knowledge of truth in their lives (the principle of secondary causes). Third, if I give all saving responsibility to God, then my participation in evangelism is born completely out of Christ’s compelling love for his children, and not out of a sense of duty or obligation—It frees me to evangelize from the vantage point of complete and total grace (gratitude). Incidentally, this also magnifies the glory of God. The less I give credit to man’s ability to choose God, the more sovereign, purposeful, and powerful I see God. This view puts God in His rightful, sovereign place, who is the One who saves.

I believe that in evangelism, it is more important to pursue the goal of communicating the knowledge of Christ to the non-believer than to pursue the goal of getting him to make a decision for Christ. The person who "counts the cost" of following Jesus (by having Christians share the person and work of Jesus) is in a better position to truly make a decision for Him. The person who has been led down a "fast track" to get to a decision point for accepting Christ is actually in danger of misunderstanding who he is actually putting His trust in. The emphasis in evangelism is to effectively communicate the identity and work of Jesus Christ, not get the person to come to faith or a decision. Please don’t get me wrong. A decision to put faith in Christ is necessary (temporally, not logically) to being saved, but that should not be the emphasis of evangelism. In evangelism, I should do the things that God has given me the responsibility to do (communicate the Gospel to non-Christians). I should not do the things that God has not given me the responsibility to do (bring the person to make a decision for Christ—that’s God’s job).

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This page was last edited on 19 Dec 1999.