Sharing the Gospel is one of the most difficult things that many brothers and sisters in the faith struggle to obey. There are many anxieties that come with bringing such a message to others. We ask questions such as “Why do I have to do this when there are pastors? What if I get rejected? Is it better for the lost to never hear the Gospel than to hear and reject it?”
Here’s how I would handle such questions: I would begin by reminding this struggling brother/sister of three things- 1. Our calling in the faith, 2. Our purpose of the calling, and 3. The inherent cost of our calling in the faith.
All Christians on this earth are united under one calling, yet are distinguished in our giftings. For example, some are gifted with the ability to teach and preach the Gospel, and that is how they fulfill the calling. Others are gifted in their ability to be a tradesmen, and that is how they fulfill the calling. Despite the different ways they go about it, the call that unites them is best defined as what we know from Matt. 28:18-20 as the Great Commission: “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV).
This was the Resurrected Christ’s last command to the Disciples before ascending to the Father’s right hand in Heaven. I would point out some small things in this text that I believe might encourage my struggling fellow Christians. The first is that this command was given by the Risen Savior, who knows all things, who was present with the Father at the establishment of the foundations of the earth, who foreknew and predestined those who were/are to be conformed to the image of the Son. Therefore, confident of who is guiding us into this call, we can have the utmost assurance that He knew what He was doing then just as He knows now and forever will know. Knowing we serve an omniscient Lord should give us a profound sense of certainty that the call to which He has prescribed to us will have an unique purpose both in our lives and the lives of those who hear. As for those that we believe have never heard, God does not hide Himself from them. The Scriptures tell us that all will be without excuse of knowing God. How exactly a hidden tribe in deep jungles or deserts will come to know Christ is unknown to man. But there are two things we DO know: We know that God has called us to go to the ends of the earth. And even if we fail at the full accomplishment of that, God is still sovereign, and He will not forget His sheep.
This leads to the purpose of the call. Why are we to spread the Gospel to the ends of earth? This answer is twofold. The first part is found in Rom.10:14-15 “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (ESV). In other words, there is no other way for people to come to faith than through having the Gospel presented to them.
The second part is that through the proclamation of the Gospel, God is glorified. The hearer’s response doesn’t change that. If they hear and accept, greater the glory that goes to God. In Rom. 5:12 we read, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” So, in proclaiming the Gospel and the Gospel entering into the life of a sinner, we see there is opportunity for rejoicing in the glory of God and standing/seeing a glimpse of the glory of God.
If they hear and reject, God will still be glorified, because His name is lifted above all names in the proclamation of His Cross. Even the hatefullest of hearts will one day bow and utter before our LORD and Savior and King of Kings. As Philip. 2:9-11 says, “9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The calling, its purpose, and lastly, the cost. Christ perhaps never took on a more cautionary tone than He would when He urged His followers to count the cost of following Him and taking the Gospel to the unknown and hostile places. Multiple times in Scripture we read where Christ tells us this message “You will be hated by men. You will be cursed by men. You may even be killed by men because of me. However, I am greater than he who is in the world. So take heart, because I have already won and you will take part in the victory soon enough.” When proclaiming the Gospel, we are proclaiming the death of dead souls and the new life of everlasting lives. There will be many who reject it, but never is that to be our excuse for holding back. We are not omniscient. We aren’t the One who foreknew and predestined. We are the ones that He called to trust in His message and preach it and that is what we must do. Preaching, my brothers and sisters… It’s What We Do.