What is the Evangelistic Message: Going Deeper

(If you are looking for the connect study for this upcoming week it has been posted directly underneath this entry)

In his book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J.I. Packer asks the question, "What is the Evangelistic message?" He answers it by giving us four essential ingredients:

1. The gospel is a message about God. It tells us who He is, what His character is, what His standards are, and what He requires of us, His creatures. It tells us that we owe our very existence to Him, that for good or ill we are always in His hands and under His eye, and that He made us to worship and serve Him, to show forth His praise and to live for His glory.

2. The gospel is a message about sin. It tells us how we have fallen short of God's standard; how we have become guilty, filthy, and helpless in sin, and now stand under the wrath of God. It tells us that the reason why we sin continually is that we are sinners by nature, and that nothing we do, or try to do, four ourselves can put us right, or bring us back into God's favor.

3. The gospel is a message about Christ. Christ is the son of God incarnate; the Lamb of God dying for sin; Christ the risen Lord; Christ the perfect Savior. We must NOT present the person of Christ apart from His saving work. We must make clear to our hearers who it is we are introducing to them; his whole person, who he is and what he has done.

4. The gospel is a summons to faith and repentance. All who hear the gospel are summoned by God to repent and believe. Faith being the casting and resting of oneself and one's confidence on the promises of mercy which Christ has given to sinners, and on the Christ who gave those promises. Repentance is more than just sorrow, but a change of mind and heart, a new life of denying self and serving the Savior as king in self's place.

Let us all with a love for God and desire to glorify Him and a love for our neighbor discipline ourselves to share the good news of Jesus Christ.