Let's say we get serious about the gospel, and how our understanding of grace impacts our evangelism...will we still share the gospel?

I hope in future posts to flush out how a balanced Calvinism should help our evangelism, apologetics, and other areas of life and ministry. Some personal thoughts on evangelism:

First, we want results; we want people to bow to Jesus – but our measure of success is not response, but faithful presentation.

Second, we want people to respond immediately to God, not to us. The biblical pattern is urgency (Heb 3:15), but we must not presume on the Lord's work, because the Spirit blows where he wills (Jn 3:7-8). By all means, if somebody is crying out in distress, “What must I do to be saved?” tell him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31) But remember that others are not yet broken and need to be told, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow [Jesus].” (Mt 19:21) Don't give people a pattern or a prayer, point them to Jesus and let him deal with them. We're not their mediator!

Third, while hesitant about “relational evangelism,” I believe the biblical pattern for most Christians is evangelism in the context of life's everyday interactions and relationships. The keystone verse for our Christian systems of intellectual persuasion (“apologetics”) – “Always be ready to give a reason for the hope...” (1 Pe 3:13), is actually not calling us to equip ourselves with archeological evidence that “proves” Christianity to be true. Rather, because God chose us to be a people who declare his gracious excellencies (1 Pe 2:9), Peter is calling us to let a living hope inspire holy living that baffles our neighbors. When Jesus's people start giving up “the passions of the flesh” (1 Pe 1:14; 2:11) because we've got better pleasures waiting; when we start following Jesus in suffering meekly, even when misunderstood and maligned (1 Pe 2:21); when Christian wives quit trying to manipulate and graciously submit to insensitive husbands (1 Pe 3:1-2); when I can love you genuinely, sacrificially, because I have nothing to protect down here (1 Pe 1:22) – the unbelieving world's gonna wonder what's up. Somebody who's dropping Benjamins like a wannabe drops names is either tripping or he's got bank to back it. Peter says in 3:15-16, “If you're living right, they're gonna be asking you what you're banking on...be ready to talk about Jesus and holiness and heaven and love.”

That said, some use “relational evangelism” as an excuse to never talk about Jesus. “My life is my witness” is often a cover for cowardly Christianity. If your life revolves around Jesus, he's gonna come up in conversation. Nevertheless, both holy living and holy conversation require intentionality.

Per Futurepastorswife's request, here's a gospel conversation I had with a 20 yr. old coworker named Steve. Please understand that, although I do most of the talking here, I had listened for a long time as he talked about himself.

(In dialogue leading up to the gospel-heart of the conversation, Steve made some reference to drinking alcohol and then apologized somewhat because “I know you’re not into that…”)

Sure. In the Bible, there’s a part where it’s talking about all the good things God gives his creatures and it says he’s given wine to gladden the heart of man. And it was God who came up with the idea of sex. We could have reproduced in a hundred ways, but God chose a way that was intensely enjoyable. See, God’s not out to ruin all our fun. He created the world to be enjoyed. People that just focus on a bunch of negative rules miss that.

Yeah, I see that

Of course, there are rules. There’s a reason I’m a virgin. There’s a reason I work hard.

(Here, he noted that I was about the hardest worker in our area and I was able to give glory to Christ, I hope)

But what I want to focus on is the passion behind the rules. What is keeping me from going out and getting laid tonight? A lot of people focus on the rules and lose the gospel of Jesus Christ. A bunch of rules doesn’t get me excited. What gets me excited is the fact that I used to be a rebel against God and now I’m forgiven. You might not have thought I was so bad, but the Bible describes all of us as rebels in a crowd of rebels following the devil, the prince of rebels. Well this means we’re all pretty jacked up, because God has promised himself to kill rebels. The Bible says the paycheck we get sinning is death. But, see, God didn’t leave me there. Jesus came to take the place of sinners like me. I could never do enough good to make God like me, but when I quit trying to make myself good enough for him and accepted what Jesus did, he took away all my sin. All this crap I was living for was placed on Jesus and he died in my place. Then he put all of Christ Jesus’s good works in my bank account. It’s like I had on this skank nasty hoodie with crap all over it and Jesus traded it for his brand new hoodie.

Huh, I've never heard it put that way...