Chapter – SEVEN
Pages 87 – 95 4th edition ©1996
D. James Kennedy
ANALYZING THE GOSPEL PRESENTATION
In the introduction you found out what the person is trusting in for
salvation. Equally important, he has found out. Until you
helped him clarify it, he probably wasn’t aware of what he was
trusting in for eternal life. We begin now to tear down this
inadequate foundation. Now we are about to show the “product” and show
the prospect that he needs it. Remember, you put the value on your
product by the way you speak about it. It will seem as valuable to
your prospect as it does to you. Think about what you are saying. Talk
about God’s Good News in a manner befitting the greater story ever
told! The expression on your face may be far more important than the
words on your lips. Start thinking about heaven before talking about
it!
Beware of your attitude at this point lest you convey: “Would you
like me (wise guy) to tell you (stupid) how you can get smart
(like I am)?” In other words, avoid talking down to people. People who
have been going to Sunday school classes and worship services know a
lot of facts that form a spiritual jigsaw puzzle. Each Sunday they get
another piece or two to put in the box. This week they got a sermon
about the Good Samaritan. That was nice. Into te box it goes.
Occasionally they shake all the pieces around, but the pieces don’t
seem to fall together. Christianity seems to be just a large number of
pieces floating through the air—Noah, David and Goliath, the Tower of
Babel, Jesus healing a blind man, and a little man up in a
tree—isolated stories without much meaning and with no
interrelationship. A few pieces are missing. There we supply as we
present the Gospel. These key pieces enable everything else to fall
into place. The things in this presentation that most people don’t
know are:
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Man cannot save himself
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God is holy and just and must punish sin
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Christ is God
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His death on the cross was for our sins
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He offers heaven as a gift
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The meaning of grace
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The meaning of faith
I. GRACE
It seems that everyone has heard of grace. Perhaps it is the most
frequently used concept in Christian circles. Tragically, however, few
can tell you what grace means. The non-Christian adage, “God helps
those who help themselves,” is deeply embedded in the American mind.
Because our ancestors dug and clawed a nation out of the wilderness,
the American traditionally wants to stand on his own two feet. He
feels he must carry his share of the load. All of this is commendable.
However, if this spirit carries over into an understanding of grace,
it can be eternally fatal.
God has revealed Himself as “the help of the helpless.” As long as
a person thinks he must contribute his own effort to the work of God,
he does not understand his true condition or the work of Christ. He
does not realize that sin has incapacitated him so that he cannot do
anything meritorious in God’s sight. Neither does he know the
sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice. By adding his supposed goodness to
the work of our Lord, he is saying he believes Christ’s work was
insufficient.
Paul’s teaching in Romans 11:6 is that grace and works are
mutually exclusive: “If by grace, then is it no more of works:
otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no
more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” This must be communicated
to your prospect if there is to be a good profession. For salvation
your prospect may be trusting wholly in Christ, wholly in self, or
partially in Christ and partially in self, many unsaved people who are
related to a church fall into the latter category. However, that
position is essentially the same as trusting fully in self. “Assuming
that Christ has done His part sufficiently, if I am to be saved I must
do my part acceptable. If, on the other hand, I am lost, it must be
because I did not do enough to win God’s favor.” This is the logic of
partial trust in Christ and partial trust in self. As one has said,
“Grace is not the thread of gold decorating the garment; rather, like
the ancient mercy seat, it is gold, pure gold, through and through.”
A. HEAVEN IS A FREE GIFT
Making this statement just once does not deal with the point. Every
religion in the world teaches that man must earn the favor of
God by doing something. He must qualify himself. He must make himself
worthy of God’s gifts. In Contrast, Christianity proclaims that God’s
favor, His blessings, and heaven itself can be had only as free gifts.
You cannot obliterate the non-Christian concept of making yourself
worthy of God’s favor by saying the contrary statement only once. Say
it numerous times in different ways! “Heaven is free!” “Eternal life
is God’s gift to you.” “His favor is given graciously.” “You do
not—you cannot—earn your way to heaven.” “Never can you deserve to
dwell with the holy, sin-hating one.” After all this, maybe he will
understanbd—maybe he won’t. Pray that God will graciously open the
ears of your prospect and give him understanding.
B. IT IS NOT EARNED OR DESERVED
Here you contrast man’s way with God’s way. Man’s way is to try to
earn, to deserve, to pay for, or to work for everything. From birth he
is programmed to work for everything: grades, rewards, wages, etc.
With man, nothing is free. Contrariwise, God’s way is grace—receive
freely what we don’t deserve (Ephesians 2:8-9). Ask, “How much do you
pay for the air you breathe, intelligence, physical life?” If they are
free gifts from God, how much mire are eternal life and heaven.
Master and use the illustration about a friend’s gift that
illustrates that no amount of human effort can earn the free gift of
eternal life. Use questions to focus attention, to draw the prospect
into the conversation, and to heighten interest; “How good do you
suppose I’d have to be to earn my way to heaven?”
Most people don’t realize that man cannot save himself; therefore,
this truth must be repeated and emphasized many times and in many
different ways.
Transitional sentences made the presentation flow smoothly. They
point back to what has been said, then point forward to what is going
to be discussed next: “This can be seen more clearly when we
understand what the Bible says about man.”
II. MAN
A. IS A SINNER
Most people know they are sinners, even they may not realize the
seriousness of that accusation. Many times they have heard, “All have
sinned.” They conclude that sin is something everyone is doing;
therefore, it cannot be so bad. “Oh, yes, I’m a sinner. But not so bad
a sinner that I can’t go to heaven by being reasonably good.”
The best way to tell people they are sinner without unnecessary
offense is to state the general principle: “all have sinned.” Quote
Romans 3:23. Define sin. Then see the three-sins-a-day illustration to
reveal that though a person may appear to be in pretty good shape with
only a few sins a day, by the end of a lifetime that will add up to
many sins.
They don’t know that because they are sinners and God’s standard
is perfection, they cannot qualify for heaven.
We must clear the deck. The Scripture says to tear down and to
build up. We have to tear away, clear away, the old foundation on
which they have built their hope of eternal life before we can build a
new one.
B. CANNOT SAVE HIMSELF
In Telling a man he is a sinner and cannot save himself, you simply
show him that what he has told you will not work, By showing him that
God’s standard is perfection (Matthew 5:48) and by illustrating with
reference to the omelet and the bad egg, you are showing him that a
little sin will contaminate the whole life, that he has fallen short
of God’s standard and is therefore unacceptable to God. Hence, you
convey the idea that he needs to hear more of what you are offering
him.
It is good at the end of “Grace” to show that what he is trusting
in is inadequate—that no one could get to heaven on that basis. You
might say, “You understand now that because God’s standard is
perfection and none of us have come up to it, it is impossible for
anyone to get to heaven by doing enough good things?”
His reply would be, “Yes, I do.”
Now your prospect has reaffirmed that you not only understand him
correctly and knew what he means wen he answered the question as to
why God should let him into heaven, but now he sees that what he meant
is impossibility.
The reason this is a good place to do this is that you have not
given him anything to substitute for it yet. After you have given him
the right answer, he might say, :Oh no! I didn’t mean that! I meant
this—what you just said.” But by the end of point one you haven’t
given the right answer. All you have done is taken away what he was
trusting in formerly.
Occasionally one will disagree with you and say, “No, that’s now
what I meant.” He realizes he may have shown that what he’s trusting
in is wrong. He may not want to admit this. Your reply in such a
situation is, “Wonderful! I’m glad that I found this out now, for I
thought that’s what you meant. Tell me, what did you mean?” Thus you
can get another commitment from him at this point. All he is going to
do is point to some other part of himself—that is, to something else
in himself that he is trusting in. Then you can continue with the
Gospel.
III. GOD
A. IS MERCIFUL; THEREFORE, HE DOESN’T WANT TO PUNISH US
This deals, in the first place, with the good news that God is
merciful. He loves us in spite of what we are because of who He is.
Use 1st John 4:8 here to underscore that “God is love.” You
may want to add that He has loved us with an everlasting love
(Jeremiah 31:3).
The nature of God is an element left out of many presentations of
the Gospel. To leave it out, especially in the present day, deprives
the Gospel of much of its meaning. Perhaps two hundred years ago most
people had a valid conception of God. This is not true today.
Ultimately, most theological heresy is caused by a misconception of
the nature of God. When we fail to understand His nature, we cannot
understand His Gospel. Many church people hold a Christian Science
concept of God as merely love. If this is a person’s view of God, he
will fit all you say as you present the Gospel into that mold, and it
will be meaningless to him. God is love—so what if man is a sinner?
God is love—so what if Christ died? God is love—so why worry whether
everyone believes in Him since everyone will be saved anyway?
A good response could be to point out that the second commandment
is the one most frequently broken today: “Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven images.” You may have heard the story of two
servicemen who returned to base on Saturday night after a week’s
leave. They had lived it up wildly during the week and had done
everything a serviceman could do on leave. On Sunday morning they went
to chapel to find the chaplain preaching on the Ten Commandments. As
they were slinking out the door after service, one was heard to say to
the other, “Well, at least I ain’t made no graven images lately!” But
the problem with all he had done, basically, was the fact that he had
started with a graven image—not made of wood or stone, but conjured up
in the factory of his mind. Men create gods in their own image.
One time I was reading to a lady what God said he would do to the
guilty. She said, “Oh, my God would never do that!” After much effort
to persuade her otherwise, I finally said, “Madam, you are right. Your
god would never do that. The problem is, your god doesn’t exist except
in your own mind. You have created a god in your own image, according
to your own liking, and now you have fallen down and worshiped him.
This is idolatry.”
This is one of the most prevalent sins of our day. How often have
you heard someone say, “God would never do that!” What god wouldn’t do
it? The God of the Bible? He says a thousand times exactly what He
will do. If one says God wouldn’t so these things, he is speaking of
the god he has made up—a false god.
Therefore, in a time when this heresy is so prevalent, we need to
stress the true nature of God—not only that He is loving and kind and
merciful, but also that he is holy and cannot condone sin. He is also
righteous and has promised to punish sin and visit our iniquity with
stripes. It is the name of God that makes the whole concept of
Christ’s person and work meaningful.
We have found that we can avoid many arguments on the justice and
righteousness of God if we will first deal clearly with the great
biblical truth that God is love. And after expounding on His mercy,
grace, and love, we can then introduce the subject of His justice by
saying that the same Bible that tells us God is merciful and loving
also tells us that God…
B. IT JUST; THEREFORE, HE MUST PUNISH SIN
Here you deal with the bad news that sinful men must stand before a
holy God at the judgment. Most people don’t know this, so you may want
to use one or all of the following Scriptures:
Exodus 34:7—“[He] will by no means clear the guilty.”
Ezekiel 18:4—“The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Habakkuk 1:3—“Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil.”
Romans 6:23—“The wages of sin is death.”
The transitional sentence used here is: “God solved this problem
in the person of Jesus Christ.” The word problem used here does
not mean some impossible-to-solve difficulty that caught God off
guard, but an apparent dilemma in the mind of man that must be
resolved.
IV. JESUS CHRIST
A. WHO HE IS: THE INFINITE GOD-MAN
In our society, people know many facts about jesus of Nazareth, but
many do not know that he is divine. When they hear “Jesus is the Son
of God,” they have some faulty understanding. Perhaps they believe
that He is only different in degree from every human being. “Are we
not all the sons of God?” they ask. They do not see anything unique
about Jesus except that He was more successful than we in keeping
God’s law and He was a brilliant teacher. For others, the claim that
Jesus was the Son of God means that He was more than a man, but they
believe He was less than God. In other words, He was God and man
mingled in own nature, so he is seen as a superhuman being but not as
a fully divine being. We must underscore the truth that the babe of
Bethlehem’s manger was none other than the Word of creation, the
infinitely mighty God who created and sustain heaven and earth and all
things. By infinite, we mean limitless and measureless in His
attributes.
You may want to lead into this point by asking the prospect who he
understands Jesus Christ to be. The use of questions such as this will
keep you from a monologue. But if the prospect is already very
talkative, such questions might not be necessary.
If the prospect’s comments are true but incomplete, such as,
“Jesus was a great teacher,” avoid telling him he’s wrong. Rather,
say, “Yes, and he was also the Son of God,” etc. Thus you will build
upon the prospect’s reply with a positive response.
B. WHAT HE DID: HE DIED ON THE CROSS AND ROSE FROM THE DEAD TO
PAY THE OPENTALTY FOR OUR SINS AND TO PURCHASE A PLACE IN HEAVEN FOR
US
Nearly everyone we meet knows that Jesus died on the cross of Calvary.
Relatively few are aware of the significance of that death according
to the teaching of the Scriptures. The death of Christ has no meaning
for a man until the concept of imputation grasps his soul as it did
Luther’s. One must see that his sins were laid to Christ. He must
realize that Christ assumed his guilt. As Paul put it, God made Christ
to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in
Him. The cross has meaning for a man when he knows that his guilt was
imputed to the Son by the Father, and when he knows, further, that the
Father laid upon the Son the hell that every sinner deserves. Let a
man see his sin laid on Christ on the cross and then that cross has
meaning for him.
A word about visual illustrations is in order here. It is very
helpful if we enable the person to whom we are speaking not only to
hear the Gospel but to see it, as well. This can be accomplished with
illustrations, that is, the employment of concrete objects in action
situations. Examples of such illustrations are the fallowing:
1. The record book illustration. The transference of the
“recent book” from the hand representing self to the hand representing
Christ, and the subsequent falling of the wrath of God upon that sin .
This is used to illustrate what Christ has done for us.
2. Tetelestai. The primary meaning of the Greek word is “it
is finished.” But according to papyri commercial documents found in
Egypt the word tetlestai was printed across an item that had
been paid in full. Hence, it can be said that when Jesus said, “It is
finished,” He was also declaring that by His death he paid the penalty
for our sins.
3. The chair illustration. This illustrates the
transference of our trust from what we have done (indicated by the
chair in which we are then sitting) to what Christ has done for us
(visualized by another chair in the room, to which we transfer our
weight). This is an illustration of saving faith.
4. The motive for living a godly life. In this illustration
a pen pr small vase or other object from the person’s table may be
used to represent the gift of eternal life. This illustrates that
one’s effort to do good works are done out of gratitude for the gift
received rather than in an effort to obtain it. This illustration is
placed at the very end of the presentation in order to fit good works
into their proper place since everyone knows that good works have
something to do with Christianity. It is important that we put them in
their proper place, or else the person may put them in an improper
place.
In using a visual illustration , it is important for the witness
to fix his own eyes on the object he is using rather than looking at
the person to whom he is speaking. This will call the listener’s
attention to the illustration and enable him to properly understand
it.
V. FAITH
The subject of faith is crucial, for this is the point of personal
appropriation of eternal life. John Calvin said that the Roman
Catholic Church taught him the deity of Christ, the Trinity, the
Atonement; but the one thing the church did not teach him was how to
appropriate the Atonement for himself. Even today there are those who
know all of the doctrines of the faith, but they don’t know how to get
eternal life for themselves. Their problem: an inadequate or false
concept of saving faith.
Theologians have rightly pointed out that there are three elements
to saving faith: knowledge, assent, and trust. We may know about
something without giving assent to it. For example, one cult teaches
that Christ is incarnate today in a man in India. I know about this,
but I do not assent to it. Similarly, one may have knowledge that the
Bible teaches that man is a sinner who cannot save himself without
assenting to the truth of this statement. Thus, to knowledge must be
added assent to the facts of our historic faith. However, one
can know about Alexander the great and assent to the historical record
concerning his conquests, Further, we assent to the fact that he was a
military genius. However, I hope no one is trusting Alexander to do
anything for him! That would be rather ludicrous. Added to knowledge
and assent is what Luther termed fiducia: trust.
A. WHAT SAVING FAITH IS NOT
Before you share what saving faith is, it is important to deal with
what it is not. It is not mere intellectual assent. Many people
believe in God’s existence in much the same way as people believe in
George Washington or Napoleon. The devil believes in God’s existence
(James 2:19), but simply assenting to the fact will not take him to
heaven.
Furthermore, saving faith is not mere temporal faith.
Temporal faith is trusting Christ for temporary emergencies or needs
of this life, such as for sickness, financial pressures, traveling
dangers, or major decisions. Such faith is good, as far as it goes,
but it can save no one.
B. WHAT IT IS—TRUSTING JESUS CHRIST ALONE FOR OUR SALVATION
It is important to define saving faith clearly as trusting Christ
alone for eternal life. You can effectively illustrate the meaning of
saving faith with the use of an empty chair. Let that chair represent
the Lord Jesus. Your prospect knows it is a chair. He believes
(assents) that the chair will hold him off the floor, provide comfort
to his body, and relax his weary spirit. But it’s not doing any of
these things for one obvious reason: He’s not sitting in it. Neither
is the chair of any benefit to you for the same reason. Now the chair
in which you are sitting can represent all you once trusted for
eternal life. Point out that this is inadequate for your needs, and
when God shakes the world in the final judgment, it will drop you into
hell.
By actually moving from the “chair of your own good works” to the
“chair of Jesus Christ,” you visually and verbally illustrate the
meaning of trusting Christ alone for salvation. Just as you are no
longer in the “chair of your good works” but in the “chair of Jesus
Christ,” so you have transferred your trust for eternal life from
yourself to the Lord.
As we said above, a more subtle substitute for saving faith is
trusting the Lord for temporal well-being while trusting self for
eternal life. Some have difficulty making tis distinction, but the
distinction is necessary. It spells the difference between weal and
woe eternally.
Let us consider Martin Luther. Before his conversion, he was not
an agnostic skeptic or atheist. He believed in God. While in the
monastery, he undoubtedly trusted God for many things. When he made
the pilgrimage to Rome, did he not trust the Lord for safety, lodging
and meals, and health? Certainly! Similarly, John Wesley trusted the
Lord to take him safely from England to his mission post in the New
World. All the while, these men were trusting themselves for a
successful journey from earth to heaven! They knew about and trusted
in “transportation by faith” long before they knew and trusted
“justification by faith.”
You can use the “chair of Jesus Christ” to illustrate the concept
of trusting Him for temporal matters. As you restate that your
prospect was trusting God for health, you can place glasses or a pen
on the “chair of Jesus Christ.” Trusting Him for travel mercies can be
represented by a key ring. A blindfold will indicate trust in God for
financial needs. All the while, the prospect is still sitting in the
“chair of his own good works.” He is still trusting in himself for the
eternal well-being of his soul.
Before leaving the point of faith, it is important to explain the
role of good works and the motive for godly living. You may want to
explain that, as the president of Princeton once said, we do not do
good works to gain eternal life, we do them out of gratitude for
eternal life. I think this is an excellent illustration for several
reasons. First, it recapitulates the essence of the Gospel, which is
good. You tell them what you’re going to tell them, as well as what
you have already told them. Because they know good works has to be in
there somewhere, when ou finally put good works in the right place,
they grasp it. Second, using this illustration is good because it is
visual and easy to understand. Third, it comes from a very
authoritative figure. It is not just my opinion—it is that if the
president of Princeton. Fourth, it is expressed in what I think is a
memorable statement: “All the rest of my life was simply a P.S. to
that day.”
