Divine Access

I'm not a huge proponent of evangelism methodology.

From my perspective, if I love people the way Jesus wants me to love them, and if I conduct myself the way Jesus wants me to conduct myself, then my conversations will naturally involve the gospel and will naturally point toward Jesus.  Of course, that isn't to say that methodology isn't helpful for shaping our thinking, nor am I implying that we should never employ a method to help us get conversations started, but typical evangelistic methods are intended to be universal, one-size-fits-all templates when people are far too unique -- far too individualistic thinkers with far too individualized experiences -- for a blanket method to influence them all the same way.

Certainly, the gospel is one-size-fits-all, but God's grace is not.  It is unique and personal and wonderfully, situationally suited to specifically and sufficiently meet the needs of individual sinners.  Do the Biblical standards apply to everyone?  Of course.  All have sinned, all need grace, and all must confess the name of Jesus personally as Lord and Savior.  But the point at which different people come to understand these truths is unique to each, as the Spirit moves in his or her heart via experiences, conversations, and -- above all else -- His Word.

Consequently, I find evangelistic methods sometimes more conducive to self-evaluation and worship than to making new disciples.  As followers of Christ, we should constantly be preaching the gospel to ourselves, after all.  Hebrews 2 attests that, the more we mature in our faith, the more we should focus on the core concept of the gospel to continue to impress the weight of grace upon our hearts.

In particular, the age-old evangelistic hypothetical strikes me as a humbling reminder:

If you died today and stood before God Almighty, and He asked you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?", what would you say?

The guy who partners with me to teach the college group at our church proposed this question the other week during our discussion time.  Whether or not standing before the Throne will literally involve such a query, my answer to it is nevertheless humbling to ponder.  Because if you believe as I do that access to the Kingdom of Heaven is determined not by any merit of my own, then I am required to answer that nothing but the cleansing blood of Jesus can grant me entrance.

"Why should I let you into my heaven?"

Please, gracious Father, let me overcome my tendency to stammer and "um" and mumble for just that one precious moment, and respond clearly and intentionally with something akin to this:

Gracious Father, in life I was dead and helpless in my sin.  Your Son took on Himself the atrocious iniquities I committed, every last one of them.  He also bore Your holy, righteous wrath, which I justly earned for those failures.  Because of that eternally ordained act of love, mercy, and grace -- Your wrath satisfied in crushing Your Son instead of condemning me -- I am now and forever Your child and my heart is Yours.  By no right of my own, I am an heir to Your Kingdom and all its splendor because Christ has claimed me and healed all the animosity between us.  And while this resurrection to a perfect body and beholding the glory of Your heaven is certainly an incomparable privilege, it is YOU whom my heart has craved and worshiped and adored.  Though I've failed and stumbled, Your steadfast mercy and grace have been sufficient to sustain my weary soul, perfecting me throughout my years until this very moment.  Now, perfected, I will spend eternity before You in humble, joyful, exclamatory celebration -- not to pay You back, because that would be impossible, but because I owe You everything.  Thank You, my Father.

~*~

Ephesians 2.1-10:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.