by Pastor James Lee

In Part 1, I began my broader argument that we need to debunk the popularized idea that one can evangelize without verbal proclamation, perpetuated by a popular quote, that has been falsely attributed to St. Francis Assisi, which says, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.” Not really. Actually, just, “No!” There is no “if.” It is always necessary!

Why is that saying so popular? And why do most believers in this country don’t really bat an eye? Perhaps because it subtly tickles ears and attempts to absolve folks of their evangelistic responsibility. Because when theology takes a back seat to methodology, and we drink the contemporary Kool-Aid of wanting to be liked, we’re going to find some sanitized way to justify our non-evangelism. It sounds faithful, sounds virtuous, but it’s anything but that… even though I think many do mean well and do care for the lost. But the idea we can evangelize without actually speaking the truth in love is unbiblical. And that ultimately is the ground and authority for which we must appeal and submit. Unfortunately, the most common proof-text for the myth of non-verbal proclamation is a text and context…that teaches the polar opposite. Our dearest Lord Jesus, authoritatively declares in Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

1. We don’t fail to shine because of darkness; we fail to shine because we refuse to shine!

The world’s darkness has no bearing on our shining or not, except to be the backdrop for which the gospel shines brighter. When Jesus spoke of the obvious visibility of light and the obvious impossibility of a true Christian’s not shining, He was giving description to the natural outcome of a true kingdom citizen in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. True believers, blessed because they’ve been enabled to be poor in spirit, to mourn over their sin, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, are a bright city sovereignly set upon a hill. True believers shine! Therefore, He said, don’t put your light under a basket, but on a lamp-stand! Be noticed for Christ! If we’re not seeking to evangelize the world around us, it’s not because of the world, or our church, or our pastor, and it’s certainly not because of God, it’s only because of us. The problem isn’t outside us, the problem is in us. Like Ananias and Sapphira, sometimes are we good at lying to the Holy Spirit? Because our Lord Jesus emphatically states that we alone, we His people, not anyone else, are, by His grace and blessing, the light of the world. We’re declared, to be already, by virtue of the new creation reality, the light of the world. If we’re true Christians, we’re automatically light, automatically shining, because of the work and life of Christ in us. So the only way for us not to shine, is if we actively, intentionally, violently fight against and refuse to be what we already are. The only way for Christians not to shine is when they attempt to cover or hide or extinguish what God has done and is doing, expressly so that they’re not noticed. Why? There are at least 2 possible reasons. First, at a given moment, we’re ashamed of the gospel. Simon Peter did that, I have done that, the rooster has crowed for many a true believer. Apostle Paul, decades later again admonished Peter to his face for being ashamed. There are sins of commission and of omission, but sin is sin. Yet, for a true believer, it’s only temporary, not habitual, not ultimate. The good news is that Jesus was the full propitiation for our sins of non-evangelism. Jesus prayed for Peter. Jesus prophesied that Peter would later strengthen the brethren, despite Peter’s prophesied failure. And it was at Pentecost, that Peter, emptied of his proud self-confidence, preached boldly in the power of the Holy Spirit!

On the other hand, it is also a possibility that we’re pre-committed to non-evangelism because we’re simply not light in the first place. We’re not true believers. Please don’t misunderstand, and let me clarify strongly, that we’re not saved by the work of evangelism! We’re saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone! But if the desire to see people saved is not resident, it would benefit such a soul to ponder why a natural byproduct of saving faith hasn’t yet sprouted in one’s life and become a reality, regardless of how hard it may be? If there is no power to do so, then perhaps it’s because God’s Spirit is not in one to do so. You see, a pre-commitment to non-evangelism, being functionally content with that disobedience, is a scary condition for a professing believer to be in. Actively and habitually resisting the Holy Spirit is not a minor thing, regardless of how “respectable” a sin it has become in American evangelicalism. None of this is meant to condemn anyone, but to say that there is a much deeper problem and concern than an avoidance of evangelism… that one needs to be gripped by grace, given new affections, adoption, salvation, which is of far greater priority than one’s non-evangelism. It isn’t because non-evangelism will send you to hell, but because non-evangelism might be a sign that you’re not actually going to heaven. So the deeper issue is not whether you share your faith or not, but whether you have true faith. Matt 10:32-33 says, “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”

Jesus Himself gave His people a loving command. It’s our Savior’s demand, a divine order, a clear imperative, a most personal issue for those who are so loved by Him. When Jesus said, “Let your light shine” in v.16, in Greek, it’s an aorist imperative. A present imperative is a command to do something continually, keep doing it, but an aorist imperative speaks of a task expected to be completed and continues to be so. Jesus gave the command with the full, unqualified expectation we’ll trust and obey. In fact, He’s the One, who only a few verses earlier (v.10-12), promised we’ll be persecuted. Often, we hear reports of Christians being arrested and tortured for preaching the Gospel in other parts of the world, so we naturally fear for own safety. I know history and recent history, it’s very possible, and in many ways I believe…inevitable. Thus, we should get ready, rather than get scared. It happened to our Lord, and He said it will happen to us. But even when Jesus was warning His followers of the dangers they would endure for His name’s sake, He didn’t excuse them from evangelizing for the sake of safety, did He? Rather the opposite. He charged them that the “Gospel must first be preached to all the nations.” And He was addressing people who had only recently come to believe. He said to them, whether you’ve been a Christian one minute or one decade, you’re salt and light, you’re My witnesses to the ends of the earth, you proclaim the Gospel, because you’re the only people in the world enabled to do it and called to do it. And the Lord doesn’t command us to do anything that He doesn’t expect us to obey and enable us to obey.

Evangelism is one of the most neglected public duties and delights in the Christian life. Can you and I testify to sharing the faith with the lost? That’s our mission in this world. That’s certainly, not the only thing, as we engage in many facets of following Christ in the everyday, but it’s a main thing. It’s a main thing that at some level, informs and gives holy purpose to everything else…raising our children, working at the office, moving into a neighborhood. You and I devote all kinds of time and energy to earn degrees, pass exams, and train ourselves physically, for comparatively trivial matters. What are you and I doing to equip ourselves for the work of the kingdom in gospel proclamation? If given an opportunity now, could we articulate the truths of the gospel, even in the most raw and nervous way? And if one couldn’t, would it be reasonable to say, that one hasn’t been faithful in proclaiming the good news? It doesn’t mean we don’t know the gospel or don’t believe the gospel, and it might be we just need lots of encouragement as we continue to grow … but are we aiming towards faithfulness in that cause? Are you and I sharing the gospel these days, or are we riding the coattails of some nostalgic yesteryear? Will anyone accuse us of proselytizing in the last month, last year, ever? Do we know who our neighbors are, and do they know us? Are we content to have only minimal interaction with coworkers? We should all be willing to be accountable in evangelism and helping one another in it. Which is more dangerous? Sin that occurred, or sin that is ignored? The latter is depravity, but the former is depraved. There are no excuses, none. I’ve claimed them all, I’ve heard them all. Well, a person might say God is sovereign, so He’ll send someone else. Maybe? Perhaps? Maybe not? Perhaps not? But it’s still disobedience. You might be the only viable witness to ever show up in a lost soul’s life. I can tell you that’s so often true. Most people I share the gospel with have either never heard the gospel at all before, or they’ve never really heard an adequate presentation of the gospel. Regardless, He calls and sends us all. Are we passionate about reaching the lost, passionate about His Church, passionate about God and His Word? All those go together. We can all agree that Jesus is passionate about them. Do we have the deep conviction that our lives must be about the Lord’s work in saving souls, in the midst of the many other things you and I have to do? Most of us just need to be reminded who we are, why we’re here, and what we’re supposed to do, because we forget. We’re aliens, strangers, this isn’t our home, making disciples is our real business. Let’s shine!

2. It is not good works that save, but the good news that saves!

Good deeds never saved anybody; it saved nobody. If you could never be saved by your good works, then why in the world do so many believers get hoodwinked into thinking that our good works, in and of themselves, will save other people? I’ve observed that’s functionally what many believers and many churches think. Protestants shouldn’t be reinstating indulgences by earning salvation for others by their own good deeds. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Anything else is confusing and distorting the matter. It’s bad theology. Yet, we got all kinds of good works being done outside the actual proclamation of the gospel being called evangelism, and people will say that feeding the orphans in Haiti is evangelism, or tutoring children in the slums is evangelism. It’s not! Look, there might be evangelism happening there. And let’s encourage opportunities to serve in those causes, but feeding orphans and tutoring children is not evangelism, in and of themselves. It might be and should be a platform or opportunity to share the gospel, but if there is no gospel message being shared, it’s not evangelism. There are Christians and even pastors that will take Matthew 5:16 and say, if they see our good works, then how will they believe Jesus because of that?! If they do believe, our good works might be part of their taking notice of the message, but the good works aren’t the message! Apart from the gospel, the only thing we can teach is moralism, to be a good boy or girl, live by the golden rule, such that at best in regards to salvation all we can offer them is works-based righteousness. Apart from the gospel content and truth, if all I had was good works, I’d have hell. If all I gave was my good works, they’d have hell. That has consequences! There are lazy pastors and lazy believers who perpetuate these falsehoods, primarily at the expense of those who need the gospel the most. Let me suggest, as we’ll eventually get to it, that one main reason this happens is not because Christians are totally ignorant of Scripture, but it’s because many times they’re ashamed of the message, and it’s easier to do something selectively good, to salve a guilty conscience, than to actually obey the Lord.

If hypothetically our good works bring people to salvation, then surely the Mormons and the Buddhists and our non-believing friends who serve the 3rd world through the Peace Corps or donate blood at the local ballpark, must be saving people too. No, that is not the case. We can’t say that, and we should not say that. Why? Because in order to be saved, the gospel message has to be preached. How in the world is one supposed to be saved, if one doesn’t know one needs to be saved, if one doesn’t know how to be saved, whom to be saved from, and by whom to be saved? That He lived, was crucified, raised, that He was a vicarious substitutionary atonement, a propitiation, bringing redemption, that it manifests in genuine repentance, that we’re forgiven by faith alone, not by works? When v.16 ends with the purpose clause, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven, what is that saying? It’s saying that we’re a means, for shining the light. What is the light? It’s the light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4)! So can people know the good news only through our good works? No. Can someone know the message of the gospel in only my giving them a plate of hot food on a cold day? They might experience love, but they won’t know the message. Romans 10:14-17 declares, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” In other words, no one comes to salvation apart from the preaching of…the message! Do you know that if no one ever spoke or verbalized the gospel message, there’d be no church anywhere, and everywhere, and we would remain unsaved?

Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller), even in his continuing unbelief recognizes that. He said he could respect the Christian who evangelizes because they actually believe the message about salvation, that they’re loving enough to share with others. He said those who don’t evangelize either don’t really believe the gospel or they’re too selfish to care about other souls. So when people are saved and glorify God because of our good works, it assumes that there has been a verbal proclamation of the gospel, because people don’t get saved any other way. How would they even know who the Father is, unless we told them who the loving Father is? From a word study on all the occurrences of where God was “glorified” (32x) in the Bible, along with “glorify”, “glorifies”, none of them speak of non-believers who glorify God. Do non-believers praise and worship God? No, or as I’d rather say… not yet. Why? Because, it’s a problem of depravity and spiritual deadness (Ephesians 2:1-4). The idea of good works saving people is akin to the pagan idea that the problem is the environment, not the heart. When Hamlet rebuffed Ophelia, “Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me,” he was saying, “I’m the good guy in this play, but even I’m so terribly wicked inside, that you better not marry me, or we’ll just breed more sinners. Therefore, the only way to get rid of sin in the world is for all women to become nuns.” Jer 13:23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” Rom 3:10-11 “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD.” Rom 8:7 “Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.” It like trying to get cable TV without a TV. If you and I wanted to stop sinning naturally, we just couldn’t. If I gave you $10 million to stop talking, it would be difficult, but possible. But if I gave you $10 million to stop thinking, you couldn’t do it. Clint Archer says, “When you evangelize, you don’t try to appeal to the person’s reason alone. Proof alone will never convince anyone. It is God’s power that will make them believe. When someone comes to Christ, we give God all the glory. We don’t congratulate them on making the right choice, we glorify God for changing their mind and heart. We can make this world better by education, police, and democracy. But we cannot make people better. Only the gospel can do that.”

Be encouraged to shine! The problem is not the message, never the message, but the problem is the nature of the one who hears the message. Yes, sometimes, the problem is the messenger, but the problem is never the message. Do not change or alter or adjust or subtract from or add to…or hide the message. The problem is never the message. It is not the power of you or I, but it is the power of God, to save everyone who would believe the message. I hope next time in Part 3, we would be further encouraged and emboldened to herald the good news. The Lord loves us so!