There Are ZERO People I Have “Led To The Lord”
One of the things that has always bothered me as a follower of Jesus Christ is when hear, “I led someone to the Lord”. In return, it is equally frustrating when someone evaluates my evangelistic fervor on the same premise.
Let’s see how the Bible approaches this thought.
1) Romans 1:16- ” I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…” The Bible tells us that the Author and power of salvation is God–NOT us.
2) 1 Corinthians 3:6-8- ” I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” The Bible tells us that in regards to spiritual growth, once again it is God at work NOT us.
3) John 6:44- “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Probably the most convincing passage of all. Jesus Himself says that those of us who come to Him come through the drawing of the Lord. NOT other people drawing us to Him.
4) 2 Corinthians 5:20- “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” Notice again the Bible tells us that we are merely imploring ON Christ’s behalf.
So… when we see these verses we see that we are NOT the author of salvation, we did NOT make salvation possible, we are NOT the applicator of salvation… we are ONLY the messengers of this truth. How then can we “lead people to the Lord” if we are merely the mouth piece? The answer is that we cannot.
What’s the answer then? We are called to tell people about Jesus (Matthew 28:81-20), and we are called to live out our faith that people may see the Lord in us (Matthew 5:14-16). Instead of saying “I was able to lead them to the Lord”, we should say “We were able to see them accept Christ as their Savior”. That is what we are called to do–show & share the love of Jesus that they may be “reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
And since I don’t “lead anyone to the Lord”, stop asking me how many people I have led to the Lord. Again Scripture tells us to be Ambassadors and Messengers. So ask me how many people I have shown & shared the love of the Jesus with.
Just a thought to not only change our semantics but to also change our perspective of people’s evangelistic endeavors. TELL PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS! SHOW PEOPLE THE GOSPEL! AND LEAVE THE “LEADING” TO THE ONE WHO LEADS!
Absolutely. I recently took a course on Listening Evangelism at my church. I wanted to figure out how to more easily share my faith w/o appearing a) nerdy b) scary or c) weird. Needless to say, the course focussed on what you just said. We do have a responsibility to share the gospel, talk about Jesus and be open about our faith. However, it is not our responsibility to bring someone to God – that is God’s ability alone. We are to love people into the kingdom by being ambassadors for Christ – full of His love. Our love is insufficient! I’m trying to be a little more brave in being open about the fact that I am a follower of Jesus. But I no longer feel this incredible burden to try to “share Jesus” or argue with people who have differing views. I just try to love….
Thanks for reading & for sharing. Pass it on to others that might also be encouraged in sharing their faith.