Recently, I have been reading the book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I.Packer. It is a great little book!

In chapter 2,  Packer outlines what the evangelistic message we must proclaim is:

“In a word, the evangelistic message is the gospel of Christ, Him crucified; the message of man’s sin and God’s grace, of human guilt and divine forgiveness, of new birth and new life through the gift of the Holy Spirit” (p. 57)

He then goes on to outline ” Four essential ingredients”.

• The gospel is a message about God. Especially when talking to non-theists, we must show them that it is not man they have wronged but the creator God who is perfect, just and holy.

• The gospel message is about sin. That is sin against God, sin then makes us filthy and guilty before him and sin then removes any hope of relationship with Him.

• The gospel is a message about Christ. “Christ the Son of God incarnate; Christ the Lamb of God, dying for sin; Christ the risen Lord; Christ the perfect saviour.”

• The gospel message is about faith and repentance. There is no point is turning from sinful ways if faith is not the means in which we do this. An example given is that of Martin Luther who was incredibly religious and pious before he came to faith in the Lord Jesus. However there is no point is merely having faith in the saving work of Christ Jesus if it does not lead to repentance. Both must come together.

I have found it incredibly helpful to revisit the core truths that we must declare when proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord. Just as we see in 2 Corinthians 4:5-6:

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Let us pray that over the next few weeks, in the lead up to Christmas, we would have opportunities to share this gospel message with friends, family and colleagues.

As we do this let’s be praying and trusting that God will do as He promises; that he will shine the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ into their hearts.