Introducing Jesus (Telling the Story of God X)

With a posture of making present the Reign of God by loving the person in front of us, we are free to simply introduce who we know Jesus to be and to share our story about how we’ve come to know him and what the Scripture says about him.

I’m always excited to introduce people to my wife, Becca. She’s simply a beautiful human being. When people meet her, I don’t have an agenda for them. It would be weird if I demanded that they like or accept or receive her the way that I do, or the way I think they should. Of course, I do want them to accept her—she’s wonderful. But that decision is ultimately up to them. In a similar way, we can’t create agendas about how anyone needs to respond to our story or to Jesus. We leave all that to the Holy Spirit. Our goal is to love, not to convert.

At the same time, love is boldness. The people we love need the authenticity of our courage. Not only do they need us to courageously share our stories and ask about theirs, but there may also be times when someone asks us some equivalent of the question, “What must I do to be saved?” We must be prepared to state the Scriptural paradigm clearly, without mincing words. Coming to Jesus consistently takes this form: repent, confess and believe, and follow.[1] Whether someone’s coming to Jesus for the first time or the seven hundredth time, the pattern is the same.

When you explain the Gospel story, you invite people into this Scriptural pattern: come to Jesus by turning from death, confessing what you have screwed up and missed, being honest about your weakness, knowing that God’s grace and love finds us in our brokenness and humility. Receive God’s mercy and then follow Him, knowing that He will make you whole. Open your soul to Him, so that you may be continually transformed, and seek to love as He does. You cannot do it on your own, but He will teach you.

There is an edge and an urgency to this reality, and love boldly puts a fine point on it. There is a cost to following Jesus. Transformation will be required, and even as Jesus invites us, he challenges us. But the reward is great—it is the saving of our souls, adopted, redeemed, participating with God in the renewal of all things.

For all of these readings in one place, order my book 'Learning to Live and Love Like Jesus.'

[1] See, for example Mark 1:14-20.