He Comes First With Grace: The REAL Way of the Master

He Comes First With Grace: The REAL Way of the Master
by Charles W. Christian

Lately there is a trend in regard to evangelism training. It has been made very popular, especially on university campuses, by two well-known exponents of the approach. One is a famous Hollywood actor who had a dramatic conversion experience to Christianity. The other is an Australian evangelist who never had any formal theological/biblical training, but is well read and had made a career of “street preaching” in many parts of the world, including the U.S. Somehow these two teamed up, and through their TBN television broadcasts and creative internet websites they have spawned an approach to sharing the Christian faith to others in a rather confrontational manner.

Before I go further, let me say clearly that I am happy when anyone is trying to share the Christian faith and give glory to God, whether it be on a street corner, a cornfield, or a football field. I am often reminded of Jesus’s own words to his disciples who were concerned about the approaches to sharing about Jesus that were already emerging in Jesus’s own lifetime: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” So, I want to be clear that for all the good that the ministry of these two confrontational evangelical figures do, I am happy and thankful. However, I have some concerns about this latest trend, because I am always concerned about trends and fads in American Christianity. We often mass produce trends to the point where they become ineffective, and we rarely stop long enough to assess the biblical basis for these trends we are reproducing.

The approach of these two men is as follows:
 Confront people – usually total strangers – about whether or not they have ever committed a particular sin. Example: “Have you ever stolen?” “Have you ever lusted?”, etc.
 If they answer in the affirmative (eventually they will find a sin the person has committed), then point out that this one sin makes them a “sinner”. Example: If you have stolen one thing, then you are a thief. If you have told a lie, then you are a liar.
 Point out that God, who is holy and perfect, can have nothing to do with their sin, and that one sin puts them on a direct path toward hell, which is eternal pain and torment forever.
 Tell them that Jesus, who was completely innocent of all sin, died to take their punishment for the sins they committed, and if they believe and trust in Jesus, they will be at peace with God and never have to worry about hell and torment again.
 Answer any objections or questions by continuing to remind them of their sins, using the Ten Commandments as the prime example of the sins that separate them from God.
 Invite them to trust in the substitutionary work of Jesus to forgive them from their sins, restore them to good standing in the sight of God, and assure them that when they die they will go to heaven.

This is the basic approach of these two men, which they have branded the “Way of the Master” (Jesus). They are convinced that this one method is the way (the ONLY way, according to them) that Jesus Himself used to bring converts into Christianity, and it is the only way to make genuine converts to Christianity.

Now, while there are elements of the above examples with which I agree (for instance, I do believe that we all sin and that we need Jesus to intervene on our behalf and provide forgiveness and restore us to a right relationship with God), I am reluctant to baptize this method as the “only way” for genuine conversion to happen. Furthermore, based upon the Bible’s own words and most of Jesus’s own interactions, I question whether or not simply scaring someone out of hell and into heaven with guilt and shame tactics really produces passionate lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.

Isn’t Christianity about more than just a “get out of hell free” card? Doesn’t Jesus have more ways to approach people than simply saying, “Here are the Ten Commandments, did you keep them?” In fact, is there anywhere in the whole Bible where Jesus actually confronts someone this way? The answer to that last question is no! I will quickly share two places where Jesus does NOT use the method he is “credited” with by these two men, although this method has allowed them to share books and DVDs in vast quantities.

In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the well. In the course of the conversation with her, Jesus does point out that she has had more than one husband, but that is hardly a confrontation with the Ten Commandments, as much as it is a revealing to her that He knows her better than she thinks. Indeed, all through the conversation, Jesus has known her and has known things about her background, yet he did not turn away from her. He offered her eternal life “up front”, not after shaming her into a corner, but before she even knew that he had an inside track on her situation. Her response, after Jesus then reveals himself to be the Messiah that she and others had been waiting for was to drop her water jar, run into the city proclaiming, “Come and see this man who knew everything about me” (John 4:29). The implications here are quite different from the “way” of evangelism proposed by the two men I have mentioned. The Samaritan woman’s response is basically, “Come and see this man who knew who I was and what I had done, and unlike the rest of you, he spent time with me and talked with me!” This does not sound like a God who is unapproachable due to sin. This is instead a God who comes to us in the midst of our sin and loves us right up front!

Another encounter, recorded in Luke 19, finds Jesus walking down a crowded street and a despised tax collector named Zaccheus climbing a tree in order to get a better glimpse of him (Zaccheus was, as the song goes, a “wee little man” who had trouble seeing Jesus in the crowd). Jesus and the crowd approach the tree, and you can see in the text the anticipation of the crowd. They cannot wait for the Messiah to confront this traitor – this one who collects taxes for the Roman government and keeps extra for himself. If Jesus used the “Way of the Master,” he would surely confront Jesus with his thievery, would peg him as a traitor, and would corner him into a public repentance right there on the spot. The crowd could hardly wait. Then, something very different happened. Jesus calls out, “Zaccheus, come down!” Here it comes. Here is where Jesus confronts Zaccheus with the “law” and corners him into repentance, right? No! Let’s let Jesus finish his sentence (Luke 19:5): “Zaccheus, come down. For I must stay at your house today!” Really? That is it? Jesus is not only speaks kindly to this man, but he is also going to spend the whole day fellowshipping with this unclean traitor? According to the so-called “Way of the Master,” Jesus is watering down the Gospel (in 19:6 we see a similar response from the crowd who is witnessing this exchange!). However, Jesus, the focus of the Gospel, is demonstrating a better way. Here is how we know. Zaccheus responds with genuine repentance (Luke 19:8). He gives half of his goods to the poor right away. He then publicly commits to restoring FOUR TIMES the amount he has taken from anyone under false pretenses. All of this without one mention of the Ten Commandments?

This kind of genuine repentance comes not in response to fear or shame, but in response to genuine love and grace. It seems the Bible knows better the way of the Master when it says it is the “kindness of God that leads to repentance” (Romans 2:4).

Of course, in a very self-centered generation such as ours, there are times when clear reminders of our sinfulness are appropriate and even effective in helping people see their need for a Savior. However, the Bible seems to indicate that when one is confronted with this revolutionary kind of love and grace seen in God through Jesus Christ, our sins become obvious (see also Isaiah 6), and our desire for God’s love and for a godly life become magnified. This is the consistent way of our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.