God’s priority is our salvation. This daily devotional looks at how we are to use the gospel to spread healing to a sinful world.
Nuggets
- We are to proclaim the gospel in our everyday lives.
- We are to help heal those hurting from sin by knowing how to point them to Christ.
Devotions in the Joy in the Gospel series
The gospel is about one thing — leading the lost to Christ. There is nothing more important than that.
God calls us to help spread His Word to those around us. Let’s look how.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Witnessing in Our Everyday Lives
“Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time” (Col. 4: 5 CSB)
We are to proclaim the gospel in our everyday lives.
Walking is the term used to describe how we live our lives. God doesn’t want us to be part-time disciples, i.e. Sundays and Wednesday nights.
God wants us to be totally committed to Him 24/7/365.
Disciples are told by the great commission what we are to do as we are going about our daily lives. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you …” (Mt. 28: 19-20 CSB).
This isn’t a go-find-a-mission-field directive. It is a witness-as-you-go-through-your-daily-life command.
I like the way that Barlow described what we are to do. He said that we are to walk according to the principles of the highest wisdom.
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Mankind does not have the highest wisdom. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.’ This is the Lord’s declaration. ‘For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa. 55: 8-9 CSB).
It is through this wisdom that we are to structure our lives. By doing so, we put the control into God’s hands.
Daille described walking wisely as being more watchful. God wants us to be on guard for Satan’s temptations.
Glossary
Not everyone is a believer in Jesus Christ. Daille described it this way. He wrote,
“The Church sojourns for the most part amidst people of another profession. Whole nations have shut the door against Christ. In so-called Christian nations vast multitudes are non-Christian. Even in private families there is this partition. Hence the apostle having regulated the duties of Christians among themselves now points out those toward aliens.”
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It is part of our job description to tell them the gospel story so that they might find salvation.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #4
Proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16: 15)
Job Duty #6
Make Disciples (Matthew 28: 19-20)
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
We’ve long used the quote about being the only Bible some have ever read. Elliot wrote,“Every life is a little Bible — a revelation of God.”
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Cuyler said something similar and then added a great nugget. He wrote, “The Christian is the only Bible the great majority ever look at; then we ought to live as to require no commentary to explain us. We are doorkeepers to the way of life not to block the way but to let others in.”
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God gives us many opportunities to do His work. We just have to pay attention to recognize them.
Barlow called it good-doing. We have to remember the definition of good. Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people.
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We talked about the worldview difference and the Godview difference of Matthew 25: 35-36. The worldview takes it only on the surface.
I think God wants disciples to look at it through a deeper meaning.
- For I was hungry for the Word of God and you introduced me to it and helped me understand.
- I was thirsty, and you took me to the well of Living Water and gave me drink.
- I was a stranger searching for God, and you welcomed me and guided me to find Him.
- I was naked, and you clothed me. “I rejoice greatly in the LORD, I exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness …” (Isa. 61: 10 CSB).
- I was sick because sin is an illness, and you visited me with the cure.
- I was in prison because all sinners are prisoners to sin, and you came to tell me how to break out.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
These are the opportunities we are to seize. Yes, it will be hard at first. Yes, we will experience rejection.
This is in our job description as a disciple, people.
In order to accomplish this, we need to consider those to whom we are witnessing. Daille counseled us that,
“In pursuing this end the diversity of the persons has to be carefully considered, their different conditions and capacities. The same things do not suit all, and all are not averse to religion, and while there are those who are of a furious disposition, there are those who are sweet and tractable. The Master (Matthew 7:6) urges this wise discrimination, and intimates the disastrous consequences of the want of it, which experience also confirms. But we are to love all alike, while we treat them differently (Matthew 5:44).”
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Our Job of Helping Others Heal
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person” (Col. 4: 6 CSB)
We are to help heal those hurting from sin by knowing how to point them to Christ.
Disciples’ speech should be full of grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Our speech should be full of the gospel story.
How can our speech be gracious? Byfield said we have to be saying God’s words, not our own.
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Daille said that not only should our speech be gracious, but it should also be exact. Ooo, baby. I can see that.
If we interpret a Scripture correctly, we can point a person to Christ. If we misinterpret it — while they may think we are pointing them to Christ — we really aren’t.
I know. Why would God entrust us with so great a job? Why doesn’t He just cause people to come to Him?
God is not a dictator. He does not force us to do anything but, instead, gives us free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
Plus, God wants us to serve Him. He wants us to grow as we tell others. It means more when we have an active duty to perform.
I know we are called to be salt, but I am still fuzzy on exactly what that means.
When we talked about it in Getting Along with Others, we said that salt is used for preservation. It prevents corruption and decay.
It is also used for purification and nourishment.
Christlieb made an excellent point. He wrote, “Laid on a wound it is painful. The Christian often pains men to heal them.”
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To read a related devotion, click the button below.
To me, that means we are not to be compromising with the worldview. We need to stand firm on God’s laws and commandments, even if that stance causes us to be persecuted.
We are to be the voice of reason. We are to have joy in all circumstances.
We are to be the healers in our world. We mediate conflict. We show others how to become healed from their sins.
We have a part in pointing others to Christ. We want to make sure that we are paving the way for them to see Christ in us instead of turning them off.
Making the Connections
The problem with some churches today is that we don’t see outside our walls. Especially since the pandemic hit, we want things to go back to the way we were.
Well, maybe back further than that.
Back then, we didn’t have to go out and find the lost in their own homes, ooin our workplaces, and on our streets.
They came to us.
Not anymore. So, a lot of churches don’t have an outward mission.
That is so not Christlike. Cuyler reminded us that “Christ’s mission was to outsiders: so was His commission to His disciples.
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How Do We Apply This?
- Watch for opportunities in which we might share the good news of the gospel.
- Think about the end results of our words, especially when witnessing.
- Think first, speak later.
- Listen more, talk less.
- Express our opinions soberly.
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Father God. We thank You for giving us the gospel. Thank You for designing the Plan of Salvation to heal us from our sins. Use us to expand Your kingdom. Amen.
What do you think?
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