Thursday, March 18, 2004 AD
Leading people to Christ
Here's a phrase for Lutherans (and other "Reformation Christians") to reclaim: "leading (or bringing) people to Christ".
Within much of evangelicalism, this phrase is used to describe the process of leading someone through a "sinner's prayer", as the culmination of sharing the Gospel with them. This is presented as the greatest honour and blessing that God can bestow on the ordinary Christian: the opportunity to "lead someone to Christ", and Andrew's example in John 1:41,42 is frequently cited.
I have never led anyone to Christ in that sense. For years I longed to have the opportunity to "lead someone to Christ", and felt deeply guilty about my failures to be sufficiently "bold" in my "witness" so as to be able to "lead someone to Christ". Sure, I'd told people the Gospel, but I'd never "closed the deal".
But if you're going to lead someone to Christ, you need to know where Christ is. Andrew didn't lead Simon Peter through a prayer - he physically led him to where Jesus could be found, and left it to Jesus to call Simon Peter to himself.
So where can Christ be found today? Where are we to lead people to? Well, this is linked in many ways with my earlier post on Salvation Won and Salvation Distributed: Christ is present wherever the salvation he won for us is distributed. Not metaphorically "present", and not just present in the general sense of divine omnipresence, but actually present in a saving sense to distribute forgiveness, life and salvation to us.
So when we tell someone the Gospel, Christ is present. Christ is present in Baptism; he is present in the Gospel promises declared in the Absolution; he is present in the preaching of his Word, and especially the preaching of the Gospel; and above all, he is present - literally, physically present - in the Lord's Supper, under the forms of bread and wine.
In short, when we invite people to church, we are inviting them to come where Christ is present in Word and Sacrament - we are leading them to Christ, just as surely as Andrew led Peter to Christ. What happens then is between Christ and the people we invite, just as Andrew stepped out of the picture once he had introduced Peter to Christ.
So it turns out I have led people to Christ: I've (on occasion) told them the Gospel; I've invited them to church; I quite literally led - or rather, carried - my older son to Christ, when he was baptised, and hope to lead his younger brother to Christ before too much longer. Indeed, I lead my family to Christ every week, behind the wheel of our car. And leading people to Christ in this way is indeed the greatest honour and blessing that God can bestow on the ordinary Christian.
Within much of evangelicalism, this phrase is used to describe the process of leading someone through a "sinner's prayer", as the culmination of sharing the Gospel with them. This is presented as the greatest honour and blessing that God can bestow on the ordinary Christian: the opportunity to "lead someone to Christ", and Andrew's example in John 1:41,42 is frequently cited.
I have never led anyone to Christ in that sense. For years I longed to have the opportunity to "lead someone to Christ", and felt deeply guilty about my failures to be sufficiently "bold" in my "witness" so as to be able to "lead someone to Christ". Sure, I'd told people the Gospel, but I'd never "closed the deal".
But if you're going to lead someone to Christ, you need to know where Christ is. Andrew didn't lead Simon Peter through a prayer - he physically led him to where Jesus could be found, and left it to Jesus to call Simon Peter to himself.
So where can Christ be found today? Where are we to lead people to? Well, this is linked in many ways with my earlier post on Salvation Won and Salvation Distributed: Christ is present wherever the salvation he won for us is distributed. Not metaphorically "present", and not just present in the general sense of divine omnipresence, but actually present in a saving sense to distribute forgiveness, life and salvation to us.
So when we tell someone the Gospel, Christ is present. Christ is present in Baptism; he is present in the Gospel promises declared in the Absolution; he is present in the preaching of his Word, and especially the preaching of the Gospel; and above all, he is present - literally, physically present - in the Lord's Supper, under the forms of bread and wine.
In short, when we invite people to church, we are inviting them to come where Christ is present in Word and Sacrament - we are leading them to Christ, just as surely as Andrew led Peter to Christ. What happens then is between Christ and the people we invite, just as Andrew stepped out of the picture once he had introduced Peter to Christ.
So it turns out I have led people to Christ: I've (on occasion) told them the Gospel; I've invited them to church; I quite literally led - or rather, carried - my older son to Christ, when he was baptised, and hope to lead his younger brother to Christ before too much longer. Indeed, I lead my family to Christ every week, behind the wheel of our car. And leading people to Christ in this way is indeed the greatest honour and blessing that God can bestow on the ordinary Christian.
