In the long history of the Church, there is only one teaching strategy that I have ever approved of in order to lead others to salvation, which is, to teach salvation in the same manner as Jesus.
Jesus’ teaching on salvation was not popular in His time and it certainly is not popular in our time. Why not? One reason is because His teaching regarding salvation often sounded like He was discouraging people to follow Him instead of encouraging them.
For instance, this week we’ll be studying Matthew 19:16-22, which in most Bibles has the added heading, “The Rich Young Ruler.”
Here is a guy that comes to Jesus and asks a question that many Christians would LOVE for someone to come and ask them, Matthew 19:16,
“Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?”
Have you ever had someone approach you and ask that question? I have, but I can count on one hand, and not use all of the fingers, the number of times it has happened.
What happens next would be shocking to modern day evangelists. Jesus doesn’t make it easy! He doesn’t give him a simplified step-by-step process to lead him to salvation. That’s what people do today. They say, “Just do this and this and this and you’re saved!”
Jesus never does that. Why? A couple of reasons. First, He won’t teach anything other than God’s standard for salvation and second, He won’t allow someone to believe that they are saved when they are not. He didn’t pay attention to attendance numbers and didn’t measure success by conversion rates. If He would have, His statistics would have been dreadful. He could attract people by the thousands, but His conversion numbers were abysmal.
It should also be noted that He had a distinct advantage that we do not have. He had the ability to look into the hearts of men and women and see what mattered most to them. Since we do not have that ability, sometimes we believe some are saved that actually are not and we may judge that someone is not saved when they actually are.
The point is, because we can’t know the hearts of people, we never know with complete certainty if a person is actually committed to God. Sure, we can see clues. Jesus taught us to look for fruit (Matthew 7:16) as clues to who is and who is not genuine, but some appear to be genuine and are not – those who believe they are working to earn their salvation do many good deeds.
We are led to ask the question: Why did Jesus’ teaching regarding salvation look so different that most preachers today? I think that it can be summarized best by simply stating, He didn’t call people to simply believe and take part in some religious ceremonies. And don’t get me wrong, He did call people to those things, and they are very important. But the point at which Jesus lost people is when He called them to follow.
You see, Jesus didn’t want people to simply believe He was the Christ, He wanted and He called people to follow Him. And this is the point, even today, where people must decide whether or not they actually want to be Christians.
Many will, and do, reject this teaching, but I challenge you to read the New Testament for yourself and then tell me it isn’t true. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 7:21,
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
Here’s the part where many get messed up in their thinking. Those who reject this teaching do so believing that I am teaching that a person is saved by a means other than by grace…through faith (Ephesians 2:8).
That’s not what I’m teaching at all, in fact, I hold to that teaching with all of my heart. But I also hold to the teaching of Ephesians 2:10, which goes on to explain that after we have been saved, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Being saved by grace, through faith includes trusting in nothing that I do and everything that Jesus did on the cross.
It is that same saving faith that causes men and women to …Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name (Acts 22:16). It is that same faith that leads me to follow Jesus as He leads me into the good works God prepared for me to walk in.
It’s been made overly complicated, but it’s truly a simple and beautiful thing. And none of it happens when I simply say that I’m a Christian defined by my own terms. Salvation is for all who will put their faith in Jesus and then follow Him. It’s for none who will not.
Much Love!
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
