But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. | 2 Timothy 4:17–18
On Sunday, we looked at the Parable of the Sower and Jesus’ declaration that many will:
indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand | Mark 4:12a
From this, we looked at the details of this story of a seed that is sown on many different soils, but only takes root and grows healthy in one. What makes that one soil different from the rest is that it has been prepared, by God, to receive the seed. I ended by pointing to four characteristics of evangelism that recognizes God’s sovereignty, the last of which was that we evangelize prayerfully. Here is how it was worded:
In all of this, we evangelize prayerfully. If God is truly in control, then we must appeal to Him for changed hearts. We pray, not just to ask God for what we want Him to do, but to recognize our own inability to bring about conversion. Prayer is the absolute act of submission, where we cry out to God in our weakness, because we know He is strong. Prayer is our acknowledgement of dependence.
After the service, someone told me that this all makes sense, but was confused about what this meant for the way that we lead others to Jesus. Specifically, they wanted to know what we should tell people when they ask us: what must I do to be saved? The concern is that if we lean too much in the direction of God doing the work of salvation, then we will not have a clear answer for those who want action steps.
I find peace in the fact that Jesus was asked this question on a few occasions and did not give the sorts of answers we are usually looking for. One such occasion is found in John 3, when Nicodemus comes to Jesus to inquire about salvation. It tells us:
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” | John 3:3
Nicodemus is understandably confused and so Jesus ‘clears it up,’ stating:
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. | John 3:8
Rather than spending His time giving Nicodemus a simple set of steps, Jesus gives Him a lesson on the nature of salvation. Much like the Parable of the Sower, the focus is on the work of the Spirit, not what effort the person must do.
In another famous interaction, Jesus is approached by a rich young ruler, who asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds:
You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” | Mark 10:19
This young ruler makes it clear that he has done all of these things. Jesus adds:
You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. | Mark 10:21b
Jesus is not giving this young one more thing to do in order to earn salvation. Instead, He is making it clear that whatever gets in the way of our dependence must be abandoned. The rich, young ruler trusted in who he was and what he had done, and so Jesus pointed to this and challenged him to give it up in order to put his hope fully in Christ. Jesus was all he needed for salvation and his desire for accomplishment obscured the reality of grace.
Along with these two interactions, we see the Apostle Paul confronted with a similar question in Acts 16. Paul is in prison, praying and singing to God, when a great earthquake breaks open all of the doors. The jailer, realizing that he would be blamed for the escape, was about to turn a sword on himself when Paul assured him that they were all there. The response of this jailer is to inquire about the faith of Paul, asking: what must I do to be saved? Paul responds:
Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. | Acts 16:31
As Christians, our response should be the same. We should tell people that all that they must do to receive salvation is to believe in and stay connected to the source of salvation. The Spirit gives faith. Things of this life obscure the faith. The one way to remain in the faith is to remain in Jesus. Prayer is not just a means to appeal to God for change, but also the way for us to stay unified with Him.
When people ask: what must I do? Encourage them to pray. Not just a prayer to move God’s hand or to grab salvation from Him. We must keep on praying, day in and day out, lest we ever begin to believe that salvation comes to us any way but through Him.