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How do I lead someone to Christ? I love this question. It comes from a listener named Brooke. “Pastor John, hello! For
our online church services during the coronavirus season, I volunteered to reach out to people who have contacted us
to let us know that they want to trust in Christ, yet I don’t really know how to do this. I’ve grown up seeing people
walked through a written prayer. But I wrestle with the doctrine behind the idea that you can simply ‘pray this
prayer,’ and you’re good. When someone says they’re ready to accept Christ, how do you lead them?”
Great question. Oh, great question. Oh, that every Christian were ready and eager to declare the good news
and to lead people into saving faith! So, thanks for the question. It’s very good for John Piper to go back and
rehearse the basics of the gospel and the practicalities of a phone call like this or a Zoom chat or sitting
across the table six feet apart, maybe, to share the gospel.
It’s helpful to have a simple plan. If we were all God, we wouldn’t need to have a simple plan; we could just
overflow spontaneously. But we’re not God. The picture I would like to use for my simple plan is that we all
need four treasure chests, and I call them treasure chests because they’re just packed with more than we
could share at any given time, and that’s good. We don’t need to share everything in every treasure chest all
the time. The reason I choose the term treasure chest is because Jesus said bumping into the kingdom and
being ready to walk into the kingdom and be saved is like a man who stumbles across a treasure chest hidden
in a field (Matthew 13:44). Our job as shepherds that lead new sheep into the fold is to unpack treasures.
Now, the reason for starting that way is the double truth — and they’re both so crucial — that the gospel is
spectacularly good news. I mean, it’s good news, news, news, news — really good, good, good news. It’s the
best news in the world. And we need to strike that note loud and clear: “I am about to tell you the best news
in the world.” And Jesus said in Luke 14:28–33 to be sure to count the cost. You don’t want to go out against
an army you can’t beat, and you don’t want to build a tower you can’t finish. You need to tell everybody this
involves total devotion to Jesus Christ who was crucified.
So, that’s one possible way of starting the conversation: happy and hard. And you can follow up later with lots
more about what that means, because I think so many people are drawn into the Christian life with some
naïve prosperity notion that things are going to get better for them, when in fact they might get worse in
many ways — even though the joy’s going to go down deeper than they ever imagined.
1. God
2. Sin
3. Christ
4. Faith
I’ve remembered those for decades. Oh, how they have served me so well: God, sin, Christ, faith. Those are
my four chests of truth, and I call them treasure chests because every chest has dozens of passages of
Scripture and dozens of ways to talk about God and sin and Christ and faith. And I don’t want to give the
impression that there’s a one-size-fits-all presentation of the gospel. You have four chests there, full of
Bible truth, and our job is to trust the Spirit to guide us, and then take out of each chest one or two
Scriptures to show those riches to your new friend. So, let’s just walk through them real quick.
I like to start with God’s glory because Paul’s going to define sin as a falling short of God’s glory (Romans
3:23). So, I would like to say to my friend Isaiah 43:6–7:
And I would say to them, “You were created, you exist, to glorify God — to make God look glorious. You were
created to show God’s glory, his greatness, his beauty, his worth. That’s our duty.” First Corinthians 10:31:
“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
And sin isn’t just things we do; it’s the way we are. We are “by nature,” Paul said in Ephesians 2:3, “children
of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” None of us escapes this condition; none of us escapes the penalty of
death and judgment and hell. Jesus said in John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever
does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
So, without salvation we’re all sinful by nature, and we’re all under God’s wrath. That’s treasure chest #2.
That’s why this phone call is happening. Everything up until now is designed to make Christ and his way of
salvation appear as great and beautiful and wonderful as they really are. God sent his Son, his divine, eternal
Son, to bear the punishment we deserve. This is the heart of everything. This is the most glorious news in the
world. There’s no way we can save ourselves from our sin and from his wrath.
So, here’s the wonder. Romans 8:3: “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” God
condemned sin; he punished sin. The death of Jesus, his Son, is our punishment. All the sins of all those who
would ever be united to Christ by faith were punished in Jesus. So, he says, “There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). This is spectacular news: no more guilt, no
more punishment, no more wrath, no more condemnation. Eternal life, peace with God forever. Romans 6:23:
“The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In other words, you can’t work for your salvation. You can’t earn it; it’s a free gift. You can’t deserve it; it
comes from God’s grace or God’s love. Just a few verses earlier, it says, “God, being rich in mercy, because of
the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together
with Christ — by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4–5).
That means that even your faith is a gift of God right now in this moment. If you are reaching out to take
Christ, if you are ready to have him as your Savior and Lord and the Treasure of your life, you are a miracle.
God has made you alive; it’s called new birth. Trust him, speak to him, tell him all your heart. Declare your
faith to him, welcome him as your friend.
You’ll suggest some texts that they should read when they hang up, maybe some places to go in the Bible,
giving them particular Scriptures. You may welcome them into a discipling relationship with yourself or with
somebody else your church has arranged or invite them to a class. You’ll want to encourage them to think
about baptism and prepare for baptism in due time. And you’re going to warn them that the devil is real and
will put them to the test. You’re going to say, “Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:9).
And you’re going to leave them with a promise. And oh my, there are so many you could choose. Maybe you’ll
leave them like this. Hebrews 13:5–6:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”