Evangelism and the Devotional Life

How does evangelism and devotion to Christ fit together? What affect does our time spent in prayer and the Word of God have on our evangelism? There have generally been two responses to this question and with these responses therein lies two dangers. First, there is the danger of seeing ones devotional life as a causal event which produces the effect of evangelism. This view argues somewhat as follows: I just had a great time with the Lord, therefore I am ready to share my faith with anyone. On the corollary it also argues that if you have a devotional time and get nothing out of it or if you skip your devotions then you are unfit to accomplish any fruitful evangelism. This is the error of legalism. The Church has been swept away by the flood waters of such thinking, washing away the true hope and motivation for evangelism. The second error is to think that no devotional life is needed for evangelism. We can just go out and do it without any spiritual preparation. This views sees no conditions whatsoever on the Christian and his purposes in the world. This is the subtle error of antinomianism. It is a rejection of God’s law and the way he intended for his people to obey him. Both legalism and antinomianism are guilty of separating one’s time of devotion away from the rest of one’s life. It is the fallacy of compartmentalization. Legalism argues that a set aside time of devotion to Christ insures a good or at least faithful witness. Antinomianism teaches that such a time of devotion is unnecessary to the task which God has called us unto. Both are affronts to the gospel of Christ and Biblical evangelism. God’s blessing of our evangelism is not dependent on our performance. We have a gospel centered salvation but a performance focused sanctification. This is not the Christian life, but a life lived under the shackles of legalism or antinomianism. The true Christian life is one that teaches that we are saved by grace and that we are to live daily by that grace. Jerry Bridges attacks our sinful thinking of “good days” vs. “bad days.”[1] On a bad day spiritually we see ourselves as too sinful and worthless to evangelize. We skipped our devotions or got nothing out of them. It was a dry time and because of this we think that we are unspiritual, unfit to evangelize. Then on good days we had a time of sweet fellowship with Christ and feel that nothing could stop us. We are hopeful in our evangelism and believe that because of our being filled up with the Spirit our witness will be effective. Every day, our good and bad days “should be a day of relating to God on the basis of his grace alone.” Bridges offers up this earth shattering spiritual principle: “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”[2] Even our good works of evangelism are filthy rags in need of cleansing through the blood of Christ. We must take our eyes off of our performance and place it on our Savior. Our filthy rags are to no avail, but Christ and his perfect righteousness imputed to sinners such as ourselves is the hope of the gospel for all of life. Yet, there is also the danger of forsaking our duty to evangelize because the gospel covers all of our sin. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2). We are no longer compelled to evangelize by our guilt, we are to be motivated by the love of Christ. “For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died” (2 Cor. 5:14). Our devotional life and our evangelism must be motivated by love to Christ and not guilt for our countless sins and endless shortcomings. Here we see the necessity of a life of devotion to Christ for the purpose of effective Biblical evangelism.[3] It is the gospel which motivates our hearts to share the love of Christ with others. Without spending time in the Word and in prayer we will not be reminded of his love and we will fail to be compelled to share it with others. We need the gospel every hour, every day of our lives. There is also a danger of seeing our devotions as limited to a set aside time to worship Christ, read the Word and pray to our Father in heaven. I am not advocating that we abandon a set aside time of devotion to Christ, but that we so reorganize our lives that we see not a set aside 15 minutes as our devotional time, but the very entirety of our lives as a living sacrifice of devotion to Christ. It is not our time of devotions, but our life of devotion which counts in the long run.[4] We are to do all things to the glory of our God, our creator and king. [1] Jerry Bridges, The Disciplines of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1994), 15-17. [2] Ibid, 18, emphasis his. [3] By using the word “effective” I am not referring to the amount of conversions or baptisms but evangelism carried out purposefully for the proclamation of the Word and the glory of Christ. [4] Of course, it must not be forgotten that a life of devotion to Christ presupposes a consistent time spent in the Word and in prayer.