The transforming work we see so vividly in John 4 is only accomplished by God. As believers, our job is to initiate evangelistic conversations, identify sinners’ spiritual needs, offer the surpassingly rich mercy of God to meet those needs, confront their sin, and exhort them to reject their false worship and turn to the true worship of the true God. And we can’t do any more than that. It’s up to the Lord to disclose Himself to them—to penetrate the darkness of their hearts and reveal His true nature to them. It’s a divine work that we cannot manufacture or duplicate. In terms of salvation, only God can reveal the life-transforming truth about His Son (cf. John 1:15-26). Admittedly that means many of our evangelistic encounters may end without a clear resolution. How and when the Lord reveals Himself to people is beyond our control or influence. Our task is to look for opportunities to proclaim the person and work of Christ to the people we encounter, and to make the most of those opportunities. We have to trust the Lord to bring forth the spiritual fruit how and when He chooses. From a results perspective, that might initially seem frustrating. But from an eternal perspective, it’s liberating. Our job is to faithfully sow the seed of the gospel. We leave the spiritual harvest up to the Lord. -John Macarthur, gty.org
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:33:17 +0000
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