What Might Sharing the Gospel Look Like?

ARTICLE • There are innumerable ways to initiate a gospel conversation. Below, you’ll find a concrete example of a gospel encounter I had and journaled about.

Read time: 4 min

For all the talk in Christian circles about sharing the ‘good news’ about Jesus, most admit to struggling to make it happen. And many aren’t even sure what it should look like. There are as many ways this can look as there are situations, but below you’ll find a concrete example from a gospel conversation I initiated and journaled about.

As I read over it, I see what I could’ve done better. I could’ve drawn him out much more. Asked better questions. Avoided the information dump. On the other hand, he wasn’t the most talkative guy, and we we’re standing in a long line of people waiting to be served lunch. So, my talking much of the time was likely preferable to putting him on the spot with probing questions and making him feel critiqued.

Again, the point is that we’ll never get it just right. The goal is to take ordinary conversations, turn them into gospel encounters, and trust that God’s word is never shared in vain (Is 55:11). Maybe you’ll find the good, the bad, and the ugly of what follows helpful for your own witnessing.

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One Sunday, our church had a potluck lunch following our morning worship service. While getting into the food line, I noticed a new face standing near me, so I engaged him in conversation:

Tim: Hi, good to have you at church today. I’m Tim.

Ben: Hello, I’m Ben.

Tim: I haven’t seen you here before. First time here?

Ben: Yes, I’m from China. I’ve been in the United States for a week.

Tim: Wow, welcome! What brings you to the U.S.?

Ben: Thank you. I am an engineering student intern. I will be here for one year, studying at the University of Cincinnati.

Tim: Sounds interesting. Where are you staying?

Ben: I’m staying for now in the dorms at UC.

Tim: Ok. Good. How’d you hear about our church?

Ben: David, one of my math professors told me about it and invited me here.

Tim: Oh, yeah, David’s a great guy! Really glad you came to visit.

Ben: Yes. He is very nice.

Tim: So, are people back in China very religious?

Ben: No, not very religious at all, but some people are.

Tim: What about you? Did you grow up religious?

Ben: No, I am not very religious. We do follow some of the teachings of Confucius. And I like what I heard [in church] today, about love. That’s good.

Tim: True, Jesus taught much about love: both God’s love and human love… That’s one thing I love about Christianity. It’s so amazing that God, who made the world, loves us so much.

Ben: Yeah. 

Tim: It’s amazing to me, considering how much we don’t deserve God’s love. All humans try to live, to some degree, as if God doesn’t exist. As though he weren’t real or special… None of us is naturally very thankful to God for the kind things he does for us. Life itself is such a privilege. You know? Intelligence and education is another gift, right? All the things we enjoy in life… It’s incredible that we owe everything to God, and yet we typically give him so little credit. That’s why it’s amazing that he loves us still, you know?

Ben: Yeah. I guess you’re right.

Tim: Personally, I often start treating things in my life as if they were more important than God, even though they are only gifts from him to me. I naturally, sort of, make myself my own God. We all have done that. We haven’t treated God as he deserves, and we like to rule our own lives, and live however we like best. Not very mindful of how God has told us to live.

Ben: Yeah, I guess that’s true. I grew up assuming there was no God and to get ahead was going to take my hard work. And when I achieve things, I don’t give God any credit. I’m open, but I’m not yet sure he’s really there.

Tim: I hear you. As Christians, we believe what the Bible says about this. The Bible is our Scriptures. There is only one way that God could love us and not “pay us back” for our acts of ingratitude and pride and selfishness towards him.

Here’s the great thing, though: the Bible, says that God entered space and time as a man like us. This was Jesus. Even though he was God, he lived a perfect human life. Have you heard of Jesus? 

Ben: Yeah, I think so. 

Tim: Ok, great. Well, Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life, according to God’s own law He’s given us. He perfectly treated others right. He perfectly controlled his thoughts, words, and actions. He avoided evil things and followed right things—all perfectly. This is something that none of us has or could ever do.

Then, as he had always intended, Jesus died a torturous death by being impaled and hung on a cross. That’s why Christianity uses the symbol of the cross. It was an ancient, Roman method of death by torture. In his death, Jesus took the place of sinners like us, who all deserved punishment from God. So, God punished Jesus as if he had done all our bad things that we have done, so God could love us and forgive us.

Does that make sense?

Ben: Yeah, I know I try to treat people kindly.

Tim: Hmm. Would you say you deserve or don’t deserve God’s punishment?

Ben: I think I do a pretty good job of treating people well.

Tim: I’m sure you do, by human standards. You are a very nice person. I don’t doubt that at all. I try to be nice too. But you have to remember that God’s standard is perfection. It extends not only to how you treat others but how we treat God. And nobody beside Jesus has ever been even close to perfect. That’s why everyone needs Jesus to save us from God’s anger and rightful punishment.

The way this works, you see, is that when God brings us to the place of giving up trying to impress him with our own goodness, and we admit to ourselves and to him that we have blown it, only then we are open to actually depending and trusting in Jesus as the only basis for our goodness and acceptance with God.

Do you see what I’m saying?

Ben: Yeah, that’s interesting. That’s very different.

Tim: Oh, it really is. Christianity is very unique from other world religions. We see that only by trusting in the righteousness of Jesus (and I mean the perfect obedience of Jesus to God’s rules) can we be good in God’s sight, avoid punishment after death, and be reconciled to God and enjoy his love.

We call this grace. In other words, God has provided for us all that’s necessary for us to be accepted and loved by Him—Jesus.

Oh, and as part of Jesus’ work as a God-man, after he died, he came back to life by God’s power. This guarantees that when we all die, we’ll all come back to life in the end: those who trust Jesus here will be welcomed into heaven, and those who felt like they didn’t want or need Jesus will stand before God to be judged according to their own works and then punished.

Ben: Hmm. Yeah, that’s interesting.

Tim: I hope you’ll keep visiting here, so you can hear more about this stuff. It gets better the more you find out.

Ben: Thanks. Yeah, I plan on coming back.

Tim: Fantastic. Well, great to chat with you. Let’s get some of this food.

Ben: Yeah, this food looks good. ❖