Preach the Gospel Clearly!

This morning during my quiet time, I was reading out of 1 Corinthians 14. In this chapter Paul writes about spiritual gifts. As he addresses the rules of speaking in tongues, he writes, “So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air” (Verse 9). While Paul is specifically addressing speaking in tongues in this passage, I don’t think it twisting or stretching the interpretation of this passage to conclude the following principle: Anytime there is preaching, the speech must be clear so that the hearers may understand what is being said. Nowhere is this more important than in the preaching of the Gospel.

My greatest burden is that the preaching of the Gospel has been mangled by meaningless clichés and unclear presentations. When I share the Gospel out on the streets and people tell me that they are Christians, I always ask them to tell me what someone has to do to become a Christian. A vast majority can’t answer this question! How can this be? I believe that there is a level of understanding of the Gospel that one must have to be able to respond to the Gospel. How can someone, who has come to the conclusion of their depravity in sin, their dependence on Christ crucified for salvation, and the fact they must repent and trust the savior, not be able to articulate what one must do to be saved? This just doesn’t make sense.

This is the result of Christians not preaching the clear message of salvation to the lost. I don’t know how many times I have heard preachers and Christians say things like “Ask Jesus into your heart.” Where did this come from? What does that mean? Did you know that this phrase is not even in the Bible? How does this get the message across that you must repent and trust Christ? It doesn’t! How about “Make Jesus Lord of your life or turn your life over to God?” This sounds right, but again, how does this get the message across that you must repent and trust Christ? Christians will also say to a lost person, “You must recognize you are a sinner, and receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.” Even this lacks much explanation. How does one receive the gift of salvation? There is more to it than just a mental assent to the Gospel message.

You may be thinking, “Come on! You are taking this too far.” I really don’t think I am. Like Paul wrote, “…unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken?” I think God’s word should never be fooled with. We should never take away from His glorious message of Christ crucified. This is exactly what we do when we use meaningless clichés and unclear presentations when sharing the Gospel. Why would we even want to play around with the Gospel? If lost people don’t come to an understanding of it, they will go to hell! Every time a Christian opens his mouth to share the Gospel, he must be sure to preach it in such a way that his hearers can understand their predicament in their sin, the consequences of their sins, and the kindness of God available to them through repentance and faith in Christ. If a lost person doesn’t understand all this at the end of a Gospel conversation, the Gospel of the Bible was not preached.