When we contact unbelievers to bring them to Christ and help them to be saved, we must be very clear about the central point of the gospel, God’s main purpose in saving people and bringing them to Himself in Christ. We have pointed out ten ways to contact people for the gospel, but regardless of which way we take, we must keep the goal in mind. The way is for the goal. The ten ways are not the goal; there is only one goal. The goal of the gospel is life. We need to bring people to Christ because people need to have the life of Christ.
In the entire Scriptures God’s intention is to give Himself to people as life. What we humans need is the life of God, that is, God Himself as our life. We have to stress this very much, because in today’s Christianity life is mostly neglected. Rather, the gospel in Christianity is mostly along the line of peace, happiness, eternal blessings, justification, and salvation. It is hard to hear a message of the gospel on the central point of God’s economy, which is life. We believe that the Lord will recover this matter today.
Whenever we bring someone to the Lord, we should help him or her to realize that the central point of God’s salvation is life. Why does a person need to be justified? It is because justification is for life; without justification we cannot receive life. Why should a person be cleansed? It is because cleansing is for life; without cleansing, the divine life cannot be imparted into a person. Why do we need God’s redemption? It is because we need life, and it is through redemption that we receive life from God. Neither justification, redemption, cleansing, holiness, nor sanctification is the goal; they are the process for the goal, which is life.
Life is eternal. It is not something merely in time. It is of eternity because from eternity and for eternity God’s intention is to impart Himself as life into man. After God’s creation of man, God put man in front of the tree of life with the intention that man would receive Him as life. We need to receive food day by day, whether or not we have been dirty. Even if we never become dirty, we still have to receive food. In the same way, even if man had never fallen, he was still made as a vessel to receive God as life. This is the central intention of God. Christianity today, however, neglects the central aim and intention of God and pays its full attention to the mending aspect. Justification and redemption are the mending aspect; they are not the original intention of God. I am stressing this because from now on the gospel preaching of the church must be in a way that is different from the way of today’s Christianity. The way of our preaching must be the recovery of the ancient way.
God created man with the intention to put Himself into man as life. Then man became fallen, and God came in to bring him back. In this bringing back, God did something to cleanse, redeem, and justify man. He even separated man because man had fallen into the world of Satan, into the devil’s system. This separation is sanctification. However, cleansing, redemption, justification, and sanctification are not the goal. The goal is life. Cleansing, redemption, justification, and sanctification are all for life. If man had never fallen, there would have been no need for cleansing, redemption, justification, and sanctification, but there would still have been the need for life.
We may illustrate God’s intention with a soft drink bottle. The purpose of a soft drink bottle is to receive the soft drink and be filled with it. Before the bottle is filled, however, a naughty boy may dirty and damage the bottle. Now the owner has to recover it, clean it, and separate it from the trash. However, the recovering, cleaning, and separating are not the aim; they are merely the process. After the bottle is recovered, there is still the need to fill it with the soft drink. The aim and goal are to fill the bottle.
In the gospel of God, the central matter is that man has to receive Christ as life. Man needs to have life through Christ, in Christ, and by Christ. However, we may have been impressed, even indoctrinated, by our background of Christianity. Because of this, whenever we speak about the gospel, we forget about life and pay too much attention to justification, redemption, and sanctification. Even worse, we may pay our attention to bringing people to go to heaven. Going to heaven is the worst concept. I cannot find a verse in the New Testament that tells us that the gospel is for people to go to heaven. I challenge you to tell me which of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and which chapter and verse, tell us that the gospel is for bringing people to heaven. Let us forget about this background and come back to the New Testament to see the central point of the gospel.