Justin J. Petrick

There is a superior way in bringing someone to a God who loves them more than life itself. And contrary to what we may think, it’s not showing them Jesus.  It’s teaching Him. Don’t get me wrong, we are to exemplify God to others.  In fact, exemplifying God’s peace and love that passes understanding is the only way we can teach something that you….can’t teach, right? We can’t use words, we have to use behaviors.

But let me challenge you to think about something. Upon salvation, we did not start our relationship with God completely and utterly in love with Him.  I mean how could we?  We didn’t even know who He was. It is similar to us being introduced to a person in this physical realm, for the first time, saying, “Here, you are now in a relationship with them”. Part of the Christian life is learning the true nature and character of God for ourselves, despite what religion has taught us through others, and through learning more about Him in both our experiences with Him and His revelations to us, our life with Him is a life that is continually falling more and more in love with Him.  Its a never-ending journey of falling in love with God.

But too many times we try and teach someone intimacy with God by trying to show them who He is….to us. The problem is, we are trying to show them our relationship with God, expecting them to live in it as well. This may not work for them because they undoubtedly will have different needs, different communication styles, different styles of worship than we do. The superior way to bring someone to God is not to show them who He is, but to teach them how to have intimacy with them, thus enabling them to walk personally and intimately with God themselves. And you may be asking, “How in the world am I to do this?” Well, it may be easier than you think.

The greatest way to teach someone about Christ is to teach them what He accomplished for them on the cross. When you teach someone about salvation, you are teaching them how to live in what Christ purchased for them; you are literally teaching them how to live…..in Christ.  When you are teaching someone about salvation, you are teaching them how to live in being saved, healed, delivered, prospered, protected, preserved, and made whole; you are teaching them how to live in Christ. To read more about the 7 Biblical definitions of salvation, or the complete gospel, click here.

Everything that pertains to life and godliness is found in the knowledge of Jesus Christ   (2 Peter 1:3).  This knowledge is in the knowledge of the cross, and is the perfect display of Christ’s perfect love. This knowledge enables them to not only hear of God, but enables them to live in His perfect love in everyday life.