mission.japan

For a long time (where “long time” really means “forever”) I’ve thought that a person becomes a Christian through rational thought. After all, that’s how I became a Christian, right? Or at least that’s what I thought.

But I see now that’s not how it works. Christianity is not postulated in terms human reason can understand. 1 Corinthians 2:14 states bluntly that without the Spirit you’re clueless. Christianity is ludicrous without the Holy Spirit helping you understand. An all-powerful, holy God creates mankind, which wastes no time in turning their collective back on Him over and over, yet out of some unfathomable sense of love that has no duplicate in this world He sacrifices His only son to give mankind a chance to know Him and relate with Him for the rest of eternity. Huh? Where’s the logic in that? C.S. Lewis was spot on when he said that Christianity stands out because there’s no way a person could have dreamed it up.

From a missionary perspective what’s frustrating about this dependence on the Spirit to grant understanding in those who hear the Gospel is that the Spirit is not something sought by man. It’s given by God. Which means God has to take preemptive action before anyone can become a Christian. Which means reasoning someone into Christianity, in any culture, is an inherently flawed procedure.

For me the application is to realize that no matter how many long discussions I have with English students (and lately I have had some really long talks with my student in the late Tuesday night class), whether those students become Christians does not hinge in any way on a clever packaging of the Gospel in easy-to-understand capsules. My job is instead to present the truth in as complete a fashion as possible and then ask God to give the Spirit of understanding to those I talk with.

My sense of pride doesn’t like this, to be honest. I realize a part of me has wanted to complete my work here with a trail of conversions I can point to and say, “I made that person into a Christian,” like I was a fighter pilot pointing at the silhouettes of enemy aircraft stenciled beneath my cockpit window. But in the end I’m really going to play a very small part, and God has the biggest role. I should be satisfied with that. More than satisfied, actually, since it’s a privilege to be here and play that small part in the grand tapestry.

So it becomes another lesson in humility, another lesson in contentment. If I am blessed with seeing someone I had a Bible study with or talked with about Christianity actually become a Christian, I hope I can instead say, “Look at what God did in that person’s life. I’m thankful that He let me be a part of that.”