Our Responsibility to Proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ

We who have believed in Jesus Christ are truly blessed. We’re saved from eternal perdition and born again with the life of God. As Christians, our lives are full of meaning and purpose.

But being blessed with God’s salvation also brings us a great responsibility. Today, we’ll read verses and a note from the New Testament Recovery Version to see our responsibility to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Lord’s command

In Mark 16:15, the resurrected Jesus commanded His disciples:

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the creation.”

The Lord’s word here isn’t a request. It’s a command.

We may think that this command was only directed to the eleven apostles who were with Him at that time. Yes, they were the ones the Lord spoke this word to after His resurrection. But who were the apostles? They were those who had seen and believed in the crucified and resurrected Christ.

Because the apostles obeyed the Lord’s command, many more believed in Jesus Christ. We can read throughout the book of Acts how the gospel continued to be proclaimed through many believers, not just the apostles, everywhere they went.

The proclaiming of the gospel continued on through the centuries and eventually reached us! Now we also inherit the command to proclaim the gospel.

What qualifies us to proclaim the gospel?

The apostles and early believers didn’t complete a program in order to be qualified to proclaim the gospel. They simply believed in Jesus Christ and spoke to people about the One they believed in. We also are those who have believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior, so we too are qualified to speak the gospel to people.

The story of Jesus and the immoral Samaritan woman in John 4 makes it clear that believing in Him is what qualifies us to speak of Him. As soon as this woman believed in the Lord, she went away into the city and told the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I have done. Is this not the Christ?” She simply spoke about the wonderful Jesus she had met. Because of her word, the people went out to meet Jesus for themselves.

As believers, we are all qualified to tell others about Jesus and the good news of His salvation simply because we’ve met Him.

Now that we’ve seen that all believers can proclaim the gospel, let’s see a few reasons why we need to proclaim the gospel.

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God desires all men to be saved

Why did the Lord command His believers to proclaim the gospel in the first place? First Timothy 2:3-4 tells us:

“This is good and acceptable in the sight of our Savior God, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.”

Our Savior God has a desire. This verse shows us that the desire of His heart is that all men would be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth.

By proclaiming the gospel, we’re one with the Lord’s desire for all men to be saved.

People must hear to believe

Another reason we must proclaim the gospel is seen in Romans 10:14:

“How then shall they call upon Him into whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe into Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without one who proclaims Him?”

We must proclaim the gospel so people can hear about the Savior who died for them and resurrected, believe in Him, and call upon Him to be saved. If they never hear the good news, they have no way to believe!

At one time or another, someone proclaimed Christ to every one of us. Because we heard the gospel, we believed in the Lord Jesus and called upon Him to be saved.

Now we proclaim the gospel so others can also believe in Christ.

We are debtors

This next reason may not have occurred to many of us, but we must proclaim the gospel because we’re obligated to people to do it. God has put certain people in our lives, and we owe it to them to tell them about the Lord Jesus.

In Romans 1:14-15, the apostle Paul expressed this feeling:

“I am debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to foolish; so, for my part, I am ready to announce the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”

Paul said he was a debtor to every kind of person. He owed them something: the gospel of Jesus Christ. We, too, are debtors, and we must pay the debt we owe people by sharing the gospel with them.

Each of us probably knows at least one person who needs salvation. It could be someone we work with, a neighbor, a relative, or a friend. People are perplexed by the difficulties of life. Some are inwardly wounded, and others feel lost or empty. They long to know the purpose of their existence. We owe them the gospel. They need to hear about their loving Savior so they can believe in Him. This is why we must obey the Lord’s solemn command to us to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

The effect of proclaiming the gospel on our Christian life

We may not be aware of this, but whether or not we preach the gospel affects our Christian life.

Spending daily time with the Lord Jesus in the morning to feed on His Word is a spiritual necessity for our Christian life. But so is sharing Christ with others. The Lord who lives in us wants to flow out from us to others.

We can use a water hose to illustrate. The hose gets filled at the spigot, then water flows out the other end. But if the end of the hose is capped, there’s a problem: nothing can flow out, which also means more water can’t flow in.

We “hoses” certainly need to spend time at the “spigot” (Christ) to receive more of Him through prayer and reading the Word of God. We need to allow Him to flow into us, but we also need to allow Him to flow out.

If we don’t tell people about Christ, we begin to feel spiritually “blocked up.” This deprives others of hearing the gospel and affects our own enjoyment of Christ, since we can’t receive more if we don’t flow out.

But if we’re spiritually healthy, the more we enjoy the Lord and have Him flow in, the more we spontaneously want to speak to people and tell them about the Christ we appreciate and love. And as we tell them about Jesus, we experience being filled with Him again.

Three healthy practices

As we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, we should keep in mind three healthy practices: prayer, confession, and trust in God’s Word.

First, our proclaiming of the gospel should always be accompanied by prayer. We must pray for the salvation of those we speak to. Sometimes we may pray for a person for years before they believe. We trust in the Lord’s timing and simply need to continue praying for them and speaking to them about the Lord.

Second, we need to confess any sins we have committed so we can be a clean and open channel for God to flow through. Sins form an obstacle between us and the Lord, and confession clears up that obstacle. When we confess our sins, we’re forgiven and cleansed, and our fellowship with Him is restored. Then the Lord can flow through us without any hindrance or blockage.

And finally, when we proclaim, we should trust in the Word of God, not in ourselves or any natural eloquence we might possess. We also shouldn’t feel discouraged if we feel we’re not eloquent enough. The word of the gospel is powerful. Paul said in Romans 1:16:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believes, both to Jew first and to Greek.”

Note 1 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version speaks of this power:

“Denoting a powerful force that can break through any obstacle. This power is the resurrected Christ Himself, who is the life-giving Spirit, and it is unto salvation to everyone who believes.”

The gospel of God is a power that can break through any obstacle and bring a sinner to salvation!

Proclaiming the gospel rescues the perishing

If we consider the condition of people in the world today and their eternal destiny, we’ll realize how urgently they need us to pray for them and share the gospel with them.

We’ll end this post with the words of a hymn by Fanny J. Crosby, the author of many well-loved hymns. It eloquently expresses humanity’s need for the Savior, and our responsibility to share the good news of Jesus Christ. May the Lord cause us to love people as He does, pray for them, and proclaim the gospel to them.

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying;
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting,
Waiting the penitent child to receive;
Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently;
He will forgive if they only believe.

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness
Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.

Rescue the perishing, duty demands it;
Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide;
Back to the narrow way, patiently win them;
Tell the poor wand’rer a Savior has died.