For Those Discouraged in Evangelism, Jesus Saves (Not You)

Is there a friend or family member that you fear is beyond the gospel of salvation? Perhaps they are hostile towards Jesus or maybe they have made up a Jesus they are comfortable with (but one who cannot save them). Maybe they are so enslaved to their own passions and desires that it seems impossible that they will ever walk in the freedom of loving God.

It is easy to slip into this sort of thinking. For me it usually isn't an outright thought of giving up on them. But it often creeps in and then manifests itself in a weakening of my resolve to proclaim Christ, crucified and risen for sinners, to them.

Recently I found myself rebuked by Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones on this issue.  Here is what I read,

We tend to regard certain people as beyond hope, and assume that they must of necessity continue in their grooves as they are and die unrepentant and unredeemed. We just shake our heads over them and express our sorrow. We have talked to them and tried to persuade them. We have appealed to them and preached to them. Everything that human agency can possibly do has been tried and has failed. We cannot get them to come our way, so we feel that their case is hopeless and desperate. Ah! what a lack of faith all that reveals! How different from what we find here in the New Testament and always in the church during days of revival and true faith! If you and I are to save men and women, then indeed the case is hopeless. All our efforts will most certainly fail. But that is not our gospel. It is Jesus Christ who saves! There is no limit to what He can do! His methods are not confined as ours are.

Ian Murray's Biography of Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Volume 1, page 226.