Trust and Evangelism

“Most people are reluctant to trust a complete stranger” William Gurnall, 1655. What a profound reality! We evangelize as if we expect people who have never met or heard of us before to trust in a Savior they have never heard of before. Then we are discouraged and disappointed when they don’t confess Christ the first time they hear of this stranger and met us for the first time. We should expect relationships to be established, and people to hear of Christ and the gospel two, three maybe four times before they know Christ and us well enough to trust in Him.

In parallel is Christ knowing us. Can Christ call us His own and one of his Sheep if we are a stranger to him? No, He cannot. The gospel tells us that while we don’t know Him, He knows us. He knew us before the world was formed, He knew us before we were born, He decided to make us one of His own before we entered our mothers womb. Therefore, when we are first introduced to Christ and met Him as a stranger, He has already known us and meets us with intimate knowledge of us. We see Him as a stranger, but he sees us as someone he has known since eternity.

"Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." Eph 1:4a