All People Need the Lord

All People Need the Lord

Jesus told the first church leaders to make disciples from all peoples (Mat 28:19). We read that heaven’s church has members from all corners of humanity (Rev 7:9).

Likewise Paul writes of his obligation to preach the gospel to all kinds of people and thus his desire to visit Rome so that he could also evangelise there (Rom 1:14).

Paul also tells us why all people need the Lord (Rom 1:18-32 – the passage for our 6pm service today). Every human being knows enough about God to be without excuse (Rom 1:19-20) but we all suppress and pervert that knowledge instead of acting on it. Paul develops this melancholy theme at length and shows how it applies to all people in detail (Rom 1:18 – 3:20). In ourselves, we are all outside of God’s salvation.

However, the news is good! As Paul explains it, the gospel of God’s righteousness through Jesus is sufficient for all and efficient for all and any who believe (Rom 1:16-17). There is no distinction in our need of Jesus, nor in our access to him (Rom 3:23-24).

The flipside of this is that Jesus must be made available to all. And that is where the Great Commission comes in. Every local church and every Christian agency is under the command and obligation to make disciples of all nations.

This means a global vision. We cannot leave other churches to do outreach with this or that people. ‘That people’, wherever they are, and whoever they are, are our responsibility if we have opportunity and access.

This does not mean that we try and do outreach to everyone in every place for we must be realistic about our capacities and concentrate our energies. However, it does mean being open to the Lord’s callings and opportunities locally, regionally and globally. While the command to make disciples of all nations remains in our Bible, missions is a global imperative on us all.

This will sometimes mean big personal sacrifices and a big use of resources. Some of our leaders and members show the way as they give up their time, money and comfort to go and share in our various overseas partnerships. Others do the same as they invest time and reputation to share the gospel at home and at work. This should be the normal order of things for God’s people.

All need the Lord. He came for all. Let’s tell all.

David Burke