It is a ‘given’ that a relationship with God, through the crucified and risen Christ will drastically change one’s life.
It is also a ‘given’ that a life changed life is an important part of what we share with non-believers when pointing them to the Savior.
A changed life, in and of itself, is however not the core message that we must share with those we would lead to Christ. The Apostle Paul declared:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” – Rom 1:16
Paul also declared:
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” – 1 Cor 15:1-4
No matter where Paul traveled and preached, he always centered on this core message. The only thing in question is exactly when the core message was delivered during an evangelistic encounter.
Often, we believers make a ‘changed life’ the centerpiece of our ‘gospel sharing’, followed by an invitation to Christ based on personal benefits to be obtained in this life, rather than Paul’s core message of the death and resurrection of Christ for our sin – the message that actually contains ‘the power of God for salvation!
Been there, done that!
Food for thought. . .
The Battle Cry 
The current confusion about the CORE MESSAGE of the gospel, a.k.a. the “power of God for salvation”, arises from post-apostolic, significant deviation from Jesus Christ’s perpetual self-revelation in his perfect and transfigurative death on the cross as taught in the gospel (John 8: 21-28; 10: 17-18, 37-38; 14: 15-21; 17; 19: 30-37) and promised in the Scriptures of Moses and the prophets.
LikeLike
The enemy loves to see people come to Christ for a better life, a bettter job, a happy homelife, career success, etc., and never address the issue of sin. There are those who come to Christ for any numnber of ancillary issues (your best life now, etc.), and do get to the real issue of sin, facing it head on and trusting in Christ’s death in their place, many do not and can be said to be false converts and will die in their sin thinking they are saved. that ought to make us weep.
LikeLike