J.A. Matteson
When communicating the gospel take care so as not to unduly burden souls with artificial prescriptions of confession to satisfy your insecurities as an Ambassador for Christ. "and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (Phil. 3:9). You have spent sufficient time explaining Law and Gospel. When probed for comprehension your hearer expresses understanding and belief in your message. Rejoice with them at that point, beloved, for their confession of faith in Christ is evidence of their regeneration and conversion by grace. The common tendency at this point by many evangelicals is to pull them along a prescribed liturgy through directed questions and declarative answers as though that process saves them. God has already saved them which is why they believe the gospel you shared. Their righteousness before God is given them by grace through faith and not by fabricated rhetorical outlines conceived by men. Your task as Christ's ambassador at this point is to help them to understand with all the saints that their faith comes by grace and is the instrumental cause of their salvation, but it is Christ alone who is the efficient cause of it.
Copyright (c) 2013 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever." Isa. 40:8)