In remembering St Patrick yesterday, we observed the value of imagination in evangelism. My son David just passed this on from a sermon he heard last weekend at a regional evangelism conference for pastors. It’s from a familiar verse: 2 Corinthians 5.17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV)
It was H. B. Charles preaching.
He was using 2 Corinthians 5.14 – 21 to talk about evangelism, but he stopped at verse 17.
Anyone…
- Black, white
- Republican, Democrat
- Rich, poor
- Young, old
- Male, female
- …anyone
When I and most people I know memorized this verse, the emphasis was always on “new creation.” That’s me! I am a new creation! Praise God! Important, yes. But so is the anyone. Not just me. Not just people like me.
ANYONE
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3.28, ESV)
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. (John 3.16, MSG, emphasis mine)