I will be concentrating on the book of Romans as my starting point on what is the Gospel of Christ and how to present it correctly. We will be in this book for awhile.

^1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ^1:17 For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”

• It is at this point where Paul first mentions the gospel that he begins to develop the theme of the gospel and to state its content. The word “evangelism” appears in this section as well. It is found in the Greek verb in Paul’s statement, “I am ready to preach the gospel …” (i.e. to announce the good news). He not only wanted to preach this message to these at Rome but to others elsewhere. 

• Paul simply summarizes the nature of the gospel, without developing all of its details, in I Cor. 15:1–8 in the statement that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” He died that death in place of our own deserved death for our sins. He further explains that the gospel includes the fact that Christ was buried. In a way which the Apostle will explain later in Romans 6, we were buried in Christ when He was buried. When He lay in Joseph of Arimathaea’s tomb, we too, in the sight of God, lay in that cool, dark tomb below Calvary. When Christ rose from the dead we who have believed in Him arose from the dead in Him.

THE FIRST STEP OF THE SOULWINNER: 

Exposing Man’s Total Lack of Righteousness Before God (Rom. 1:15–3:20)

A.An Introduction to Paul’s presentation of the Gospel

• How many steps or time it takes to lead someone to Christ?

• That is a difficult question to answer since it depends on the receptiveness of the person hearing the message. But on the other hand we depend greatly on the Holy Spirit of God to move on the hearts of the unsaved person.

• The other issue is how the presenter of the Gospel is cooperating with the Holy Spirit on what they should say, to bring the person into the saving knowledge of Christ.

This seems to be suggested by Christ’s words in that great Upper Room Discourse. In it He marvelously prepared the disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit after His own resurrection and departure for heaven 40 days later. In part He said: “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who will go out from the presence of the Father, He will testify of me; and you also shall bear witness …” (Jn. 15:26–27).

In this study when I say, “5 steps to soul winning” of course not all will agree, but this is not intended as steps to follow. But there are 5 aspects that must be considered when you say, “I am evangelizing today.” Also when looking at the entire book of Romans soul winning is presented in a 10 step perspective that should be followed, but this study will only cover the first 5 (Chapter 1-6).

To Be Continue..........