Why aren’t we pointing people to read Paul’s epistles once they accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior, (especially starting with Romans)? Most mature Christians point people to read John’s gospel.

Zack 

Hello Zack,

Fair question. Thank you for bringing up this subject. Obviously, many will direct seekers to the Gospel of John to bring them to faith in Jesus. It seems some may point new believers to John’s Gospel as well to aid in grounding them in their understanding of salvation. But it should not stop there.

Paul the Apostle saw many believe in Jesus on his first missionary journey. Then he wrote letters to disciple them. These, of course, are the Epistles.

After rehearsing justification by faith (Rom. 1-5), Paul unfolds the truth of sanctification by faith (Rom. 6-8), emphasizes the way of grace through faith (Rom. 9-11), and then turns to application starting with the classic text of Romans 12:1-2 and following through to the end of the book (Rom. 12-16). Galatians 2:20 summarizes the same truth and follows up with maturing by faith (Gal. 3:1ff) and walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5). Ephesians highlights the grand truth of being in Christ far above the enemy (Eph. 1-3), the believer’s walk of being filled with the Spirit as the key to family and work relationships (Eph. 4-5), and Christ as our armor to protect in spiritual warfare (Eph. 6).The truth of the provision of Christ in you and you in Christ so that we set our affections on Christ who is our life through whom the flesh is deprived of its power is unpacked in Colossians. And so on!

This is the truth that we highlight in Phase 4 of the Netcasters Evangelistic Training Course as the emphasis to brand new believers. So yes, I concur, the truth of the Epistles—the Spirit-filled life, the Spirit filling believers with the life of Jesus, the leadership and power of the indwelling Christ as the key to holy living and effective service—is what should be used to disciple new believers.

If you would like to be better prepared to lead someone to Christ and to life in Him, click here to check out the online Netcasters course featuring14 videos with over 4 hours of instruction.

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