Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
Ezekiel 3:19

This is but one verse of five (v.17-21) in which God spells out a principle regarding evangelism and the responsibility of the evangelist. The principle is that if we tell people the gospel (believe and repent), if they refuse, they will be judged for rejecting the message, but we will have fulfilled our responsibility and will be free from judgment. If we do not tell them, we will incur God’s judgment for our disobedience.

First what this does not mean: Our failure to tell people about Christ and the gospel will not cost us our salvation. That was secured by Christ’s obedience not ours!

What it does mean is that our disobedience is not without consequence. One consequence is displeasing God. Another consequence is loss of reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:9-10).

If we are saved, we do not want to displease God, nor do we want to lose rewards for obedience since our rewards are not ultimately for us but for Christ’s glory.

People need to know the Lord. The way God has ordained people who do not know the Lord to receive Christ is that we (who know Him) are called to make Christ and the gospel known.

Let us pray to be more evangelistically minded, and that the Lord will convert people with whom we share the good news!