Helping Non-Christians Cross the Thresholds of Faith

There is a sad story in the book of Genesis about Abraham and his interaction with an Egyptian Pharaoh.

10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

17 But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.  [Genesis 12:10-20]

Abraham knew the true God and Pharaoh did not. Abraham had a chance to make an impression on Pharaoh, either good or bad. He made a bad one, didn’t he? If Abraham wanted to help Pharaoh come to know the true God he now had a huge barrier to doing that. Pharaoh did not trust Abraham.

There are five thresholds non-Christians need to cross over to become followers of Jesus Christ.

Crossing the Threshold from distrust to trust

No non-Christian is going to listen to why you believe that Jesus is the true and only God if he or she does not trust you. No matter how many convincing proofs you give you yourself stand as one big proof against the truth if you are not trustworthy.

Abraham was not trustworthy. Though we know he knew the truth, Pharaoh did not. Though we understand that he was a genuine follower of the only God, to Pharaoh Abraham’s faith did not match his life. Abraham professed to know and love the God who says that lying is wrong. He claimed to worship the holy God who demands holiness of His children. Why should Pharaoh believe Abraham about such an important matter as who the true God was?

Pharaoh should have believed Abraham anyway, because what Abraham could have witnessed to was the truth. There is only one God and He is holy. We cannot have a relationship with this God unless we ourselves are holy, as holy as God is. Pharaoh knew this deep in his heart, but was unwilling to allow it to control his life. Abraham became a convenient excuse for rejecting the truth. What Pharaoh did not know was that even though we followers of the true God are not as holy as God is, our Savior is that holy. Jesus has become our holiness before God. God has accepted Jesus’ holiness in place of our own. He views us as pure as Jesus Himself because we have put all our trust in Him to be our Savior.

Nevertheless, why should we put a stumbling block in the way of non-Christians? Why would we live any less than the character of Jesus Christ before them? Abraham could have redeemed this relationship if he had been willing to demonstrate repentance before Pharaoh. He could have stayed around to prove the character of His God by living with godly character before Pharaoh.

What about you? Have you put a stumbling block in the way of some non-Christian? Have you lived in a way that does not reflect the character of Jesus Christ? Do the non-Christians that you have contact with trust you? Do they believe that you love them even if they do not believe the same way you do? Do they know that if they were in need they could come to you? Do you live what you believe? And when you fail to live what you believe, do you acknowledge it, repent, and change your life to conform to Christ?

If you live this way you will help the non-Christian step across the threshold of trust and be one step closer to trusting Jesus as Savior.

Crossing the Threshold from Disinterest to Curiosity About Jesus Christ

Once you have the trust of the non-Christian you have a great thing. But that does not mean that the non-Christian has any interest in knowing about Jesus Christ. What it does mean is that he or she is willing to have an interest piqued by you without immediately putting up an emotional wall between you. It is time for you to take advantage of this trust.

When Jesus went to Samaria he sat at the well while his disciples went into town to get provisions. When he saw the solitary woman coming to the well he had a choice to make. Social convention said he should not speak to her. She was a woman and as a man it was not appropriate to speak to her. And he was a Jew and the Jews and Samaritans hated each other. But she needed Jesus. She needed salvation. Jesus knew that she did not know or trust him. So he asked her for a drink of water.

Isn’t it interesting what happens when we ask someone to help us? By making ourselves vulnerable to them we actually help them to trust us. After all, we have made ourselves obligated to them and put ourselves at a disadvantage to them. We have trusted them. They find it easier to trust us.

The Samaritan woman was surprised by Jesus’ request for help and voiced her surprise: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” This was Jesus’ opportunity to create some interest in knowing more. He said, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” He was offering her something that she couldn’t get just anywhere. So she began to question who he was and he was able to tell her that the water he offered would slake thirst forever and give eternal life.

What do you and I have to offer to non-Christians that would arouse their interest in Jesus Christ? We have hope. We have an answer in the middle of life’s toughest questions. We have peace in the midst of suffering. The apostle Peter told us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (2 Peter 3:15).

As those around you see the way you handle problems with grace and humility and compassion they will want to know why. This is our chance to tell them how Jesus has given us peace to face anything. It will be our chance to tell them that we have this peace because Jesus has forgiven all our sins forever and has given us new power to live the way He intended us to live. It will be our chance to tell them how they too can receive Jesus’ salvation.

Crossing the Threshold of Unwillingness to Change to Willingness to Change

But simply because a non-Christian has crossed the threshold of interest in Jesus does not mean he or she is willing to change his or her life the way God is going to ask for change. The sad reality of things is that human beings don’t usually have motivation to change unless not changing is too painful.

When the Samaritan woman jumps at Jesus’ offer of living water Jesus does not immediately tell her how to get this living water. He asks her to call her husband. When she says she has no husband Jesus reveals that she has had five husbands and is now living with a man outside of marriage.

Is Jesus just being cruel by pointing out the woman’s sins? No, he is helping her see how her way of coping with life’s pain has ultimately been more painful than helpful. He is challenging her with her own hopelessness so that she will be willing to change.

Sometimes we will have to point out to those non-Christians with whom we have developed a relationship and whom we love that their way of living is ultimately hopeless. It may be inconsistent with what they truly want in life. It may be rationally inconsistent with what they know deep down to be true. It will be like removing what they have supported themselves with and leaving them near collapse. We are not doing this for fun or for vengeance, but because we know that until they realize how hopeless they are they will not want to change.

Sometimes we will be there in the life of that non-Christian when the tragedies of life hit. It will be in these moments that we show them we love them and offer them the hope that is in Christ. They will often be open to changing their lives more at these moments than any other. If we have a relationship of trust with them already they will be more able to receive this from us.

Crossing the Threshold of Unfocused to Focused Searching

Now we notice that after Jesus exposes the hopeless of the way the Samaritan woman was conducting her life, her general interest in Jesus moves from an unfocused search for truth to a very focused one. She begins to question Jesus about his beliefs and how they compare with hers and is challenged by Jesus to consider new ways of thinking.

At this point in a non-Christian’s life there is a great deal of questioning taking place. They are considering making the biggest change in their life they could make. They are considering repenting of their self-rule and submitting themselves to the God who made them and who has provided a way of redeeming them. Nothing is bigger than that! This change is actually impossible to make apart from the help of the Spirit of God.

Your role at this time is to be a resource for answers to their questions and to point the to other resources (people, books, the Bible) so they can find the answers themselves. The more you can drive them to the Bible the better. How many of you own a Bible? How many of you read the Bible every day? The more familiar you are with the Bible the better you will be at pointing non-Christians to the truth.

The non-Christian needs a lot of prayer at this point. Becoming willing to change one’s life so radically is very scary. The Devil will find ways to tell the non-Christian that it is foolish to make such a radical change. He will try to make the non-Christian think that if all of his or her questions are not answered it is wrong to make this change. The non-Christian will need your prayers more than ever.

Crossing the Threshold of Unbelief to Belief

The final threshold that must be crossed by the non-Christian is from unbelief to belief. Even if all the non-Christian’s questions about change have been answered, all his objections to Christianity have been answered, and he trusts in you as a representative of Jesus Christ, he does not become a Christian until he puts his trust in Jesus Christ alone to rescue him.

What has Jesus done for us? He has allowed himself to die on the cross in order to pay the penalty for the sin we incurred. We deserve to die but he died in our place. Then he rose from the dead to demonstrate that the Father accepted his sacrifice and to provide a living relationship with himself. This relationship empowers us to live a new life in him. When we realize that we cannot afford to pay the price for our sins ourselves nor live a godly life on our own, and we rest all our hopes in Jesus alone to deliver us from God’s wrath to God’s acceptance, God declares us righteous in His sight. He gives us eternal life as a free gift and rights our names in His book of life forever. He sends His Holy Spirit to live within us to help us live as Jesus taught us to live. He adopts us into His family forever and gives us all the rights and privileges of sons and daughters. He secures us for that future day when He will resurrect our bodies even as Jesus’ body was resurrected. He begins the daily process of conforming us to the image of His Son, Jesus.

All these things and more await the non-Christian until he or she takes the plunge into the deep waters of God’s love. This is the very beginning step of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It begins the process of reordering the non-Christians life into one of service and worship of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.

The new believer must be incorporated into the Body of Christ by becoming a part of a local church where he or she can be nourished in this new life. Each of us can play a part in loving the new believer and contributing to his or her growth. Will you take this newborn believer and feed him milk? Will you stand by him or her in their helplessness and do for them spiritually what you would for any new baby emotionally and physically?

[The ‘thresholds’ concepts come from the study done by InterVarsity college evangelists Don Everts and Doug Schaupp of college students who came to faith, and it is detailed in their book, I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus.]