To reach for souls is to reach for the eternal. And as soul winners, more than just reaching out to a soul, we all endeavor to seek, reach and bring souls to Christ. While one human being with a soul is naturally suited to speak to another soul, thankfully there are Persons and powers beyond a mere human connection adept in things eternal and engaged in this endeavor.
We read in 1 Timothy 2:3-4 of “God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”1 Beyond our sincerest interest in souls, all Persons of the Godhead are actively and intently seeking to save that which is lost. The Apostle Paul further reveals the divine operation in his second letter to Timothy when he writes in chapter 1, “[He] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (v9).
This knowledge of divine rescue wasn’t just by spiritual revelation but by personal experience. Through vastly differing trajectories, Paul and Timothy individually could look back with gratitude, not just to a moment but to the moment when God, through Christ, saved them. Dramatically, Paul saw the gloriously risen Lord, heard His kind yet powerful voice, and immediately responded to His great grace and lordship. Timothy’s rendezvous with the Lord, while no less significant, seems less sensational. Instead of the blinding light and voice from heaven, he found salvation through the light of the Scriptures read in the home. The one who saw the physical light and risen Lord did not expect this to be the conversion experience for all, but understood that the Scriptures could produce the same fruit unto salvation and relationship. Paul said to Timothy, “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation” (2Ti 3:15 KJV). The Scriptures were Timothy’s path to Christ and path for a life that reproduced the same faith evidenced in his mother and grandmother. Paul, Timothy and everyone involved knew the power of God’s deliverance and the power of the Scriptures to reach heart and soul, young and old.
John closes his Gospel with the certainty that readers could come to know Christ and salvation through his letter. He writes, “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (Joh 20:31). Could John imagine the multitudes around the globe who would find the gracious Savior through his words?
Paul and Timothy would both recognize the effective power of the Word of God to do the work of God. The one true God who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth has provided the Savior of the world and the Scriptures of truth for all. Paul establishes this early in his first letter to Timothy when he writes, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1Ti 1:15). This trustworthy message that is good for the foremost sinner is good for the world of sinners that God loves. This was demonstrated and proven wherever the gospel went, whether in Gaza with Philip, who, “beginning with this Scripture,” told “the good news about Jesus” (Act 8:35), or in cities like Thessalonica where Paul “reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (17:2), or initially on the road to Emmaus as our Lord, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luk 24:27). It’s no wonder that we read in Hebrews 4:12, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The Word of God can go beyond the physical and work in things eternal. What a blessing for us today to have this same powerful resource used by our Lord and others to reach souls for Himself.
Christ is the way, the truth and the life. God’s Word is a light unto my path – it reveals the path. We can each be like trail markers or arrows pointing to the actual trail. Beginning with and returning often to the Bible reinforces that the Bible is the source of truth and helps promote a consistency for the seeker though they may talk with various people over time. When we first connect with someone with concerns for their soul, it’s likely that their search began earlier, like with Philip and the Ethiopian official. As we refer to the Bible, we are the trail markers redirecting back to the Scriptures and Christ, which will contribute to a consistent witness of truth.
As we encourage souls to look to the Scriptures, we also must be looking to God to save. As Paul begins to articulate “the charge” he seeks to pass along to Timothy, his first order is to exhort that “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (1Ti 2:1). This subject of praying for souls in our communities or for those over us in authority has been left for the close of this short article, but it is where Paul began with Timothy. Paul knew that prayer is a practice that engages the power of God. Praying for all can be the part of all Christians. Kings and dignitaries may seem beyond our reach, but they are the very focus of the God who will have all people to be saved. It could be that as some are lifting up prayers to God, He is bringing others into proximity to work out the answers to those prayers. A letter, well-timed text, Scripture magnet or tract might be the transmission of faithful testimony that reaches the soul of a once- prayed-for official. To pray is to engage in this mysterious and global effort to reach souls. Because of Christ, the Savior of the world, we can pray with faith and anticipation of God’s working in amazing grace and power.
Paul and Timothy both appreciated personally and by observation the power of the Scriptures and the power of prayer to reach souls and reach the eternal. We can participate in this same great divine mission by continuing to draw from these timeless powers. As we do so, we can also expect to share in the eternal joy with our Lord.
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the ESV unless otherwise noted.
