Why are so many so close, but so far, from knowing about Jesus?

By Dean Collins

So close but yet so far—you must have experienced that feeling many times. You try to achieve some goal and you get almost there, and then something goes wrong and you just don’t make it. Maybe you are watching your favorite team coming from behind. The clock is winding down. The play is called, but they come up one yard short of the goal, one desperation shot missed at the buzzer. One putt that lipped out. So close, but so far from the outcome you hoped to enjoy.

It happens in business as well. One deal that didn’t close that would have been the difference in your commission or your company hitting their earnings target. You thought the customer was on the hook, but they got away. You were so close to making the deal but ended up far away from the results you wanted.

God’s offer

Thinking about this reminds me of the many who are so close to Christian friends or coworkers, but still far away from considering God’s offer for their lives. The apostle Paul explained this offer in many places. First he reminds readers about the weakness of the law to bring salvation. Try as we might we just can’t live perfectly; we always fall short from an ability to earn salvation from God. But the good news is that Jesus came to allow a different way to receive forgiveness of sin and life with God. Instead of the impossible path of keeping the law, we can receive forgiveness and grace by accepting the truth about Jesus. His payment for sin allows us to have access to God.

What is required is a confession that Jesus is Lord and a belief that God raised Jesus from the dead. Paul discussed this at length in the eighth chapter of Romans. Salvation and life with God both now and forever is possible and available to all people regardless of race, age, life circumstances, gender, previous failures, or current difficulties. Everyone who calls out to him has access to God.

But not everyone knows this opportunity exists.

It’s interesting what we are willing to share with friends and acquaintances about any number of other things. We might call a friend to let them know of a sale on some item they have been wanting. Or we might let someone know how to get a ticket to the big game. We might tell a friend about a new investment opportunity. We will spread the news of a good restaurant that has opened nearby. But with the best news of all we just sit quietly hoping someone might ask about it, or thinking it’s the pastor’s job to get the word out.

We just sit quietly, hoping someone might ask us about the best news of all.

Worse yet, we simply ignore the reality that we have friends and family who desperately need to know Jesus, but we can’t muster the time or the courage to open our mouth and share what we have discovered.

Paul asked some reasonable questions:

• How will they call on on him in whom they have not believed?
• How are they to believe in him if they have never heard?
• How will they hear without someone preaching?
• How are they to preach if they haven’t been sent?

Everyone’s call

We read these words and shake our head and agree: Yep, he’s describing a sad reality. We need our preacher to get to work. Maybe if our church hires another staff member, we can do better. But this passage wasn’t ever aimed at a paid church staff. And the Great Commission was never given just to professional missionaries. Jesus called all of us who know him to share freely and tell what we have received so that others might see and hear the good news of salvation.

It was the working class who shared the gospel first. The shepherds, the fishermen, and even the crooked tax collectors first took the good news far and wide. They simply offered to others what had been freely given to them.

All around us are those so close to Jesus because they are close to you. But they are so far because we aren’t willing even to mention what Jesus has done in our lives. “I once was lost, but now I’m found” doesn’t really take a formal education to tell. It simply takes a little humility and courage to express. What might happen if we all simply shared this good news with even one person? I suspect the light of the world would brighten the darkness.

We are so close but yet so far from experiencing the world we would all love to live in.

Your time with God’s Word
‭‭Romans‬ ‭10:8-15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

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