During that period, a young man named William Carey attended a ministers’ meeting and began urging others to consider missionary work overseas, especially in places like India. According to the commonly told story, an older minister responded, “Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your help or mine.” That quote definitely reflected the attitude at the time that God’s sovereignty meant there was no need for missionary effort.

William Carey strongly disagreed and instead of backing down wrote a powerful pamphlet entitled, “An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens”. Although the title is not memorable it did have a profound impact on many believers.

His powerful work argued like this: Christians are commanded to spread the gospel worldwide; the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19,20) applies today; and the present day church has been neglecting its responsibility. Carey’s writing was the seed from which the modern missionary movement grew and the most famous line in it: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God” became its rallying cry.

Carey is often attributed with stating that “The doctrine of God’s sovereignty does not lessen the necessity of human exertion.” He believed in the doctrine of the unconditional election of sinners to salvation but understood that  proclamation of the gospel is the normative means by which God will save those whom He has chosen. Carey’s service for God reflected that belief.

Around 1792–1793, just as Carey was preparing to leave England for missionary work in India, he said something else that has been often quoted, “I will go down, if you will hold the rope.” He was painting a vivid picture. Going to India was, in those days, like descending into a deep, dangerous mine. He urged his supporters to be “holding the rope above”. In other words, “I’ll go to the mission field . . . but you must support me prayerfully, practically and financially.”

Today, all believers are likewise commanded to be involved in the work of evangelism by both telling others the gospel of Jesus Christ and supporting those involved in that work.

Why must the Gospel be proclaimed?

When the Lord Jesus gave the great commission to the Apostles, that instruction did not stop with them, rather it goes to all of God’s people until the end of this age:

“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen” (Matthew 28:18-20).

The Lord Jesus commands that disciples are made, not from one nation, but from all nations. The Commission goes beyond evangelism as it extends to making believers lifelong disciples who are taught all the commands given to them in the Scriptures.

However, there is a great promise given in the commencement of that work of making disciples in that “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved’” (Romans 10:13). God guarantees that all who genuinely call upon Him will be saved.

The question is then asked, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (v.14).

These rhetorical questions do beg an answer, as no one can believe in someone they have not heard about. It is impossible to call on God if you are unaware of why you should and what you should call for!

Hence we have God’s solution, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" (v.15b).

Some 2,000 years ago the Lord Jesus came with “beautiful feet” and declared the Gospel message. Following His ascension, the apostles took up the baton, and now it is the privilege and responsibility of every believer to be involved in the proclamation of the gospel to a lost and dying world.

What is the Gospel?

At its core, the gospel simply means “good news”. It is the good news that God saves sinners through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This salvation means freedom from the penalty that our sin deserves, release from sin’s reign in our lives, and a certain future in Christ’s presence forever without any vestiges of sin remaining. The blessings that the believer receives and will receive are so numerous that they cannot be covered in this article but they all form a part of the gospel message, the good news of God’s great salvation plan.

However, when we are called to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers there are some essential facts that they must know and believe in order to be saved. One way to remember the key elements of the gospel message is through four words: God, Man, Christ, Response (I cannot give credit because I cannot recall who recommended it but it has remained with me). It is not a rigid formula to follow but does help the believer who is seeking to tell someone the gospel. I will briefly outline those four elements:

1. God is holy, just, and loving

God is the Creator of all things. He created mankind to know and enjoy Him. We have dignity, being created in God’s image, and also accountability to the One who created us.

God is perfect in all His ways. His unchangeable character cannot be fully expressed or understood by finite minds but is summarised in this passage of Scripture:

“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.’" (Exodus 34:6,7 ESV).

The phrase, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity” or something similar is repeated many times in Scripture. These attributes and actions are truly wonderful to contemplate, but there is something that many people either do not consider or choose to forget. He “will by no means clear the guilty”.

 Those who are guilty will not go unpunished. God is a just judge who must deal with all sin. This might seem like good news if all wrong will be judged, but it does present every individual with a huge problem.

2. Man has sinned

When I use the term “man” I am referring to all humankind. The Scriptures teach, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Sin is any thought, word, or deed that falls short of God's standard of holiness and perfection. We are all sinners by practice, rebelling against God, because we are sinners by nature.

Not only does our sin separate us from a holy God, meaning we cannot enjoy the relationship humankind was created to enjoy, but we also face everlasting judgement for our sin against Him. It might seem that we are truly without hope but the good news is that God Himself has a plan of salvation.

3. Jesus Christ is the Saviour we need.

Although there is nothing we can do to save ourselves from God’s judgement against our sin and to bring us into a positive relationship with Him, God has done what we could not do. In His great love for mankind He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into this world. He, who always was and always will be God, became human and lived a perfect life in God’s sight.

At the end of His life of service, He willingly went to a cross to die and there bore the penalty for the sins of others, so that all who trust in Him would never have to pay that penalty and are able to enjoy eternal life. Many verses in the Bible explain the work of God for the salvation of sinners but this one is, for me, one of the most memorable:

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

This verse brings before us the great exchange. The one who knew no sin bore the judgement for sin so that those who had sinned could be seen as righteous in God’s sight.

4. Response

The gospel calls for a response and everyone does respond. Some wilfully reject the message, others are disinterested, but only those who repent (turn from sin) and believe (trust in Jesus) are forgiven for all their sin and have eternal life.

The Apostle Paul declared that both repentance and faith are essential:

“testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).

Repentance is a turning from sin and resolving, by God’s grace, to abandon it. Faith is the “opposite side of the coin”. It means to turn to Christ alone, depending on Him and not any works you perform, for your salvation.

The gospel is a message of God’s grace to a fallen world, the message through which God powerfully works to save all kinds of sinners, from every nation and culture “it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16b).

I will conclude with another William Carey quotation: “If it be the duty of all men to believe the gospel, then it is the duty of those who are entrusted with it to endeavour to make it known among all nations.”