It was a conversation I would not soon forget. A 20-something university undergraduate told me of her failed attempt at sharing her faith with her friends.

“They have no need for God,” she lamented.

Well-educated, well-heeled, well-loved – her friends had not lived long enough to encounter many setbacks in life. In their experience, if they only set their minds to it and put in enough effort, there were few problems they could not solve, few situations they could not overcome, few goals they could not achieve.

So the usual promises – life will become better (John 10:10), God answers prayers (Matthew 7:7-8), there will be blessings (Philippians 4:19) – have little traction for them.

The truth is that it isn’t that they have no need for God. They just don’t realise they do.

So how do we share the Gospel with someone who seems to have it all in this life?

1. Help them realise humanity has a natural inclination towards God

Humanity is more inclined towards a god than no god. We may not always recognise the one true God. But we certainly lean towards the worship of a god rather than none at all.

As early as in Exodus 20:3, God tells the Israelites: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” There must have been gods that the other people groups were worshipping or else God would not have needed to tell the Israelites to stay away from them.  

There is research to support this inclination. In fact, people have to deliberately deny their natural inclination to worship a god. In Romans 1:18-20, Paul talks about people who “suppress the truth” which he defines as knowing God who has made Himself “plain to them”.

Society today appears less inclined towards God only because of modern science. Until the later half of the 19^th century and the publication of Charles Darwin’s book on evolution, science and faith were not in disagreement. Sir Isaac Newton himself was a passionate believer of God.

2. Get them to reflect on why they like to be “the good guy”

No one wants to be the bad guy. It’s an almost universal sentiment. Somewhere within us there is a belief that we have to be good and do good to gain some kind of cosmic approval. We are essentially trying to reach God through works.

Paul talks about this misunderstanding of how God can be reached in Romans 10:3-4. He says the Jews “did not know about God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own” by observing the law. They thought that if they obeyed all 613 commandments, they could attain righteousness.

3. Get them to evaluate their ability to be good

If we think we can work our way to righteousness, we have over-estimated our goodness and under-estimated God’s holiness.

In time, in our effort to be good and do good, we will fail because we cannot be totally good. Even if we can, we cannot be totally good all the time. So we might comfort ourselves with comparisons: “At least I’m not as bad as so and so.” Or we may console ourselves: “At least I tried.”

The law only points us to God, showing us what God wants us to be. The law cannot help us get to God. On our own, we will only fail.

4. Share that Jesus is the only Way

There is only one Way. Paul tells us this in Romans 10:4: “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

What we cannot do humanly – total obedience to the Law – we can obtain through Jesus.

5. Encourage them that the Way doesn’t involve works

So it isn’t about working hard at being good, or even working at all. In fact, Paul argues that getting to the Way is much easier than we think. It doesn’t require us to ascend to the heavens to reach God; He already came down to us. Nor need we descend into the depths to retrieve Him; Jesus is already resurrected (Romans 10:6-7). The toughest part has already been done for us by God.

All we need to do is receive it because “the Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the message concerning faith” (Romans 10:8). Simply “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Conclusion

Our friends who seem to have life all figured out may not think they have a need for God. But, if they are honest with themselves, they have a seemingly inexplicable need to be good.

That desire will eternally be frustrated because no matter how they try, they can never be good on their own. It’s just not in them or in anyone of us to be good on our own.

It is that need to resolve this conundrum to which we must appeal.

RELATED STORIES:

How should I share my faith?

This former atheist offers 7 tips on sharing the Gospel with those who say there is no God

He went from beating up 100 to sharing the Gospel with 100, after a voice told him to “kneel down and ask God for forgiveness”