I was talking with a good friend today about impacting others for Christ. A lot got said and it was a really good conversation. But, as I left, I often wondered how much jargon we use in talking to one another for the sake of convenience. "Witnessing," for example. For the longest time, I knew what it meant (“telling people about Jesus”) but I never knew why that word was used for that activity. Learning why has given me a whole new dynamic on life and living it for Christ in front of others, and really helped me to understand what it is an how to do it.

This term “witnessing” is extremely common in evangelical circles and comes from the general biblical portrayal of the hearts of people worldwide as constantly putting Christ on trial, acting as judge, whether that be blatant or latent. Always, those who have yet to believe are either asking, or making a resolution to ignore, the question, “why this Christ?” “Why should I believe His claims to deity?” “Why should I commit to His claims of rule over my mind, emotions, actions, and life?” “Do I need His claims of salvation and forgiveness?” We all fall on one of the only two sides of that question; yes, or no. Maybe we say we say yes but live differently, maybe we say we care and are “thinking about” but really don’t and aren’t, and maybe we just want nothing to do with Him and we act like it. Either way, the Scriptures show us that all people are, by virtue of existing, asking these and similar questions. So it’s imperative for the Christian then, in this cosmic court of human decision, to take to the witness stand for Christ well. We are called in, by virtue of that -ian we attach to Christ and apply to ourselves among other things, to come to the stand and answer for why we answer the claim in the affirmative… and why everyone should, nay must, do the same.

C.S. Lewis made one of the best apologies for this type of lifestyle, that is seeing oneself as a witness in the courtroom of religion to the truth of Christ, when he refuted the idea of universalism. He said that some have argued that all will be reconciled to Christ because on the day He returns “every knee should bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10, ESV). The universalist would argue that that language sounds very similar to the language of being saved in this life, in that when the believer “confesses with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes with the heart that Christ was raised from the dead” they shall be saved (Romans 10:9, ESV). Lewis’ argument is that the book of Romans records the Son of God giving his perfection to our account when we put our faith and life in Him, and that the former verse is emphasizing and expounding upon His full, godly glory. At that point, Lewis shows from scripture, every single person on Earth will have no choice but to bow down. There is no more simultaneously natural and rational act than to bow before the fullness of God’s glory. Would the God that for 2,000 years now has labored through prophets, apostles, and preachers, asking people to “come, reason with me,” all of the sudden entirely thrown away all free inquiry and force you to be His even if you don’t want to be? His answer was unequivocally no. If it’s a choice now at all, it will never be forced upon you later. His argument in summation is that it is not to your credit to finally bow when you have no choice but to do so.