‘Come On In!’ - Lizzie Laferton

This week saw the first of our small group Bible study sessions in Romans. And having spent an hour and a half in the rich and exciting passage that is Romans 1:1-17, I ended our time together thinking about swimming pools.

Stay with me.

In our particular gathering we spent a lot of our time talking in pairs and threes from a list of 12 application questions that drew on teaching in those verses. We enjoyed wide-ranging discussion that got us to places such as…

…how we can communicate not just the authority of Jesus as King but also the goodness of Jesus as King by the things we say (or refrain from saying) in conversation with people who do not yet know him.

…the importance of preaching the gospel to ourselves daily because it is in the truths of the gospel that we find the fuel for obedience. That is to say, it is by trusting the truths about God revealed and articulated in the gospel of “Christ Jesus our Lord” that we are freed and enabled to obey him with joy, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

… and, following on from that, the fact that the gospel isn’t just the entry point to the Christian life, it is the whole of the Christian life. Or to quote pastor and author JD Greear, the gospel isn’t just the diving board; it’s the pool.

…and plenty more besides about the power of the gospel seen in our lives and the lives of others; about the encouragement of other people’s faith; about our identity and purpose as called, loved, holy people of God; about overcoming barriers to zeal in evangelism; about what it means to be a “debtor” charged with relaying a victory message; and about the privilege of glorifying God by sharing the gospel, regardless of how people respond.

But certain threads in particular came together for me as I listened to a sister pray at the end of our session. Her prayer was one I didn’t know I wanted to pray until she had done so: Lord, I don’t want to feel fake when I share the gospel, I don’t want to know that I’m only doing it because I know I should, purely out of duty; I want to desire to share the gospel with people. 

As she said those words, my heart said amen and amen, and the image of the gospel swimming pool we had been discussing came to mind. 

An invitation to a pool party 

As we continued in prayer, I reflected that, when we immerse ourselves in the pool that is the good news of Jesus Christ, when we soak ourselves in it, when we fix our eyes each morning and moment-by-moment on the beauty, grace and surpassing greatness of Christ – i.e. when we preach the gospel to ourselves daily – our hearts are moved from duty in sharing him to delight. For who wouldn’t, while luxuriating in it, say of the comfort, refreshment and delight of knowing Christ Jesus, “Come on in”?

My thoughts ran: Yes, we are debtors under obligation in a Romans 1:14 sense. God has given us a victory message to share with those under an enemy, God has given us a precious treasure that he has entrusted to us to share. 

And not only that: he has called us to serve a King. 

But he has not just called us to serve a King of great authority only; he has called us to serve a King of boundless goodness, love and beauty. When we talk to people about Jesus, when we share the gospel with them, we are really saying, “Can I introduce you to the one I love?” 

Just think how readily and with what great eagerness we talk to others about the people we love. (After all, just look at Paul, the great preacher of Christ,whose writings exude love for his loving Lord.) And that love for Christ can’t help but grow when we regularly preach Christ to ourselves – and indeed to others – and behold him in all his majesty (see Paul again!).

Whether you dive or dig or sit…

Now I don’t actually like swimming! And maybe you don’t either, so pick your metaphor of choice. Dig into the word. Sit with Christ. Root yourself in him. But, however you think of it, let’s join Paul in immersing/rooting/wrapping ourselves in the news of “Jesus Christ our Lord” daily such that it feels very natural and wonderful to call out an invitation to others:

Come on in. The water’s lovely.