My family needs repentance and SALVATION. What am I supposed to do?
I would suggest the following three things that you can do:
1) PRAY for them! In Romans 10:1 we read, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and PRAYER TO GOD for Israel is that they may be saved” (NKJV). Like you, the apostle Paul was burdened to see others saved and he knew that prayer was his greatest resource. Why? Ah, because God wants us to be dependent on Him and because God alone can bring people to repentance that leads to salvation. After Peter preached the gospel to a man named Cornelius and his household (which led to their salvation), he told his fellow-Jews in Jerusalem about this and they replied with these words, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles REPENTANCE TO LIFE” (Acts 11:18). Believers are privileged to proclaim the gospel to the lost but it is God who brings about results. The fact is, unless God does bless the Word, our labors with the unsaved will be an exercise in futility. The Psalmist understood this and he wrote, “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.“ So, go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to open the hearts of your family to the gospel, just as He opened the heart of Lydia in Acts 16:14, “Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us…the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.”
2) LIVE Christ before them! Philippians 2:14-15 exhorts the believer to live a holy life, “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom YOU SHINE AS LIGHTS IN THE WORLD.” Our lives should reflect the truth of the gospel! We surely can’t expect our unsaved love ones to believe that the gospel can save them and change their lives for good if it hasn’t affected our lives for good. The story is told about an unsaved man who was constantly being preached to by his “Christian” neighbor. The tragedy is the man who called himself a Christian was living an ungodly life. One day as the man began preaching to his neighbor he was rebuked with these words, “Your actions speak so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying to me!” He refused to listen to the man because there was no evidence of salvation in his life. He was NOT “walking the talk,” as we say. In contrast to this, listen to what the apostle Paul said of himself in 2nd Corinthians 4:2, “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by MANIFESTATION OF THE TRUTH commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” Paul was “living the truth” of the gospel! He was truly “shining as a light in the world.”
3) PREACH Christ to them! We have seen how vital it is to show men the blessed results of the gospel in our own lives, by living Christ before them. Yet we know that ultimately they MUST hear the gospel in order to be saved. We quoted Philippians 2:14-15 to show the necessity of our lives bearing witness to the power of the gospel, but the very next verse shows the necessity of preaching Christ to them: “Holding forth the word of life.” In order for your family to repent and be saved they have to hear the gospel that brings life! Jesus said in John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (NASB). The sinner who “hears the word” and “believes it” HAS ETERNAL LIFE! Romans 10:17 declares, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Trust in the POWER of the word, for Romans 1:16 declares, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”
In summary, PRAY for God to work in their hearts to receive the good news of salvation. LIVE Christ before them so they can see the blessed results of receiving the good news of salvation. PREACH the good news of salvation to them and trust in the power of the gospel to save them. (285.1) (DO)