John Piper reflects on the question: Should Christians Say That Their Aim Is to Convert Others to Faith in Christ? He raises this issue for three reasons:
1. Because in our delicate and dangerous setting of global religious pluralism, how we speak about our aims can get us kicked out of a country or worse.
2. Because we want to follow Paul’s pattern of honesty: “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2).
3. Because we need biblical clarity about our role in converting others to Christ, lest we shrink back from the aim of conversion for mistaken reasons.
Piper concludes that Christians should say that conversion is their aim, because although God solely grants the new birth (which alone gives rise to human faith in Christ), He ordains us to be His messengers (His means) to accomplish His supernatural ends. His main points are:
1. Christian conversion involves spiritually blind people being able to see the glory of Christ.
2. Christian conversion involves winning people from treasuring anything above Christ to full devotion to Christ.
3. Christian conversion involves bringing people back from the path of sin and destruction.
4. Christian conversion involves turning the heart toward the true God [and] away from wrong ideas about God and wrong affections for what is not God.
5. Christian conversion involves being born again.
Read the whole thing.