There is one more thing to explain to someone who is interested in becoming a Christian, and this really does need to be done before he makes any decision to follow Jesus. The church word for this is 'discipleship'. In normal English that translates into, 'If you are going to become a Christian, then understand that Jesus expects you to obey Him'. We need to be as clear about this as He was. Jesus talked about self-denial. He talked about suffering. He talked about losing one's life for His sake. And He said that those who are unwilling to submit to these things when called to do so are not worthy of Him. We need to be very clear about this lest we mislead people. And these days we need to be especially careful here because an all-too-common opinion, even in the Church, is that all you really need to do is 'believe in Jesus' - which boils down to merely saying those supposedly magic words and then living as you please. One reason that the Church at large is so weak is that the call to follow Jesus obediently has not been clearly explained to those who are interested. Jesus was very up front about all of this. We need to be too.
At the same time we will need to be equally clear about the grace of the Gospel, grace that comes into play at those times when we have failed at our obedience and are ready to acknowledge that. Knowing how to stress both obedience and grace is reason enough to pray for wisdom as we work at explaining the Gospel.