The Gospel
Author: Tim Birdwell, Student/DTS
To truly be missional people who are actively engaging others with the gospel, we should probably know what the gospel is. Here is a brief synopsis...
In its simplest form, the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). But... to really grasp the gravity and weight of this truth, we have to look at the big picture...
1) God is completely holy and loving and He created man to relate to him in a holy and loving relationship (Gen. 1-2, Isaiah 47:4, 1 Samuel 2:2). God is intrinsically holy and loving in nature much like the sun is intrinsically hot. The sun gives off heat because it is made up of a ball of fire. God is holy and loving because His character is only made up of pure and good qualities that set Him apart from everyone and everything else. This means that He has no impurities within Him and cannot commit or tolerate any wrong-doing or impure act. Therefore, He loves perfectly, demonstrates grace and mercy perfectly because He is holy and loving by nature. He calls us to interact with Him in this type of holy and loving relationship (Lev. 11:44, Eph. 1:4, 1 Peter 1:15).
2) Man disobeyed God, sinning against Him and therefore broke this holy and loving relationship (Gen. 3, Rom. 3:23). Because God is completely holy with no impurities and only good and right qualities, He cannot engage in fellowship with a people who miss his standard or mark of holiness. In fact, the penalty for sin is death, which involves a complete separation from God for eternity (Rom. 6:23).
3) God sent His perfect Son, Jesus Christ, as the ultimate and final sacrifice to live, die, and rise again to re-unite us in a holy and loving relationship with Himself (1 Cor. 15:1-8, Eph. 2:1-10). His death paid the penalty for all of sin, past, present, and future. God poured out all of His wrath on His perfect Son, Jesus Christ, in His death on the cross, and then demonstrated His victory over sin and death when He raised Jesus from the dead.
4) All we have to do is simply respond to this amazing truth by believing and trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ on our behalf to enter into a right relationship with God (Romans 10:9, Acts 16:31, John 3:16,36; John 5:24).
Category: Truth