The Gospel is the good news. It is the foundation of our faith. It is our motivation for serving. It is our hope, our joy, and our peace. But what is it? I'm afraid that many Christians have difficulty clearly, correctly, and concisely articulating the Gospel. For example some have said...
- The Gospel is that God loves everyone no matter what...
- The good news of God's establishing his kingdom on earth through love...
- God wants you to have your best life...
- God wants to have a relationship with you...
- Jesus died for you...
While some of these may contain truth, they do not fully capture and explain the Gospel. Throughout different preaching series I have given this concise, clear, and complete description of the Gospel, and it is simple to remember by the following outline.
GOD
MAN
JESUS
GRACE
GOD chose to rescue
MAN out of our sinful rebellion through
JESUS and offers us the
GRACE of forgiveness and new life
In this blog series I will be going through the different points of the gospel and providing further explanation of each. My hope is to give you a better understand of the Gospel and the ability to share it clearly, concisely, and completely with others.
GOD
The Gospel must start with God. The Gospel doesn't start with us, or even the cross. It starts with God, for it is God that we answer to. He is our creator and He made (designed) us in His image (Genesis 1:26). It is against Him that we have sinned.
Our first parents--though temptation by Satan and their own choice--sinned, marring that image and breaking their fellowship with God and each other. They have since passed down a nature and environment of sinfulness to all their descendants (Rom 3:23, 5:12). In this fallen sinful state humans are hopelessly separated from God. By our nature and behavior we stand condemned before Him and are objects of God’s Holy wrath against sin (Eph 2:1-5).
"But God..." are some of the greatest words in the Bible. The chariots were coming, but God parted the Red Sea... The giant was strong, but God was with David... We were dead in our sins, but God who is rich in mercy made us alive... We were in a sinful, separated state, "but God" chose to rescue us. My boys have a book entitled, "The Jesus Storybook Bible". (I would highly recommend to parents of young children. amazon link) Over and over again it refers to God's salvation as "God's rescue plan". God did not sit idly watching us flounder in our sinful state. God initiated contact. God reached out. God rescued. It may seem like we found God, or we cried out to Him, but the reality is any finding, crying, or reaching is only a response to God first drawing us to Himself (John 6:44).
Picture a person out at sea in choppy waters--struggling to stay above water. Their boat has sunk, they are minutes from drowning. Suddenly from out of nowhere a Coast Guard helicopter flies over. Hovering above the distressed swimmer, the chopper lowers down a rescue cable. A member of the crew jumps into the frigid waters and helps the victim into the harness, makes sure the cable is securely attached, and gives the "thumbs up" to the crew above to lift the tired soul out of the dangerous waters. Just as the cable tightens, the rescue diver shouts, "Hold on tight!" Once safely on board the helicopter, the distressed swimmer says, "Whew, it's a good thing I was holding on tight!"
Seriously? As if holding onto the cable on the way up is what rescued him! Yet if we don't start with God and Him rescuing us, we can easily mislead ourselves into believing that we are responsible for our salvation, or rescue. No, the only thing we are responsible for is our sinful condition, but that will be covered in part 2.
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