Good News
The Bottom Line is this:
All people must Repent and have Faith in Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord.
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Apostle Peter at Pentecost, Acts 2:38
Here's what that means:
- Repentance — Admitting to your Sin before God, and turning from it.
- Faith in Jesus Christ — Trusting in the Truth of what Jesus said & did — casting your hopes upon Him.
- Taking Christ as your Savior — Trusting what He did on the Cross, receiving the benefits of His death for you.
- Taking Christ as your Lord — Taking Jesus as the new master in your life — a master who loves you!
(It's like falling in love and then wanting to be committed by marriage vows.) - Living by Grace alone — When you receive God's Spirit in your life, He gives you the power and desire to live a life pleasing to Him.
- Eternity — This good story never ends — so it's called the "Gospel": Good News!
Yes, there's lots more to this. You can Go Back and Get More!.
But all you really need to know is this — YOUR NEED, AND GOD'S PROVISION.
You don't need to be a theologian to be saved, but you do need this:
"Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so!"
Jesus said we need to become "like children" to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It may seem childish, foolish, giddy or risky. It is a leap of faith, but if we come simply and expectantly, we will receive. That's not our promise. That's the promise of God.
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Sadly, one of the things Christians do most poorly is to explain the Gospel message. The impression is often given that "the Gospel" is a set of outmoded beliefs written on a page, or a spiel to be sold to unwitting customers. But Christians have found it to be truly Good News -- for themselves and for society. What's it all about? We have found through personal experience that the Gospel is not only Good News (that's the meaning of the word "Gospel"), but it is truly relevant:
"The Law was given through Moses, but Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Yes, the Gospel truly has content, and it calls urgently for your Repentance and Faith, just as preached in many Evangelical churches. But don't lose sight of the fact that what God offers is truly GOOD, and good for you. Click here to make it clearer: [see the Content of the Gospel]
Yes, there's lots of theology in all of this. But all you really need to know is this —
"Study, that you may be approved of God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." |
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THE GOSPEL CONTENT |
The Gospel has CONTENT
What the GOSPEL is about:
"The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God." (Mark 1:1) Without the reality of His Person and the facts of His life, Christianity is trite, ridiculous, unbelievable. The Apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:
Jesus' Good works showed the Divine character of his Person and teaching. A member of the Sanhedrin, Rabbi Nicodemus, came to Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no-one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." (John 3:2)
Luke writes about his own Gospel of Luke: "In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach." (Acts 1:1) Jesus' Good works showed the Divine character of his Person and teaching. In probing the motives of the rich young ruler, Jesus asked, Jesus said,
"And the gospel must first be preached to all nations." (Mark 13:10) "And [you] have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." (Col 3:10,11) Many religions claim to have their own gospel. But there is only One Gospel — the same one taught by Jesus and Paul and the early Christian Church. THE GOSPEL IN PLAIN SPEECH: You may think I'm going to tell you something trite, that all you have to do is "believe". Well, yes and no. It is not a magic formula. Strangely enough, this GOOD News involves a bit of BAD news, first: Every human being is a creature of God and personally responsible to God, but we are also members of the Human Race, which is a race GUILTY of sinning against God. We have three things against us:
It doesn't matter how you cut it — whether you think Adam existed or not, (we do), whether you think sin is handed down from your parents biologically or judicially whether you think guilt is only a word or a feeling... because we ALL wrestle within ourselves about sin's origin, and there are times when we ALL know that somehow "I'm guilty!" Guilt is a real problem for us all. The GOOD NEWS is that there is a solution!!! TELL ME THE BOTTOM LINE
The only way we'll ever deal with our sin is to admit it. The GOOD NEWS is that there is a solution!!! TELL ME THE BOTTOM LINE
Even the Apostle Paul had this problem: "So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:21-24) The GOOD NEWS is that there is a solution!!! TELL ME THE BOTTOM LINE BELIEVE & BE SAVED? What does it mean to believe? There are many meanings of "faith", but what the Bible means is Total Commitment to that which is proved True. God Himself gives us evidence in the Bible which is solid ground for such commitment. We're asked to make a leap of commitment, and not a blind, illogical "leap of faith". Actually, the Bible does say "He who believes will be saved." But what that means is a well-founded, heartfelt, total commitment. Sometimes it takes some research to get to that place where mind, heart & will coincide. But God Himself promises to get you to that point if you will seek: "Ye shall seek me and ye shall find Me if ye seek for Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13) I don't mean you have to go off on a quest for a holy grail or seek a monk in the Himalayas, as a friend of mine did. Seeking means simply to be honest and to be open to God Himself. Most people who talk about being "open" are really open to anything EXCEPT the simple truth God has placed clearly before us. Are you open to THAT? Really? Are you ready to ACT on the truth you find — even if it means a personal commitment to God, on HIS OWN terms? Ah, there's the rub. My friend went to the Himalayas and found his monk. Discouraged not to find his answers there, he sat by the Ganges River. An Indian Christian handed him the Gospel of John, and he began to read — "For God so loved the world, that He gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) He ended his quest there. He found what he was seeking. Such a faith is NOT TRITE!
In this faith, what God does is not trite:
It is not trite in what we do:
The LIFE of Faith Faith deals with our three problems above: the guilt of our original sin, our sinful past, and our inner nature of sin! But it is not just oriented to the past and future. It is a fulfilling Way of LIFE for today.
The Gospel is Good News, from start to finish: Won't you accept God's Good News today? REMEMBER THE BOTTOM LINE. Have you done it? Have you given up hope in your own self-sufficiency to receive God's gift of nobility, faith, and strength? |
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