The Gospel: Part Two
For the past few weeks, I have been thinking through the Gospel: What it is, how it can be explained, do my students really get it, etc. This is a summary of what I have been looking at:
1. The Gospel is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus lived a holy life, was unjustly put to death, then was resurrected from the grave so that I may have life. He bore the punishment for my sin as He was hung on the cross.
My favorite Bible verse is 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” I believe this is a great summary of what took place on the cross. A sinless Jesus, took on my sin, so that I would have life.
2. The Gospel demands life change.
Notice in Matt. 4 when Jesus calls the disciples that His command is to “follow me.” He did not offer to pray a prayer with them, or send them off to a counselor, but he called them to change their entire life.
It is at this point that the church often gets it wrong. We are comfortable with talking with a person for a few minutes, concluding they are sincere in their decision to follow Christ, lead them in prayer, and release them back into their everyday lives. Many times, there is never any conversation to insure that a person really understands what their decision means. We are too comfortable teaching a faith only salvation, but the Bible clearly teaches that repentance is just as necessary.
Paul understood this. In Acts 20, he is seen reminding the Ephesian elders of his teaching of repentance and faith. Again, we heavily emphasize belief and faith, but we need to make sure we talk of repentance and life change.
