The Gospel

In the two thousand years since Jesus arrived on this earth, the gospel has been contaminated to the point where not even church members in good evangelical churches understand it in its purity, nor can they even begin to articulate it. Pastors have abandoned it in order to grow their suburban churches, leaving local churches powerless and dying. Leave no doubt there is only one gospel and it is simple, yet mysterious, meaning it is difficult to fully grasp God’s power to save through Jesus.

We are saved by grace and grace is undeserved. Paul writes that "for by grace you have been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). Its God showing undeserved favor upon humanity when what we all deserve is eternal hell. So here’s the gospel (good news). You can avoid eternal hell by receiving the finished work of Jesus. Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected to defeat Satan’s hold on humanity and redeem humanity back from its slavery to sin.

But a person must receive this and believe this. For belief (faith) in Christ and His gospel to be genuine a person must see themselves as wicked, evil, sinful, and deserving of eternal death. If a person can acknowledge this within themselves they will have that inward desire to repent and they will be saved!

Genuine belief is always followed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the regeneration of the human soul. If this doesn’t occur, then there is no salvation, because there was never true belief.

What the gospel does is humble a person. When the gospel is properly understood a person is humbled because they understand they deserve death, but Christ has saved them. That is good news! That is why the gospel is life changing and transformational. Any other so called gospel is worthless and leaves person unchanged and deceived.

The gospel message must remain unchanged when sharing it with children, adults, or people from other nations and cultures. The approach can change, but the message must not.

True belief leaves a person broken, yet joyful. True belief empowers a person to pursue the will of God. Finally, true belief enables a person to surrender themselves to Christ and die to self. But leave no doubt; belief is very spiritual and mysterious. I am still amazed at the different ways in which people come to understand the gospel, however there is no mistaking a genuine follower of Christ. Genuine followers of Christ hate sin and demonstrate a supernatural love for humanity.

This is the gospel!

Share this message and people will live.