When impromptu asked 'what is the Gospel?' Ozias (our middle-older son) responded:
"Umm.. For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
The Gospel
Yup! The gospel is incredible! I (Ben) have had the amazing privilege and personal blessing of sharing this simple yet amazingly-powerful message with children and adults ever since I became a Christian, and in very fun and creative ways as a children's pastor with object lessons, games, visuals and whatnot.
If you are here and have never heard the gospel, let me encourage you with some amazing truths that will change your life!
Looking at an artist's creation(s), we can infer the scope of their ability, and potentially some aspects of their personality and values through the intentionality of the content of their creation. This is true for the Creator of life itself as well, when we as humans look at the world around us and are able to see how beautifully everything fits together. Not everything is always experienced as beautiful though. This leads to another basic one:
God loves you!
Let's start off with the basic one:
All have sinned.
This one should be readily accepted by anyone who has seen or experienced a natural disaster and/or is aware of our own human inability to live up to moral standards. To understand why people, including us, fail to be perfect, particularly morally, we need more than inference from observation of the world around us.
The Bible says that all have fallen short of God's perfection both willfully--bearing personal responsibility for immoral choices--and by proxy through the effect of sin on the entire world; creation itself, the Bible says, 'groans' waiting for renewal. Death, separation and suffering came as a result of our inherited and personally-exerted will against God. And it's been this way nearly from the start.
Our hope: Jesus!
Gospel means 'good news.' And God has been ready with good news from the start! Even in the beginning when sin distorted the world, God has provided the means by which everyone can be saved from sin, death and separation from God. People long ago were able to access this salvation by the same means we do now, just now we know the specifics on how we can be saved, and it's beautiful:
God has revealed, through His Word, that Jesus was sent to 'dwell among us,' doing amazing confirming works of his claimed identity as the Son of God, and undeservingly yet willingly died on the cross to pay, or resolve, our debt of sin in the way that only God himself could do. The legitimacy of all this was proved not only through His miraculous works and words, but through his resurrection from the dead, an objective historical reality that is the most verifiable and evidence-laden event in history--an incredible event that also shows what is to come for anyone who receives God's forgiveness through Him!
God, in his amazing plan from the start, has made it so that anyone who repents of their sin and believes in Jesus will be saved. Saved from separation from God, both now in this life and forever in eternity after this life. And we are saved into having a restored relationship with God: God fulfills His desire (and our greatest longing, when we really boil it down) to 'be with us' through the indwelling Holy Spirit, God's very own presence, living within the believer. The ultimate Christmas miracle and homecoming: God himself enters into our hearts and holistically renews and empowers us for kingdom work now. This is a foretaste of eternity with God in a 'new heavens and new earth' later.
Note on Repentance: Anyone who chooses to believe and receive Jesus acknowledges that He is the Savior sent by God to die and rise again, and by accepting Him as Lord (instead of acting as if there is no God, that there is another God other than Jesus, or even acting as if 'self' is God) we are choosing to submit to His reality. This changes our priorities, behavior and perspective on many things, likely, but especially on righteousness or 'right-ness with God' coming from anything other than God's provision of the gracious and loving act of His Son's saving work of dying on the cross for us. This change in understanding that our rightness with God comes from Jesus who is alive right now to thank and follow, is repentance. Living in light of this relationship enables and empowers us to turn away from the particular sins we have practiced or valued above God.
How did this good news exist from the start, and how was it accessed before Jesus came and died and rose?
Before Jesus, God gave promises recorded throughout the Bible that revealed His plan of salvation, the who, what, where, why, and how:
1) God would provide a Savior,
2) God would reveal from who and
where the Savior would come from,
3) What the Savior would do (rescue the
oppressed) and how he would
accomplish this worldwide
salvation (dying for atonement for sin).
The only thing that wasn't revealed directly was when this amazing plan would be displayed to the world. (Although, 2000 years ago, the people in Israel were on the lookout for these fulfillments and were expectant that it would be happening!).
The the reason why God planned this salvation: From the start God has always been Who He is. Infinitely awesome. Which includes infinitely loving.
The people who believed in God's promises--at whatever point they were revealed--aligned themselves and behaved differently based on what their faith was in.
Despite their sin, Adam and Eve heard the promise that God would through them send a human to 'crush the head of the serpent' and, believing Him, they hoped for this Promised Conquerer coming with future children. Noah likewise believed this, and regarding God's revealed plan to judge the world with a flood, obeyed when God told him to built a boat. Abraham believed when God said he would have children, despite being old, and it was 'credited to him as righteousness.' This 'saving faith' where people heard God and acted on his promises is echoed all throughout the Bible. The people who did that before Jesus were banking on the good news of God's saving promises just like someone does today, we just have more understanding of the details!
How is the good news accessed now?
The same way, by faith, but now the object of that faith is very clear: Jesus, the promised Savior, who, as a human, fulfilled God's perfect law, died as a means to restore relationship and forgive sin, and has made very clear the way to heaven ('Follow me!'). The people who experience God's loving presence through following this 'plan of salvation' are never the same.
Jesus is the answer. He can be your answer. If you would like to be saved, to have God's presence live in and empower you, whether you're a young child or 'as good as dead,' whether you think you're righteous and have 'kept all God's laws' or are on death row for just punishment, God's arm of salvation is not too short to save. Call on Jesus, even right now, and he will do it. He loves you that much.
A simple prayer to be saved, that you can speak to the Lord Jesus right now (SO amazing that this is real!) could be:
"Jesus, I believe in you.
I believe your death on the cross takes away my sins
and that you are alive right now and hear my prayer.
Please forgive me,
and come live inside me
and help me to follow you.
Amen."
If you prayed that for the first time, congratulations!!!
The Bible says in the first chapter of John that all who receive Jesus, believing in His name, God gives the right to become His children. So welcome to the family! You now have a Father in heaven who infinitely values and loves you and will never leave you. He has always been there, but now the separation is gone and He's all yours, and you are His! He has great plans for you! Seek them, and develop deeper relationship with Him and other Christians through reading the Bible (the book of John is a great place to start), worshipping together with other believers, and growing in maturity by following Jesus as he works through you to love and share this good news with others!
Feel free to connect and let me know how we can pray for you!