I sometimes think about how those of us in ministry often preach and teach and write as though everyone listening to us or reading what we write is a Christian and how that is a dangerous assumption. As I have thought about that, I thought about how little attention is given to clearly and completely explaining the Gospel, which is the good news of Jesus Christ and what He did for us and what He offers us. Often, it is just tacked onto the end of a message about something else, when it is mentioned at all. So, I want to talk to you about the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ. I want to talk to you about salvation and what being a Christian really means.
In order to tell you what being a Christian is, I first want to tell you what it is not. In order to do that, I want to look at what is probably the most commonly cited Scripture with regard to the Gospel.
Look at John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 tells us that whoever believes in Jesus will have everlasting life. Did you ever wonder what “believe” here means? I could get into word studies and cite all kinds of commentary but let’s keep it really simple. The word “believe” can mean two basic things. First, it can mean to accept the truth of something or to accept that it exists. Second, it can mean to trust in or have faith in something. When it comes to Jesus and salvation, many people are thinking of the first of these meanings but Scriptures referring to the second one.
I believe in my iPhone. I would be foolish not to believe in it. There is no question that it exists. It’s right here on my desk. I firmly believe in its existence.
When my wife says to me “I believe in you”, does she mean the same thing I meant when I was talking about my iPhone? Does she mean that she believes that I exist? No, she means that she has faith in me, that she trusts me. That trust has compelled her to take action. For example, she believed in my call to Christian ministry. Because of that, she has supported me and actively helped me to carry out this work, even when it has been hard and when there was little financial compensation from it.
When it comes to Jesus, do you have iPhone belief or spouse belief and which one is Scripture talking about?
Look at James 2, verses 19 and 20.
19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!
20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
You see, even the demons have iPhone belief. They believe that Jesus exists and is the Son of God and, in that sense, they “believe in Him” but they don’t have the kind of belief that causes them to trust Him and take positive action. That trusting and action compelling belief is what is necessary for salvation.
How are we saved? Can we earn it? Can we be good enough? Romans 3:10 says that no one is righteous and Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So no, we cannot be good enough because we all sin.
What do we deserve because of that sin? Read Romans 6:23. The first part says “the wages of sin is death”. What are “wages”? They are what we get for doing something, like getting paid for doing a job. So, what we should get for our sin is death. In this case, what does “death” mean? Does it mean God should kill us? No, of course not. It means eternal spiritual separation from God. After physical death, it also means going to Hell. So, for our sin, we deserve to be eternally separated from God and forever burn in Hell.
So, that’s it? No! What does the next part of Romans 6:23 say? It says “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. How did Jesus pay for this gift of eternal life? Second Corinthians 5:21 says that Christ never sinned but he took our sins on himself and Romans 5:8 says that He died as punishment for those sins. So, the son of God paid for the most precious gift that we could ever receive with his own blood. He did not stay dead though. He rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death, and He offers us the gift of that same victory.
In order to prepare to receive this gift, we have to repent, which means to turn from our sins. This doesn’t mean that we have to be perfect. We cannot be perfect, we cannot meet God’s standard of righteousness (see Romans 3:10 and 3:23, as noted above) and this is still true, even after salvation. However, the importance of repentance to God is a theme that runs throughout scripture in both the Old and New Testament and, in fact, is the very first thing Jesus preached about in His Earthly ministry (Mark 1:15). Even Christians still struggle with sin but we must see our sin for what it is, an abomination before a completely holy God. We must truly be remorseful to God and always strive to turn from sin. We must also realize that we will never ever be able to do that perfectly. He knows that and does not expect us to be perfect. He loves us so much that He could not stand to be apart from us and so His perfect Son sacrificed Himself for us, so that we could always remain in fellowship with Him, despite our imperfections. Repentance is very important but the only way that we can be reconciled with God is through this sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf.
So, how do we get this most precious of all gifts? Let’s come back to John 3:16.
For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son (Jesus)
that whoever believes in him (whoever means everyone)
should not perish, but have everlasting life (not die spiritually and remain separated from God)
To get this gift from Jesus, you have to ask him to save you. Romans 10:13 says that “whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”. Let’s talk about this. Whoever calls on His name will be saved but what does it mean to “call on His name”? Many would say that this refers to praying what is often referred to as “The Sinners Prayer”, in which we ask Jesus to come into our heart and save us. I believe that “calling on His name” does refer to entering into a relationship with Him and that would involve praying, as that is the way we talk to Him. However, if saying the prayer is all we do, then we haven’t done enough.
Look at First Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
You see, once you become a Christian, your body, your very life, is not your own, for you were bought at a price, a very high price. Just praying a prayer, in itself, does not save you. True salvation involves entering into a personal relationship with God and that involves submission to Him, to the best of our ability. It is crucial that we understand that.
It is also crucial that we understand the incredible grace that God gives us. A few years ago, my son wanted to get his mom a Christmas gift, which cost roughly $50. He had about $5. I said not to worry about it, he could put in his $5 and I would pay the rest. Would it be accurate to say that her gift cost him nothing? No. It did cost him his $5. It cost me much more than that. That was OK. He was willing to give everything he had to give but what he had wasn’t enough so I gave the rest and I was happy to do it because he was my son.
It’s like that for us and Jesus. We are not capable of paying the price for our sin and so He paid it and He gave everything He had in order to do so. He requires the same of us. If we truly want to have a relationship with Him and live for Him, we have to give Him everything we have. That isn’t enough to cover our sin debt. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up about that, because we were never meant to pay the debt ourselves. From our side of the equation, it isn’t about covering the debt, it’s about establishing the relationship. It is Him that actually pays the price, and He is happy to do that, once we are His. We have to give Him everything, to show Him and everyone else that we are His.
If you want to give your life to Him, you must communicate that to Him. You would pray something like this: Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and that I deserve to be separated from God for eternity. I know that I don’t deserve forgiveness but you died to save me from my sins. Thank you for that. I repent of my sins and I want you to come into my heart and save me and I give my life to you.
We should be baptized after we are saved (Matthew 28:19). Baptism symbolizes his death, burial, and resurrection. This testifies to the world of what we have done.
Did you pray the prayer above or something similar? If you did and you were sincere then your name is now written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. If you have never prayed that prayer, if you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then I urge you to give this your full attention. Nothing is more important. In John 14:6, Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, except by me”. Do you know him?
Truly knowing Him is about more than just praying that prayer. Truly knowing Him involves, well, getting to know Him. He is so much more than people try to make Him out to be.
Matthew 4
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.
3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
This was just before Jesus began His earthly ministry. He was in the wilderness and he had been fasting and He had not eaten for 40 days. Satan was tempting Jesus to use His power to feed Himself, to prematurely break His fast. I am not going to get deep into the theology concerning the temptation of Christ but here is the point I want to make. Jesus reminded Satan that, though He was hungry and needed food, His greater need was for the Word of God and for His knowledge. The way He got this across was by quoting the Word of God. Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. If Jesus needed the Word of God to get through His temptations, how much more then do we need His Word to make it through our struggles? How else are we to truly come to know Him?
Psalm 119, verse 11 says “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You”. Take His Word, hide it in your heart, get to know it. More importantly, get to truly know Him. I promise you, you will be glad you did.
