In the beginning, GOD….

In the beginning, GOD….
God spoke the heavens and earth into existence and He speaks to us still!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Heart-lifting Message of the Gospel

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is, in its simplest form, the Good News that God decided before He spoke the first words of creation, that the creature who would rebel against Him had value. The value does not lie in the creature, which is us, but in the fact that God assigned us worth. Our value, our worth, is reflected in God’s inexplicable, inexhaustible, incomprehensible love for us. Who has heard a more positive, heart-lifting message?

The extent of this Good News cannot be adequately expressed. We must understand that our rebellion began at our first opportunity, and it still does. We must understand that our rebellion is such that in our lost state we are God’s enemies. We must understand that though we claim otherwise, we are children of the Devil, God’s angelic adversary, who brought war in heaven, Our rebellion was complete, total and corrupted our emotions, our thinking and our actions. 

Still, the Good News is that God, and this is important, loves us. It is not a past-tense love. The point of the Gospel is He loves us in our present, rebellious, sinful state. Though we shake our fists to the heavens and rage against Him, the message of the Gospel does not change. Even while we live in the tents within the enemy’s camp, His love burns fervently for us

The Bible carries this message from cover to cover: God loves us. He provides for us. He seeks us out. He comes to our rescue. He does not leave us alone. He makes promises with us and keeps them, even when we are disobedient. His love toward us is not based on our attitude, affections or actions. It is nothing we earn. He loves us because He has determined to do so. Such is the message of the Good News!

The Good News is reflected in God’s redemptive plan for His wayward, sinful, rebellious creatures. He knows full well the depth of our depravity and our inability to do anything to rescue ourselves. He even understands we do not desire reconciliation. Still, He loves us, and for this reason, Jesus Christ came into the world. He came to show God’s love. He came to fulfill redemption’s plan at His Own expense. His mission was about God’s love from first to last. He is the central figure in the Good News. of God

There are many Scriptures that tell this story, but I have chosen six. They tell the proactive actions of God’s Son in reaching out to mankind, to find them, to fulfill the law for them, to bring them from the darkness of sin and Satan to the light of God and to give us life to its fullest. This is the Good News that must be proclaimed by every believer. These are all quoted from the English Standard Version.

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came      into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 1 Timothy 1:15
‘And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”’ Mark 2:17
☛  "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10

☛  "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 8:3,4

☛  "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." John 12:46

☛  "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10

Have you accepted God’s offer? Is your life changed through the reconciling acts of the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, I urge you to do so today! The Good News is for the benefit of lost creatures, not God. It is for you, it is a gift and it has eternal significance.

If you have been restored to God by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, are you proclaiming the Good News to others? There is no more positive message on earth than the Gospel. It is the only means by which man can shed the chains of sin and death. It is the only way God accepts the restoration of rebels. Only through the Good News of Jesus Christ can one commune once again with the Creator. Too many see Christianity as condemning, judgmental and elitist. The message of the Gospel proves otherwise. Share it!


Blessings in Him

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