But the problem is that you never know when you’ve done enough. “ Religion is spelled “ D-O,’ because it consists of the things people do to try to somehow gain God’s forgiveness and favor.
“He did all of that so that He could turn around and offer us His forgiveness, friendship, and leadership as a gift.In so doing, He expressed the love of God, upheld the holiness of God, and satisfied the justice of God.” He suffered the death penalty debt for us. “The central truth of the gospel is that Christ died in our place, as our substitute.As a man, he was able to execute the plan by taking upon Himself the punishment we deserved. As God, he had the power and authority to devise a plan for our salvation. This means both physical death and spiritual death, which is separation from God in a place called hell.” We become morally bankrupt with nothing in our account with which to pay off our debt. Unfortunately, the seriousness of our sin requires God to pronounce upon us the death penalty. “Furthermore, as we’ve just seen, God’s holiness exposes us for what we are and His justice deals fairly with the sin we’ve committed.But we abused our freedom, rebelled against Him, and became evil.” “When God first created us, He made us good, without sin.Just: “He’s like a good judge who can’t wink at a broken law: Rather, He must mete out justice.”.Holy: “ is absolutely pure, and He is separate from everything that is impure.”.Even though we’re sinners who have rebelled against Him, He continues to patiently extend His love to us.” Loving: “Out of his compassion He made us and desires to have a relationship with us.There are four elements to consider in understanding the essence of the Gospel: God, Us, Christ, and You God: Now, here’s some practical, helpful tactics you can employ to structure your presentation of the gospel to effectively propagate the Good News. The plan is to spread God’s love and grace to the end of the earth until there’s an epidemic of changed lives around the world. We are all on a divine mission – a purpose that is greater than simply having a successful career, paying your bills, loving your families, and living a “happy life.” Rather, God calls us to be contagious Christians – change agents who catches His love and then infectiously shares it to all who are willing to consider it. “There’s nothing in life that’s as exciting as befriending, loving, and leading wayward people toward faith in Christ. Nothing.”
In Bill Hybels’ resourceful book Becoming a Contagious Christian, he states the overarching mission for Christians: You and I should “be prepared in season and out of season.” (2 Timothy 4:2) God commanded us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). Coupled with the lack of opportunity to learn the tools and tactics and lack of motivation to share our Christian beliefs have seriously undermined our role as contagious Christians. When’s the last time you shared the Good News to your unbeliever friend? Did the outcome of your witnessing exceed your expectations or quickly transpired into an awkward moment? If you are like the majority, you might find yourself closer to the latter.Īrticulating our central beliefs as a Christian is so much easier said than done.
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