Day 19.
This week BLEW MY MIND.
When we were told that we were studying the gospel this week, I wasn't all that excited, because I was pretty confident that I had heard it before. The first day, we were asked to share what we thought the gospel was. I quoted Romans 10:9-10, "because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved, for with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."
But if we, as Christians, in sharing the gospel, say only that Jesus died for you, or if we tell others that "Jesus will make you happy" or "he will be your best friend", that's not the gospel.
The gospel is about righteousness, not happiness.
So what's the whole gospel?
The good news is that we have a creator. A good creator. Who created us with a purpose. Paul says in Romans 1:20-21 that everyone can look at the world and know that we have a creator. If this is true, we owe Him honor and thanks. In the same way that we are told to obey our father and mother, we are supposed to obey God. The Bible does not say, "obey your father and mother if they are nice people" or "if you like them" or "if you agree with their decisions". You are supposed to obey them for no other reason than that they brought you into this world. Same goes for God. So the good news is that He's perfect, and He loves us each individually.
The bad news is that for our sin, we deserve to go to Hell. If we don't understand this, we can't truly understand the gospel. We need to know that God not only CAN send us to Hell, but He must. The Bible generally takes for granted that God is going to judge us, because the Old Testament was mostly preaching to the Jews who knew they came from God and they believed that they owed Him. So then the question is: why did God create us? Because if He created us for selfish purposes and then decided to send some of us to Hell, that doesn't seem like the perfect justice I know God has. God created us to partake in His glory. It is the best and truest thing in the world. He created us so that we could experience that, and be a part of it forever.
The great news is that the Father sent the Son to take all of His wrath. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God." Christ came and fulfilled all of the prophecies so that we could be made righteous through faith in Him. So even though we sin, we can still glorify God and spend eternity with Him.
But God still gives us the choice. He does not force us to choose Him and partake in His glory. Even though that is the reason we were created, He lets us choose otherwise if we want. Romans 1 verses 24, 26 and 28 say that God gives people over to their sinful desires, if that's what they choose, but Galatians 5:25 says that we should let the Holy Spirit control our lives. The Holy Spirit will help us to stay away from sin if we accept the gift of righteousness and eternal life in Christ Jesus.
God does not promise that if we choose to accept the gift of Christ and are "born again" that it will be easy. 2 Timothy 3:12 says, "Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted." I believe it's worth it. It was explained to us this way:
Scenario 1:You are getting on a plane. You're the last person on, so as soon as you get on, the doors close behind you. The flight attendant who greets you hands you a parachute and says it will make your flight much more enjoyable. You kind of doubt it, but you put it on anyway. As you sit in your seat, your butt barely fits on the chair because you're sitting so far forward. People are pointing at you and laughing. The person in front of you tilts their chair back and your tray table hits you in the gut. You take the parachute off. This flight is not any more enjoyable.
Scenario 2: You are getting on a plane. You're the last person on, so as soon as you get on, the doors close behind you. The flight attendant who greets you hands you a parachute and says that the back half of the plane is going to break off at some point during the flight and this is the only thing that can save your life. As you sit in your seat, your butt barely fits on the chair because you're sitting so far forward. People are pointing at you and laughing. The person in front of you tilts their chair back and your tray table hits you in the gut, but none of it matters, because you are not letting go of that parachute.
So, the question is... Are you going to grab a parachute?
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