The Simple Gospel
The Unapologetic Truth Series
Here is Christianity 101, the very basics of a love story between God and his people. I included this blog in this series because I want to see people own what they believe and the first step is to know the foundations of Christianity – the Gospel. The translation of the term “gospel” into greek is the word “Evangelion” which means “good news” The Gospel of Jesus is the Good News that the savior has come.
Let’s start of the beginning…
In the book of Genesis, God created all of the Earth including the first two humans Adam and Eve. God created humans In His Image to rule over the skies, seas, and land. Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden and the center of the garden was the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The only rule of the garden was to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. One day, the enemy (satan) came into the garden and was able to tempt Adam and Eve to eat from the tree, therefore causing sin to enter into the world.
So what exactly is sin? I’ll start by saying look around you, on your phone, in your communities, do you see brokenness? That is sin. It is best described as a disease that all humans are born within our flesh. At the center of sin is the root of selfishness. It separates humans from God, our creator. We have said to God “Thank you for creating us, but I don’t need you anymore” and we turned our backs on Him. In our betrayal of God, He didn’t stop chasing after us. I want you to think about this question: Take any problem in the world and add perfect love into the equation, what would happen?
The rest of the Old Testament (The stories of the Bible before Jesus) is about the constant pursuit of God trying to reconcile his people, the Jews, back to himself. God chose the nation of Israel to be the light of the world for the rest of humanity so that humans would see God as the loving and perfect Father He is, but the condition of sin stood between and blocked us from returning to God.
God knew that the rebellious nation of Israel was defiled by sin and needed a savior to free them from the chains of brokenness. That savior is Jesus. So who is Jesus? First off many people are aware the Jesus is the Son of God but do we know what that means. Jesus is fully man and fully God at the same time. God, the highest of kings, the holiest of beings, humbled himself before a sinful, broken, backstabbing humanity to open the door for salvation. Jesus walked on this Earth to fully experience the joys and sorrows, highs and lows, the good and bad of life just because he loved us so much. It wasn’t until Jesus was 30 when he started his ministry to show people that there is hope and that He is the promised savior of the world. During his 3 years of ministry, Jesus healed the sick, performed miracles, cast out demons, gave sight to the blind, and just loved people where they were at. He called out corruption and hypocrisy among those leaders using God’s law (The 10 commandments) for shame and replaced all of the hurt with love. in the Bible, it says God is Love, which is powerful and I encourage you to know what that means. Jesus was the beginning of the upside kingdom of Heaven where the first are last and the last are first. Because of this, the religious leaders at the time sought to have him killed.
I am about to provide a summary of the death and resurrection of Jesus and why it is so important. There are books and books written about each of these events respectively and I am barely even scratching the surface. I can tell you that the entirety of the Christian faith rests on the truth that Jesus died and resurrected, so if this seems unreal, I will be providing resources to help you understand the historical accuracy and probability of these events.
Jesus knew that the nation He was sent to save would end up murdering him. It was meant to happen exactly this way as it was prophesied throughout the old testament. I am not here to share the gory of Jesus’s death, but to say it was torture could be an understatement. He was flogged thirty-nine times with a whip called a cat of nine tables with pieces of glass and barbed wire weaved in so that it would rip his flesh and bring him right to the point of death but not exactly. He then had to carry his 100-pound cross to the top of the hill called the place of the skull (Golgotha). He was then nailed to the cross and lifted to be mocked and shamed in front of a crowd of people. But during the crucifixion, you don’t die from loss of blood or shock, you die because you don’t have enough muscle to lift your body to take another breath.
Jesus did not die in vain because his life was the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He made our crimson red stain of sin white in the sight of God. When Jesus died, darkness covered the land, people were raised from the dead, and most importantly, the curtain tore from top to bottom. The curtain, before Jesus, was where God dwelled behind in the Ark of the Covenant, and only the highest priest could offer one sacrifice in the room once every year. But the curtain tore as the symbolic act that God does not dwell in one place but has made His home in us. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death and defeating evil. This means that no enemy, no evil spirit, no demon can ever conquer us because Jesus has already won and is greater. After 40 days he ascended into heaven and gave us Holy Spirit. When God tore the curtain after the death of Jesus, he made his home in us which is the Holy Spirit. God gave those he calls his now adopted sons and daughters his Holy Spirit so that we have God living in us and the spiritual gifts and authority to set others free from sin and brokenness and spiritual bondage. Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension mean another thing as well. When He ascended, He left the door for all of humanity to experience a personal relationship with him because we are his dwelling place. How beautiful is that! We now have access to God because he loves us. His love is perfect and cannot be explained, but he has shown us what true love looks like. He doesn’t force us to experience His goodness, He is a gentleman and asks us if we want to choose, all we have to do is ask.
The Gospel itself is a love story between God and his people. It is the most powerful story to ever be told. Look at the world around you and see how Jesus and his 12 disciples, broken people like you and me, changed the entire world in 3 years. If this story seems too good to be true, or too good to be real I encourage you to own your faith and find out for yourself.
Here are a few tips to discover whether this will change your life or not:
- Sit down and ask God to reveal himself to you. Ask him for a love encounter. If you genuinely want to experience God and start a relationship, tell him.
- If you haven’t read the gospel, grab a Bible (they are the world’s best-selling book by the way) and read any of the 4 gospels- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Personally, John is my favorite but they are all so good.
- A book/movie I would recommend for those that are curious about whether what the Bible says is real is A Case for Christ. It is about an atheist that tries to disprove Christianity but ends up experiencing Jesus.
- Similar to the book above is Seeking Allah Finding Jesus. This is a testimony of a devout Muslim journey from trying to own his faith, Islam, to finding Jesus. Love this book a lot I would recommend everyone reading it because it will challenge every person’s faith.
I encourage you all again to own what you believe. Don’t let anyone else tell you what to believe whether that is in Jesus or not. Do not be complacent when it comes to choosing to live in freedom or not. As always, if you have any questions about this or my faith journey, contact me!
-Brent
