What is the Gospel

What is the Gospel? The Gospel is good news, God's plan of salvation for His Lost and sinful creatures. The thing about good news is that it is information about what someone else has done and not what I must do. If it were information about what I must do then it would be nothing but good advice!

The Gospel then is all about what has been done for me and for you, for all of us. It is the free gift of God, for whosoever shall come and believe. I am going to include a quote that I believe succinctly and directly explains the Gospel much better than I ever could.

The Gospel

The Gospel is the call to rest, to receive the free, undeserved gift that God has given us in Christ. There is nothing man can do to earn salvation from his past, or his present acceptance and walk with God. It is, from beginning to end, the grace of God, which can only be received by faith.

The body of truth that proclaims the revelation of God is called the Good News. News, by definition, is the announcement of something that has happened, not a list of things that must be done! All that must be done for a man to live in perfect union with God has been accomplished by Jesus in His death and resurrection.

The heart of the Christian life is to stand in wonder before His love and say, ''Thank You!''

The Gospel is not a call to do something, but the announcement that all is done in the One Who stood for all. (emphasis mine)

The Christian life is not living in our own strength and resources, but from the infinite Christ Who lives within those who believe. All human strength will come to an end sooner or later, leaving each of us with charred, burned out life. But His strength knows no end!

We have one function in life: to be the manifestors of His life to the world. Only when we are living His life are we truly living our own! This is the reason for our creation. (emphasis mine)

We realize that He is not only the past tense Savior from sin, but also the One Who now lives within us in the present tense, our life and breath. Christianity is not a formula, but the Person of Jesus Himself.

Never think that Christianity is a matter of adjusting behavior, but rather, of letting Christ live through us in His strength and power.

-Malcolm Smith

As I said, in my opinion that quote sums it up for me. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20.

It all comes down to this, we believers do not have to work or strive to become Christians, all we have to do is rest. "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “-Matthew 11:28-29. Everything for our salvation has been done for us already, we cannot add or subtract from it. That is why our Lord was able to say “It is finished” from the cross, it was!

The only task ahead for a Christian then is to renew our minds by reading and meditating on Scripture. Here is where the Christian can really strengthen his or her knowledge and understanding of the Lord and our relationship to the Lord. Allowing His knowledge and wisdom to come in and enrich our lives, not trying to better ourselves that is the Lord's job and His alone. He will change us from the inside; the changes may come quietly and as gently as the melting snow. The changes will come, never as fast as we might like, but rest assured they come. As we mature in the Lord we will learn more how to operate as His lamps, shining His light to the world.

I hope Christians never forget that their bodies are temples and that the Lord indwells us. He is there, so is the Holy Spirit and where our Lord is, there the father is also, so the entire Trinity indwells us. Because the Trinity lives inside us, there is also a little slice of Heaven within us. Each of us is carrying around our own little slice of Heaven within us, is that fantastic or what?