Simply Gospel
10/12/06 15:17
The other
day I opened the new package of Quaker Instant Oats.
I like the maple and brown sugar flavor! Of course I
would rather have bacon and eggs every morning
but… Robin wouldn’t have any of that.
She has allotted me those kinds of breakfasts to
twice a week –if that! Back to the oats; Quaker
oats are my oats of choice but because the
“off” brand is almost a dollar cheaper we
buy those instead. In my opinion the Quaker Oats are
a much better product and it is sort of a treat when
I get them. Anyway, I opened the package and looked
for the little interesting trivia facts that they put
on the individual packages. But they weren’t
there; then, I remembered that it was the
“off” brand that had those little tidbits
of information that made breakfast time just a little
more interesting. I remember saying to myself when I
first discovered that the “off” brand had
these trivia facts-facts like this: Did you know that
the United States produces more the 775,000,000
gallons of ice cream every year?- that I was going to
buy these oats so I could collect the trivia facts. I
know what you’re thinking, “Who cares
about know how many gallons of ice cream the U.S.
produces?” Exactly, and what do these facts
have anything to do with the oats? It’s a
marketing ploy! Do the makers of this product need
something more than oats to sell their product? Do
they think that the quality of their product
isn’t good enough to sell itself? Obviously
not, and so they attach something to their product
that helps sell it, but has nothing to do with that
product.
Just when I made this little discovery, the Lord spoke to my heart and asked me if I thought that today’s Church did the same thing with His Gospel. Do you think that we give the people the plain Gospel or do we dress it up with frivolous features that we hope attract the unsaved and keep the complacent? Isn’t the simple truth that God loved us so much that He sent His Only Son to die in our stead enough to excite our love and commitment to Him? The Gospel is simply this: Everyone who has ever lived has sinned and deserves the condemnation that hangs over their head. The soul that sins is the soul that dies. No one is exempt from this sentence of death for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But God, in His rich mercy and His love for us sent Jesus to die in our place. Jesus is the atonement for our sins and in Him we have been forgiven. Therefore, if any man be found in Christ, he is a new creation with the sentence of condemnation removed from his/her life. This gives a clean slate and a new start in life. It allows us to forget the past of our selfishness and gives us new direction into servant hood. What brought you to Christ? What keeps you in Christ? I am going to be bold here and say that if it is anything more than the plain truth that God forgave you of your sins, I believe that you are in danger of buying into an “off” brand of the Gospel –a gospel that is really no gospel at all. I am not a Christian because God heals me, or God prospers me financially, or because people will see that I am a “good” person. No, I am a Christian because God forgave me of my sins and I owe Him my life! This is faith and it is faith that pleases God. May God have mercy on us and continue to reveal Jesus Christ to us!
Just when I made this little discovery, the Lord spoke to my heart and asked me if I thought that today’s Church did the same thing with His Gospel. Do you think that we give the people the plain Gospel or do we dress it up with frivolous features that we hope attract the unsaved and keep the complacent? Isn’t the simple truth that God loved us so much that He sent His Only Son to die in our stead enough to excite our love and commitment to Him? The Gospel is simply this: Everyone who has ever lived has sinned and deserves the condemnation that hangs over their head. The soul that sins is the soul that dies. No one is exempt from this sentence of death for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But God, in His rich mercy and His love for us sent Jesus to die in our place. Jesus is the atonement for our sins and in Him we have been forgiven. Therefore, if any man be found in Christ, he is a new creation with the sentence of condemnation removed from his/her life. This gives a clean slate and a new start in life. It allows us to forget the past of our selfishness and gives us new direction into servant hood. What brought you to Christ? What keeps you in Christ? I am going to be bold here and say that if it is anything more than the plain truth that God forgave you of your sins, I believe that you are in danger of buying into an “off” brand of the Gospel –a gospel that is really no gospel at all. I am not a Christian because God heals me, or God prospers me financially, or because people will see that I am a “good” person. No, I am a Christian because God forgave me of my sins and I owe Him my life! This is faith and it is faith that pleases God. May God have mercy on us and continue to reveal Jesus Christ to us!
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