Introduction To The Gospel

What is the Gospel?

The word 'gospel' literally means 'good news' or 'glad tidings'.

It does not mean 'God's rule book' or 'God's moral code'.

So, if God is God, and He has some good news for you, wouldn't you like to know what it is?

Of course the best way to learn about the Gospel is to read it. That said, this task will serve as an introduction and, hopefully, offer you a compelling reason to explore the Gospel directly.

So, let's get started by going to 'demo' and watch a video by Eric Ludy. This video is about eleven and half minutes, so sit back and get comfortable.

Select 'successful' when you are finished.

The next steps are designed to help you with the following two goals:

To help shed some light on the more difficult, and often confusing, concepts of the Gospel you saw in the video.

To give you a practical and effective way to take what you learned about the Gospel and apply it to the realities and challenges of your day-to-day life.

Those are the goals. Now are you interested in pursuing them?

At the beginning of the video, we see a man being imprisoned by the 'enemy' of God.

If you're new to Christianity, this may seem a strange opening image, especially considering that this is supposed to be God's 'good news'!

However, when you stop and consider all the overwhelming and unexplainable heartache, conflict and suffering we see in the world, suddenly this concept doesn't seem so far fetched.

Like a jailer, clearly something evil, and quite powerful, is having a dark and oppressive effect on the human race.

Do you agree?

There is even more evidence of this imprisoning effect much closer to home.

Although we don't like to admit it, evil is not just in the world, it is in us.

We are all capable of self centered, destructive and even vicious thoughts and actions toward others...Even those we care most about!

The Gospel tells us that this rebellious nature is not something you did, but something that exists within our human nature, in other words, within all of us.

It explains why we all struggle, and so often fail, to behave like the person we know we could be.

When it comes to weakness and failure there is absolutely nothing special about you. We have all been affected and, to some degree, corrupted. There are no exceptions.

How much does this help you to make sense of the self centeredness, pride, fear, insecurity etc. that you just can't seem to get rid of, no matter how much you try?

Most of us can admit that there's something very wrong in this world, that evil exists and, at times, we are all capable of contributing to it.

This rebellious inclination is what the Bible calls sin.

While 'sin' sounds like a terrible word, Webster simply defines it as: "a state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God."

This estrangement leaves us unable to fully access the love, respect, joy, security and sense of worth that we need and desire.

How often do you feel that, despite your best efforts, there is something essential still missing in your life?

Estranged from God, we try to fulfill our unmet needs and desires through the approval of other people, the pursuit of pleasure, money, power, security, notoriety, etc.

But here's the problem: other people and our own ambitions are also estranged from God. No matter how much we succeed, we can never achieve the depth of fulfillment we are seeking.

This helps us to understand why success, money and fame so rarely translate into kindness, love, joy and peace of mind.

Do you agree?

Now the first scene in the video begins to make sense. It is because of our inborn sin nature that the enemy of God, the source of the powerful and oppressive force, places you into a 'cell' where you find yourself encountering:

fear rather than love
insecurity rather than confidence
lack rather than abundance
stress and conflict rather than joy and peace
oppression where there should be freedom

How often do you see this 'imprisoning' effect coming against the people you care about?

Next, in the video we see Jesus stepping in front of the prisoner to absorb the punishment intended for him.

Jesus quite literally takes the beating for each prisoner, including you.

He pays the price for all your negative acts, your sins that you committed while you were estranged from God.

This miraculous act is called salvation. Jesus pays the price, taking the punishment that belongs to you and me.

This is what it means to be 'saved'. It simply means to be rescued from the consequences of all our negative actions and intentions.

Even if you don't believe it yet, take a moment to reflect on the possibility of being rescued from the punishment of all your negative actions.

Select 'successful' when you are finished.

Did you stop and take a moment to really imagine what it would mean to be rescued from all your negative actions and intentions? It's an amazing thought to ponder. Also, If you are wondering about all those negative actions and intentions that no one else, except you, know about, yes, they count as well.

The proof can be found in your own conscience. Your conscience serves to rob you of the peace of mind and well being that you would have enjoyed if not for those behaviors...even if no one else knows about them.

Do you agree?

Okay, to help you understand this idea of salvation further, imagine the following:

Let's say that you ran up a debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars and had no way to pay it back. Unfortunately for you, you borrowed the money from the mob and they don't take kindly to your inability to pay back your debts.

They threaten to harm, even kill you and those who you love. Their threats cast fear and dread over your life. You never know when they are going to show up. Your life, security and relationships are under constant threat of attack.

Do you have this scenario established in your mind?

Then, out of nowhere, a perfect stranger shows up and pays off all your debts!

Suddenly, you are completely free from all your burdens, potential harm and punishment.

Later, you discover that this stranger not only paid off your debts, but the debts of everyone who owed the mob money and had no way to repay it.

Finally, you discover an even more shocking fact: he paid off these debts by willfully sacrificing his life. You discover that he volunteered to be brutally beaten and then tortured to death by the mob in exchange for your freedom.

That was the cost he was willing to pay.

Now, what would you want to say to that stranger?

The Gospel tells us that the stranger's name is Jesus. It tells us that He personally paid the price for all your sins. Every act of selfishness, cruelty, immorality, cowardliness, etc. Every act that is causing you shame. Every single one of them past, present and future.

He has done this NO MATTER HOW TERRIBLE YOUR SINS ARE OR HOW TERRIBLE YOU HAVE COME TO BELIEVE YOU ARE.

He paid the price by taking on to Himself all the sins of this world. He gave His life as a sacrifice.

Please take a moment to allow this, the most important piece of news you will ever receive, to penetrate.

Do not simply pass over this, stay with it for as long as you can.

Select 'successful' when you are ready to proceed to the next step.

His gave His life, which was without sin, in exchange for the forgiveness of all the sins of this world.

He did this because His Father, God, asked Him to. He did it out of love for His Father and, in so doing, reveals the true nature of God's character.

Yes, evil exists because we live in a world held captive by the enemy of God. But, through Jesus's sacrifice, God demonstrates something about Himself that He could not have demonstrate without evil having entered the world, namely:

That He has unmeasurable mercy, compassion, love and faithfulness toward you.

This is the 'good news' of God and about God's character.

If you knew without doubt that the news of your salvation was true, how much would it improve your current view of God?

This miraculously good news comes with one relatively small catch:

You have to believe that Jesus has, indeed, accomplished this. The ability to believe comes easier to some than it does for others.

Why is there a catch? Why do we need to believe in order to receive salvation?

Consider this, in the example of the stranger that paid off all your debts, what if you refused to believe that he had done so?

What if you thought that it sounded 'ridiculous', 'unrealistic', 'illogical'; that it was 'wishful thinking', 'hocus pocus', 'too good to be true'?

What if you thought: 'good things like this just don't happen to someone like me'?

Simply put, if you couldn't believe the good news about your debts being paid off, how worried would you still be about the mob?

So belief is the 'catch' to receiving the cancelations of your debts.

When you believe that Jesus died for the sins of this world, you begin the process of receiving your freedom. You take your first steps out from the imprisonment of shame, fear, darkness and inadequacy.

You begin your journey into the light and joy of the new life that comes with God's gift of salvation.

Whether you believe in it yet or not, how well do you understand the good news of God's gift of salvation so far?

Next, we have another big subject to cover (Christianity is not for sissies).

Christians, like almost all other religions, believe that your soul lives forever. That death is not the end of our existence. That what we do with our limited time on earth, resonates in all of eternity.

Another belief that is necessary to receive the gift of salvation is the belief that Jesus, after His death on the cross, rose from the grave. That after His death, He literally walked the earth, then ascended to heaven.

This belief is critical because it shows that Jesus has power over sin, death and creation.

Since only God Himself has power over sin, death and creation, the Gospel is informing us that Jesus is not just a 'great teacher' or 'religious leader', Jesus is One with God. He is God.

Obviously, this belief will challenge you right to your core. It is an essential claim of Christianity: Jesus is God and only God can unite us back to Himself.

Putting this belief aside for the moment, how strongly do you believe that some part of you will exist beyond your death?

The next thing we see in the video is that while the prisoner is free to go, he doesn't realize that he can open to door to the cell and leave!

This may seem very odd to you, yet it is the condition of most people who receive salvation, the modern church.

Why do you think that this is happening? Give it your best shot.

The truth is almost all of us have been conditioned to believe that we deserve to feel shame and inadequacy. After all, we were born into it and have had it reinforced throughout our lives.

At the heart of the matter, we do not truly believe that we deserve to escape from our cell of darkness. The overriding sense is: "I somehow belong here".

Many prisoners know intellectually that they have received salvation, yet have not been trained in how to exercise that freedom.

Jesus called this training 'discipleship'.

No one has properly discipled them in how to activate their salvation. They have not been trained in how to apply the Gospel; to fight the established oppressive thoughts and feelings that are keeping them in their cell.

How much does this explanation help you understand why a person can claim to be 'saved', yet show no indication of being 'free'?

It's important to know that your salvation is not a one time event. It is activated when you believe and it is deactivated when you don't.

You will literally find yourself out of the cell one moment and then right back in it the next. That's normal.

It is only as you begin to invest your time in effective discipleship that you can increase your ability to activate your salvation. That's the way it works. There are no short cuts.

Just as you need to exercise to maintain good physical conditioning, you need to work out your salvation in order to leave the cell for longer periods of time.

Knowing that your salvation is not a one time event, but requires daily training, are you still interested in proceeding?

Unfortunately, this need for daily discipleship is not being adequately addressed in most of today's modern churches. We will address this need shortly, but, for now, let's imagine that you have received the daily "workouts" you need to activate your salvation.

You've made your way out of the cell and, suddenly, you find yourself in the light of day. Next, the Gospel offers you another amazing discovery:

God is beckoning you. He is inviting you into His Very Near Presence.

Although this may be a difficult concept to grasp right now, what are your initial thoughts about the possibility of being invited, by God Himself, into His Near Presence?

This is a lot to take in!

Just minutes ago you were sitting in a prison cell. Now God is inviting you into His Very Near Presence.

And there is more: God, your Father, your Creator, wants to adopt you as His child!

What does this all really mean? It sounds more like a science fiction movie than anything to do with the realities of our day-to-day lives, doesn't it?

Are you curious, in practical terms, what this means to you?

Can you imagine a scenario where a child was brought up in a cruel and oppressive household and then, quite suddenly, rescued from that environment and brought into a family who truly loves, protects and cherishes him or her?

For some of us, this may be difficult to imagine for ourselves, but we can imagine it happening to someone else. If that's true for you, then imagine that you are that 'someone' else.

Describe what it would mean to you to be that child - suddenly brought into a family who truly loved and cherished you for just being yourself.

No matter how grand or beautiful your description was in step 23, it does not begin to capture the reality of what it means to be adopted by God as His child.

Most of us will not know the overwhelming beauty and pleasure of this miraculous reality until we meet God face to face.

For now, it is important to understand that, even if you do not see or feel any evidence of it, you are a child of God.

You are a child of a Father who loves you more deeply and completely that you will ever know. Who cares for you and is available to you at any time, for any reason. Who will, no matter what your circumstances may be telling you, never fail, leave, forget or abandon you. A Father who sent His only begotten Son to sacrifice His life for the payment of your sins.

Your adoption as a child of God is another big piece of the Gospel.

How much does the possibility that God, your Father, deeply loves and cherishes you, mean to you at this time?

You may be wondering: "If I am a child of God, then why don't I feel it? Why do I still feel as through I am being 'left out'?

Remember, we have spent most of our lives estranged from our Father. We've been held as captives. We are, for the most part, spiritual orphans.

He was a 'stranger' to us. Suddenly we have a relationship with God, but this relationship feels strange and unfamiliar.

The cure for this is the same as it would be for any other relationship: the more time we spend with Him, the more we will begin to feel like a beloved child and less like a forgotten orphan.

Given this explanation, how do you feel about being a child of God now?

Going back to the video, we see the man being beckoned to come before Jesus, His Savior and King.

Jesus asks the man if he will go back into the world he came from, the world full of darkness, evil and despair, to perform a very difficult and dangerous mission:

To release, heal, restore and redeem the other prisoners.

How do you think you would respond to Jesus' request?

Next, Jesus warns the man that if he attempts to perform this mission in his own strength (using his own intellect, instincts, efforts, capabilities, etc.) he will not be successful. The enemy of God will easily defeat him.

Have you seen these casualties -Christians who set out to do good things for other people, but ended up being 'shot down' in their attempts or arrogant over their 'successes'?

If we can't do what Jesus is asking of us in own strength, then how are we supposed to do it?

The answer lies is the next miracle of the Gospel.

Jesus tells the man that He, Himself, will become a part of him. That they will become as 'one person'.

Jesus joins His perfect, holy and sacred Personhood with our personhood and we become a 'new person'.

Jesus places in us the ability to love as He loves. We will, in part, be able to experience the same compassion, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control as Jesus demonstrated.

This radical process is called sanctification.

Now if you have not heard of this idea before, you might be thinking something like: "okay, I was interested, but I now you have totally lost me..."

Fair enough, but since you've made it this far, are you willing to withstand one more explanation?

Have you ever loved someone so much that you felt like you were a part of them and that they were a part of you? That you would, if called upon, be willing to give your own life to save theirs?

Sanctification is the same thing. As we spend more time with Jesus, we find ourselves falling more and more in love with Him.

It may sound strange to fall in love with a Person you cannot see or touch. But that's just it, as we spend time with Jesus, He allows us to see, hear and be touched by Him. It's as real as human love and, in many ways, even more so.

As we spend time in His Presence, we come to love Him so deeply that we, at times, become a part of Him and He becomes a part of us. Love, not duty, is the force at work here.

As our love and trust for Him grow, we spontaneously find ourselves wanting to do for Him, and others, the very things that He did for us.

Have you loved someone so much that you felt yourself, at times, becoming a part of them?

In sanctification we become like passionate lovers and, like all lovers, we hate everything that separates us from the one we love.

Suddenly, we have eyes to see the sin within us and we are repulsed by it. Those negative thoughts we talked about earlier combined with our mistrust, unbelief, self interest, love of money, caring about what other people think of us, etc.; everything that separates us from Jesus, becomes our enemy.

Like a Groom with His Bride, His love has miraculously united us forever.

How much does this explanation help you to make sense of what it means to 'not perform in your own strength'?

If you are thinking something like, "But this could never happen to someone like me...", you're wrong.

Jesus saves, sanctifies, loves, heals, redeems, leads and provides for anyone who genuinely pursues Him.

He does this for one reason: to unite Himself with you.

Jesus' aim is to give you as much of Himself, His perfect life, as you are willing to receive.

That is the whole of Christianity: Jesus entering your life, uniting more and more of His perfect life with yours.

Everything that Christianity concerns itself with including the Church, Bible, morals, etc. is for the sole purpose of bringing about this end.

That is the Gospel.

Given this description, what is your overall view of the Gospel now?

As the video comes to an end, we see the man going out as a 'victor' against the forces of evil.

We see his transformation from a prisoner to a champion of the oppressed. We see him turning his suffering into a force that liberates others. We see him accomplishing, on a smaller scale, what Jesus accomplished.

This is the Church of Jesus Christ, living fully in the gifts that have been given them: salvation from sins, the invitation to God's near Presence, adopted as children of God, sanctification and discipleship.

These are His people living fully, with humility, strength, love, self-discipline, mercy, spontaneity, joy and passion.

These are the friends of Jesus. They are following, loving and trusting Him with an abandonment that the world mocks and laughs at.

These are the champions of God, filled with His Spirit, liberating the prisoners...solving the "unsolvable" problems of this broken world.

Now, it's your turn...Are you ready to take the first step toward becoming a friend and champion of God?

Okay, then, earlier we stated that to navigate this journey, this walk with Jesus, requires daily training (discipleship).

Trails, like this one, have been specifically designed with that purpose in mind. Like a navigation system, they will guide you step-by-step, day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month and year-by-year in this remarkable journey.

If you put in the time and follow the steps, ultimately Jesus will lead you to a joy and pleasure far beyond anything you can begin to imagine.

Your job is to follow. God will do the rest. That's what it means to be a disciple.

If you would like to 'test drive' another Trail before committing, go to 'unscheduled' and select 'This One Thing Jesus Asks Of You Matthew 22:34-40 (Love).

If you are ready to commit, go to 'unscheduled' and start the Course entitled: 'Mustard Seed: Navigating The Narrow Path'.

(Optional) If you are not saved, but found yourself wanting to be while "walking" this Trail, you can receive your salvation anytime, anywhere you like.

Yes, even right now.

You can do this by having an honest conversation with God. In this conversation tell God that you believe that Jesus is who He says He is and that He has accomplished what He said that He has accomplished: that He is your Savior and that He has risen from the dead (see step 17).

Don't worry if after you express yourself to God that you begin to experience doubts and uncertainty or even begin to feel foolish. These are natural reactions. That is the enemy of God at work.

Once you have this conversation with God, and you truly mean it, your salvation has taken root. It is established forever.

In addition, talk to a Christian, who you trust, in person. If you don't know anyone who fits that criteria, then reach out to us and we will set up a time to talk with you directly. Use the box at the bottom of this page to send a message to the publisher. We will respond as soon as possible.

May you find the joy and freedom that is your gift from God in Christ Jesus!