The Gospel
*being a good person or redefining God can’t meet the requirements of our Holy God
> You are a sinner at the deepest possible level.
> You can’t fix that by merit or discipline.
> You need a Savior. It’s Jesus, the one-and-only. He lived without sin so His sacrifice on the cross counts. He was both God and man so He provided the requirements of God, the Father, to atone for sin and the means of salvation for us through His death and victorious resurrection.
> Trust Him by faith: confess your sin, trust Christ saves you
Once you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior from sin, you’re eternally saved.
This is salvation, but its outworkings continue. So many people don’t care after salvation, but like all great things, salvation motivates life change so we begin living for Christ which takes a lot of sacrifice, personal discipline, and humility to grow submitting to God’s counsel. Belief in Christ is merely the beginning of a life made worthwhile by serving God and nourishing our souls with the Word of God, prayer, fellowship with other believers. This is sanctification as we become more like Christ.
In the Old Testament, God dwelled in the Tabernacle of the Temple. In the New Testament and now, God, the Holy Spirit, indwells believers in Christ. Thus, believers are now His tabernacle and therefore His representation to the world. The Holy Spirit works to sanctify us while empowering us to share our salvation with those around us.
Notice the Gospel doesn’t have an end in your life (or your death!). Once you’re saved, the Gospel remains your means of salvation and grows within you as you become more like Christ and represent this Gospel to the world.
7 Essentials of Christian belief
*major on these majors and minor on the minors (the Church has hurt itself and split itself by majoring on the minors)
1. The Trinity.
2. The full deity and humanity of Christ.
3. The spiritual lostness of the human race.
4. The substitutionary atonement and bodily resurrection of Christ.
5. Salvation by faith alone in Christ alone.
6. The physical return of Christ.
7. The authority and inerrancy of Scripture.
