This is going to seem overly basic for a 400-level post to anyone who has been in the church for any length of time. But the 400-series is all about being transformed by the Gospel into the men God wants us to be. Where 100 was about intellectual inspiration and 200/300 about being physically/emotionally motivated toward living and experiencing life differently, the 400s will be about transformation itself, and the Gospel is at the core of that.

This conversation will be useful not only for men themselves (just because you're a man doesn't mean you're perfect!), but also for men to understand how to lead their wives to overcome significant internal problems that are holding them back from living as right wives/women in the order of how God designed them. After all, Ephesians 5:25-27 says this is your responsibility as her husband.

So, I don't think I could proceed without a clear, definitive outline of the whole of the Gospel message. Yeah, there are ways to shorten and summarize this or explain in greater detail, but here's what I believe covers all of the necessary components to utilize the Gospel as I intend to use it in this 400-series.


CREATION AND THE FALL

Why did God create the world? The Bible says it's because he wants a relationship with us. Acts 17:26-27 specifically says that throughout all of time and all of space in the order of creation, God determined where and when each of us should live. Why? "That they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us."

In Eden, Adam and Eve were already with him in that relationship, but they sinned, which separated them and us from God (Isaiah 59:2; Romans 5:12-21). Romans 6:23 says that the result is also death - not just a physical death, but a spiritual death (i.e. hell). Romans 3:23 says that this is the natural fate of all people because all people are imperfect and sin.

HUMAN EFFORT

Since the dawn of time, humanity has tried numerous things to address the problem of sin, which is what separates us from God. All of these ways usually boil down to one of three categories:

  • Morals: If we can be "good people" and avoid doing bad things, that will be enough to get rid of our sin.

  • Good works: If we do enough good things, it will outweigh our bad things and God will love us for it.

  • Religion: If we do enough religious practices and show our devotion to God, God will reward our effort with heaven, escaping hell.

Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." As to each ...

  • Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God, so we can never be "morally good" on our own by God's standard.

  • Matthew 5:48 demands perfection, so it's not a matter of good works outweighing the bad. A baseball player who strikes out once and gets on base every other time for the rest of his career will still not have a "perfect" record.

  • Although sacrifice was the primary religious ritual for salvation in the old testament (where religion reigned supreme as compared to today), God was clear in Hosea 6:6, "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." Religious practices are not the answer.

To refrain Proverbs 14:12, anything we try on our own will still only get us to hell.


SALVATION

If left to ourselves, this would be a hopeless predicament. God didn't have to give us a solution. He could send everyone to hell and be totally just in doing so. But by grace he chose to give us a way.

1 Peter 3:18 says, "For Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God; he was put to death in the body, but made alive in the Spirit." John 3:16 clarifies that it is those who "believe in him" who will be saved and have eternal life. Because of all of this, Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For it is by grace you are saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God so no one can boast."

FAITH

So, what exactly is faith? Imagine you receive a note under your door in the middle of the night saying, "I am going to kill you and everyone you love tonight at midnight." How would you respond? There are three likely responses:

  • You can choose not to believe the note. You have no faith in the genuineness in the threat, so you ignore it. At the end of the day, you and everyone you love are murdered.

  • You can choose to believe it, but not to care. Suppose you're fine with letting yourself and all those other people die. Well, this probably means you didn't really love them, but it also means that your belief won't save you - you'll die too. (see James 2:17 - "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead"). At the end of the day, you and everyone you love are murdered.

  • You can choose to believe the note and take some action to protect your family and yourself. Ideally, rather than running away (assume he'll find you) or getting yourself killed hunting him down on your own (or otherwise committing a crime that would equally ruin your life), you call the cops and let them save and protect you and your loved ones. At the end of the day, this is the only option that will save everyone.

In the same way, a mere intellectual acknowledgment of the truth is not enough. For it to actually save a person, it must be internalized within the person. Jesus describes this saying, "Remain in me, as I also remain in you" (John 15:4). If you don't internalize the faith in a manner that compels you toward action, it's not genuine faith. Note that the actions themselves are not what saves us in the case of Christ - it is the faith itself. But the actions are the automatic byproduct of genuine faith.

RECONCILIATION

Because of Christ and our faith in him, we have a reconciled relationship with God (2 Cor. 5:18) and it is our job to continue reconciling the world to Him (id). Because of the Gospel we are now able to experience with God what sin had stolen from us. We are able to be eternally and perfectly content. Satisfied. At peace. Joyful. Everything that we struggle through in this world can be satisfied by God because we are reconciled to Him by Christ to live life as we were always intended to experience it.

Now, not everyone, even after salvation, is willing and able to receive the benefits of this. We still live in sinful bodies. We still forget that we are free. We still fail to open our hand when God tries to give us what now belongs to us by right as his adopted children. But the option is there and the rest of this series will be about understanding how to utilize the Gospel to take it.


CONTINUING OBLIGATION

From here it is important to recognize that salvation is not the end-point, it is only the beginning. Philippians 2:12 says, "Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling." That "fear and trembling" bit comes because the Bible talks a lot about the need to be concerned with the genuineness of our salvation.

  • Matthew 7 references people who thought they were saved and were doing great things, but to whom Jesus says, "Away from me, I never knew you."

  • Hebrews 10:26-31 talks about those who continue in sin intentionally even after alleged salvation and that their fate is "a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries."

  • 2 Peter 2:20 says that if a person knows Christ and has escaped sin, but is again entangled in it, "the last state has become worse for them than the first."

Instead, we see Paul saying in Romans 1:16 that he is "obligated" both to Jews and Gentiles. We see Jesus and the apostles not preaching obedience not merely for the sake of showing the impossibility of perfection without Christ, but because of a genuine post-salvation obligation to follow what was commanded. Both Paul and Jesus' last recorded words centered around sharing our faith and making disciples.

If you want to prove your salvation, you must bear good fruit (Matthew 7:15-20) - and that fruit, by comparison with every other time Jesus talks about plants, fruit, seed, etc., is when your faith spreads so the Gospel can spring up and grow in others. If you don't have proof of your salvation, what good is it to argue that you're saved on a technicality? Didn't Jesus come to abolish technicalities of the law as a means of judging the saved from the unsaved?

So, I forever refrain: adopt the mission of disciple-making as the cornerstone of your frame. Build on it from there, but let everything else rest on that principle. This is how the Gospel will be taken to the nations. Like the parable of the minas/talents, the Gospel is wasted if given to you and you don't do anything with it - and we all know how it turned out for that guy ...


SUMMARY

To shorten this whole message, if someone asks me, "I just want to know how to get saved. What's the simplest answer you know how to give?" To that, I recite the ABCs:

  • Admit you're a sinner, can't be perfect on your own, and need a savior.

  • Believe that Jesus died and rose again to be that savior.

  • Commit in your hear to living out of love for him, proving this love by your fruit.