JESUS’S GOSPEL
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. 2 Thes. 1:8-9
It is really quite extraordinary how the ‘gospel’ has gotten so messed up over the centuries. You would think, if you had logic or common sense, that the gospel would be a very easy thing to find in God’s life manual. After all, the bible is God’s love letter to us. It is also His autobiography, where we can get to know Him personally.
But today, we have so-called Christian denominations preaching gospels that are nothing like each other. I decided to look for the best place to find what Jesus thought this gospel should be. It was not hard to do. As He trudged around the dusty roads of Galilee, Judea and Samaria, He was asked straight up by a man, ‘What must I do to gain eternal life?’ I am sure nobody would dare to argue that this ‘gospel’ that we hear so much about is basically about getting to heaven. So, this is where we need to start, right?
Let me give you this story as told in God’s life instruction manual.
Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” Mat. 19:16-17
The man wanted to test Jesus more and asked, which ones? Jesus rattled off a number of the lesser of the commandments, to which the mas said he had kept all of them, what more do I need to do. Jesus told him to go sell his possessions and give to the poor, which would gain him heavenly treasure, and then come, follow Me, and the man went away very sad because he was very rich. This is no different to what Jesus told each of us:
In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Lk. 14:33
We cannot follow Jesus [be a Christian] if we haven’t given up everything. Sounds awfully like ‘denying oneself, huh?
To know the full story, we must go to another passage:
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Mat. 22:34-40
Jesus assures us all here, that the first two commandments simply sum up all the others. If we obey the first two, the others will be natural life experience for us. So, when Jesus quoted some of the other commandments, He was testing this man who Jesus knew was pretty self-righteous. Jesus also knew that he was rich, and that money was his god. But we must understand that the answer Jesus gave him was very clear. “Obey the commandments.”
There is no better description of the ‘gospel’ than what Jesus told these people, when asked a question relating to eternal life. So, let’s take a look at these two ‘greatest commandments.’ That word ‘love’ has been translated from a Greek word, ‘agape.’ It really means to choose for the highest good of the other, regardless of cost to yourself. That is the highest form of love. It is always that which God has for each and every one of us. Just watch The Passion of Christ a few times, and you will understand what our salvation cost God.
The next obvious question that must be asked is, “How do I know what the highest good for God is?” That’s where the rubber meets the road, because it costs us something to find that out. Obviously, one must get to know someone well to know how to do what’s in their best interest. This is where we need to accept that our bible is God’s autobiography, and spend countless hours studying its contents. We must search passionately and determinedly for the knowledge of God. Jeremiah told us that we must search for Him with all our hearts, so that He will reveal Himself to us. God’s life manual fits together like a beautiful jigsaw puzzle. It’s not hard to understand at all, apart from Revelation and parts of Daniel. Those verses in Jeremiah are usually quoted in isolation from the prior verses. Let me give all of them to you.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. Jer. 29:11-16
We must be careful not to fall into the trap of accepting these verses chronologically. God assures us in many places in scripture that He never hears or even listens to prayers from sinners. Prov. 28:9, Jn. 9:31, Ps. 66:18 So, the order of action on our part must be to seek God with all our hearts until we get to know Him, then He will listen to our prayers. To ‘call on God’ can be accepted as crying out to Him with all our hearts, no? So, Jeremiah promises us that when we get to know God, He will set us free from captivity. What are we all captive to, prior to becoming saints? Of course we all know that…..sin. Christians, throughout the New Testament were all called saints, and that was an apt term for them, because they had repented, and stopped sinning. When Paul heard of a church member sinning, a fire burned in his gut. One time, he ordered the elders to kick the man out of the assembly. Another time, he told them to come back to their senses as they ought and stop sinning, and blamed that on their ignorance of God. So, we see a pattern through all of this. When we get to know God, we will repent [stop sinning] and He will hear our prayers, and forgive us. The most well-known passage that assures us of this is:
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chron. 7:14
Please remember that at that time, every Israelite was called God’s child. He had chosen that nation as His people. But to be in relationship with Him they had to meet certain conditions. The same is true for all who are truly born again today. Jesus made that very clear when He told us that if we sin, we are slaves to sin, and have no permanent place in His family. Jn. 8:34-36 Please understand that He did not say if we continue sinning. He was referring to just one sin.
From my personal experience, when we come to really know God, we will learn to fear Him. He assures us that when we fear Him, we will stop sinning.
Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning. Ex. 20:20
To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Prov. 8:13
Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD evil is avoided. Prov. 16:6.
Who does things that he/she hates? Okay, you get the picture.
When one studies God’s word one finds that there is a theme that flows all the way from Genesis to Revelation. That is: obey God and live, or disobey God and die. Jesus summed that up by telling us that we cannot go to heaven if we don’t obey God. Mat 7:21
When God speaks of life, He always speaks of LIFE: that abundant life which He purposed for us when He created Adam and Eve and breathed into them the breath of LIFE. It is more than abundant; in that it is also eternal LIFE in heaven with Him. He gave us the way to that life very clearly through the writings of Solomon.
Humility and the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life. Prov. 22:4
The fear of the LORD leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble. Prov. 19:23
Whoever fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge. The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a person from sin. Prov. 14:26-27
Even Moses knew this truth:
Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of the Lord will be with you to keep you from sinning. Ex. 20:20
So, we have seen in a little study of some extremely relevant scriptures that the path to heaven is: getting to know God, so you can truly love Him, Then learning to fear Him, which allows you to repent and stop sinning. In that process you will clearly develop a meaningful relationship with Him, where you will find your confidence, security and a healthy self-esteem. Once you repent, the Holy Spirit will be given to you, and you will begin that awesome and miraculous journey of living in Christ where there is no sin and no darkness.
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
No one who lives in him sins. No one who sins has either seen him or known him.
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
No one who is born of God will sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot sin because they have been born of God.
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.1 Jn. 3:4-10
I have copied this from the NIV, but removed the words that were added by man to enable false prophets to twist the truth. The KJV got it right, as it was originally penned.
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38
God’s word teaches us that there is zero forgiveness in the absence of repentance. It also assures us that God cannot dwell with sinners.
For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness; with you, evil people cannot dwell. Ps. 5:4.
Solomon assured us that when we fear God, we rest content, untouched by trouble. Prov. 19:23 But we have so-called Christian leaders tweeting stuff like: ‘give all your burdens and stress to God.’ Or, ‘ I declare total release from all your burdens and strife, in the name of Jesus.’ These folks have NO CLUE what it means to know, fear, love and obey God…be a Christian.
This fact is precisely what compelled me to write a book. It’s called ‘A Nation Broken,’ and Amazon and B & N have it. I very strongly encourage you to get a copy, and read it with a hungry heart and open mind. I have done my best to explain the ‘process of’ salvation and Christian living with much scripture copied and pasted to many pages. I sure did not want the book to about my opinions, and I trust you will find that to be true. We simply must not argue against what God has clearly told us. You do know the consequence of that.
God bless you and free the Ukrainians.