The Gospel Revealed in simplicity

A teaching by Onyinyechi Ihesiaba

Many times people have the wrong picture of what salvation really is and my job today is to successfully steer you in the direction of the bible. We must emphasize that there is only one place where we must build our convictions and it’s the bible!

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

It will be very wrong for any of us to look elsewhere for teaching, the word of God is a lamp to our feet, and it is where we get direction from.

You see when it comes to Salvation many Christians are zealous and passionate which is wonderful but there is an error many Christians have found themselves in. They are passionately preaching the wrong message.

Interestingly there were people in the scriptures that did the same thing. You see the Jews were passionate about salvation but they went around teaching the wrong message and believing the wrong thing about salvation. Paul said

“ they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.”

This goes to show that you can have a zeal for God and salvation meanwhile you are teaching the wrong thing!

• Romans 10:1-3 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
  

After reading the text above it is clear to see that when we carry around a message that is not what Jesus intended then we are establishing our own form of righteousness that is not submitted to the righteousness of God!

That being said today I want all of us to decide to hold the word of God true where other men are liars including ourselves.

Let’s really begin.

When it comes to salvation I want us to first address a very popular word. That word is

“The Gospel.” Why? well because whenever we hear salvation the first thought that comes to mind is “what is salvation ?”, however, the gospel is a very popular word used by Christians all over the world. So let's look into this word.

We'll start a bit technical but I promise you it will be worth it. You see the new bible was written in Ancient Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic and the word Gospel is translated in Greek as euaggelion (yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on) which means “the good news”. It translates as the “good news” in seventy-four (74)New Testament verses. It was rarely seen outside the New Testament, the reason for this being it was not just “good news” but it was describing the culmination of God's plan that had just happened by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Theologians actually let us know that it was not just good news but “too good to be true news” because it explained well enough all God did for us in Jesus.

The Gospel is simple and it’s for us all.

In plain terms what then is the gospel?

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:1‬ ‭

“By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:2‬ ‭

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:3‬ ‭

“And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:4‬ ‭ KJV‬‬ VERSION

The Gospel is seen in the verse above. It is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and if you believe in this Gospel you are saved. That is the gospel! It bears good news of salvation by faith(belief) alone, not by works.

The reason for the gospel

To fully understand the gospel, you must understand the reason for the gospel. The reason God gave his only son for man is only one, and that reason is LOVE.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3:16‬ KJV

The verse above shows how God expresses his love for humanity. The word “so” in that verse translates to “in this way”.

So to correctly read this verse is to say “For God in this way loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son”.

If anyone hadn’t told you, now you know that God so greatly loves you. God’s love is shown to all of humanity with no restrictions, he first loved us and still loves us all , his love isn’t to a select few but to the whole world. Something we must know is God’s love towards humanity was never conditioned to man’s actions, meaning it didn’t matter if men responded to this love or not. God loves us because God is love.

To understand God’s love you must know that it is not how we perceive love; it’s not based on feeble emotions. It is who God is.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Above we see that he in fact shows his love for us in that he loved us while we were sinners.

So God loved us despite us having a sinful nature, this shows man’s actions did not influence God’s eternal love for us all.

In posts following this one we’ll see how man came to have a sinful nature and how despite that nature God chose to save us and give us his nature. He decided to save us of his will and by his will.

So the decision for God to save us was made solely by him, we didn’t influence that decision thus Salvation is all about God’s faithfulness not what man can do (works) to gain salvation.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭KJV‬‬

This verse shows that “GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD” which means God gave his only son for every single person on earth. So this shows God never directed his love to a select few alone but to the whole world.

And how did he show his love? He gave his only begotten son the man named “Jesus” this now brings the question of why did he have to give his only son?

Let's look at one more scripture

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3:1‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Above the writer is astonished by just how much God is in love with humanity and that by his love he has made us sons of God. As we keep teaching you’ll understand this amazing news, even more.

Have you ever asked yourself what was the point of all this? Why do I need salvation? Must I be saved? Is it really a big deal? Well in our next post, we answer this question in the simplest way possible.