What the Gospel means to me is “Good News”. But not just the good news we Christians talk about all the time (or not enough). It is my personal “Good News”. Let me explain that in the paragraphs to follow.
I grew up going to church with my parents. I had to go whether I wanted to or not. I knew my parents were Christians because they went to church. I figured I was a Christian because I went to church with them. My parents did a good job of teaching me right from wrong. And I did a good job of ‘appearing’ right while being oh so wrong sometimes. By the time I was in my mid-thirties, I was an alcohol drinking, drug taking, fornicating, masturbating, perverse thinking totally debased individual on my way to “Hell in a hand basket”. Mike Taylor, your average red-blooded, porn loving American male.
Like a lot of people, I didn’t know I was going to Hell. I figured since I had a head start in church and that there were a whole lot of people I felt were worse than me, that God would overlook my shortfalls and let me in to Heaven. He would be too busy throwing the murderers, rapist and child molesters into Hell to care about the likes of my petty foulness. Was I ever wrong.
I started going to church with a friend whom I was trying to impress. While visiting that church several times I realized that I was hearing the true word of God. I also realized that my belief system was all wrong. I found out that because of the sin, disobeying of God’s commands, in my life, sin that I was born with, separated me from God. It separated me because God is holy, righteous and just and hates sin. I wasn’t destined for a glorious after-life in Heaven. I was instead destined for Hell because of my unrighteous and sinful nature. Bad news right?
Through the word of God spoken by the pastor of the church I had been visiting I heard the Gospel. That the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died on a cross for me as a sacrifice for my sin. That he was buried in a borrowed tomb. And that he rose from the dead on the third day by the power of God. That same power had the ability to save or deliver me from the penalty of my sin and put me in a right relationship with God. I found out that God’s whole motivation for this stemmed from His love for me. The only thing I had to do was accept this free gift from God by faith. Shortly after hearing the Gospel, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior by professing and demonstrating my total belief in His redeeming work on that wooden cross. And it is by His power that keeps me in that faith.
That is the Gospel to me.
Mike Taylor
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