JESUS
Who is He and why should I care?
What is the Citywide Gospel Campaign?
It is an effort to share the gospel message with every person in our city.
What is the gospel message?
In short, it is the reason why Jesus Christ died on the cross. It includes some bad news, good news, and a call to action.
The gospel message explained:
The bible says that God is all loving... but what about Justice?.. what about punishing murder, abuse, etc? The bible also says that God is just and punishes sin; He is a judge... but what about grace, and mercy? It seems that there is a contradiction within the character of God. How can God be all loving, yet display justice and punish sin? The answer lies within one name; Jesus. Read on to discover how Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of God while amazingly displayed the love of God.
1. We all have sinned before God
Every one of us messed up. Lets take a second to see if its really true. The bible says “Do not lie”.. ok, guilty. The bible also says do not steal, even if its small,.. also guilty. Ok, but most of us haven't broken the big rules such as adultery or murder, so were good right? Actually, Jesus said that if we “look at someone with lust we are committing adultery in our hearts” So we’re also guilty of adultery. Now Jesus also said “If someone hates his brother he is considered a murderer in Gods eyes”.
2. The punishment for our sin is death.
So we are all lying, thieving, adulterous murderers at heart. Now if we were to stand before the judgement throne of God, would we be found innocent? According to our actions, the answer would be “no”, we would be found guilty. Now God is perfect, absolutely Holy, and He cannot have anything that is dirty and sinful be in communion [relationship] with him. He is also a good judge so He must, according to justice, punish sin. And the punishment for sin is death. Not a physical death, but a spiritual death.. an eternal death that is spent in a place called hell where “the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched”.
3. Instead of punishing us God punished his own son instead.
But God does not want to send anyone to hell, even though we all deserve it. So instead of punishing us, God decided to take out his justice on someone else, his only beloved son, Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God does not desire any to perish [to go to hell] but for all to come to the knowledge of truth. That’s why Jesus died, to satisfy God's justice and his wrath toward sin.
4. Because Jesus had no sin, he overcame death and hell.
Jesus lived a perfect and holy life and although he was completely innocent one of his best friends betrayed him. He was beaten, stripped naked, humiliated, spat upon, flogged, and crucified by the people that he came to save. He took all the sin of the world upon his shoulders and because he bore all our sins, God, because He is holy, rejected his son and turned away from him. Jesus then died on the cross. But the beauty of God’s plan is that although all the sins of the world were thrown on Jesus’ shoulders, because Jesus never sinned, death had no grip on him. Jesus conquered death and hell and took away the keys.
5. Jesus now has the authority to give eternal life to whom he wants.
Jesus now holds the keys of death and hell and he has the right to offer forgiveness and eternal life to whomever he chooses to give it. It’s similar to adoption. We all were not part of God’s family and God offers us adoption as his sons and daughters. But we have a choice; either to accept this gift of adoption into his family or reject it and choose to live a life without God.
6. Jesus wants to give you eternal life; repent and receive this gift.
Jesus said, for anyone to enter God's kingdom he or she must be born again. How do we do this? It is a free gift of God, all we need to do is believe in Jesus and repent of our sins. Repentance means turning away from our sins and turning towards God. When we do this, we become adopted into God's family and we become a new creation. “The old has passed and the new has come”. This is when we are assured that we belong to God and are going to heaven. Then the next step is to live a life that honors God, going back to a life of sin is not what God desires for you. Find a bible teaching church, read your bible, and pray to the God who loves you so much.