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What is the Gospel?

Matt Marino

My Testimony

I grew up on suburban Long Island in a two-parent family and a nice enough home.
Essentially that means that I was as spoiled as everyone else around me and shared
the secular delusions of being culturally superior to other people in the world. Now
that is not to say that there was no exposure to religious things. Our parents
attempted to bring us to church for four years, from the time I was nine to the time I
was twelve. They did their best and I never found myself in rebellion against them. I
saw and heard enough of Jesus to know that it was all true. And yet if I was a believer,
in any sense of that word, it was as a hard-hearted, backsliding, nominal Christian
teenager. But there was enough people telling me that I was a good person, and that
seemed to numb my conscience for the time.

God brought me to the end of myself through the dissapointment of a failed attempt
at a baseball career and the disillusion of the political and philosophical studies I had
thrown myself into in college as a response. I had knowledge of the truth in my head
but I was lost in my heart. On March 21, 1999 I responded to the altar call of a
preacher at an Assemblies of God church in Ormond Beach, Florida. With a little bit of
Bible study it became clearer to me that it did not really matter when I was born again.
What mattered was what Christ had done for me and what his Spirit would continue
to do in my life. But the nine months I spent at that Pentecostal church were filled with
genuine spiritual experiences and the strong sense of a call into ministry. All of that I
would have to pursue in Boise, Idaho, where I moved at the end of that year, once I
met my wife, Emily.

Being married meant being close enough to other people to where I could no longer
hide behind my morality. Even as a Christian I had not yet learned to measure my
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supposed righteousness by Gods perfect righteousness. Being single had allowed

me to skim the surface of my soul. Compared to the outside of others, the outside of
myself looked pretty respectable. If anyone ever got too close, I could always walk
away and congratulate myself for being so patient with that difficult individual or
group. But between husband and wife (and then children) there is something like a
law, a mirror of brutal honesty that knows what you really are.

We had our first child, Joshua, later in 2000, and then Hannah in 2005. We planted a
church that same year and then planted another one in 2007. Later that year Isabella
was born. We knew that there were developmental issues with her, but it was not until
a few years later that she would be diagnosed with autism. Finally Aiden rounded out
our family in 2010. All was well at our church family called The Well. But all was not
well in my heart. I did not just need to be saved by Jesus at one point in the past, and
then justified by doing Gods work as a husband or a father or a pastor. In fact my soul
has been a gushing sewer of anger and paranoia and self-pity. I believe every ounce
of those doctrines of grace that filled my sermons and yet I do not believe them at all.
I know that God has transformed my heart and that God has used me to help others.
But I also see a pattern. Deeper and deeper levels of selfishness that I never knew
existed keep bubbling up to the surface.

Who will rescue me from this body of death? Those are the words of the Apostle
Paul, long after he had been converted to Christ. If that is the amazing Pauls normal
experience, then certainly we can expect the same. There is hope! The very next
words of that scripture answer the question: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ
our Lord! My only testimony is literally Jesus. He is my only hope in life and in death,
and the good news that I want to share with you is that He is hope enough.

God and Creation

Why did God create anything outside of Himself? God did not need anything. God
was not bored. God did not even need to create persons in order to experience love.
He already had a perfect community of love within the Trinity Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. So why did God decide to create the world and all the people in it? The biblical
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answer is that He did it for His own GLORY. But I do not want to assume that we all
know what that means. Let me explain.

God Made All Things to Speak About Himself

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his
handiwork (Psalm 19:1). This is what I mean by saying that God made everything to
speak about Himself, or glorify Himself to tell everyone how wonderful He is. That
may seem self-centered at first glance. Indeed when we humans draw attention to
ourselves we rightly consider that to be a moral defect. Not so with God! If our souls
were really designed to be happy in our Creator, then it is better for us to behold
more of Him. Consequently God is the only being in the universe for whom self-
centeredness is others-oriented! Gods glory is the first good news.

God Made You to Speak About Himself

During those six days of creation we may notice that six times God looks at what He
was making. He keeps saying It is good and then God made something that
especially reflected His glory on Day Six.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).

When God created the first man and woman, He was making something a little like
Himself. IMAGE means a copy or reflection or picture. Except that we image-bearers
are motion pictures. While everything in creation speaks of God, human beings are
made to do this in a way that is unique. Unlike stars or mountains or trees or horses,
we are persons with souls: minds that can think about Gods worth, emotions that can
move us within toward God, and wills that can act outwardly on the stage as if we are
for or against Gods script. We have been designed to find ultimate happiness in Him.
This is what God requires of us. When Jesus was asked what is the Greatest
Commandment, He answered in this way,

The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love
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your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these

(Mark 12:29-31).

Every part of us was made to move in a way that says something great about God.

God is Good and Only Does Good

If God is good and made the world to reflect His own character, then it stands to
reason that creation is good. And so it is. Skeptics often bring up the problem of evil.
If a good God made the world, then why has it gone wrong? There is an answer.
However there is also an important truth to the question. The ultimate thing that God
has done, and is continuing to bring to completion, is absolutely good! We will come
back to evil and suffering. But for now we must see that Gods ultimate good design
will not be frustrated. God has always been fully committed to all the works of His
hands: The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all
generations (Psalm 33:11).

So the goodness of God excludes any defect of any kind. At the very least that means
that God must be both holy and loving. We cannot say that He is only one and not the
other. Many people say that if there is a God then He must love us unconditionally,
that He must forgive us, that He must only do good to us no matter what we do. After
all, God must be bigger than other beings that take offense at wrongdoing.

I would like to ask anyone who shares that sentiment only one thing. Would you say
the same of a much smaller human judge? In other words, what kind of a judge would
sentence the guilty to exactly what they deserve? The answer is a good judge.

The one true God is both holy and loving. That means that He exercises justice and
mercy, but that He is under no obligation to have mercy. We will come back to that.

He says, be holy, for I am holy (Leviticus 11:44) and be perfect, as your heavenly
Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). This is what we ought to do. This is what God
deserves. But do you know anyone who has ever pulled off that perfection? Have
you? Gods standard is not perfection because He is mean. His standard is perfection
because perfection is His own character.
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Fall and Sin

What is wrong with the world? If a good God made it, then how has it become filled
with so many horrors? How come we die and why are there so many disappointments
for the short time we are here? You may know the story a little. The Bible tells us that
our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell from Gods paradise, sentencing the whole
human race to sin and misery. But what is sin? There are three very important things
we need to know about it. SIN disobeys God, distorts us, and destroys everything
else. That is what is wrong with the world and with you and me.

Sin Disobeys God

The Apostle John gives us what may be the most concise definition of sin anywhere in
the Bible. He said that sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Sin is legal because God is the
ruler of all things. He is the rightful King and no matter where we go, we are in his
kingdom. That means that Gods law stands over all things. So when the Bible says
that, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), we can be sure
that sin is no innocent mistake. And there is also no such thing as a little sin.

There is a passage in James letter that clues us in on why it is so evil to break Gods
commandments: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become
accountable for all of it. For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not
murder (2:10-11). There is a He behind the commandments. A person of infinite
worth has been dishonored when we violate any of his commandments. That is why
no matter how trivial a wicked deed might seem to us, in reality it deserves the wrath
and curse of God.

So DEATH is the legal consequence of sin first spiritual death, then a resulting
bodily death The soul that sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:4) and The wages of sin is
death (Romans 6:23). When Adam became separated from God by the abuse of his
own image, he shattered that image for everyone in his line. That is, all of his
descendants who were yet to be born, which is everyone, since God made from one
man every nation of mankind (Acts 17:26). As the old New England Primer
paraphrased it to Puritan children, In Adams fall, we died all, or in the words of
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Scripture, in Adam all die (1 Corinthians 15:22). Paul says it most clearly to the
Romans,

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through
sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (5:12).

So whose sin causes my death according to the Bible? Answer: Adams and mine.
Adams sin was the ultimate cause in history and mine is the material cause, yet just as
real and more of my concern. We cannot declare independence here. Think about it.
When Adam and Eve rebelled, the distortion of their souls reshaped the race born to
them, and all their children became natural-born sin-factories. Now what product
does a sin-factory produce but sin? Therefore we are not sinners because we sin; we
sin because we are sinners. It is in our nature. We can do no other. The Psalmist
confessed: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me (Psalm 51:5). That is what is wrong with the world the one staring at each of us
in the mirror.

Sin Distorts Us

Being made in Gods image, all of us are worshiping something.

Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people
have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O
heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my
people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living
waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no
water (Jeremiah 2:12).

Sin is irrational. I do not mean that we do not use our reason when we sin. What I
mean is that it causes us to go insane: to lose touch with Gods reality, including even
ourselves. The biblical story of the Prodigal Son is a good picture of this. We
exchange the glory of God for the lowest of his creations (cf. Romans 1:21-23). If we
remember that God has designed us to find ultimate happiness in Him, we will see
that our trouble is not that we want to be happy. Our trouble is that we are not very
serious about it. Here is how C. S. Lewis once put this.
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It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We
are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when
infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud
pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a
holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.1

Sin makes us ever-withering pleasure-seekers. The way that the Bible puts together
the concepts of sin as lawlessness and sin as insanity is under the heading of idolatry.

One Christian pastor has said that an IDOL is anything less than God that, if you lost it,
would devastate you. Do you have such an ultimate good? Has it not become a cruel
master with no lasting benefits to show? We are miserable rebels, striking out against
a gracious heavenly Father who gives us all we need, and yet making ourselves all the
more miserable trying to get a stronger dosage of the corruptable desires that are
passing away (cf. 1 John 2:17).

We can see that sin has a domineering power over us. Jesus said that everyone who
sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34) and Peter wrote in his letter that whatever
overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved (2 Peter 2:19). Now that is ironic. From the
very first lie in the Garden of Eden, the devil has persuaded mankind that sin is
freedom and that Gods commands are bondage.

The problem goes all the way down to the depths of the heart, to a place that no
mere mortal has ever even seen of himself: The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Sin Destroys Everything Else

Now remember how we saw that the glory of God is the happiness of human beings.
Consider what falling short of Gods glory does to others. Our failure to glorify God is
the height of selfishness. It is utterly hateful because if God is really what makes the
soul happy, and if my life denies to others that very source, then whatever shallow
notions of love I may have, my sinful actions are petty and causing great harm to the
human race. Sin is selfishness.

1
C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. p.
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Now look at the world. It is an utter mess of every kind. At first we wanted to blame
that on God. But this idea of blame, where does it come from? Where do we get off
calling the world a bad place if there is no such thing as the way things ought to be?
Do you see the problem with our moral outrage against God? All of our negative
moral pronouncements really depend upon the very law of God that our sin wants to
deny. Our consciences are informed by a moral memory, a sense of the way things
ought to be and a longing for it to return.

What about all of our religion? Can it fix the problem? The prophet says, all our
righteous deeds are like a polluted garment (Isaiah 64:6). What about all of our good
intentions and seeking after God? The Psalmist says,

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are
any who understand,who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together
they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one (Psalm
14:2-3).

Now given the goodness of God and the depth of our sin, the Bible understands
salvation to be a real dilemma. We moderns may not. We may be asking, How could
a good God possibly send anyone to hell? Yet the biblical authors asked the very
opposite question: How could a good Judge acquit anyone who has done what we
have? We have committed treason against the King of all goodness, we have wrecked
our souls and the life He gave us on loan, and in so doing we have made a mess of
everything else.

In the biblical view, there is no way out and nothing we can do.

Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the
ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever
and never see the pit (Psalm 49:7-9).

If such a deep problem is to be solved, God will have to do something for us that we
cannot and will not do for ourselves.

Redemption and Christ

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Lewis once said that religion is what man says about God, but Christianity is what
God did about man.2 So what exactly did God do about this impossible situation?
Well one thing He did not do is sit back and watch the world burn itself out. Nor did
He wait to see if anyone down here would ever get things right and start over. In fact
He did not even wait until the punishment took effect to begin making a way back to
life.

Before the man and woman even left the Garden, the Lord made them a promise. It is
first seen in the curse read to the serpent:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspringand
her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Genesis
3:15).

One from among the children of men and women would deliver them from the evil
one and their own bondage to sin. The promised child to come would be the Prince
of the sovereign King of all things and therefore He would be the rightful heir of this
world. He would accomplish all of this in a battle against the serpent. Jesus would
become for us all of those things that we needed to do but could not.

Jesus Obeyed the Law of God For Us

Quick review. God made us to be like Him and to do as He does. Adam failed. Israel
failed. And each and every one of us fail. But God sent his Son to start things over. He
was born under the law (Galatians 4:4). Jesus lived the life that we should have
lived. His obedience to God was designed to count for our obedience. Those who put
their trust in Christ are treated by God as if we did what Jesus did: by the one mans
obedience the many will be made righteous (Romans 5:19)

There is nothing arbitrary about this. If a holy God and sinful man are to be
reconciled, then someone who perfectly represents both parties will have to satisfy
the terms of living together. This is what Paul had in mind where he wrote that, there
is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). A MEDIATOR is someone who represents two hostile parties.

2
Lewis, Mere Christianity, New York: Simon and Schuster 1996, p.
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That Jesus was fully God means that He could represent Gods side of holiness
perfectly. That Jesus was fully man means that He could represent mans side of
obedience required perfectly. It means not only that He stood in our place legally, but
that He faced what we face psychologically. Think about that for a moment!

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet
without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

That Jesus was our mediator means that He became our substitute: in life and in
death. He puts Himself in the place of us, both positively and negatively. All the good
we still owe God and all the curse God still owed to us. There is nothing in life or in
death that we need more than such a Substitute!

We need two things for salvation to occur. We need to have every single one of our
wrongs made right, and we need someone else who is perfect to start over again for
us and succeed till the end. A kind of double exchange is going to have to occur.

Jesus Was Punished By God For Us

The cross was not first and foremost an ethical example or moral influence directed at
our hearts, nor even a victory over the powers of darkness. Although the cross was
those things too. But this is not the first thing Jesus accomplished by his death. The
cross was first and foremost an atonement for sin. The primary aim of the cross was
not toward any part of the creation at all. Its primary effect was heavenward. One
theologian described it in this way,

Clearly it is Gods demand that we live holy lives that is the root cause of the
problem. As long as he is angry with the selfishness, the disregard of the needs
of others and the general attitude of lovelessness that the Bible calls sin, the
attitude of God is going to be an important factor, indeed the important factor
There can be no fellowship between God and man as long as God is
persisting in a demand to which men are indifferent.3

3
Leon Morris, The Atonement, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press 1982, pp. 137-138
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There is a divine dilemma. A good God cannot simply forgive sinners by joining them
in their dishonor. He cannot agree with the sinner that his glory is no big deal, and so
sweep sins under the rug of the universe. Instead the Son of God absorbed the wrath
of God for us. He took the hell we had to pay. He satisfied his own justice. He spent it
on his own Son instead of on us. Paul says, There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). There is no greater demonstration of
love and no greater security for the beloved: In this is love, not that we have loved
God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John
4:10).

So Jesus gets all of our sins and we get all his righteousness. There is a great
exchange: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we
might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). So it is not by our
external works, nor by our internal will power, but by Christs performance alone that
we are accepted by the Father.

not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which
comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on
faith (Philippians 3:9).

Jesus Rose to Newness of Life For Us

No one would ever believe that someones death had killed death itself if they
themselves remained under its power. So in Peters sermon he claims that in this
emptying of a tomb Psalm 16:10 was fulfilled: For you will not abandon my soul to
Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

At first it may seem that the Resurrection of Christ is only related to salvation
somewhat indirectly. Sure it vindicates Jesus, but what does it do for us? Pauls
theology of the believers union with Christ continues from Good Friday to Easter
Sunday and beyond. He asks his readers in Rome:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into
death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with
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him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection
like his (Romans 6:3-5).

That is the idea. Those whom God has placed into his Son have been placed into the
work of his Son. His destiny becomes our destiny. This is not only Paul saying this, but
Jesus Himself,

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will
never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but
the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I
should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and
believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day
(John 6:37-40).

Jesus rising from the dead does something to us right now. Remember that we said
the problem in our hearts was double. In Christ, as the hymn says, there is a double
cure. If by the cross Jesus killed our old man, then by the resurrection Jesus raised us
by his Spirit to a new life which begins right now. The great hope of the resurrection is
complete when our bodies and souls are united in the consummated new creation.
But the good news is better still. It also means that we are even now beginning to see
the killing of the old man of sin and the growth of the new man in righteousness. As
the Reformers put it, we are made acceptable to God by faith alone, but not by a faith
that stays alone. Through faith the Holy Spirit begins to give birth to new desires in us.
We start to see our sin for what it is and hate it. We start to see the promises of God
for what they are and love Him for it. If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation (2
Corinthians 5:17).

Jesus Reigns Over All and Restores All Things For Us

The plan of God revealed in the Bible comes to a head in the reign and rule of his
Son. The Father wanted all the rulers of the earth to listen up when He promised the
whole universe to his Messiah,

The LORD said to me, You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your
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possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel (Psalm 2:7-9).

The Bible adds to all of this good news that all who believe in Christ share in his
inheritance. We inherit the whole world in fact (cf. Romans 4:13). Gods good creation
will be even better than the first time around. Paul even gives a kind of poetic
foretaste of the new world and the new race looking together for the ultimate dawn.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains
of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have
the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as
sons, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:22-23).

In the end God is going to bring an end to all evil and the new world will be one of
never-before-experienced love and joy and peace. He will wipe away every tear from
their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying,
nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated
on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new (Revelation 21:4-5).

Repentance and Faith

What we have seen so far is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in
the performance of Christ alone. We have also seen that God gives to His people a
whole new creation where sins debt to the law, dominion over our hearts, and
devastaton to the world are all wiped away. All of it is the free gift of God in Christ.

So there are really two basic ways to relate to God. One is on the basis of our
performance (works) and the other is on the basis of Gods promise (grace).

This is very often misunderstood even by we Christians. Sometimes we speak of the

unconditional love of God. Of course if what we mean to say is that Gods decision to
save a people is unconditional that nothing we did could ever put Him in our debt
then of course that would be true: For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no
one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9) and if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of
works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace (Romans 11:6). GRACE means
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Gods undeserved favor. But just because something is given to us unearned, that
does not mean that it comes cheap. And I am afraid that this cheap grace is what is
often meant by the saying.

Just as surely as Gods promise still required a perfect performance (Christ did that for
us), so his word calls us to live new lives that tell his good news. It matters how we live.

Turn From Idols to the Living God

The Apostle Paul opens up one of his letters by saying, For we know, brothers loved
by God, that he has chosen you, because [of] how you turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God (1 Thessalonians 1:4, 9). That is actually a much longer
passage. But the punchline to Pauls confidence that these believers were the real
deal was how they turned from idols to the living and true God. What does this mean?
It does not primarily mean what you wear or what you watch or what you listen to.
Although any of those can be idols! The issue is always your heart.

This is what you will want to ask yourself. Have I really come to love the Lord and
despise all that would tear me away from Him? The best picture of this that I know of
is that parable of Jesus that takes up one verse: The kingdom of heaven is like
treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes
and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:44). It is true that we cannot
see into each others hearts, but life and death do look very different from each other.
Over time, we can see it. The man in this parable was not begrudgingly putting away
his idols. He did not go and sell his earthly goods out of fear or guilt. Jesus said he
did it out of joy. This is what becoming a Christian looks like.

Earlier in Matthews Gospel, Jesus had said that For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also (6:21). It is no coincidence that Jesus spoke so frequently about
money. The point is not that money is inherently good or bad. What matters is how
easily our treasures reveal whether we are alive in Christ or still among the dead.
Either way, we are worshiping. We are always worshiping something.

Repent and Believe is a Way of Life

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When Jesus preached the gospel, He said things like Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). To REPENT means to have a total change of mind
and therefore a change of direction. Some may say that all that is required is the
change of mind. The new desires and decisions are not important. But we must ask
what kind of mind-change this is that desires nothing new and does nothing different.
We are talking about a total 180 here.

To BELIEVE just means to trust God about what Jesus did for us, to take Him at his
word. We could think of the repent part as the turning away from the idol and the
believe part as the turning toward the one true God.

When Jesus calls us to follow Him, this thing called repent and believe is not a door
to pass through once, but a life-long path. Luther once said that the Christian life is a
life of repentance. Is this biblical? Well let me ask it in this way. Do you think you will
continue to sin? Those sins (even the slightest) do they dishonor God and corrupt
you? I think we will have to admit they do. If you are a genuine believer, will you hate
those sins? If you understand the good news, what will you turn to in order to feel
loved by God? The answers to those questions can only mean one thing. Repent and
believe today tomorrow and the day after that too. As one Christian author
put it, we should preach the gospel to ourselves every day.

Wait a minute, someone might say, I thought it doesnt matter what we do! There
isnt anything we can do! Are you not adding works back into the equation?

The answer is No not at all. And by the way, I never said anything like it doesnt
matter what we do! What we do earns nothing in Gods court of justice, but what we
do plays a key role in Gods theater of glory. The very same Paul that says we are
saved by grace, in the very next breath, says, For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in
them (Ephesians 2:10). Our new life matters.

Repent and believe and preach the gospel to yourselves every day until the day you
die that doesnt mean you need to be saved over and over again! Quite the
opposite! As you realize what a great sinner you are, youll learn afresh what a great
Savior you need. And as you get deeper into the gospel, a funny thing will happen.
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You will find deeper levels of assurance that you are saved. But good works and deep
sins and deeper grace will all rise together.

The Call for a Reponse to Follow Christ

What Do You Do Now?

God is a person. That means that when you are restored to Him, you will quite
naturally communicate with Him. How do we communicate with other people we
know? We use words. And hopefully we also speak from our hearts. This is even more
the case when it comes to communion with God. That is what PRAYER is. And while
we certainly do not want to turn prayer into a magic mantra where we simply get what
we want from God including the most important good that we have been talking
about, which is eternal life still we should pray that God would forgive us for all of
our sins because of what Jesus has done for us. Consider praying in this way,

Father in heaven, I confess that I am a sinner.

I have not lived with a thankful heart and have not cared about your glory.

I have done more selfish things than I can count and I have wasted the life youve given me.

But I have heard from your good news that you sent your Son to take my place.

Please make his life count for mine, and his death wash away my sins.

Please forgive me. Please make me new. Please give me your Holy Spirit.

I want to follow Christ and be more like him every day.

I want to live in his kingdom and for your glory alone.

I ask you all of this for his sake and in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Now I do not want to tell you that if you repeated those words after me, then you
have been born again. Salvation cannot be reduced to a formula like that. On the
other hand, the Bible promises that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
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saved (Romans 10:9). And Jesus says, whoever hears my word and believes him
who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from
death to life (John 5:24). So trust in the promises of God and live!

Now if you do repent and believe, there are some things that God has designed for
you to walk out your new life in Jesus. You will want to trust God for these things too
because He is a loving and wise Father. These things are sometimes called things like
means of grace and spiritual disciplines. But whatever you call them, they are the
ways that the Holy Spirit begins to strengthen your soul for the exciting work ahead.

Follow Up
Resources for Spiritual Growth

First and foremost, get into Gods word.

I recommend the English Standard Version (ESV), but if you already have an New
International Version (NIV), New American Standard Bible (NASB) or New King James
Version (NKJV) those are also fine translations. The important thing is that you begin
to nourish your soul with the story of God: his laws and songs and teachings and
visions of the future. The words of God are compared to bread (Matthew 4:4) and
pure milk (1 Peter 2:2) and imperishible seed (1 Peter 1:23). So feed your soul on
his word.

Second, keep the fires of prayer burning.

God doesnt make us fit for heaven overnight. One of the things you will experience
in the early going (if you havent already in our conversation) is that you will still sin.
The enemy of your soul will try to overwhelm you with shame and doubt in these
moments. But your Father is still there and Jesus is still praying to Him for you about
this very thing! The desires of the Spirit inside you will make war against your
temptations. So keep praying.

Third, find a church that believes Gods word and loves Jesus.
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Please do not buy into the notion that you can be a lone ranger at this. Even our grasp
of truth, from the Bible, was designed to operate within community. The most basic
thing the church does is worship. This is what we were made for. It is true that your
new brothers and sisters in Christ will often disappoint you. But we do not go to
church as if it were our Savior. We go to church to worship Him together, and that
happens primarily through hearing the word preached, being baptized, and
partaking of the Lords Supper on a regular basis.

Fourth, get to know all those one anothers of the New Testament church.

Everywhere in the apostles letters to the churches, we find instructions such as to

welcome one another, love one another, confess our sins to one another, comfort one
another, serve one another, outdo one another in showing honor, and bear each
others burdens. And a few other one anothers that could be mentioned.

In other words, do not go to church only for what you can get out of it, but for what
God will empower you to do for others: so we, though many, are one body in Christ,
and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the
grace given to us, let us use them (Romans 12:5-6). No a church cannot save you. Yes
the church will disappoint you. But the church is Gods design a hospital for sinners,
the school of Christ, and the sender on a great mission that awaits.