Gospel Change Equals World Change

There is a lot going on in 2024 around the world. I get it. There are wars and earthquakes and on top of it all America has an election this year!
We know that tempers flare and everyone gets uptight in election years. Everyone has a candidate that they think will make the world a better place.

Let me cut to the chase-only God can change human hearts from dead in sin to alive in Christ. The right candidate will not change one human heart to alive in Christ. The right piece of legislation will not cause murders and robberies to cease. The right amount of donations will not alter the course of wayward humanity.

The Gospel is the good news for a reason. It saves men from sin and it changes men and women’s hearts from lost in sin to found in Christ! It is the good news that saves and the good news that sanctifies.

The Gospel does not promise to right all the wrongs in this world right now. Jesus will do this when He returns in His Second Coming in glory. The Gospel makes men right before God and makes men ready for Jesus when He does come. Are you right with God through the shed blood of Jesus? Have you trusted in Christ and that He died for you, was buried and rose again? If so, then have you told someone else about this glorious Jesus? What are you waiting for? And have you discipled your children in Jesus and to know all about Jesus? What are you waiting for? And have you discipled a friend in Jesus to know Jesus more and to make Jesus known to others? Well, what are you waiting for? Have you prayed God would change the hearts of your family members and friends that they too may know Jesus and Him crucified?
I’m sure we all have some work to do. Let’s get to it.

Let me encourage you not to fiddle around during an election year with political aspirations of changing the country and world. Let me encourage you to pour out your heart to Jesus and ask that He change the hearts of men and women, one at a time, and that we would be salt and light in this world of darkness as the result of God’s change of men. The great commission is indeed Great! God has chosen you and I for this very purpose and for such a time as this! Go tell the world! Go make disciples!

”The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, for everyone who believes, the Jew first and also the Greek” (Romans 1:16)

The Gospel: The Power of God Unto Salvation

 Romans is an excellent place to begin to find the explanations of the Christian faith more detailed. Paul answers questions like “what is sin?”, “what is righteousness?”, “where did man come from?”, “what is man to be doing while on earth?”, “where will man spend eternity?”, “who is God?”, “who is Jesus?”, “what is the kingdom of God?”.

In Romans 1:16, the apostle Paul teaches that “The gospel is the power of God unto salvation”. Acts 4:12 teaches us that there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby men can be saved than the name of Jesus. But why does man need to be saved? Saved from what? 

The truth of the Bible is that only through Jesus can humanity be saved from sin and death. Sin is disobedience to Almighty God. The penalty of sin is death for all men and all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23; 5:12; 6:23) . Death is physical and all men die. But the second death is promised to all sinners who refuse to bow the knee to Jesus as Lord and as Savior and trust in Him for eternal life. 

The good news (gospel) is this: mankind has sinned in Adam and is condemned as sinful before God. God, in His eternal love, sent His only Son Jesus who was born of the virgin, who lived a sinless life, who died on the cross to become the offering for sin to satisfy the demands of God’s justice toward sin-all this according to the promises made by God in the scriptures. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and turn from sin to Him for eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:3,4) . This is the gospel which translated from the Greek is the good news! 

The beauty of the gospel is that God has done everything that we could not do for ourselves. The gospel is indicative in that it has been accomplished for us. The gospel is past tense in that “It is finished” (John 19:30) . But the gospel has past, present, and future ramifications for those that trust in Jesus and for those that do not trust in Jesus. Jesus did what we could not do in order to earn what we could not earn. Jesus came to earth to solve the dilemma of sin and death by defeating sin and death at the cross. Jesus rose from the dead proving that Satan, sin, and death, have been defeated. This is all part and parcel of the gospel of God’s grace and mercy toward His people whom He has loved from before the foundation of the world. The promises of the gospel are preached to all men everywhere and provide the only hope to mankind in securing a reconciled relationship with God through Jesus Christ. 

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Romans 10:14,15

Heavenly Citizenship

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, – Philippians 3:20

Since our citizenship is in heaven, we are strangers and travelers while here on earth. We are messengers traveling through the sin stained earth. Therefore, we live daily with the mindset of heavenly citizens-not earthly citizens. Christ minded-not worldly minded. We are aimed at evangelizing the residents of earth and also discipling the citizens of heaven that God may prepare us for the glorified state and the fullness of the age to come. 

While it is true we live on the earth and as many have said, “we are just passing through”-we are not to live as those who do not have a relationship with Christ. We are to live as citizens of heaven. We are to live according to the new nature in Christ, not having a righteousness that is our own, but a righteousness that is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to be renewed in our minds to the things of God and His glory. And we are to share these things with others who may or may not have heard of the resurrected Christ. The apostle Paul said, “Woe to me if I don’t preach the Gospel.” And “the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)

Have you told someone about the Gospel, the good news, of Jesus today? Have you nurtured someone in Christ today and encouraged someone in the faith?

Come Lord Jesus!