The Gospel Articulated

God’s plan to have a relationship with us

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (CSB)

When I accepted Christ as my Savior, the one who died so that I could have eternity with God, I had no idea how to articulate any of it. It wasn’t until a few years later when DeeDee and my husband were prepping for our covid-induced online Vacation Bible School.

My lovely husband came home one day and asked if he could practice the Gospel presentation with me, the one Lifeway sends with their VBS kits. 

He told me the following points, and it all finally clicked for me. With these five points, I could finally articulate what I believe, and the joy that comes from it.

Courtesy of Lifeway being brilliant, here is the Gospel presentation.

God Rules

God created everything. In Genesis chapters 1 and 2, He said “Let there be…” and there was light, darkness, sky above water, earth and seas with vegetation, sun, moon, and stars, animals both in the sky and in the waters, and then wildlife and livestock. Finally, He made man and woman after His image, to be in charge of everything He made. He created it all from nothing.

Paul references this in Colossians 1:16-17 when He says, “For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.”

Long story short, God Rules. He rules over all things because He made all things. Not only did He create it all, but He thought through everything for us. He knew we would need seasons, a way to tell time, so He gave us the sun and moon. He knew that animals would need to reproduce, so He gave us both a male and a female of each. God even knew how lonely we can be without company, and He gave Adam Eve. 

Our God has full dominion and authority over all things, and yet He wants a relationship with us. He loves us so much, He wanted to make sure that the world He made for us would be perfect for us.

We Sinned

Even though God created us to have a relationship with Him, He also gave us free will. We get to make our own decisions, and our heart’s instinct is to disobey what God wants for us. This act of rebellion is called sin and it’s been ingrained into our hearts since the very beginning.

Adam and Eve were gifted a perfect place, the Garden of Eden. They had everything they ever needed, and a single rule: Do not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It’s a mouthful of a rule, but it stood nonetheless. He even gave some pretty horrifying consequences, “you will certainly die.” 

Even though they knew the rule, even though they had this beautiful relationship with God, their hearts turned to disobeying Him. When the situation arose, they both ate from the tree.

Adam and Eve were in charge of the animals and land that God had given them, and thus it became their responsibility. When they allowed sin to separate them from God, they allowed sin into their place of dominion.

Because of this, sin is something we all turn to, something that will keep us from having a relationship with God on our own.

“For the wages of sin is death,” Paul says in Romans 6:23a (I will be quoting the rest of it in just a moment.) 

They sinned by eating the fruit, and they knew the consequences were death. What they didn’t realize was that it isn’t a physical death, it’s a spiritual death.

This is the worst kind of news, right? A couple from SO long ago did a dumb thing and now I can’t have a relationship with God? Well, I have some really good news for you. Romans 6:23 doesn’t end there, it goes on to say: “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We fell short, and we will continue to fall short, but God has a plan.

God Provided

Hopping up to the main verse of the post, John 3:16. This one is worth memorizing if you haven’t.

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 CSB.

God still wants a relationship with us. Our free will, our ability to rebel against Him isn’t enough to make Him stop loving us. Unfortunately, He is perfect and cannot have a relationship with those who are not. We are so far from perfect, there is nothing we can do on our own.

God created many covenants to help His people maintain a relationship with Him, but they still kept messing it up.

Until He provided the perfect sacrifice.

Jesus was born 100% man and 100% God. He is God’s only son, He is God in human form. And He is the only one able to do the impossible: live a perfect and sinless life. 

Jesus came to do what we cannot, mend the bridge between us and God so that we can have that eternal relationship with Him. God provided the perfect solution to a problem we created for ourselves.

Because God so loved the world. This is where I start crying because how can someone love me so much, want a relationship with me so badly, that they can look at me in all of my sinful, disgusting ways, and still find me worthy?

The first Easter having my son was rough. I don’t think there is anyone on this earth that I love enough to sacrifice my son for, not even my husband of whom I love more than I ever knew possible. And my husband does things all the time to deserve my love, like massaging my feet to help me fall asleep and doing our finances even though it stresses both of us out. I could go on forever.

But, I do absolutely nothing to deserve God’s love. Neither have you. It just isn’t possible, and yet the fact remains: He loves us enough to send His only son to die for us.

Jesus Gives

“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,” 1 Peter 3:18 CSB.

When I was in kindergarten, we were on our way to the playground for a water day. This day had been hyped for MONTHS. I was so stoked to be one of the kids allowed to join. My teacher had a strict rule, if you were disobeying any rules, you got a mark. And after three marks, water day just wasn’t for you.

I had two marks come the water day, so while it was barely, I made it! Until, as we were walking to the playground, the girl in front of me talked while we were supposed to be silent. The teacher gave me a mark and sent me back to the classroom!

The injustice! The audacity! I have lived with this slight against my character for twenty years now! And I didn’t go willingly, oh no. I had my special bathingsuit and I even remember those ridiculous goggles my mother sent me with. I cried and yelled and fought the whole time back to the classroom.

This story always hits home when I think about Jesus taking on the punishment for our short fallings. He didn’t fight, or come up with excuses. He asks God if the cup could be passed from Him and when the answer was no, He went willingly. 

Now, as you can imagine, that girl and I? The one who talked? She was my sworn enemy. But, Jesus? He never stopped loving us. He died for each of us individually.

And not only did He die for us, He defeated death and rose from the grave. He, who has full dominion over all things, took our sins and defeated it in all aspects. 

Because of Jesus, we get credit for His perfect life, something we could never have done on our own. In God’s eyes, it’s now as if we never sinned and caused a rift in our relationship with Him. Because of Jesus, we are welcomed into God’s family readily.

We Respond

I’m going to quote lifeway, who has the best breakdown of how to respond to the gospel presentation.

A- Admit that you’re a sinner. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23.

We have all sinned, any act of disobedience is a sin. We have to repent from these sins, which means to turn away from the sin and turn to Jesus. 

B- Believe that Jesus is the son of God, and accept God’s gift of forgiveness from sin. “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. 

Only Jesus Christ can save us. He is the one and only way to a relationship with God. We can’t get there by being “nice” or by reading our Bibles. We can’t get there by just going to church. Only by Jesus.

C- Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13. 

All that we have to do is call on Him! Believe and then confess. Jesus did all of the work already.

Final Thoughts

God loves His people, and wants a relationship with us despite the fact that we are sinners. He created the world and us, specifically because He wants a relationship with us. And, even though we keep messing up, there’s nothing that is keeping God from wanting a relationship with us, to the point He sent His son Jesus to die for us, a perfect solution to a problem we created for ourselves.

If you’ve made it here, and you have any questions, contact us. Leave a comment, send an email, we love talking about this and would love to talk with you. 

This is the most important decision of your life, don’t wait to have your ducks in a row, just go to Him.