Friday, August 21, 2015

Reminding ourselves of the gospel



Reminder of the Gospel
"Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,... For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,...But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. 1 Corinthians 15: 1,3-4, 10 (NRSV)

The scripture above describes our moment by moment walk with Christ, and an important part of that walk is reminding ourselves that Christ died for us and was raised into eternal life. We are able to walk with God because of His wonderful love that extends grace to us.  After Paul's conversion to Christ, he spent all of his time reminding himself and others that God's grace is miraculous.

The Apostle Paul says that he handed to the Corinthians what he had received.  Since we cannot give something that we do not have, we must constantly receive (or remind) ourselves of this great gospel, this wonderful good news of God's grace.
 
When we are asked to explain the gospel of God’s grace, many Christians are stumped for a way to express it.  Since Paul reminded himself so often of the gospel, he could respond immediately. We need to follow the Apostle Paul’s example and do this too.  The gospel is not only for salvation, but for our daily, moment by moment walk with Christ.

The gospel of God's grace, simply put, is this:  God loves everyone so much and wants to fellowship with us, but our sin puts a barrier between God and us.  In order to to fellowship with us, God sent his son to take the punishment for our sins by dying on a cross so we have to opportunity to live with God forever in eternity, in spite of our sin.  God raised his son from the dead, proving that God's love triumphs over sin and the grave.
 
In order for us to share the gospel, we must have the gospel.  We need to remind ourselves every day, even every minute of our lives, about the good news of God's gospel of grace, which is written in the scriptures.

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