Don’t Get Bored with the Gospel

This was originally posted at The King and His Kingdom on September 30th, 2017.

Basic gospel message: God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. He rose again and sent His disciples to make more disciples and preach the message that if we believe in Him, He will give us eternal life.

Did you just skim over that, thinking “yes, I’ve heard this before, I know what it’s about, let’s get to the point”?

If you already believe it, you probably did. I know I have. I hear someone start preaching the basic gospel message to others in the audience who aren’t believers and I automatically tune it out, thinking, “I know and believe this already, this message is not for me.”

But we’re not just talking about the morning news. The gospel isn’t a set of facts that can only benefit you the first time you hear them. We’re talking about the best news EVER. How can we be bored with the most amazing truth in the world? Who cares if we know it already?

Yes, there’s a time to dig deeper into theological topics and practical applications and all sorts of other things that aren’t so basic. Paul says to eat solid food, not milk, like babies. (Hebrews 5:12-14)

But Paul also begins several of his epistles (Ephesians, for example) with an outpouring of truth about what God has done for us.

Just think for a minute about the enormity of the universe. Try to wrap your brain around how many millions of galaxies there are, each one full of stars that make our own sun seem like a speck of dust. And God created all these galaxies and stars and planets just by speaking.

He didn’t have to do anything else. He could have stopped after creating that.

But then He chose one little planet circling around one tiny star in one galaxy and gave it the greatest honor of all: people. People who were created in His image. People He would communicate with and love and give a whole earth full of amazing things.

People who would have minds capable of great thinking and hearts capable of great love, modeled after their Creator, but also able to be corrupted by too much thinking and love for themselves. People who would time and time again turn their backs on God, worshiping the creation He had given them, instead of the One who created it.

People He would love despite all of it. He loved them so much, in fact, that this God who spoke the stars into existence stooped so low as to put Himself in a human body and come to earth to be with His creatures, to live as one of them, to feel the pain they would feel, and to allow them to treat Him like any other poor Jewish carpenter. He taught them and healed them and then He let them kill Him so He could take the punishment they deserved for giving Him anything less than the absolute adoration and unconditional obedience He deserves.

But because He was Lord over all of creation, including death, He was not bound by death, even with His human body, and He came back to life and went back to His people just long enough to show them His victory over death.

And He chose a few people to tell the entire world about Him. He chose more people to live with Him for eternity. Like, forever. No end. Ever. We throw that word around a lot, but I don’t think any of us really get it. And all that time, we get to live with the God who created and controls all of this.

And THAT is the gospel. That is nothing to be bored about. That is the most amazing thing you’ll ever hear, and there’s no way you can ever hear it too many times. Next time you hear someone preach the gospel, don’t turn away or tune out. Instead, listen closely, reminding yourself again and again how amazing His grace is, and praising Him with all your heart.

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What’s Your Title? A Lesson about Identity from Philippians