The Core of the Gospel

There is no salvation without forgiveness.

There is no forgiveness without repentance.

There is no repentance without sorrow.

There is no sorrow without conviction of sin.

            The main reason Jesus died on the Cross was not to be our friend or guide or help in time of trouble but to provide forgiveness for our sins.  Repentance is the only way to gain this forgiveness.  “Accepting Jesus in my life/heart” is NOT salvation.

To me, of all the things one can preach/teach, this is the most important and without which, we have NO REAL Good News.  One can “follow Jesus”, just as many did in His day, and go to hell because they are unforgiven.   If the church needs to get just ONE thing right, it’s what salvation is: I’m a sinner in need of a Savior.   Jesus is the Savior.   All else is secondary to the Gospel message and flows from it.   BUT: NO ONE will be saved apart from repentance and forgiveness.   There will be no one in heaven that did not repent.   It’s the core and essence of the Gospel; it’s THE GOOD NEWS.   My sins are forgiven!   I am no longer at odds with God.   Instead of going to hell, I am going to heaven.   And in the meantime, God is working everything for my good (His definition of “good”, not mine!)

I cringe every time I hear a bloodless invitation for salvation.   I want to shout out, “NO, that’s not it!”   Usually there is some sort of build up like needing Jesus in your life, etc. and then in the prayer something thrown in about asking forgiveness for sin or accepting Jesus as Savior.   Where is repentance in that?!   Where is the saving part of “salvation”?   We make huge assumptions that people even know what those words mean.   Where is the explanation of our separation from God because of our willful sinful desires?   Where is the sorrow for sin?   Jesus shed His blood for me, for my sin, to make way for forgiveness. Grace was unleashed…. “while we were yet sinners”, Christ died for me.   The question is: what should I do about it?   Do I fully realize the sinfulness of my sin and it’s consequences, before and after salvation?   Is that regularly explained anywhere?

This may be a strong statement, but if one has never shed tears of remorse over their sinfulness and what Christ has done for them on the Cross, I then wonder at their salvation.   If one of the Holy Spirit’s roles is to convict of sin, and conviction of sin leads to sorrow over sinfulness leading to repentance, and if I have never felt that sorrow, have I really yielded to the Holy Spirit’s role in my life leading me to “repentance unto salvation”?   Have I really repented?

It’s seems there is a lot of preaching about the benefits/perks of joining the Christian club (much of what is promised can be gotten at the local bar or Kiwanis club) but not much about why I’m not in yet and what it takes to get in.   “Yes! YOU can have all this wonderful stuff in your life and won’t it be great in heaven, and look at all the great brothers and sisters in Christ you will get.”   What a great advertising campaign!   But the small print says something about sin and repentance and forsaking all and losing my life to gain it, and denying self, taking up my cross and following Jesus, submitting to the Holy Spirit making drastic changes in my life, forsaking sin and following Jesus totally without reservation. But that is such a bummer of a thing to advertise that we only talk about how great it will be. And end up with false conversions, done for all the wrong reasons…..

IF GOD DID NOTHING ELSE FOR ME BUT FORGIVE ME, HE HAS DONE ENOUGH.

            And for that we should be eternally grateful and satisfied.   Everything else is extra . But we emphasize the extra perks and benefits, and not the main thing:  We were created by God to worship Him but are eternally separated from Him by our willful sin and will end up in hell if we do not repent.   This sounds way more important than “accepting Jesus in my life” to be my friend and guide.   For what use is a friend and guide (even if it’s Jesus) if I am still ultimately going to end up in hell?

At times, we in the church bend over backwards to not offend people.   But the Gospel is offensive.   It’s offensive to hear life is not about me, that I’m a willful broken sinner in need of a Savior and I’m going to hell if I don’t repent.   People don’t want to hear that.   They come to church to be lifted up, inspired, to be made to feel good about themselves, kind of like a locker room pep talk.   But I would say that we need to be reminded often about our willful sin, and what it cost to have it forgiven and the consequences if the sin is not forgiven and the consequences of unconfessed sin after we are saved.   Our main sickness is not selfishness, greed, lying etc.; those are symptoms of the cancer of sin that needs to be dealt with before the symptoms can be truly eradicated.

May God give us boldness to teach and preach repentance for sin regardless of what other people think.   Sinners need a heart transplant by the Great Physician, not a nice cozy placebo story about heaven and all the perks of Christianity.