THE GOSPEL MESSAGE AIN'T COMPLICATED

I am so tired of reading, watching and listening to the complicating of the Gospel Message that I think my head is going to explode! Sometimes I just want to open up my window and holler to the world, "IT AIN'T THAT COMPLICATED, PEOPLE, SO QUIT TRYING TO MAKE IT SO!" The more complicated we try to make the Gospel Message, the more complicated we make life in general...And the more screwed up the world becomes!

People, here's the thing: The Gospel Message has to be so simple that a person on their death bed or a child just obtaining the "age of reason" can comprehend it quickly and completely, in order to make his or her decision of whether to accept it or reject it in a reasonably short period of time. Jesus Himself emphasized this "simplicity" factor several times in the Gospels:

• "And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven"(Mat 18:40)
• Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such at these."(Mat 19:14)
• "Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."(Mk 10:15)(Lk 18:17)

Yet, isn't it amazing how we continue to do what Jesus does not want us to do...Complicate the Gospel! We create ceremonies, invoke prayers, establish procedures, teach restrictions, write books, teach drawn-out sermon series and establish codes of conduct, all with the idea of helping a person to become a born again believer in the Kingdom of God. Everyone of these things depend on some kind of action or work, and a way to judge whether this action or work is performed acceptably; yet Jesus said the only action required of us is to believe in Him and what He has done for us by accepting His life into ours; the rest is pure grace.

Jesus made two separate but related important claims on which all of the Gospel Message is based: 1) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."(John 3:16); 2)"I am the way, the truth and the life. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER (and by default, Heaven) EXCEPT THROUGH ME'!"(John 14:6)

Here, then, is the Gospel Message, or as it is called in 2 Cor 5, the Message of Reconciliation, in it's most basic and simplest form:

Each person God creates is a spirit, who has a soul (generally defined as our mind, will and emotions) and who lives in a flesh body. Even Adam and Eve, who were created without conception as the parents of all mankind, were made this way.  Basically, the real YOU is a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body. One might say you are like an astronaut in his spacesuit; your body is your earth suit for the real spirit you with your soul inside. That explains why a dead body always seems to have little resemblance to the person when he or she was alive.

Each person is born with the Spirit of God as part of their being, but because of the disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, the moment we become reasonably aware of the difference between right and wrong, good and evil (sometimes called "the age of reason", and make the decision to do (or even think of doing) the wrong or evil thing, we become separated from the Spirit of God.  Essentially, we become "dead" to Him, because we lose a righteousness that was based on His Being and establish one that is based on ours.  In effect, we become our own god, and the inbred pride, selfishness and wickedness of our spiritual heart begins its relentless corruption.  Unfortunately, only children who have not reached the age of reason and the mentally challenged are spared this process.

Fortunately, God, out of the goodness of His Being and His love for the Mankind He created, has provided a way for all people who have become separated from Him to be restored to that original relationship we had with Him...But it involves making a choice! That choice involves the pivotal question of the Gospel Message:  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH WHAT JESUS SAID HAS CLAIMED?!  Remember, He claims in the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John that not only is He "the way, the truth and the life", but that He is also the only way to be reunited with the Father.  So, having made that claim, each of us has to decide if Jesus was A) Telling the truth, therefore requiring us to decide whether we will believe in Him or not; B) Telling a lie, therefore not to be believed or followed; or C) A crazy man, who was not in touch with reality, and therefore, certainly not to be trusted or believed.  If you believe in either B) or C), then you have rejected the Gospel Message and need read no further, because essentially, you have rejected the Christian's God and His plan for you and you are basically on your own.

On the other hand, if your belief is in A) - That Jesus is who He says is and that He is the only way to the Father and eternal life - Then Jesus says in John 3:16 that whoever shall believe in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  That is the basic Gospel Message...nothing more, nothing less.  When we place our belief in Jesus Christ we accept what He has done for ourself and all mankind, and our spirit becomes one with His Spirit as we become filled with the Holy Spirit; essentially we become "born again," a new creation in the Kingdom of God.  The Bible says in Romans chapter 8 that we become children of the Father, heirs to His Kingdom, and coheirs with our brother, Christ Jesus.  A Bible teacher I used to listen to named Bob George used to simply put it this way:  Jesus gave His life for us, so He could give His life to us, so He could live His life through us!

Consider this simple, but powerful, illustration of the redemption process:  Let's say that you have a relative who dies of cancer.  Let's also assume that you have the power and ability not only to heal people, but to also raise them up from the dead.  What are the two problems that you would have to deal with to restore your kin to life and good health? Here is the dilemma:  If you attempt to bring your relative back from the dead without healing the cancer, he would just quickly die again. On the other hand, if you heal the cancer but don't restore life to his body, all you have is a cleaned up, healed corpse with no life.  For your efforts to be successful, you would need to first heal the cancer and then restore life to the body (After all, isn't that what Jesus did when He raised up Lazarus?).  In the illustration, the cancer represents sin, the dead relative's corpse represents all of lost mankind and you represent Father God.  The Father sent His Son Jesus to Earth to die on the cross as punishment for the sins of all mankind (regardless of whether they believe it or accept it...check Hebrews 10), thus curing the "cancer"; then He raised Him from the dead so that He might provide life to our spirit when we believe in Him and become "born again" through accepting His Spirit into ours, thus restoring our original relationship with Almighty God.

So you become born again...Then what? Once again, I believe that just as we have so complicated the basic Gospel Message with religions, teachings, Bible studies, sermons, and etc. that we have also complicated and distorted the purpose for becoming born again, which really explains why Christ left His Divinity behind and came to live among us on earth as a mere man. We need to understand that we must become born again in order to understand and partake in the things of God, not the other way around; we will never understand the things of God on our own before we become born again because their is a veil over the hearts of nonbelievers.(2Cor 3:14-16)  You see, becoming born again not only restores our original, eternal, personal relationship with Almighty God in this world, and the World to come, but it also allows the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to live through us to bring the message of reconciliation to all mankind before this world comes to an end. Jesus demonstrated for us how that works when He lived here on earth as a man. First, He told us in the Gospels that He said nothing but what the Father told Him to say and He did nothing but what the Father to told Him to do; then He passed the baton to His disciples by telling them, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."(Jn 14:9-12)

How did Jesus know what the Father wanted Him to say and do?  He LISTENED, early and often! That is what the prayer directed life is all about!

Now please don't misunderstand me or place words in my mouth here: I am NOT saying that once we become born again everything becomes easy-peasy and that we will instantly understand all the things of God and how to live and walk in the Christian lifestyle; believe me, the fact that the Bible, assembled over thousands of years, is a pretty thick "owner's manual", instructional book and historical document is not lost on me.  In fact, becoming born again, and thereby receiving  the Holy Spirit in our life, is just the beginning of a life-long process of training and instruction in living the Christian lifestyle and understanding God's specific purpose for life on this earth.  After all, it took Jesus 30 years before He "returned to Galilee (from the dessert) filled with the Spirit..."(Luke 4) to begin His life's ministry.  But the fact is, the ability to receive revelation knowledge and understand the things of God is impossible without becoming a child of God by having a born again relationship with Jesus Christ; we do that by simply having faith and believing what He has said about Himself. The old adage that says, "Every journey begins with a single step," certainly applies here.  That act is a simple "yes" or "no"... And THAT's the uncomplicated truth!