The crux of my faith ultimately revolves around my personal salvation and union with Christ. Without God’s redeeming acts, I am still a fallen human being without hope for redemption. But, our Christian understanding of soteriology offers hope and freedom through the acts of Jesus Christ on the cross and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because of this, we can celebrate the promise of John 3:16-18: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned Simply, the Gospel provides the opportunity for salvation. The Gospel is the message of the kingdom of God and God’s intervening acts to reconcile and restore creation through our Messiah, God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 1:2-4 notes: God promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. According to the Canons of Dort, God sending God’s Son is a manifestation of love. God’s love is the driving force behind the message of the Gospel. Moreover, the Gospel intertwines with the Older Testament and God’s covenantal narrative to bring heaven to earth. The person of God is always breaking the metaphysical barrier which separates heaven from earth and the person of Jesus Christ is the lived out incarnation of God’s intentions. Additionally, the Gospel reveals the love of God through Jesus’ ministry. As an itinerant story teller, Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, showing the love of God, and a new perspective on Judaism and the Law. Jesus issues a proclamation of God’s intentions to have Jesus be king over the entire cosmos. And because Jesus is king, creation is expected to serve their king through faith and repentance. As Mark 1:15 states, repent and believe for the kingdom of God is at hand. By acknowledging Jesus as king, and therefore having faith in the savior of the world, followers of Christ are deemed saved and restored to God’s kingdom. When a person is declared saved, this person has the righteousness of Christ imputed into him or her and is deemed justified by God. Therefore, the Gospel is ultimately God’s promise to work through the actions of Christ on the cross and by the influence of the Holy Spirit to make God’s creation
The book of Luke, found after the books Matthew and Mark, focuses on the ministry of Jesus Christ but it also gives us a look into His birth and growth in totality. In this chapter we see a historical account of some of the journeys that Christ experienced. It is important to keep in mind that the Bible and all of its books do serve as historical accounts but each book is unique in the fact that they incorporate a theological timeline. The Bible is, conceivably, the most important book that has ever been written. It gives the world eyewitness accounts to historical events that helped not only shaped a region of the world but the whole entire world. It is nearly impossible to go through some formal societal education and have never once read a part of the bible or have heard a story that adapts from the stories within the bible. The bible has helped formed institutions, associations and so much more. By reading the Gospel of Luke we are truly reading what is meant for us to read as Christians. The principal plot in the book of Luke is the life of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, His ability to beat death and remain perfect as the son of GOD despite being human as well. Jesus is seen as the perfect savior for humans in the book of Luke. Luke not only gives multiple examples of the power of Jesus but also it gives us a look at The Lord’s triumph over temptation. Luke also depicts Jesus as a man/GOD who had a very deep concentration on people and relationships. The book of Luke gives Jesus a loving characteristic but doesn’t shy away from showing that at times Jesus got angry too. Jesus showed a great deal of compassion to the sick, those in pain, the poor, and unambiguously the sinful. Jesus had genuine love for everyone. Throughout this...
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis1:1.) God’s perfect wisdom created everything. In Genesis 1 and 2 we can see that God has loving and gentile nature when He created the earth and heavens. God created man in his image and we are the only creation that God breathed in the breath of life for human beings (Genesis 2:7). God did not do this for any of other creations but only for humans. The Bible has many scriptures that tell us how creative God is. Genesis 1;26 states “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created all of this for us to have fellowship with him.
My life is governed by the beliefs of the Christian faith. The teaching of Christianity is the driving force that gives me confidence, hope and self-acceptance through God’s unconditional love. God’s love enables me in faith
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:17
The Gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the Bible, is a radical departure from the simple style of the synoptic gospels. It is the only one that does not use parables as a way of showing how Jesus taught, and is the only account of several events, including the raising of Lazarus and Jesus turning water into wine. While essentially the gospel is written anonymously, many scholars believe that it was written by the apostle John sometime between the years 85 and 95 CE in Ephesus. The basic story is that of a testimonial of one of the Apostles and his version of Jesus' ministry. It begins by telling of the divine origins of the birth of Jesus, then goes on to prove that He is the Son of God because of the miracles he performs and finally describes Jesus' death and resurrection.
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)
The book of Matthew chapter 5 through 7 was known as, “The Sermon on the Mount”. Which were words spoken by Jesus Christ. The purpose of this Sermon was to show representation of the normative foundation of Christian Morality. For instance, this passage was more so fixated on whole hearted benevolence towards others around you and genuine devotion to God.
‘‘For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God’’ (vv. 17, 18).
My family taught me about Jesus at a young age, so I always knew I wanted to have a close relationship with him. Knowing that God is going to have my back no matter what was the best feeling to me. He will never leave a person or turn his back on them. The fact that the Bible guides people is one of the amazing things to me because one scripture can change a person whole life. My discourse community teaches a person about faith, love, and everything a person will ever need in life. Jesus encourages people, and supports people when they fail. Being a Christian motivates me and gives me a meaning of life. Being saved is easy, but the hard part is following his guidelines. He knows people are going to make a lot of mistakes in life, but the fact that he doesn’t judge them is amazing. Accepting Christ means a person has escaped that judgment and therefore they will have external life. Being a part of this discourse community has brought me to a new place in life, and for that I am
In the days of Christ’s life on this earth, believers did not have access to the Bible in its entirety as we know and are familiar with today. Believers in this ancient time period only had access to the Old Testament. However, through their access to the Old Testament, believers were provided a foundation for New Testament times. This foundation provided New Testament believers with the Lord’s established principles of right and wrong they were expected to follow. In addition, the Old Testament is overflowing with accounts of people whose lives exemplified the future life of Christ on this earth. These pictures allowed the Israelite nation to begin to have an understanding of why Christ needed to come as their Messiah and the work He needed to do on earth. Finally, there are common themes that are interwoven throughout the entire Old Testament. Three of these themes: transgression, redemption, and consummation point to the purpose of Christ’s atoning death on the cross. These themes portray God’s work both in the lives of Old Testament believers, but they also foreshadow God’s desire and plan for believers in New Testament times and beyond.
The word gospel occurs 101 times in 95 verses, in the King James Version of the Bible and even though the word gospel originally existed before Jesus and His followers used it; howbeit, they supposedly empowered it with unequaled authority. Perpetually, from Jesus preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, (Matt 4:23), to the Apostle Paul’s establishing the mystery of the gospel; which was kept secret since the world began,” (Rom 16:25), the text overflows with enigmas. This analogy emerges as being prophesied by God’s prophets in the Old Testament (Rom 1:2). Calculatingly, scripture states that “the truth of this gospel occurs hid to them that are lost,” (2 Cor 4:3). Noticeably, there are implication that among this secret mystery, exists various talks concerning “not being ashamed” of something involving this gospel, (Mark 8:38; Rom 1:16, 10:11; 2 Tim 1:8) and although there may be shame, it tells us to boldly talk regarding “this mystery” (Eph
Simply stated, “the word "gospel" means simply good news.” With that definition, then the good news would summarize all of the information found in the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul recaps the most basic components in the gospel message. These are found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, specifically listed in 15:3-4 (NRSV) “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,”. “These verses, which were an early Christian confession, give us the heart of the gospel” and show the importance of three incidents; that Christ died
...hat share my faith and together worship Jesus. I believe that by being in fellowship with other believers I will have a strong opportunity to pursue and fulfill God’s purpose in my life, whether it is a daily or lifetime calling.
Matthew writes his gospel account to give us the view of Jesus as the King:
In chapter 1: Divine Revelation Itself, it is discussed how God wants us to understand and know the love he has for us. Revelation does not only consist of words about God: but it also contains the living experience of God. God shows us how to live as he would want us to not just by telling us but also God reveals himself. When coming to grips with that God is truly like, we come to understand the reasoning for our existence. As we all now he died in order to save us, he also makes us aware of our connection to God. Jesus is known as a message and the messenger of God. Jesus tells us that God promises us that salvation will ultimately lead to eternal closeness. God sent his son so that he could educate us about the inner life of God and