The Gospel

 

God’s story

The Gospel is God’s story. “Gospel” is an Old English word that means Good News. God’s story is good news.

For starters, we have to establish that there are two realities: people and God.

Between people and God is a great chasm – a division that exists because of people’s inclination to prefer their ways to God’s ways. The Bible calls this chasm “sin.”

The dilemma we face is that whenever we want to get to God we can’t just leap over the chasm. It’s too big.

This is why people often say that God seems far away.

 

Bridges

So people try to build bridges. They try to be as good as they can be, donating money to charity, giving up chocolate, visiting an elderly neighbour or lighting a candle in a church. There’s nothing wrong with those things, in fact there is much value in them. But they just can’t get anyone to God. The chasm is too wide.

All the effort in the world is not enough to build a bridge that gets us to the other side and all our efforts fail to bridge the chasm that exists between us and God.

The Solution

But thankfully, God saw our dilemma and he did something about it.

Because he loves us so much, he provided a way of getting close to him. His solution was to send his Son, Jesus, to be the bridge.

Christ came to earth to be our bridge, and whoever makes the decision to cross the bridge will live with God forever.

When anyone makes a decision to leave behind their old values in life and turn to Christ in faith things begin to change.

People who make this step often talk about ‘feeling brand new’, ‘discovering meaning in life’, ‘finding what they have always wanted’ or ‘coming home’.

In the Bible Jesus puts it this way: ‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life’ (John 5:24).

 

What’s next?

Are you trying to bridge the chasm by your own efforts? You don’t have to.

God loves you. If you had been the only person on earth who needed it, Jesus would still have gone to the cross and died for you.

In a simple prayer of faith you can say sorry about your sins to God and commit your life to Jesus Christ. You cannot change the past, but you can change the future.

If you want to know more about the Gospel or ask a question we’d love to hear from you.