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THE GOSPEL MESSAGE

God gave us the gospel message of love and grace in His Word, the Holy Bible.  The Bible says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

God wants a relationship with us that is real.  He wants to protect us, lead us, comfort us, and give us life.  He can be our Shepherd.  But God is a holy God.  He is infinitely powerful, perfect, and righteous.  There is an awareness of God in all people, which C.S. Lewis described as a "numenous awe."  We are sinners.  The Bible says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).  Sin is in our very nature.  We are totally depraved, which does not mean that we are as bad as we could be, but that we are sinful in our nature in every way.  We can never be good enough to go to heaven.  But there is hope.  Thankfully, God had a plan before time began to elect and call those who would receive Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1).  We also read, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).  Our responsibility is to repent from sin and put our faith and trust in Christ alone for salvation.  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me" (John 14:6).  There is no other way to know God the way we should except through Jesus.  Only those who have been saved by the salvation work of Christ on the cross are truly His.  It is His sacrifice alone that atoned for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21).  God loves all people, but only if we respond to His love by repentance and faith can we be saved.  We are called to accept Christ and cherish our salvation.

If you want to know how to have hope in life, you can have hope in God!  Then you can share that message of hope with others.  As Billy Graham has often said, "You cannot come to God on your own, but His Spirit will help you, if you ask Him."  God does a special work of His Spirit to draw His own to Himself.  You become a Christian by accepting God's grace, repenting of your sins, and placing your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone.  The message is freely offered to all.  Accepting Christ by faith is the beginning of your new journey with the Lord.  This is how you begin your personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Once you are saved, you can rest assured that God will keep you.  Remember three promises here.  First, there is the promise of bearing fruit.  Jesus taught that those who truly believe Him will obey Him.  He said "You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16), and "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love" (John 15:10).  So there will be evidence if you have truly believed.  Second, there is the promise of perseverance.  The Bible says, "No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hands" (John 10:29).  As evangelicals, and as Baptists, we understand the Bible to teach that true believers will never be lost.  This is called eternal security, or perseverance of the saints.  The Abstract of Principles (1858) put it this way, "Those whom God hath accepted in the Beloved, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere to the end; and though they may fall through neglect and temptation, into sin, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the Church, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be renewed again unto repentance, and be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."  God wants us to grow in our walk with Him.  It is a journey of faith and obedience that we should act more like Christians.  And third, if you become a Christian, you can be assured of eternal life in heaven with God when you die.  Jesus' promise of eternal life was a powerful and loving promise to all who would follow Him.  God loves you and so do we.  We hope you will begin this journey of faith in Christ.  If you do, you will find the hope that only comes from God.