Good News for You

Imagine what it would have been like to meet Jesus face to face when He walked on the earth. Imagine looking at His face, seeing His eyes. Imagine hearing Him speak and recognizing the timbre of His voice—the cadence of the words and the up and down pitch of His speech. Imagine feeling His hand slip into yours as He helps you into a boat or looking at His feet as they gather dust walking along the roads in Galilee. What would that have been like for those who had that opportunity? No doubt, those who knew Jesus during His earthly ministry were blessed. However, Jesus said: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). This is a simple definition of what it means to be saved. The Bible says that those who believe in Jesus will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:15-16). The subject of this lesson is: what does it mean to be saved?

The Christian life is all about Jesus. He is the center, the crux of everything. There is no Christianity without Jesus. There is no life without Him. The apostle John wrote: “In Him was life, and His life was the light of men” (John 1:4). All of the religions of the world are an attempt by man to get to God. Idols and avatars, false priests and temples, so-called “sacred writings,” and even mystical rocks and ancient stones—all of these are man’s attempt to find God. However, there is no way to God without Jesus. He is the mediator, the bridge between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5). If you have confessed Him as Lord and Savior, then you have taken the first step in following Jesus Christ. The focus of this lesson is on the person and work of Jesus.

A Christian disciple is someone who follows Jesus Christ. For anyone, this is the highest and most noble pursuit in life. It is a commitment to forego whatever blessings this life affords in order to gain the blessings of the next life. A disciple is a simply a follower of Jesus. A good definition of a discipleship is a disciple who demonstrates that he follows Jesus as he “identifies himself with Christ in all things, conforms his behavior and attitudes to reflect Christ for the purpose of living out His commission.” The key concepts are (1) identity, (2) conformity, and (3) activity. These are progressive to the extent that as someone identifies with Jesus, the more he will conform his behavior to reflect this connection. Further, the greater extent someone conforms his behavior with Jesus, the more he will actively do the will of God. This lesson is an overview of the whole concept of Christian discipleship.

Jesus promised His disciples that after He left them that He would provide them a Comforter (parakleton—meaning “one who comes alongside) who would abide with them forever (John 14:16). This Comforter is the Holy Spirit. His ministry to us is crucial to our living the Christian life. In fact, without the indwelling Holy Spirit, there is no spiritual life at all. It is entirely dependent upon Him. This lesson focuses on the importance of our new life in the Spirit.

While in prison on account of his gospel ministry, the apostle Paul encouraged Timothy to “bring…the books, especially the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13). While it is impossible to know exactly which writings Paul was referring to, the general assessment is that he was asking Timothy to bring him a Bible. Of course, it was not the Bible in its present form. In Paul’s day, there was no codified New Testament and the Old Testament was contained in separate scrolls. Paul’s request could have been referring to portions of the Old Testament, but his request for parchments leads many to conclude that he was asking for some of his own writing. This might be an early statement on the canonicity of Paul’s own letters. Even Paul needed the Bible. The truth is, every Christian needs God’s Word. It is the guidebook for Christian living.

The Bible compares the Christian life to a “walk.” Walking is a basic means of transportation. Until recently in world history, most people walked everywhere they went. Cars were not available until the 20th century. Horses were available before that, and people have ridden horses for centuries, but horses require care and often that care was too expensive or too time-consuming. Most people, for lack of better means, walked. Because of this, the Bible uses the familiar idea of walking as a synonym for living the Christian life.

There are popular Christian books touting the possibility of living “the victorious Christian life,” promising “the very best” that life can offer. While God does bless His people with great blessing (Psalm 103:2-5), the Christian life is also a struggle against sin. There is a false impression that salvation will automatically bring a victorious life to believers. That is not true. Every Christian, regardless of age or spiritual maturity, struggles against sin. One of the most interesting passages in the New Testament is where the apostle Paul confesses about his personal struggle against sin. He admits that he does not do the things he wants to do (sins of omission), and even worse, he often does the things he does not want to do (sins of commission) (Romans 7:15). “For the good that I would do, I don’t do, but the evil that I would not do, that I do” (Romans 7:19). You should know by now, if you are a Christian, that you are also struggling against sin. Your flesh (along with the world and Satan) pushes and pulls you to do wrong. It is a struggle, often very difficult and sometimes painful, to fight back.

Even though we have put off the old man and have put on the new man (Colossians 3:9-10), you still struggle with sin. One of the most well-known passages in the Bible on sin is David’s adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). When Bathsheba became pregnant, David conspired with the commanding general of his army to have Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, killed in battle. He could have thought that his sin was effectively concealed and that nobody knows what really happened. But he forgot about the God who watches everything. “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). It is impossible to do anything that God does not know. Nothing can be hidden from him. Moreover, God through Moses said, “If you sinned…, sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23). While David believed his sin was concealed, that no one knew, God informed His prophet Nathan all about it (2 Samuel 12:1). Nathan confronted David concerning his sin and David repented. He said, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13).

Every person is born with an internal mechanism which helps him understand the difference between right and wrong. The Bible teaches that God writes His own law on the hearts of people so that their own thoughts either accuse them of their actions or provide excuses for them (Romans 2:15). Thus, a teenage boy might “sweat it out” when being questioned about the broken window because he knows that it was his ball that broke it, while an apparently guilty man can stand before a court and testify to his innocence without any shame because he knows he did not commit the crime. This is man’s “moral compass” which the Bible calls a conscience. The word conscience (syneidesis) means to “see together” or “perceive along with.” It refers to the inner conversation one has with oneself. Because every person is created in God’s image, everyone is born with this internal knowledge of God’s moral law. Unfortunately, this moral compass can be damaged or turned off, even in some respect in the heart of a believer. Thus, the Bible teaches that it is imperative that people guard their conscience carefully.

God created all things for His own glory (Revelation 4:11). It simply means that we are created to worship God. When we fail to worship God, we fail to operate as intended by our Creator. Everything in life has to be evaluated by that standard. Life without worship is meaningless. Worship encompasses more than the religious ceremonies of a church. Worshipping God involves more than the music we sing, the prayers we pray, and the sermons we hear. Furthermore, it is a little trite to think that worship can be evaluated by some external, cultural standard as if God can only be worshipped while standing or sitting in a particular position, wearing a particular style of clothing, or repeating a prescribed set of words. Worship is practical, but it is not perfunctory. It is also too simplistic to think of worship as only being “authentic” or “real” if it is unrehearsed; if it is “raw.” God is not often honored by the unfiltered, thoughtless eruptions of our heart. If our mind is stayed on God through His Word, and the Spirit is filling us by our yielding dependence and obedience to Him, then unplanned speech can be very worshipful. If our mind is not truly focused on Him, then those eruptions are not worship, even if they take a permitted form of worship within a Christian community.

This hope is the final fulfillment of our salvation in Christ. One of the things that many Christians often misunderstand is that biblical salvation can be understood in two ways, present and future. When a person is saved, on one hand, he is saved in the present. On the other hand, he still awaits a future salvation. At the moment one repents of sin and trusts in the gospel, he becomes a child of God (the present aspect of salvation) and looks forward to eternity with Him (the future aspect of salvation).

The command of Jesus to the disciples (and to us by extension) is that we must share the gospel with unbelievers with whom we live (our own sphere of influence). We are to be witnesses for the gospel. God has given us the ability to do that through the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8a). This is sometimes referred to as evangelizing “our Jerusalem” (Acts 1:8b). What this verse means is that God has given us everything we need in order to fully evangelize our community. The difficulty comes in obeying this command.