In my reading the other day, I came across a concept by a theologian who was trying to reach a minority group in his country. He lamented that the problem wasn’t with the gospel, the people he was trying to reach had heard the gospel over and over. The problem was that they had so rarely seen anyone truly live out the gospel.
The gospel of Jesus is fairly easy to share. God, the creator of the universe and humanity is good, and desires a personal relationship with all people. To achieve this goal, he sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross so that our sins may be forgiven. This is a gift given out of the love God has for us.
That’s it. No extra hoops to jump through, we just need to accept what is freely available to us. This is where we all start. As we realize all that we have been forgiven, we can start to live out the gospel as a blessing to other people.
Paul says it this way in Philippians 1:27-28, “27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.”
This isn’t a call to legalism; you can’t check things off a list and achieve a perfect life. Living out our call means we live in submission to the greater story. Doing what you’ve been told is the beginning of submission but to truly submit, we sometimes need to have a change of heart.
If we have been changed by the gospel, other people should be able to see that we are different from those around us. They should be able to see us living out the gospel of love and forgiveness.