seeing the fruit

This is a sort of follow-up/part 2 of my last blog, “planting seeds”, so if you haven’t read that post yet, go read it and come back to this one!

Like I talked about in “planting seeds”, our team has had the blessed opportunity to present the simple Gospel to different English classes at the school we’re currently serving. This has raised an interesting question in my own life, “how often do I remind myself of the simple Gospel?” Not minimizing the incredible testimony of the Gospel or mutilating the Truth so that it fits certain narratives, but just understanding- in the most straightforward sense- the story of Jesus.

We were once in perfect fellowship with God. We messed up and fell short; we sinned against Him. We were separated from God because since He is perfect, He cannot be around sin. He wanted us to be reconciled with Him because of His deep affection for us. He sent His only Son to die in our place because the price of our sin is death; His Son then conquered death by coming back to life. He gave us the joy and hope of eternal life and spending forever with Him. He made a way for us to be brought back to Himself out of pure self-sacrificial love.

Notice how the story goes from “we” to “He”? If not, read the last paragraph again.

This Truth is the epitome of the Christian life. Accepting, believing, and confessing this Truth is what makes Christians, Christians. But how often do we add our own nuance and jargon to it? How often do we skip over the basics simply out of our selfish need to “cover all the bases”?

Preaching the simple Gospel to our students has also made me realize that we often underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit when sharing the Gospel with unbelievers. There is nothing that we can say (or do) out of our own fleshly pride to push people closer to accepting Jesus. It is by His grace and His grace alone on the cross, and in their hearts, that they come to know Him. Our only responsibility is to share Jesus with them, not to make them know Him.

Understanding this takes so much pressure off of sharing the Gospel. So what if people laugh at us or mock us? So what if they turn us away? They’re not rejecting us, they’re rejecting the gift of eternal life.

With no pressure or weight on us, with no “quota” to fill- allow us to share the SIMPLE Gospel with anyone and everyone!