If you’re struggling with finding joy in your Christian walk or have a low desire to live on mission and share your faith with others, it may be that you have been taught, and are believing, a very small Gospel.
Christianity is not about sin management and the Good News of the gospel is not just about your afterlife. Let me unpack this for you, stick with me, you’ll love this. [Get my latest free training on Gospel Fluency now.]
The Part of the Story We’ve Been Taught Most
Most of us know that in Genesis 3 the first humans–our great, great, great…great grandparents, Adam and Eve–decide that they could manage life and the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong for themselves. They turn their back on their loving creator Dad to try and go it alone.
It’s as if they tell God, “I think we’ve got this, we can handle life on our own. We’re gonna go off and live a life that displays our glory–show the world what we’re all about.” This, in essence is what the Bible refers to as sin. And all sin leads to separation from God and death.
The pinnacle of this gospel story is when God himself send his own son, Jesus, to rescue and restore us to a right relationship with his and our Father. Jesus life, death and resurrection offers forgiveness for our sin and rebellion, forever puts away death and offers us new restored identities based on who he is not on who we were.
Then at the end of the story we read in Revelation 21 and 22 that God himself will one day come back and live with humanity again, and all things will be restored back to the way that he originally created them to be. His glory, his reality, will be on full display forever.
Pretty awesome.
Have You Been Told the Whole Story?
But there is a problem. For decades, perhaps centuries now, the dominant teaching and preaching we’ve been exposed to seemingly leaves off Genesis 1 and 2. These are the parts were a great and glorious God creates all things good–including humans in his own image. And it also omits Revelation 21 and 22.
The story is told from Genesis 3, where humans sin, and ends in Revelation chapter 20 where judgment is coming. And that makes the story of God–the entire Bible–seem to focus on one thing; human sin and an inevitable punishment that awaits.
The Story of God is not about “sin management” and doing the right stuff to please God. This is a very truncated and distorted version of things, and it is man-centered instead of focused on God’s glory and his Good News. [clickToTweet tweet=”The gospel is not, “You suck and you’re gonna pay for it!” #BiggerGospel” quote=”The gospel is not, “You suck and you’re gonna pay for it!””]
The Gospel is not, “You suck and you’re gonna pay for it!”
That does not sound like very good news. No wonder we find it hard to “evangelize” others if this is the story we believe and think we’re supposed to share.
Yikes.
A Bigger Gospel
The better story, the true bigger gospel story is this: You were created in the image of a loving and gracious God, destined for an eternal relationship with him. Though it is true that you have rebelled against God, thinking you could create an identity for yourself, one where you are lord over your own life, God himself came on a rescue mission to restore all people, places and things back to relationship with him (including you), back to the way he originally designed it to be. And there is a day coming when he will once again walk and live and dwell with us in a city that is like a beautiful garden forever and ever.
That is a way better story! A much bigger gospel.
It is out of the full story that we understand why we were created, God’s plans for this world, and our original, and now restored, identity. It is out of this bigger gospel that we find our life and purpose.
We live as a family of missionaries, serving others like we have been served as a way of life. Not because we are supposed to, but because this is who we are.
We get to extend God’s loving rescue mission to the ends of the earth.
[Get my latest free training on Gospel Fluency now.]
If you’ve been believing a gospel that is primarily about getting to heaven and a life of sin management until then, the next best time to start believing a bigger gospel is now. It’ll change your life!
Here’s a question for you: How does believing this better story, this bigger gospel, affect your heart and life today? Leave me your thoughts in the comments or on Facebook. I really want to hear from you, ok? And please share this post or video with someone before you go. Thanks!
