The Gospel -- not just good news, GREAT news!

The GREAT Exchange! -- The GREAT exchange is the truth that Jesus Christ, in fulfillment of the law and prophets (Luke 24:27), stepped off of his throne and wrapped himself in flesh, living out the perfect life that we were supposed to live and enduring the sacrificial death that we had earned from our sinful lives! (1 Corinthians 15:3) Righteousness (Divine Standing) is obtainable through a perfect lifelong keeping of the Law (Divine Standard) however as the scripture makes clear this is impossible (Romans 3:23) this comes as no shock to our Heavenly Father of course, as he sent his son while we were still sinners to take the place of those who would simply believe in him and his finished work on the cross! (Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:21) This act of ultimate grace both out of love for his creation (John 3:16) and because there was no "work" we could ever do to attain righteousness on our own! (Ephesians 2:8-9) demands response from we believers! The Great Commission -- Thankfully Jesus made it clear that he was going to use his people to further the gospel message of the great exchange and thus build his church beginning with the disciples in the book of the Acts of the Apostles! The church may be established but our work is far from over! We encounter lost people on an increasingly regular basis, leading licentious lives void of God and we, who believe the bible must step in! Before the ascension, Jesus told his people to go and make disciples of all nations! (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15) This has become known as the Great Commission! The Great Commission is the COMMAND that God gave his people to go and proclaim the good news of what Jesus has done in his defeat of sin and the wages we'd earned for our transgression! (Romans 6:23) (Not) The Great Suggestion -- This COMMAND from Christ was certainly not a suggestion and it doesn't only apply to some believers! This commission applies to all; however, understand this: I am not advocating that every single person needs to start street preaching right now, rebuking and correcting every single person you come in contact with. What I am suggesting though is we should pray for opportunities to evangelize! And pray for people in our sphere that we know are lost, even if that ultimately means we are going to be the vessel God uses to get his gospel message out despite our fear and anxieties about it! We also need to understand that God has made us all with a specific gift (stewardship) in which we are able use to proclaim the gospel with our whole lives in order to make known fully the mystery of Christ in us!! (Colossians 1:25-27) you see we should look different than the world as believers; however, we should not only embrace but also pursue opportunities to pour into unbelievers with good works and intentionality in order to help them understand the mystery that they should clearly see in us! And this is not like it is some radical thinking because Ephesians 2:10 says that God pre-planned for his children to carry out good works! We need to begin to understand that God is not a character in our story but rather we are character's in his great story! And therefore, any step out in faith is really not radical thinking but instead just making ourselves available to see what our soveriegn God will use us to do next! The Great Omission -- the definition of omission is a failure to do something, especially something that one has a moral or legal obligation to do. Our obligation transcends mere human constructs like legality. It is instead one of divine purpose! Divinely instructed by Christ himself!! James 4:17 "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." Because you have read this entire blog post you now what you must do! Pray about areas where you can share the message of Christ! Pray asking God to show you individuals you can pour into and show His love! Most importantly remember! John 9:4 Jesus said! "We must work while it is day because the night is soon coming!!" Our GREAT and mighty king is soon returning and although I long for that day, I want to be able to say like Paul did "I have fought the good fight, I have run the race" and if i have to go on what sad excuse of a record I have so far those words will not be able to come from my lips without me bearing false witness!! Let us come together and find the strength to tell others the GREAT news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ understanding that there will be no evangelism in Heaven because everyone's already saved therefore our work has to be here. Now.