Helensvale Baptist Church

The gospel that brings life in the Lord Jesus

At HBC we believe that our Creator God is the source of life and has made that life available to those who accept His way and truth. As the Lord Jesus says, “I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). The Bible tells the story of why we yearn for the life the Lord Jesus promises to give, how it has been made available to us, and how to receive it. This has been called “the gospel” – the story of this good news!

The gospel as the way to receive life

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. After creating animals and plants God created humanity to rule the earth under him. The world was perfect and with order and humanity had a good relationship with God.

Humanity however disobeyed God’s commands and tried to rule the earth without him. For this rebellion God punished humanity and said humanity would not live forever. This disobedience and rebellion is called sin.

Since this time we humans have tried to run our lives our own way without God. This is seen by either rejecting God actively or rejecting Him passively by pretending He doesn’t exist. Our relationship with God is still broken no matter which option we’ve followed.

Despite this rejection and broken relationship, God still loves His creatures. But the problem of our sin and its consequences (being judged by God and living forever outside his presence and all that is good) remained a barrier. For God to have relationship with us, our sin had to be dealt with. Because God is a just God, our rebellion could not be ignored, it had to be paid for.

God so loved the world that He sent His son Jesus to pay for that sin. Jesus, who obeyed God completely and did not deserve to die, paid for our sin by taking our punishment and dying on the cross. This is good news, but even better news is that Jesus did not stay dead. Jesus was raised to life after three days! And His resurrection declared that Jesus’ death was all that was needed to pay the punishment for our rebellion and declared that He is and Lord of all.

Those who accept the Lord Jesus as God’s Son and believe that He died and was raised to life for the forgiveness of their sin will also receive that resurrection from death to life. They receive the gift of the Holy Spirit including His strength, gifts and perseverance to keep following the Lord Jesus forever, even as they fall short at times now.

But whoever rejects the Lord Jesus does not have their sins paid for and continues to have a broken relationship with God. This means when they meet our Creator God on that final day, His judgment of their rebellion and sin will rest on their own shoulders and they will pay the price. They will be sent from God’s presence and all that is good forever. This is called Hell.

 

The gospel as the way to live the life we receive

This gospel message of eternal life available now because our rebellion against our Maker has been forgiven, also lies behind the way we live the life we receive.

Those who believe in the Lord Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, live the new life He gives us by the Holy Spirit. It is not something to “live up to” like a law or duty. We are not to be motivated by a set of external laws, expectations or obligations. We are to be motivated by a growing love for the gracious, humble, merciful and perfect Lord Jesus we follow. Our new life comes from the life of the Lord Jesus within us, and is lived out in our lives as we follow Him as guided by the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

As we live by the Spirit, we can find that our priorities, plans and desires, begin to conform to those of the Lord Jesus. God is at work in us as we work out our salvation in our lives. We live by faith in the Lord Jesus who loved us and gave himself for us on the Cross.
God is faithful and promises that He will complete the work He has begun in us. On the day we meet the Lord Jesus face to face, He will welcome us fully into His presence as his friend, brother, and servant.

This means the new life we receive by believing in the Lord Jesus, and the strength to live that new life are gifts of the gospel of God’s grace.

 

 

Bible passages that are relevant to this above outline are as follows:

The gospel as the way to receive life ... Genesis 1:1, 28, 31, Genesis 3:1-19, 23, Romans 6:23, Romans 3:10-12, 21-25, John 3:16, John 3:36, 1 Peter 3:18, Acts 10:40, Romans 1:1-4, Acts 2:38- 40, 1 Peter 1:3, Revelation 20:11-15.

The gospel as the way to live the life we receive ... Ephesians 5:18, Romans 8:1-4, Galatians 3:1-5, Colossians 2:1-7, Galatians 2:20-21, Galatians 5:16-18, Philippians 2:12-13, Philippians 1:6, Matthew 25:34.