The Gospel: Is it Good News for you?

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. ~ John 3:16 NIV

The Gospel is so easily taken for granted; the Good News are universal, but you need to understand the Gospel as it applies to you as an individual. This often-quoted verse in the Scriptures captures the essence of the greatest love story ever told—the love God has for you and all of humanity.

Agape, in the New Testament, is the fatherly love of God for humans, as well as the human reciprocal love for God. In Scripture, transcendent agape love is the highest form of love, as it embraces a profound sacrificial love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance. God’s sacrificial love provided atonement for our fallen state in the provision of His one and only Son as the redemptive offering for all humanity. What we tend to miss is that although this Gift is for all humanity, God offers the sacrificial Gift of His Son directly to you. The Almighty God thought solely of you as part of the collective of humanity when giving His Son.

Now, practically, how should we receive the Good News and apply it to our unique existence? The answer is in believing in Him, the Son whom He sent as an atoning sacrifice. Belief, as some do not understand, is an action. The act of believing is an individual action, and the onus is on you to seek out what you believe or not. No other person or entity can make you believe—but you. True belief stems from a deeply ingrained desire to seek out the Truth for yourself.

If you believe that Jesus is not the Son of God (God incarnated), have you earnestly sought out for yourself, and by yourself, to test and prove your own beliefs? To determine if He is untrustworthy and should be believed (or believed in), test what Jesus said versus what He did and has also done in your own life.

Doubt typically stems from associating something with a lie or questioning its veracity because you have no perceived experience of it in your own life. You have not tested whether it could be a fact (or not) in your life.

Are you perishing? In the context of Salvation (such as John 3:16), perishing refers to the judgment of God, which is eternal separation from God in conscious suffering. If y=perishing/suffering and x=your proximity to God, i.e., your relationship with Him, there is an inverse relationship between our perishing and our proximity to God (your endeavours and effort to maintain this proximity).

?Our humanity and carnality may be finite, but we are also concurrently living in our infinite state (by our spirits), and this brings us to eternal life because we are also currently living in eternity.

What is eternal life? Eternal life is a life (your life) in which you are inextricably linked to God, His will, and His glory. Eternal life is a life available to you now, filled with His peace. A life filled with understanding stems from obedience to His Word, Jesus, and alignment with His will.

As the Good News applies to my own life (because I have tested and witnessed for myself), I have regularly proved to myself that I should not doubt Him. Jesus is not any man, or just a man, as He is God incarnate, having conquered death and brought Himself back to life. Is this Man alive today? A myth is a widely held but false belief or idea. People tend to be afraid of the truth, but ultimately, the Truth will always prevail. If billions of people, over millennia, believe that He is God, surely He must be, and there is no one like Him in the history of humanity. The Creator of the universe, Jesus, walked amongst us to lead us in His Way, His Truth, and His Life. Jesus and the abundant, everlasting life He provides are available to one and all. Redemption should always be on your mind when you think about Him. ?