Archive for the 'Bible Studies for Life' Category
The Gospel is a Gift, Not a Reward
Have you ever bought yourself a gift? Perhaps before a birthday you saw something on sale and bought it. When you brought it home, a spouse or parent asked, “Where did you get that?” “I bought myself a present.”
Every time any one of us has bought ourselves a gift, we have really skirted the process. Gifts are not awarded to one’s self. Gifts are given from one person to another. Anything we purchase for ourselves is a possession gained by our earned income and decision making. A gift is freely given and received.
Ben Mandrell calls salvation “the gift you can’t give yourself.”*
It should come as no surprise that people try to give themselves salvation. In some ways, it appears as people trying to earn heaven by their good works. In other ways, people try to reason or bargain with God for a “ticket into the pearly gates.”
The Bible does indeed call salvation a gift; a gift of God, to be exact. In Romans 6:23 Paul writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Salvation is a gift that cannot be earned, much less be awarded to one’s self. The idea that heaven is a reward for our effort is not found in the pages of Scripture. It is, as Proverbs tells us, a way that seems right, but in the end leads to death.
The gift of salvation is not earned; it is received.
Jesus called on His listeners to “repent and believe the good news [gospel].” Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change in lordship. We recognize our separation from God, turn from our sin, and accept Christ as Lord. We believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. The gift of salvation is not earned; it is received.
The Book of Ephesians teaches us salvation is a gift received by faith, so that no one will be able to boast is his or her own accomplishments (2:8, 9). The focus of heaven will be the risen Lamb, Jesus Christ. We will not take turns recounting how we all made it to heaven on our own. No one will stand before God and say, “I gifted myself with salvation.”
The entire process of salvation is extended by giving. God the Father gave Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. God, in His grace, extends salvation as a gift. Those who receive this gift give of themselves to tell others of the grace of God in salvation. God’s offer of salvation is received by still others, and on it goes.
As I have written these few months now about Bible Studies for Life, it is important to note the ways God connects those who are unconnected. Small-group communities grow as friends invite others inside the body to participate. Connections are made and community is built. But, as the good news is woven into the story of our lives, people outside the body are drawn to repentance and faith. Men, women, boys and girls receive God’s free gift of salvation. God is glorified and the church is built up.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
*- Bible Studies for Life, Do Over: Experience New Life in Christ
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Good News We All Need
Do you ever get tired of bad news? The mantra “If it bleeds, it leads” spills over into our surrounding culture and we find ourselves neck deep in murder, war, greed, malice and unfaithfulness. At times, it seems no good news is to be found.
It may seem we live in times worse than any that have come before. This, most likely, is not the case.
God’s original creation was perfect in every way. After six days and an evaluation of “very good,” He rested. Adam had all he could want except a wife, a predicament God soon remedied. All they could eat, all they could drink, perfect harmony with each other and their surroundings, and daily fellowship with God.
That was good news.
Until they fell to temptation, bringing a curse upon all that God had made.
Since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, humanity has been dealing with the effects of sin. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has escaped sin’s reach. Humanity is tainted, animal life is tainted, and plant life is tainted. From atoms to universes, God created it all. From atoms to universes, sin has affected it all.
This is bad news.
Ben Mandrell, writing in Do Over: New Life in Christ, said it this way:
The bottom line: humanity has no hope from within. This is a problem you and I cannot solve. Someone must break into this jail and show us the way out. Paul has backed us into a cold cell, the bars coldly locked into place. He has our attention. No one is righteous—not even you. Thankfully, there is a solution.
In other words, the bad news is not the final news. There is good news.
From the earliest of Jesus’ ministry He used this phrase to describe what people needed to believe in order to be reconciled to God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news!” (Mark 1:15). The core of Jesus’ ministry is described by it: “Then Jesus went to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness” (Matthew 9:35). In remembrance of Jesus’ ministry and message the apostle Paul wrote, “Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel [“good news”] I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it” (1 Corinthians 15:1).
There is good news, but what is it, exactly?
Paul continues, “For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4).
Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection constitute the core of the gospel message—the good news. Our response to the good news is belief, as Jesus stated. Paul echoes, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
Christ’s offer of salvation is the foundation for regaining everything lost in Adam and Eve’s fall. Helping men, women, boys and girls realize this, helping them hear and understand Christ’s offer of salvation, is the goal of Bible Studies for Life.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.