REPENT & BELIEVE
Over the past several months we have looked at the first two circles of the 3 Circles evangelism tool for sharing the gospel message with others: God’s Design and Brokenness.
See the chart below for a review:
| God’s Design | Brokenness |
|---|---|
| God created out of love | Sin entered the world when Adam/Eve disobeyed God |
| God created us in his own image | “For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23 |
| God created us for a direct relationship with him | Sin separates us from God |
This week I was reminded of the Gospel message as I watched the pure white snow cover the landscape around me. This verse from Isaiah shows God’s loving and gracious offer of forgiveness and restoration to the nation of Israel, even after they had forsaken him time and again.
This offer of forgiveness was eventually fulfilled through God’s son, Jesus Christ, who was fully human and fully divine and sent to dwell with us on earth. He lived a sinless life and died on the cross as atonement for our sins and the sins of the world. He defeated sin’s curse of death and rose from the dead three days later. This offer still stands if you repent and believe in Jesus. When we acknowledge that we have fallen short of God’s commands and repent of our sins, we can look to Jesus to heal our brokenness.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
When we believe through faith, the Gospel message – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we will receive his Holy Spirit. We will be able to rely on the Holy Spirit to direct our steps as we chose to follow Jesus. Our hearts will change, our perspective will change, and our souls will be saved.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Next time we will discuss what it means to act out our faith in the midst of living in a fallen world as we Recover and Pursue back to God’s Design.
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