The Gospel Message...Receive It

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NIV)

³ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures

 

The  Gospel Message, the message of God's grace and love through Jesus, is a message that must be received, not just heard.  The Holy Spirit breathes the Truth into our hearts and it becomes our strength and sustenance of life. We cannot proclaim the Kingdom of God, the Gospel Message, unless we have received it.  As a friend told me last week, it would be like sharing a drink of water from an empty glass.

 

Jesus calls us to be His witnesses, sent into the world to proclaim the message of His Grace,  and we cannot do that if it has not taken root in us.  God doesn't want us to just parrot the words, but to live the message of Grace.  When we have received Christ as our Lord & Savior, we have received His Spirit, which lives within us to share the Truth in our own lives and as evidence for others. 

 

Bill Bright introduced The Four Spiritual Laws in 1952.  These laws reveal the laws, or truths, that govern man's relationship with God.  These are truths that we must embrace as we live in relationship with God and the truths for others to acknowledge as they seek His love and receive the gift of salvation.

1. God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
2. Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.
3. Jesus Christ is God's only provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.
4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord: then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.

The Holy Spirit delivers these truths to us individually so that we can be "children of God" (Romans 8:14) and they are our talking points as we witness to others.