The Simple Message of the Gospel of Christ Jesus
I’ve personally studied the holy scriptures for many years so I’m quite familiar with the entire message of the Gospels. I’ve been an active member of several Bible Study Groups that have lasted over 4 decades. My late and great buddy Ron Brown and I formed a group in the early to mid-1980s with professional musicians. That group met for several years fellowshipping and studying the Word of God. Most of us had spent years in the music business laced with sin but God drew us together to study the word.
My good buddy today, Donnie Rosemond, and I formed an eclectic group of black men, to fellowship with each other and study the word of God. That was during the mid to late 1980s and is still ongoing. During the last 40+ years, I studied the Bible with several church groups as well. To say I’m aware of what the Bible says would be a correct statement. However, with that stated I still learn something new each time I study God’s Word. Even when I read the same scriptural passages that I’ve read over many years, the Holy Spirit uncovers new meanings behind the passages depending upon what is going on in the current moments of my daily life.
The Holy Scriptures were written in a certain way that applies to our entire lives. Even though we study the entire bible, both Old and New Testament, I would like to focus this message upon on what Jesus Christ Lord taught us as it is written in the four Gospels of Christ along with the history that led to His birth and life upon the earth. The Messages of God are connected from the book of Genesis through the Book of Revelations. It reveals to us what God wants us to know about Him about how to manage our lives here on earth while away from our true home in the heavenly abode as spiritual beings.
Through the Holy Scriptures, we learn from the past, but God wants us to focus on the here and now. Each day is a brand new day filled with the grace and mercy of a loving Father. Once you accept God’s plan He will guide your steps according to His divine will for mankind. He deals with us according to our capacity to receive Him and according to what He has already seen
Since mankind has not always been able to write or otherwise record everything God communicated for safekeeping, some of the messages were passed down from mouth to ear for generations. This was the case for many of my ancestors, black People from the cradle of civilization. Many did not read or write for thousands of years. Therefore the Bible is not a chronological history book even though it speaks of the beginning when God made the heavens and the earth. It covers how God used a small sect of people to bring forth His Son, Jesus Christ to earth to reveal to mankind the way back to the Father. He was to become the sacrificial lamb to pay for the sins of all mankind making them eligible to return to the Father. This is the simple message of the gospel of Christ but to understand it one must allow the Spirit that is God to penetrate the walls of your heart where God placed Himself in all mankind.
What does all this mean to us who are alive today? What does God want us to know to live our lives according to His plan, the commandments, rules, precepts, and the like?
For us to get a better understanding of it all we need to go back to the beginning so we can connect the dots to where God wants us to go. You need to learn what God wants us to know about it all. Without a study of God’s word, this is impossible to fully grasp using your logic and reasoning. It does not come to us by any other means than the Spirit of God.
God Himself is timeless which means He has no beginning and no ending. Such a concept is impossible to grasp since we are both physical creatures living in a time that is ever spooling forward. Even with that stated we too are spiritual creatures like the ones who were with God in the beginning. We were in God but not yet made manifest until He chose the time and venue of our births on earth.
To start this journey let’s go to the book of John 1: 1-5. John was one of the disciples of Christ Jesus who wrote to us about the very beginning.
The Eternal Word
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
I will explain some of this later, but I wanted to give you a basic understanding of our very beginning.
The History of Creation
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness [a]was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. [b]So the evening and the morning were the first day.
This is just the basic beginning because Moses rolled out each stage of the history of Creation in this first chapter that we can cover later as well once we understand our History of the world, of creation.
Preeminence of Christ
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
This passage lets you know who was with God in the beginning, the Word, who was and is God’s only begotten Son from which all things came into creation. This is essential to understand before we get to the 4 gospels of Christ so we can gather how this all ties in together. I used the New King James Version of the bible for this presentation.
These are the facts and truth according to our Holy Scriptures for those who follow Christ. Many do not follow Christ and may deny what the bible states. They are free to do so and tell their own version of things as to how it all got started and where we are today according to their belief interpretation.
Christ, Jesus was born on earth to an earthly mother with the Holy Spirit of God as His Father. He was not the seed of man but of God through woman so He could be fully God and fully man at the same time. He experienced life as we do and is our advocate in so many ways. His purpose for coming to earth in human form was to show us the way back to the Father, what the Father expects of us, and to erase our sin-debt because of our sinful flesh desires to live in mortal flesh. Could God have made us more robotic and obedient without sin? Yes, there are no restrictions on God except sin and evil but His plan is His way and He is all-knowledgeable and knows what is precisely best for all creation since He is the author of creation including us.
Our thoughts and ways are not like a Holy and perfect God. We fall very far short of perfection, which was exemplified in Jesus Christ, who was without sin even though He lived in mortal flesh temporarily just as we do. He brough us the message directly from the Father and our heavenly Father. He has a unique position in the hierarchy of God. Colossians 1 tells us that He was the firstborn over all creation and has dominion over all things. All things were made for and by Him so you know that He is actually our Gatekeeper bringing us into the world and delivering us out back to the Father should we chose to come back to the Father.
Follow me as well as you can because I am not here to argue facts or truth but only to spread the message that was given to me through the Spirit, the Word, and the Lord who has made this fully known through His word.
With the basic fundamentals in place let us now go to what God wants and expect of us, His beloved creations. He wants us to become Holy as He is but know full well that our flesh is sinful and cannot resist the temptations that come with being in the world. It could be considered a threshing means to separate those who meet the threshold from those who don’t. The Father already knows but gives each soul a chance to declare their own choice by declaration one way or the other. Once you make that fundamental choice He surrounds you with protection from the ravages of sin. The fact that He knows who will and will not come back to Him is not something that we totally grasp because such things are classified as God’s thoughts and ways which are far, far superior to all of mankind. We only know that He does all things for the good of those who love Him and choose to live by His righteous requirements.
Here are His fundamental requirements as written in the Holy Scriptures. This was Jesus’s reply to the Holy Men of His lifetime.
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Jesus also gave us The New Commandment. 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
This makes it very easy for us to follow if we only love each other and show it in how we live and react to each other.
Another fundamental is dealing with the consequences of defying God’s commandments.
The wages of sin is death to the immortal soul but there are options that God has made for us to achieve that which we cannot do by our own power as is written in 1 John 1: 6-10.
6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.“
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
This sums up the simplicity of the gospels. If you can follow what Christ told us the Holy Spirit of God covers you. If you are unwilling to follow God’s instructions you will not enter His kingdom. With these fundamentals in your belly… now would be a time to study the word so your Maker may approve you. Should you require assistance go directly to God, He is your Heavenly Father. To our Father be the glory…Selah!