What is the Gospel?

Pastor Michael Lerud

The book, Tell It Often, Tell It Well, was written by a man who lived out that message. While I was attending the University of North Dakota, Mark McClosky asked me if I wanted to fill out a ‘religious questionnaire.’

I agreed to do so, and in the course of the conversation in the Student Union that day I was presented with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mark and his fellow Campus Crusade staff person told me how God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life. They supported this idea by pointing to verses like John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life,” and John 10:10 “I came that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly.”

I was somewhat familiar with what they told me, but was significantly confronted by their next statement and Bible verses. They told me that man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life - that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23, and that “the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23.

The truth of those words hit me right between the eyes. I knew that I needed to hear about and acknowledge my sin.

The harsh reality of sin was followed up with the good news of Christ’s provision. I learned that 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. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8 and “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me,’” John 14:6.

What was being shared with me seemed to make sense. But I was also challenged to go beyond head knowledge. I was challenged with the idea that we must individually receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives. “As many as received Him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,” John 1:12 and “By grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of good works, that no one should boast,” Ephesians 2:8-9.

As we sat at the table that day in the cafeteria, I was asked to pray. Mark and Bruce encouraged me to confess my sin and turn my life over to Jesus Christ.

Although I agreed with these witnesses for Christ, I was not ready to make such a commitment.

Over the next several weeks, the Lord brought people into my life who continued to reinforce the message of Christ. Within months, I bowed down on my knees and confessed I was a sinner. I prayed for the Lord to forgive me and I asked Jesus to come into my life.

I believe that God’s grace saved me at that time, as I was born again in the Spirit (John 3:1-8).

Words like the ones in I John 5:11-12 provide assurance of salvation “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life.”

I am thankful that Mark McClosky wrote the book Tell It Often, Tell It Well. But I am thrilled that he lived out the idea and shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with me.

If you are unsure of your salvation, do not wait to make a commitment to Jesus Christ. Now is the time for you to repent of your sinfulness and to invite Jesus to be your Savior.