The Gospel Message

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him – John 3:36

None of us like to think about death. In fact, many of us engage in a life-long effort to drown out, escape, or otherwise ignore the obvious: death is all around us, and we ourselves are getting closer to death every day.

Our natural inclination is to find creative ways to save ourselves from this inevitable end. We may exercise religiously, diet regularly, dress fashionably…but, while these things may temporarily make us feel better about our situation, they do not even begin to solve the actual problem. Our grandest schemes to “save” ourselves perpetually end up in ruins around our feet.

The Bible tells us that as long as we are seeking to save ourselves, we will never even see what real life is all about. And as long as we postpone submission to Christ and his claims upon our lives, the only assurance we have is that God’s wrath is continually on us.

The call of the gospel, then, is to give up our fool-hardy pursuit of self-salvation and look to Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And those who believe on the Son, we are promised, have everlasting life. Think of it! Not just escaping hell, not merely overcoming death, not only enjoying life here and now — but the everlasting bliss of perfect worship in the presence of our perfect Savior Jesus.