Eternal RealitiesSample

Get Back to the Basics

God doesn’t want you to doubt your salvation. He doesn’t want you to worry about it. He doesn’t want you to fear being without it. He doesn’t want you to wonder whether you’ll be in Heaven with him.

God wants you to settle the issue. To do that, you’ve got to get back to the basics. All great coaches focused on the basics. They never assumed anyone knew the basics. John Wooden always started training camp by teaching his players the correct way to put on their socks! Vince Lombardi started his training camps by famously telling his players, “This is a football.”

The basics matter. If we were going to get back to the basics about Jesus, we’d go back to John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (KJV).

You could summarize the entire Bible in that one verse. It’s the Good News in a verse.

In fact, the very structure of the verse points to the Gospel. The verse is 25 words long. The middle word, the 13th word, is the word “Son.” That’s Jesus. The first 12 words are all about God — ”God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten.” The last 12 words are all about you and me — “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That is a picture of the Gospel. The Bible says that God’s on one side, mankind is on the other, and Jesus Christ came to Earth to bring them together. He’s the bridge over troubled waters. He’s the mediator between God and man. Jesus came to bring God and us together.

That’s the basics of the Gospel. That’s the most important message in the history of the world. God sent his Son to Earth to bridge the gap between you and him.

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