The Gospel

The heart of the Protestant Reformation is that God declares you to be righteous by faith alone, in Christ alone. If you don’t believe this, then you do not have the true good news. This doctrine is often called “justification by faith.” It’s a churchy phrase that has lost some of its punch—many Christians know it’s “good,” but perhaps they can’t explain what it means. This article will show how the apostle Paul explains this vital truth. It’s a very big deal. Maybe the biggest deal ever.

The problem

We can trace the “Christian” family through three broad streams:

Like a diamond, the gospel glistens with a myriad of facets. The good news of salvation through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) not only saves from hell but also delivers from the power of sin in daily life (Romans 6:1-8:14). What’s more, the gospel is our hope for the future when salvation is complete. When Jesus returns, all who trust in Him alone for salvation become like Him, sinless forever (Romans 8:29-30). The depth and wonder of the gospel takes centuries to explore and fills entire libraries.

The phrase “ask Jesus into your heart” does not occur in Scripture. My recent article makes this point. So, why do we use this phrase? I’ve only just scratched the surface with my research, but here is what I have found so far. Encouraging unbelievers to ask Jesus into their hearts only seems to appear in Christian vocabulary in recent centuries.

One of the marks of a Christian is a desire to share the good news of the life-transforming gospel with others. In the words of the apostles, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). But what if a friend, fellow worker, schoolmate, or family member asks us to desist? Does there come a time when we should refrain from speaking to a person about Jesus and Christianity?