IT'S ABOUT RELATIONSHIP

There is a lot of information and a lot of various language and words used to communicate the gospel...most of which is really good. But, God put it on our heart to make it simple and clear. We want people to know the simple message of the gospel and its result in our lives. The Simple Gospel is a tool that is anchored in a passaged called "The Great Commandment". 

In The Great Commandment, Jesus sums up the point to our faith, the fruit of the gospel, and the hope of eternity. Our relationship with God is built on love.  The greatest commandment could have been to obey God or serve God.  Both obeying and serving God are important commands but God made the greatest command a relationship command.  Our command is to love God which only comes through a RIGHT RELATIONSHIP. 

Our hope is that each of us will use The Simple Gospel as a spiritual alignment check for our relationship with God. We need to start with the basics and ask one of the most fundamental questions of our faith.

Do you want to go to heaven?

As Christians, we know that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed through Scripture alone and to God’s glory alone. The gospel is wonderfully simple. It involves believing the truth about Jesus, placing our faith in Him, and receiving the gift of salvation. Romans 10:13 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 3:22 reminds us that righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, and John 3:16 tells us that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

The gospel is both humbling and beautiful because it begins with understanding who Jesus is. Jesus is the Son of God, God incarnate. He lived a perfect life as the spotless Lamb who could be sacrificed for our sins. He willingly gave His life on the cross, and through His resurrection He demonstrated victory over sin and death. When we receive this gift of salvation, we are accepting what God freely offers to us. Scripture repeatedly describes salvation as a gift. Romans 5:17 speaks of receiving God’s abundant grace and the gift of righteousness. Galatians 4 tells us that Christ came so that we might receive adoption into God’s family. Hebrews 9 teaches that through His death we receive the promised eternal inheritance.

But let us ask a follow-up question. What exactly are we receiving through the gospel?

We know that gospel means “good news,” but what is the ultimate result of that good news? What is it that Christ died to give us? I believe many Christians lose sight of this. We can become spiritually misaligned and begin to think that salvation is primarily about securing a ticket to heaven. We may begin to believe that the gospel is mainly about changing our eternal address from hell to heaven and gaining access to an eternal paradise filled with everything we’ve ever wanted. Yet that is not the primary message of the gospel.

Jesus did not die on the cross merely to purchase admission into an eternal amusement park. The purpose of the cross is not simply forgiveness so that we can enjoy heaven’s blessings. Those blessings are real, but they are not the central point. The central point of the gospel is relationship.

Throughout Scripture, the overarching theme is not merely salvation from something but restoration to Someone. Jesus summarized this reality when He was asked about the greatest commandment. In Mark 12:28-31, He declared that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves. The word that stands out in Jesus’ answer is “love”. Jesus could have emphasized obedience, service, or even belief. Instead, He emphasized love. The gospel restores us to a love relationship with God and a love relationship with others.

This was not a new idea. Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19. God’s plan from the beginning has always been about relationships. Therefore, the central truth is this: 

Right relationships are the reason for the gospel and the result of our faith.

A right relationship with God and right relationships with one another are both the purpose and fruit of salvation. We like to call this the “Theology of Relationships.” Our faith was always meant to be personal, but it was never meant to be private.

Three Gospel Relationships:

The first gospel relationship we see is that God exists eternally in relationship with Himself through the Trinity. God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God, yet there is only one God. While the Trinity remains a mystery beyond our complete understanding, Scripture clearly reveals the reality of this relationship. We see it in Genesis when God says, “Let us make mankind in our image.” We see it at Jesus’ baptism when the Father speaks, the Son is baptized, and the Spirit descends like a dove. We hear it in Jesus’ prayers to the Father and in the Spirit’s work within believers. Before God ever created humanity, perfect relationship already existed within the Trinity. God is active, unified, and fully satisfied within Himself. The Trinity becomes our perfect model for relationships.

The second gospel relationship is that God created us to be in relationship with Him. This is the primary message of Scripture. In the Garden of Eden, humanity walked with God, talked with God, and enjoyed fellowship with Him. Sin shattered that relationship and brought separation. That separation is what Scripture calls spiritual death. Yet God loved us enough to send Jesus to restore what had been broken. Through Christ, we are invited back into the relationship for which we were originally created. The gospel is not primarily about heaven. Heaven is wonderful because it is where we will experience perfect relationship with God forever.

Randy Alcorn writes that being with God and seeing His face is the central joy of heaven and the source of all other joys. Martin Luther once said, “I would rather be in hell with Christ than in heaven without Him.” Then, Alcorn rightly responds that a place with Christ cannot be hell, only heaven, and a place without Christ cannot be heaven, only hell. The point is clear. The greatest gift of the gospel is not heaven itself—it is God Himself.

This is why Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all that we are. The EFCA’s Evangelical Convictions states that loving God is not only our supreme duty but also our highest privilege and deepest joy. Through union with Christ, we begin to participate in the loving relationship that exists within the Trinity itself.

The third gospel relationship is that God created us to be in relationship with one another. This may be the most difficult gospel relationship for us to live out. When we trust Christ, we are adopted into God’s family. We become brothers and sisters under one Father. We become members of one body under one Head, Jesus Christ. We become living stones built together into God’s temple and citizens of one heavenly kingdom.

Yet many Christians have adopted a “me and God” approach to faith. While faith is deeply personal, it was never intended to be private. This highly individualistic view of Christianity reflects Western culture more than biblical Christianity. Just as sin broke our relationship with God, it also damaged our relationships with one another. The gospel restores both.

Throughout the New Testament, believers are continually called to love one another, serve one another, encourage one another, forgive one another, and build one another up. Jesus lived in community. He discipled a group. He sent His followers out in pairs. The early church shared life together daily. Acts 2 describes believers gathering, eating, worshiping, and caring for one another with glad and sincere hearts.

Jesus made this expectation unmistakably clear when He said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” This command becomes new because Jesus defines the standard of love. We are not merely called to love; we are called to love as Christ loved us—fully, sacrificially, and intentionally. Jesus even says that our love for one another serves as evidence that we truly belong to Him.

Christian community is messy because it consists of imperfect people. Colossians 3 tells us to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. It tells us to bear with one another and forgive one another. One translation says we should make allowances for one another’s faults. Every one of us has faults. Healthy Christian relationships happen when we acknowledge that reality and extend grace to one another.

Jesus ultimately reduces the complexity of relationships to a simple principle: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.” The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 12 that though we are many, we form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

So let’s end where we started…with a simple question.

What step into relationship do you need to take today?

• Perhaps you need to begin a relationship with God by receiving the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. 

• Perhaps you need to step more fully into Christian community. 

• Perhaps you need to reconcile a broken relationship or seek forgiveness where damage has been done.

Whatever that step may be, don’t ignore the alignment issue. Realign your life with God’s design for relationships.

A RIGHT RELATIONSHIP with God 

and right relationships with each other

are the reason for the gospel 

and the result of our faith.