The Gospel. Part 3: What Happens If We Accept Jesus?

The Gospel, Part 3

We have now reached the third of our four talks in our series ‘the gospel.’

Part 1: The problem

Part 2: The solution

Part 3: What changes if we accept Jesus?

Part 4: What happens if we reject Jesus?

[Slide of Adam and Eve]

In part 1 of this series on ‘the gospel’ we first looked at the problem. We went to the opening chapters of Genesis to get an initial understanding of the problem. Adam and Eve knew what God had told them and they knowingly and deliberately did the opposite. They rejected God’s authority and God ejected them from the Garden of Eden. The relationship between God and man broke down. That has been the situation ever since, and THAT is the problem.

[Slide of the cross]

In part 2 we looked at the solution. We went, among other places, to Isaiah 53, which tells us that:

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

We also looked at a couple of verses in 1 John which use the word ‘propitiation.’

Jesus has intervened to fix our broken relationship with God. On the cross he paid our debt, and his action has turned away, or propitiated, God’s anger. But there is also something we have to do. We have to say sorry and mean it. We have to change our ways and give God the respect he is due.

Today we come on to part 3. What changes if we accept Jesus? Next week, in part 4, I’ll look at what happens if we reject Jesus.

So, what does change if we accept Jesus? I went onto the internet and typed that question in. There were lots of answers – people’s testimonies as to what changed for them when they put their faith in Jesus. [I showed these earlier in the service, with a PowerPoint with some fireworks, and someone gave a testimony about what had changed for him. I’ve also included them at the end of this talk.] I paraphrased some of them a bit. There were 26 things in that list. I’m sure that if I’d looked a bit further, I’d have found more. People testify that basically, everything changes! That’s people’s subjective testimony. But it’s also, clearly, what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches that when a person becomes a Christian, two main things happen. Something NEW appears, and something OLD disappears. This is what our verse for today tells us. It’s 2 Corinthians 5:17:

[Slide of text]

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

“He is a new creation” – something new appears. “The old has passed away” – something old disappears.

[Slide: New and old. Birth and death.]

Another way the Bible describes the change is that there’s a birth and there’s a death. These ideas come up frequently in the New Testament.

Jesus, Peter, John and Paul all used the idea of BIRTH to describe what happens when a person becomes a Christian. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one IS BORN AGAIN he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John wote, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ HAS BEEN BORN of God…” Peter wrote, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to BE BORN AGAIN to a living hope.’ Paul discusses Abraham’s two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, and comments that “he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit.” So, Paul believed that Isaac was born of the Holy Spirit! Some people might think it was only in the New Testament that God’s people were born of the Holy Spirit, but we can see from this that it is not so. In the Old Testament too, people who put their faith in God were born of the Spirit.

We need to be born again because until we are born again, we’re spiritually dead. That is also the consistent message of the New Testament.

But what about DYING? Do we also die? Yes, a part of us dies when we become Christians. Jesus, Peter, Paul, John and James all tell us this too. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus was using the analogy of a grain of wheat to talk about himself. HE would need to die! But what about us? Does the same apply to us? Yes, it does! Jesus continued, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Jesus was even clearer when he said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” “Take up his cross and follow me” means, follow me on the road to crucifixion. It doesn’t mean that we are literally going to be crucified, or it’s very unlikely anyway. But we have to put to death what the Bible calls ‘the flesh’, the sinful nature.