What is the Gospel?

Short Version Answer

One of the shortest, clearest ways of stating the gospel is the sentence this website prints on every page: ''Believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior. He has already done the work to earn your entry into Heaven''.

At least this gives the ''bottom line'' call to action and explains the most fundamental benefits.

The statement is more clear and hopefully un-muddied when the reader wades through the explanations of the words involved.

So if you have read the various pages in this website like ''What Does it Mean To Believe?'' and ''What Does Savior Mean?'', you probably have a pretty good understanding of the gospel of salvation.

Here we hope to ''unpack'' this incredibly wonderful and powerful word ''gospel'' in a robust way.

Long Version Answer

You might read or hear a lot of things about ''the gospel'', and you might even wonder why I have not used the word much in this site. At one time the word communicated well. But today, it is not so.

When used in the church or media, or even in some dictionaries, ''the gospel'' is rarely defined or explained well. I am sure that what I am presenting here is well-thought-out, and in concert with the bible.

I don't usually provide scripture references in this website because stylistically they break up the flow of thought somewhat, especially to someone unfamiliar with studying the bible.

I will use scriptural references later in this section so you can see what the Bible actually says, in light of the many false variations out there. You can look the passages up in your Bible and see the context.

This section might be a little deeper to follow than some of the others on this web site because so much of it is quoting the Bible, rather than talking in usual ways. I hope you can take the time to follow the trail it leads. It is not a fast read.

If you are new to Bible quotes, there is an address you can use to find each one in the book. For example, John 3:16-18 is found in the book of John, chapter 3 verses 16 through 18.

Although this page is intended for anyone to read, the quotes regarding telling people the gospel were obviously intended for believers and disciples of Jesus, but they help everyone understand where I'm coming from.

What the Gospel is Not

Let's start by saying what the gospel is not. The gospel is not an attempt to get you to change your ways, turn over a new leaf, be a better person, think positively, convert to a religion, believe a set of doctrines, join a club, give your money away, stop doing the sins you love, stop being selfish, change your views, improve your morals, forgive the people who wronged you, go to church, watch Christian television, go to the gym, use self-help techniques or be disloyal to your non-believer friends.

That might make a few people breathe a sigh of relief. You don't have to do any of those good works to get into heaven. At the same time, it is perfectly acceptable if you find yourself wanting to do some of these things. There is no list of DOs and DON'Ts. There is just one DO. Have faith in Jesus.

Most of today's cultural uses of ''the gospel'' are somewhat out of touch with the true biblical writings. For example, ''the gospel'' is commonly misused today as a synonym for a truth, or a rule, like ''Officer, I did stop at that red light, and that's the gospel truth''.

Cultural uses are generally way off-target when defining and understanding the true gospel. That is why it is extremely common for people at large to miss the true meaning of the phrase '' the gospel''.

Those who truly study the good news in the Bible will understand better.

The gospel never is, ''don't do this'' or ''don't do that''. It is a message of what people can do, not what they should no longer do if they want to be saved. For example the gospel does not include ''you can't smoke, you can't drink, you can't sin.''

The gospel destroys the negative ''cants'' with one positive ''can't'' and one positive ''can''. The one positive can't is: You can't get to Heaven by trying to do what you are humanly incapable of doing. The one positive ''can'' is you CAN get to heaven by believing the good news - by believing in Jesus. God CAN get you to Heaven. Jesus has done the work for you, and wants you to receive that work as a free gift. No strings attached.

When we change our thought patterns to replace the false meaning of the gospel as a bunch of negative cants, we lift a burden from our minds and feelings. We are set free from the stress and fear of trying to follow a set of rules, good works, or effortful rituals to get to Heaven, never knowing if it is enough.

The positive ''can'' is because of grace: You are saved by God's love and favor which you don't deserve, can't earn, and will never merit on your own steam.

Replace the definition in your mind that says ''Heaven is where good people go when they die.'' Replace the thought that whispers, ''Everybody except the worst sinners will be saved and go to heaven''.

These concepts are warped and slanted definitions based partly on hearsay, but mostly on wishful thinking. They deceive people into missing the real meaning of the good news.

The gospel is not a message that says, ''you're going to hell if you don't _________''. The gospel is not ''Jesus is coming to deliver vengeance on people''. It is not ''God is judging this nation for _______________ ''

St. Francis of Assisi said ''Preach the gospel at all times. And when necessary, use words.'' This was a lovely, clever way to influence believers to reflect the love and compassion of Jesus in their behavior. But words are extremely important as well.

The gospel should be communicated both in actions and with words. Without words, it is too easy to misinterpret the actions.

Tendencies toward apathy and inaction common in our culture influence many people to receive a different meaning. They wrongly hear, "Most of the time, do not preach the gospel, but instead do good works and love people so people can see Jesus in your life." The "instead" part wrongly deprives many people from finding Jesus. Christians should be willing to tell people the good news as God leads us.

Whether by example or by words, the point St. Francis was trying to make was "Preach the gospel at all times". That is the advice I am trying to follow, both in my life and here. In person, Christians need to be sensitive with a non-Christian listener. We should not keep pushing evangelistic words, if the gospel has been gently well communicated, especially if the listener is exhibiting annoyance in their body language. At that moment it is time to pray silently that God would soften their hearts to the message, and go back to preaching the gospel with love and not words. I think perhaps St. Francis would agree.

On another note, those who communicate the good message need to separate the concept of the gospel from its elements, even though some of them are good and valid. The gospel cannot be summed up in one of its parts, benefits, truths, or results.

Even well meaning Bible scholars sometimes innocently interchange these things in defining the good news of Jesus. It may be witty stylistically, but it is better to be accurate and give understandable meaning and clear guidance.

Even well-meaning Bible scholars sometimes innocently interchange these things in defining the good news of Jesus. It may be witty stylistically, but it is better to be accurate and give understandable meaning and instructions.

Similarly, many teachers and preachers like to take something that is not actually the gospel, and throw it into the mix when defining the good news.

Ideas can be related to the gospel, but not be the actual good news. The intentions are often good, but we should keep the ''gospel'' pure and state other good things as something else.

Sometimes we hear a preacher say 'the gospel is______________'. Then we hear a statement we expect to define what the gospel is. If you hear something like that, listen to see if instead of a clear definition, the person sites an element, a related issue, an overly encompassing description, or a single word. Some teachers over-simplify the good news by saying something like, 'The gospel is only Jesus, nothing else.' Yes, it is Jesus, as well as more helpful information such as what to do with Him.

Some teachers over-simplify the good news by saying something like, ''The gospel is only Jesus, nothing else.'' Yes, it is Jesus, as well as more helpful information such as what to do with Him. On the other hand, if someone says, ''the gospel is salvation'', they are closer to identifying the gospel.

The gospel does not belong exclusively to any one human institution.

For example, associating it with one political stance more than another demeans the gospel, which is high above any earthly slant on things.

Have you noticed that if one party believes a certain thing, the other party sometimes feels they must believe the opposite?

If you hold any political stance, you can believe the gospel without being disloyal to your party. The gospel is high above the doctrines and dogmas of both church and state.

What the Gospel Is

Here is a preview of remarkable points we will examine about the gospel: We will see it as an active message of God's call to believe in Jesus as our personal Savior because He took our place on the cross transferring death, suffering, and punishment from us to Him.

God has other messages related to the gospel that are just as true as the gospel, but come as a result of being saved. Because we can do these things, we owe it to ourselves to do them.

We can turn our attention to God and thereby reduce or eliminate things that oppose this Jesus-focused lifestyle. We can believe that God Wins. We can trust Him to bring us further into eternal life in joy and fulfillment after our bodies die. We can experience the abundant good things in this lifetime for believers who love God.

The gospel is the beginning Christian message. Becoming saved is the beginning of the Christian life. After becoming saved lies the journey with God, an exciting adventure through this life and the next. In a sense, the gospel emerges further, becoming words to live by, a life to embrace. The more mature a believer becomes spiritually, the more the gospel expands in its ever-relevant significance.

If you want to start a car and drive for a while, it is a good idea to put some fuel in it first, or if it is electric to charge the batteries. In this analogy, the fuel means preparation for what lies ahead. Jesus gave a similar analogy. If you want a seed to grow, you first make the ground fertile and well-watered. He compared the good news to a seed. If the seed falls on unprepared ground - rocky, full of sticker bushes, or hardened dry - the seed will not have a good chance to take hold.

It is to our great benefit to prepare our hearts to be like good, fertile ground. This is most striking in the beginning. But, we can also keep working at it throughout our lives, like a driver would add gasoline or a farmer would add nutrients to the soul. But this preparation and maintenance does not earn our salvation. It just helps us get the best out of it.

There is nothing bad in the good news. It displays light and truth from the kingdom of God.

We would be wise to accept that the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news in its highest form. It can make a person happy and live in fullness of joy forever, and at many times in this life too.

If you were to ask a non-believer what the ''baddest'' of bad news would be, an honest answer might be ''to hear that I am about to die'', or ''to hear my loved one is dying''. Fear of death (the bad news) is prevalent in all nations on earth. In contrast, the ''goodest'' of all good news is to find out that you will live and your loved ones will live after physical death with joy inexpressible that never ends.

When you believe in Jesus, he will bring you out of the darkness and into God's marvelous light.'' He will bring you into heaven where there is no sickness, sorrow, depression, or boredom. It will be a good life for you.

The gospel is simple. It kept that simplicity through the ages. Additionally, for such a simple message, it has an extreme amount of good news packed into its meaning and implications for our lives.

Remember, God Wins! He wins not only in the end, but in believers' everyday lives. He fights our enemies such as fear, under-confidence, negative self-talk, oppressive situations, demonic strategies against us, and a host of other battles we find ourselves in.

When believers look to Jesus, ''the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God'' (Hebrews 12:2), God takes action and responds to the messes in our lives by winning on our behalf. I have experienced this for decades, through the ups and downs of life. God is faithful. He wins. He rules!

Here are two short videos sharing the gospel to young and old.

Today, we live in a world where much has been obscured about the gospel message. If it would be helpful, you might want to delve into to the biblical topic in its in its historical depth. The next page of this section, ''What is The Gospel'', tries to do that. If you would like read it, please click here: Derivation of the Gospel

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More About the Great I Am

I only lightly touched on this concept before, so I’m addressing it deeper here. I love this topic. Much has been written about the name ''I Am'', by which God identified Himself when Moses saw the burning bush.

Some translations of the Old Testament translate YHWH as ''I Am that I Am''. A synonym for ''Am'' is ''exist''.

To some extent, God was saying, ''I exist'', which could be taken to mean, ''In contrast to all the false gods worshipped by people on earth, I am the living, existing God.''

I sometimes wonder if the second part, ''that I exist '' is a way of saying, ''for the chief purpose of fully existing.''

It might be a circular statement implying that God has always existed, will always exist, and is preeminent - surpassing all others in every aspect and quality of existence.

In most of the Old Testament the name ''I Am'' is translated ''the LORD''. This is because YHWH was thought by Hebrew translators to be too holy a name to pronounce by human lips in its original form.

We can start to see who this ''I Am'' is from what happens after the burning bush event. God joined His people in the desert in a miraculous way. ''The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.''

We can tell by the lengths to which God went to rescue His followers from slavery in Egypt, care for them throughout the desert years, protect them from the armies of other nations, and lead them into the promised land.

Of course, that burning bush encounter was just the beginning of His progressive revelation leading to showing Himself as the incredibly loving and saving ''I Am'' of the New Testament, and the eternal I Am in His coming Kingdom.

The name ''I Am'' and its meaning is reserved for only one being, the Supreme Being, the Almighty. In referring to Himself, Jesus said ''Before Abraham was born, I Am''. In this and other passages, He asserted His identity as the One, who from the burning bush told Moses to go to Pharaoh, and ''Tell him that I Am has sent you.'' Say to him, ''Set my people free.''

The Egyptian Pharaohs claimed to be God and they demanded to be worshipped. You might consider that one of the meanings of ''I Am'' when God directed Moses to tell Pharaoh ''I Am sent me'', could have been, the Lord's name is ''I'm God and You're Not.''

Jesus took the name ''I am'' when He spoke things like, ''I am the good Shepherd'', ''I am the light of the world'', ''I am the bread of life'', and ''I am the way, the truth and the life.'' John wrote about ''I Am'' in the third person, when he wrote ''God is Love'' and ''God is light and in Him is no darkness at all''.

I used to think of YHWH as meaning ''I Am - And That is the End of the Discussion!'' I think one modern scholar was closer when he declared that in the English language the closest phrase to the original meaning of ''I Am'' is ''I Am here for you.

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Will it Help If I Try to Turn Away from Sin?

Short Version Answer

Yes. But first let me help you gain some clarity about the issue. It is not as important to know what to turn away from, as it is to know whom to turn towards. That person is Jesus. Make Him the focus. Doing that gives you power.

God wants us to sin less because doing so is in both our best interest and His.

Think of these promises as the primary reasons for turning away from the things that hold you back: It helps bring God's presence and accompanying power so you can experience a life of more profound meaning and purpose. It leads you to greater heights of well-being.

Taking your mind off of sinning and putting it on Jesus will protect you from many hurts to which sinning opens the door. It will lead to great wisdom and the love of God.

Life has its difficulties, whether you learn the secrets of turning to Jesus or not. Turning towards Him will help you exert leadership over the temptations and effects of sinning. You get to understand what it means to have the upper hand over your decisions with God's help.

Turning to Jesus can only be accomplished with faith. If you think something you are doing is a sin, turn your eyes away from it, and turn them toward Jesus.

If you are not sure, turn your eyes on Jesus. If you are sure what you are doing is not a sin, turn your eyes toward Jesus anyway! It has much greater benefit than just turning away from sin.

When you put your attention on Jesus, regardless of how you feel, He is very real and spiritually present. Draw near to Him, and He will draw near to you. He will generously give you wisdom from above, and perfect peace. These are literally promises from the Bible to believers who affix their inner attention onto Jesus.

Although it is not AS important to know what you are turning from, it is vital to identify and admit the sins and setbacks in your life as you turn from them. This is a freeing thing. It helps believers feel clean, and forgiven.

Before a person first decides to believe in Jesus as their Savior, there may be some things they need to turn away from. This indicates a general sincerity in wanting to be saved, knowing that God will both forgive their sins and help them overcome sin's power in daily life.

Long Version Answer

There is a word for turning away from sin and turning toward God when doing so is a very positive thing. For over five millenia, it was well understood. In the last 80 years or so, the true meaning was removed in our society and obscured with a false understanding and negative connotation. In modern terms, it was given a "bad rap". That word is to “repent”. The noun form is "repentance". We still use these words today among believers because (1) they are in the Bible and (2) they are easier to say than "turning away from sin and turning toward God.''

Repentance is easier than you think especially when you first believe in Jesus as your Savior. In fact, just by believing for the first time, you have just repented from not believing in Him as your Savior. That is how easy repentance can be.

This is a profound concept. Stop and think about it for a moment. Believing in Jesus to become saved is not only an act of faith but even if you don't notice, it is also an automatic simultaneous act of repentance. Many people are unaware of this when they first believe, but it is true.

You don't need to do anything more than have faith in Jesus as your Savior to be saved. When you do, repentance from unbelief in Jesus occurs. And repentance from unbelief is the greatest act of repentance you will ever benefit from.

As we delve into this topic, please keep in mind that the many tips below on how to use repentance assume the reader is already a believer. So if you can't relate to the suggestions now, consider that they may be of great benefit for you later.

Repentance is our friend. As we practice it, we find ourselves starting to become repeat-repenters, rather than repeat-offenders. This is a good thing, especially if it arises out of our love and thankfulness toward Jesus. He blesses our lives more and more as we turn toward Him in repentance.

Isaiah the prophet wrote: "The Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said this,''In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength''.

Note the benefits of repentance, rest, quietness, and trust. They are: 'salvation' and 'strength'.

Repentance is sometimes translated "returning". It is probably also a good synonym for believers today who have put too much distance between themselves and God. Repentance restores relationship with Him. It is a re-uniting, a reconciliation

Turning or returning to God can be done without letting a sense of guilt or shame hinder you. There is nothing wrong with feeling remorse or sorrow about your actions, especially when it leads you to turn to Jesus. Remorse will eventually fade in the knowledge that Jesus paid the penalty for your sins, and you won't need to carry them any longer.

Ask for forgiveness, and then receive it with faith. When you do you are agreeing with God's pronouncement of forgiveness over your life. It removes feelings of shame. This is the exact opposite of being guilt-tripped.

Repentance is our friend. As we practice it, we become better at it. We tend to become repeat-repenters, rather than repeat-offenders. This is a good thing, especially if it arises out of our love and thankfulness toward Him. He blesses our lives more and more as we turn toward Him in repentance.

Just as you are, turn to Jesus. He will accept you just as you are. So accept Him just as He is.

If you are not yet a believer, and you can't relate to the suggestions below now, consider that they may be of great benefit for you later.

Sorrow is perfectly appropriate, when done right. The apostle Paul wrote: ''I rejoice now, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful in a way that led to repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces the opposite, leading to death." -2 Corinthians 7:9-11

What Does it Mean to Sin?

To sin, used as a verb in the New Testament, literally means to behave in a way that is off-target, like when an archer is aiming for the center of a target and shoots a stray arrow off to the side.

The picture of an archer missing a target implies someone who might want to shoot straight but doesn’t. That implication is a clue to how we should picture God. In His wisdom and love for us at times when we struggle with sin, He calls it missing the target. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He can see the good He designed into us even when we can't.

Our sins might be either unintentional mistakes or intentional misdeeds that we somehow mentally justify. They could even be intentional wickedness from our heart out of an evil motivation.

God is never surprised or shocked by any of our sins. He has seen it all many millions of times. When a believer turns from one or more sin, God's stance is to forgive the believer, forgive the sins, and cleanse the believer from the sins.

The blanket prayer, ''I turn from all my sins to You, Lord'' is fine, but not as effective as, starting with ''Lord, I turn from my sin of hatred against my boss, and I ask You for forgiveness and the power to stop thinking those angry thoughts.''

You can keep going and do the same with any other specific sins you want to ask forgiveness for. Confess your sins directly to God with specificity and remorse, and then watch God work beauty into your life as a result.

God does not ask you or me to do the impossible by cleaning ourselves up. Of course, it helps for us to cooperate with Him as He cleans us up. He wants to help believers hit ''bulls-eyes'' in the targets of life.

What good has sin ever done for this planet? Most of humanity's problems can be traced back to people sinning. People often bemoan the state of today’s society. If we want things to get better in this world, we must take seriously that sin is a major cause of the world’s ills - also that repentance from sin is the most direct prevention and cure for those ills.

A sin or act of evil can cause a chain reaction that hurts many people, who in turn hurt a lot more people. Even when we think nobody is getting hurt, we don't often realize that we who sin are the people getting hurt the most.

Sin can have a rippling effect that comes back, like a boomerang, to bong us on the head sooner or later.

Jesus carried our sins to the cross, so we would not have to carry them into heaven.

There is no tipping point on the scale of sin. There is no amount of good works that earn your entrance to Heaven, and there is no amount of sins that can disqualify you from entering.

Jesus decrees that someone who believes in Him as Savior qualifies, regardless of how unforgivable others think the sins are.

In our natural strength, we cannot become free of sin. With His strength, we are given power to humble ourselves, confess our sins to God, and step away from them.

God is not a strict parent, unwilling to accept us until we become better people. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

God uses His power in love, not parental control. He is really much more powerful than any parent and has no desire to punish His children who love Him. At the same time, a parent who loves their child, will correct the child purely out of love. The child rarely enjoys this.

The Bible says ''Those God loves, he also chastens''. This is not pleasant, but is better than even good and loving human parents do.

In biblical terms, Jesus' message was ''Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand (or in your midst) ". Repentance is a must, but not a condition, for earning your salvation. Believing is the only condition to accepting the free gift of eternal life.

We All Know How To Repent

All not-yet-believers have learned the mechanics of how to repent in a natural sense. We have each used those mechanics thousands of times.

When we were learning how to talk, we realized we were saying words wrong, and then learned how to start saying them right. Each time we learned from our mistakes in life and made a course correction, we were 'repenting' in the natural.

When we learned better skills, we were 'repenting'. We were turning away from the thing that didn't work, and turning towards the thing that worked. Nobody can claim they don't know how to repent.

Unbelievers can be very good people in societal terms. They became as good as they are by 'repenting' in the natural from doing bad things or avoiding them. A form of repentance that left God out of the picture became comfortable.

The thing that makes repentance spiritual, is when we put God into the picture, turn to Him, and want to please Him. The Christian view of repentance is also to do so out of thankfulness for all that Jesus did to save and change our lives, as well as how much He loves us.

The best way is to start by repenting ourselves. I have found the more I turn my attention away from sinning and turn toward Jesus, the smoother my life works out in the final analysis. It seems like heaven is breaking into my life, and is close to my heart.

Many times I have heard discussions about what is the worst sin. Is it murder, genocide, stealing? It does not take a genius to comprehend that refusing to believe in Jesus as Savior could be considered the worst and most dangerous sin on the planet. It is the sin that unchecked leads away from heaven.

Paul the apostle wrote to Timothy the pastor, and gave a phrase that I have found to be encouraging. It is "God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth ".

Repentance is not fully the work of a person struggling with sin. When I get stuck in my ability to repent, I ask God to grant me repentance. Then I believe that He will add His power to my ability to repent.

The quote above, in a larger context, was Paul telling Timothy to correct ''those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.'' 2 Tim 2:24-26

Is God Angry at Me for My Sins?

Some people miss out because they get confused between the two concepts: “Jesus doesn’t like people to sin”, and “Jesus doesn’t like people who sin”.

When we say, “Jesus doesn’t like people to sin”, it is more like saying that a mother doesn’t like her baby to get hurt. The baby might be naively pursuing fun that is dangerous to self or others.

Jesus definitely likes people who sin. Sin will never stop Jesus from liking you, even if you hate Him.

God does not withhold His love from His children as a punishment for misbehaving.

Repenting from disbelief opens the door to being saved by Jesus. Once we believe, God will carry us through the rest of the journey.

We hear too much about God being angry over our sins. More often that not, our concept of "angry" doesn't apply. He is angry not with the person, but with the damage natarually inflicted on the person as a result of their choice to sin.

Imagine a sin you are tempted to do as if it was an enemy with intent to harm you. You can repel the sin with that mindset, and live a happier life.

Human anger can have some sin mixed into it. God's anger does not. Instead, it has pure love mixed in.

In nearly all cases, there is no need to interpret anything but love from Him and therefore feel love for Him.

In the New Testament Jesus displayed anger only toward sin, not the people sinning. His anger was an expression of His deep grief about somebody being hurt, or prevented from being helped.

In Mark 3:1-6, He had an angry facial expression as He looked around at His accusers. The ''angry look'' was followed by His action to heal a man the religious leaders did not want Him to heal.

It is not necessary to equate the angry look with personal ill feelings against the leaders. It is just as likely his scorn was a reaction to the darkness and deception to which they had succombed.

Jesus did use His rightful divine authority to drive the dishonest money changers from the temple, but the passages never mention anger.

God knows that sin is pleasant for a while. But it eventually damages either us, or other people He loves, or both. He is being kind to people by not liking them to sin.

To sin habitually is to produce a self-made setback. It means turning down God’s best for us and refusing His help to make our lives more wonderful.

How should we respond to such a setback? Not by hating ourselves for sinning. Not by feeling we let God down. Instead by turning to Jesus with love for Him and His ways.

God is worthy to be trusted, even when we think He is taking our favorite things or sins away from us. I can attest that He will replace them with something better if we keep trusting Him.

Pray that God would grant you the ability to make a conscious choice to prefer Jesus over sinning, and help you take a humble child-like stance toward Him.

God exudes the desire that His children will have well-being, contentment, and peace in their long, happy lives. All this takes place in the context of a loving relationship with Him by faith, that naturally leads to greater and greater victory over the sins in our lives.

The more we comprehend what Jesus did for us, the less appealing it becomes to ''miss the target'' in everyday life.

The Bible talks about the fear of God being the beginning of wisdom and understanding. That kind of fear is the kind that elevates God to His rightful place as King over everything.

He is a benevolent king, and one to emulate, not run from. He is a very good Father. As His daughter or son, each believer is a beloved child to Him.

The apostle John promised that if we confess our sins, God would forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God promised that if we ask from wisdom from above, He will always generously fulfill the request.

God's promises have power and light, whereas sin is based on lies. Sometimes sin-issues make us blind to the love and mercy of Jesus. God is our eternal friend and improves our lives as we trust Him to do so.

Jesus died for the worst sins imaginable and the least sins as well. Similarly, repentance is a powerful ally to us in how we respond to both little and big sins.

We would be wise to repent of every sin, whether we consider it small or large. The seemingly insignificant sins repeated over time can do as much damage or more as a single big sin happening once. This applies to damage against ourselves as well as others.

Our society, with good intentions, tends to call some sins very bad, others mild, and still others nothing more than "issues" that are socially acceptable. The danger in doing this is that in reality God, not society, determines the magnitude of a sin.

Even if a sin has a tendency to make us feel separated from Jesus, He never leaves us or stops loving us. Jesus died to remove separation from God, and it is the power of His death and resurrection, applied to us, that reconciles us to God.

There is no such thing as a sin that is too shameful for God to forgive. Nor is there a sin that is too horrendous that we should not release the thought and memory of it to God.

There is never a good reason to hide our faces from Jesus. He wants to have us close to Him in loving relationship. When we are, His power makes it just as if we had never sinned.

We can return to Jesus after falling or sinning innumerable times, and He never gets fed up. He keeps wiping away the power of sin from our hearts so we can commune with Him once again in a love relationship.

The apostle Paul said we are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. Grace is God's love and favor to us. We don't deserve it, we don't merit it, but He gives us salvation anyway.

Jesus lets us off "Scott free". The Bible says, "as far as the east is from the west, so distantly has He removed our sins from us."

Sometimes the word "sin" is used as a noun, meaning a condition of having a tendency to sin. That meaning applies to everyone, and we should not be in denial of it. We are all "sinners", in that sense.

In ourselves, we fall short of God's best for us. In this physical life, it is good to adopt the saying, "He who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall." We will always be susceptible in this lifetime to sin. That is why we should focus on Jesus even when we aren't sinning.

There is a hymn that says "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

I have prayed many times that God would by His power reduce my sinful self-promptings and increase God-given righteousness in me.

It is healthier to stop focusing on sin itself in an attempt to get it out of your life.

The apostle Peter wrote, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

In context, the promise was that Jesus will someday return for a fully grown body of believers. Peter reminded us it is a promise, and God keeps His promises. But He is patient as He watches it take place over time.

God is NOT WILLING that any should go to Hell, but that all should come to repentance. God will go to extremes to help get this good message to the ends of the earth. He wants as many people as possible to turn away from their sins and toward Him, to believe and enter His kingdom of love.

Going to Hell is not what God wants for you. It is not His will for your life! Be quick to agree with His will: Let Him save you. Turn to Him.

Here is a menu with lots of great information that might help you decide to become a follower of Jesus.

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