Summary
In what ways has your own way of life been changed because of what God has done in you by the Work of the Holy Spirit? What ways have your own priorities been rearranged after hearing of the love that is yours in Jesus Christ.
What makes the Gospel effective to turn the “world upside down” for people. I want to look at the unique power of the Gospel as a message from God to Man that really is effective for life change and reorientation.
3 Principles
1. Vs. 2 The Gospel is reasonable only in the context of God’s revelation.
Start and stick with the Bible. God himself shows us in the Old Testament how he longs to reason with those who are struggling. Isaiah 1:18-20
2. Vs. 3 The Gospel is provable (explainable or plausible) only in relation to man’s condition.
Why was it necessary for Jesus to suffer? The Messiah had to suffer because the condition of sinful men and women would be redeemable by nothing less than a sinless sacrifice on their behalf. Their condition from birth demanded this. Without such a sacrifice, the God of the Bible who reveals himself in covenants with mankind, could not have relationship with them. Further evidence in Romans 1 : 28-32
3. Vs. 4 The Gospel is persuasive only as a proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
We are proclaiming a great and glorious living Lord and savior Jesus Christ. He is the one that all creation longs to see exalted. He is the one who is exalted high above every name, So that when anyone hears that name whether on heaven or on earth, they will bow down.
They will bow in reverence, or they will bow as a footstool for Jesus Christ the judge. The thing that makes this persuasive to people in an ultimate sense is that it is God’s Spirit who will do the convicting of sin unto this kind of repentance and life. Also see John 16:5-15 and 1 Corinthians 1:1-5.
