5. Obligation | God's Good News | Presenting the biblical gospel so that you might find free and abundant eternal life.

God calls us to return to him on his terms.

God’s good news is that he has accomplished the salvation of sinners through the work of his Son, Jesus Christ. That which we could never do nor would we ever deserve, God did in Christ. He reconciled people to himself, not counting their sins against them.¹ Not that those sins were ignored; quite the contrary, they were met head-on in all their ugliness and violence by the Son of God. God has made Jesus Lord and Christ.² Our response is to humble ourselves before Jesus as the risen Lord he is.³ As the Bible says:

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ⁴

God’s gracious invitation is to turn to his Son, Jesus Christ, and follow him. What is involved in following Christ? The Bible describes three proper reactions to this Jesus who is Savior of sinners and Lord of life.

We are to repent. ⁵ Repentance is not merely being sorry for something. It is turning from our sinful rebellion against God, out of a deep awareness of our sin and sorrow⁶ over that sin because it dishonors and displeases God.⁷ Repentance (1) turns from any effort to be our own savior, trying to do something to earn salvation; and (2) turns from being our own lord, living our lives independently of God.
Not only are we to turn from, we are to turn to. ⁸ We are to turn from self to Jesus Christ.⁹ We are to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the Bible calls faith. Such faith (1) knows the facts (about sin and where salvation is found), (2) admits they are true, and (3) places sole trust and confidence in God’s provision for sinners—Jesus Christ.¹⁰ Faith is not wishful thinking, but complete trust in an unseen (that is, spiritual) reality.¹¹ We are justified (declared “not guilty”) in God’s sight not by our efforts at obedience to his law, but by faith in Jesus and his perfect obedience for us.¹²
Since Jesus is Lord, we are now to live our lives in submission to him.¹³ We are to follow Jesus as his disciples.¹⁴ We commit our way to him, seeking him and serving him in all our ways¹⁵ because we are his¹⁶—not that we either earn our acceptance by God or add to the work of Christ. But if God has given us new life to hear the voice of the Shepherd,¹⁷ that new life will result in a new orientation to God.¹⁸ A true change of heart by the Spirit of God will manifest itself in a change of life in new relationship to God.¹⁹

God’s command is to repent²⁰ and believe.²¹ All of this is God’s handiwork of love and power in our lives as he is the one to restore us to relationship with himself, both for this life and the life to come.²² Perhaps the most amazing thing is this: the relationship to which God brings us is not just as reconciled sinners but as his own adopted children, ²³ heirs of eternal life.²⁴ While God commands that we turn to Christ, his promise is that all who acknowledge Jesus as the one he claimed to be and believe on (completely put our confidence, trust, reliance and expectation in; not just believe in his existence but put personal trust in) him are given the right to become children of God.²⁵

Now what?

Cause for Pause: Do I have confidence before God in what I do or could do, or totally in what Jesus did?

Next chapter 6. Response

Previous Chapter: 4. Reconciliation

2 Cor 5:19

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Acts 2:36

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
Phil 2:5-11

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Romans 10:9-11

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.
Luke 24:45-47

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Joel 2:12-13

The vine dries up;
the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
from the children of man.

Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
2 Cor 7:8-10

For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
1 Thess 1:9-10

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Galatians 2:16

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Romans 1:16-17; Romans 4:23-25; Romans 10:9-10

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

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But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

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because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Hebrews 11:1; 1 Peter 1:3-9

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Galatians 2:16, 21

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

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I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Luke 9:23-26

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Luke 9:23-26

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Proverbs 3:5-7

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
1 Cor 6:19-20

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
John 10:25-28

Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Acts 26:20; James 2:17-18; 1 John 2:3

but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

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So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

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And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:10

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Acts 17:29-30

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent...
1 John 3:23

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
1 John 3:1

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Romans 8:16-17; Titus 3:3-7

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

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For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
John 1:12-13; John 20:31; Galations 4:4-5

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

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but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

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But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.