The Gospel in 1 Paragraph

God created everything we see, including you and me. As Creator, He had a particular design and purpose for us. He made us to worship and love Him in all of our being. Indicators that we are doing this include the ten commandments, such as: “don’t murder, don’t commit adultery”. But also, God wants us to obey Him in our heart, so Jesus says things like, “If you hate someone you have murdered them in your heart, and if you lust after someone you’ve committed adultery in your heart.” This is God’s standard. And He is holy and pure, so even one time of us disobeying is intolerable to His purity and righteousness. Now look over your life and realize God knows everything about everything. If we’re honest, we have no hope of salvation and life in the presence of a pure and holy God. However, when Jesus/God walked on the earth, He was the first person in history to honor God in His entire being every second of every day. He was faultless and pure. But then He died a terrible, bloody, and gruesome death by crucifixion. God removed His presence from Him. He was innocent, but treated as a sinful man. This is because every piercing He took was on account of our sin. It shows how much God hates sin. It also shows how much God loves us, in that He died for our sins. He took the penalty we deserved. And when He rose from the dead, it proved that the punishment was done–paid in full. All of God’s wrath for our sin was poured out on His Son. So we are acquitted. We are considered faultless and perfect in God’s eyes if we (1) turn to follow Jesus as Lord/King, and (2) trust in who He is and what He did on our behalf.

Note: The evidence that we have done these two things in our heart is that we start looking more like Jesus in our love, sacrifice, truth-telling, etc. This is because God comes to live within us and works through us to make us look more like Him.

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It’s good to practice sharing the gospel in 1 paragraph. This was my attempt a few years back. Some things to check:

Check:

• Do I accurately tell of the nature and person of God – Creator, Judge, Father?
• Do I accurately tell of God’s standard and purpose for us – the law?
• Do I accurately show how humanity has woefully fallen short – sin?
• Do I accurately show how Jesus was law-upholder and sin-bearer – the sacrifice?
• Do I accurately show how we can be pardoned of sin – turn/repentance & trust/faith?
• EXTRA: Do I accurately show the evidence of new life – God’s spirit in us?