The Gospel of Jesus Christ is made so simple that you do not even have to know Scripture to be saved. Once you are saved, you can spend a lifetime studying the Scriptures to get to know the God who created you, saved you, sustains you, and will be your judge. A problem that I see creep into many veteran Christians is that they lose a vision of the simplicity of the simple Gospel message. Many get entangled in sin and try to explain it away by the doctrines they get caught up into. But no matter how much they argue, sin is sin. They are called to no longer practice sin once they are saved. These remain the simple facts no matter if you have just become a Christian or if you have been one for 75 years and have a doctor’s degree in Theology. Living with someone out of wedlock is sin. Getting a divorce outside the reason of infidelity is sin. Getting drunk is sin. Having anger issues is sin. Not forgiving is sin. Must I go on. These things should not be.
I have put together basic New Testament Scriptures that bring us back to the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The simple message is that before we are saved we are called sinners. The destiny of sinners is eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire. The only way of escape is to make Jesus Christ our personal Lord and savior, for He (God in the flesh) is the only one who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave. Once we are saved we are to no longer practice a life of sin. In a moment of weakness, if we do sin, we have an advocate in Jesus that we can confess it to. But, gone is God the Father’s tolerance for us to live in day to day habitual sin. Only God determines how far before He intervenes (see 1 John 5:16-17).
A cold drink of water on a hot day is always refreshing, no matter who you are. I never met anyone yet who is allergic to water in my life. So drink in the following verses whatever your state of being is:
But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT)
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. (Revelation 3:20 NLT)
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (Romans 3:23 NLT)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
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 it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. (Romans 10:9, 10 NLT)
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16, 18 NLT)
So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. (1 John 1:6, 8-10 NLT)
My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. (1 John 2:1 NLT)
Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God. (1 John 3:6-10 NLT)
We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning…. (1 John 5:18 NLT)
And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15 NLT)
Annointing 