The Three Minute Gospel - Vol 1 No 10
- Joanne Chastain
- Feb 10
- 3 min read
Last week, we published the ninth entry in our Diary series. Mike had challenged a group of Christians to tell him the Gospel as if he only had three minutes to live. Since then many of you have wanted to know what Mike would say, so we are publishing this special edition of the Diary - How to Tell the True Gospel in Three Minutes!
The True Gospel in Three Minutes
How can I be saved?
I’m glad you understand that you need to be saved from God’s wrath and curse because you, like me and everyone else, don’t measure up to the standards He requires. The good news is that God has provided a way for you to be saved. There is nothing you can do to earn this. We must depend on God to do this for us. If you trust what He has done according to what He has said in the Bible, you will be accepted by God. This is what he has done and what you must believe.
The Situation
First, you must believe the truth that there is one, true, living, and holy God Who made you and to be in His holy presence you must be holy, too. Since God made all things, He is the authority in all things and has clearly told us in His Word, the Bible, what He expects from us. It tells us His law which we are to obey if we are to live to please Him. Instead of obeying Him, all of us have broken His law and followed our own ideas and desires, and that is called sin.
The Problem
Sin has completely separated us from God, bringing to us spiritual death and eventually will bring physical death. When we die (which we all will do because of our sin) we will come face to face with this true, holy and living God and be required to give an account for not keeping His law. He will rightly and justly visit His wrath and punishment on all those who are found guilty. That is our problem. God is holy and by His nature cannot justly accept anything that is not holy into His Holy presence. Therefore, all men are condemned, for we all sin.
God’s Solution-the Work of Jesus
But God in His love made ONE WAY whereby we could be saved from His wrath and be adopted as His very children. We needed Someone who was not sinful to give us His sinless account and to take our sinful account. To do that God sent His Son Jesus to become human. He was born of a virgin, sinless and holy, 100% God and 100% man. He is the only human to live a sinless life, keeping all of God’s commands the way we were supposed to. He became our substitute and took the punishment we deserved for our sin by suffering on the cross. He took the full measure of God’s hatred and just wrath against sin, paying the penalty for those He came to save. He died and on the third day he triumphed over death by resurrecting from the grave. He ascended into heaven where He lives today being the mediator for those who believe.
Jesus Mission-to be our Substitute
His mission was to be the substitute for us. If you have faith that Jesus did this for you two things happen. Your sins are transferred to Him and His righteousness is transferred to you. That means you are forgiven, and you are now considered holy before God only because when God sees you, He sees the righteousness of Christ that now belongs to you as His gift. You are then reconciled to God, living freely in His presence here on this earth and when you die, you will be directly in His presence in glorious peace forever in heaven.
If You Don’t Believe
If you do not embrace God’s remedy for your sin problem, you justly deserve God’s wrath and curse for breaking his law. When you die, will be judged guilty and will be cast into hell forever where you will be justly punished by God for your offenses without recourse. This is the truth.
Jesus’ Own Words
To be saved from your just punishment for sin, Jesus Himself said in John 5:24:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life.
He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.”
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