There is something special about the act of baptism. Whether we understand God’s purpose in this or not, He has made baptism the doorway, or division, that separates the old from the new. In the gospel of Christ, it is in baptism that our sins are washed away (Acts 22:16). For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com

If a broken trust in God is the root of sin, it makes sense that for the problem of sin to be fixed, trust is going to have to be put back in its rightful place. That is why faith is so important in God’s plan for our restoration to His fellowship through Jesus Christ. For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com

Discipleship is costly. But if we turn away from the gospel because of the costliness of the love it requires, there is nothing left but lesser loves — counterfeits that offer little more than disappointment, having cost us little more than what was convenient. For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com

In a "feel-good" age, it is hard for many to see that our first response to the gospel must be grief. Yet if the gospel is about redemption from our sins, we are not ready for what the gospel offers until we see our sins for what they are and grieve them in a godly way. For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com

We often reject ideas as “untrue” when there is no reason to do so except that we don’t want them to be true. But the more painful a truth may be to accept (at least in the short term), the more we must be adventurers — going wherever the truth leads us. For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com

Hope is a powerful thing. And one reason the gospel of Christ is the greatest of all messages is that it offers the greatest of all hopes. In Christ there is the prospect of a perfect, eternal relationship with God when our lives right now have run their course. For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com

In the New Testament, there are two phases or stages in obeying the gospel: first, we accept God’s forgiveness on His terms, and second, we live the rest of our lives under the lordship of Christ. To do the first but not the second is to deny Christ. For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com

The fact that our salvation is by God's grace does not mean the gospel requires no response. It is a message that must be responded to, and in the absence of the response required by God, the benefits of the message should not be expected (Acts 2:37,38). For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com

The gospel is the good news of God's salvation. But here is the important point: the message is about Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that God is offering salvation. In 2 Corinthians 5, we hear Paul affirming that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (v.19). For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com

It is from sin that God proposes to save us. In the gospel, salvation is not about the amelioration of social ills or earthly maladies. It is about (a) the forgiveness of our sins, and (b) learning to live again in reverence and gratitude before the Creator who loves us. For more information, visit AreYouaChristian.com