Following Jesus

The life of Jesus was remarkable. Most people recognize Jesus as a remarkable teacher, a remarkable role model, or by his remarkable miracles. But the most remarkable thing about Jesus was not that he healed the sick, cast out demons, or fed thousands of people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. The most remarkable thing about him is that he rose from the dead. No one else has ever resurrected from the grave, and Jesus did so by his own power. Amazingly, the people who knew him best—his family, friends, and followers—all claimed that Jesus rose from the grave and they gave the remainder of their lives to share that truth with others, even though it would cost them their lives.

 

The reason Jesus had the ability to rise from the grave was because he was God. The story of human history is that all of us have run from God and abandoned his rule over our lives. Rather than trust and obey God, we decided we would be our own god and commit cosmic treason against him. Treason against a king requires a significant penalty, but treason against the Maker, Creator and King of the universe is infinitely worse. In God’s justice, he could have forsaken us forever, but he chose to pursue us with a grand plan of redemption that would eventually cause him to enter human history and suffer the penalty for our treason himself.

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The story of Jesus entering history to pay this penalty for us is good news for us. We call this good news the gospel. You might hear us refer to the gospel a lot around LifeSpring Church. When ever we talk about gospel-centered music or gospel-centered preaching or the story of the gospel we are referring to the story of Jesus. All of our music, all of our preaching and all of our worship is centered on the gospel, the wonderful news that Jesus paid the price for our sinful treason, a price we never could have paid ourselves. This is good news, and it is news worthy of celebrating.

 

When we as a church say that our mission is help people reach their potential in Christ, we believe that this can only be done through the power of the gospel. Ultimately there is nothing that we have done or nothing that we can do to reach this potential. It is only through the power of the gospel that we have hope of reaching this potential. Because of what Jesus has done we have hope. Because of what Jesus has done we have life. Because of what Jesus has done we are able to have a personal relationship with God.