The Gospel

The message FBC Cave Springs is here to proclaim is the salvation of mankind by Jesus Christ according to the Bible.

 

Sin

 

The message begins with our need for salvation. Every one of us is born a sinner. Before we were old enough to know better, we naturally wanted what we should not have and did what we should not do. We had to be taught how to behave because we instinctively wanted our own way.

 

The same is true in our relationship with God. We disobey His commands and often justify ourselves by thinking everyone else is doing it. These actions come naturally because we are born with a will to disobey. The Bible calls this disobedience sin and declares that sin brings death. All of us are born spiritually dead because of our sin nature. We need a cure for our sin problem.

 

Jesus Christ

 

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ. What makes His birth so remarkable is that Jesus’s mother, Mary, was a virgin. She gave birth to the Son of God. The reason reaches back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When they sinned, Adam became a sinner and passed that sin nature to his offspring. This is how sin entered the world.

 

When God gave Jesus Christ to the world, He gave us a man born without sin. Jesus lived His entire life without sin. Because He was sin-free, He did not deserve to die like the rest of humanity. Yet for the sake of our fallen race, Jesus chose to die in our place on a Roman cross. God the Father laid all our sin on Christ, and He became a substitutionary sacrifice for us.

 

This was no accident. It was God’s plan from the beginning to save us from our sinful condition. Three days after His death, Jesus rose from the grave. His resurrection proved that He was the perfect sacrifice. He appeared to His disciples over forty days, and at one time to a crowd of more than 500 people. Many who saw Him later died painful deaths for following His teachings.

 

Repenting and Believing

 

I know it sounds extraordinary—that a virgin gives birth, a man dead for three days rises, and then ascends into heaven. Yet this message has crossed every country, culture, ethnicity, language, government, and generation. For 2,000 years the message of Jesus Christ has circled the globe. God-hating groups have tried to end the faith, silence the message, destroy the Bible, and even kill those who believe in Christ. They have failed to silence Christians but they have produced many counterfeit versions of biblical Christianity.

 

The Bible’s instruction to those who want to be saved is simple: repent and believe. John the Baptist preached this as Jesus began His public ministry. Jesus repeated it throughout the Gospels. His disciples preached the same message in Judea and around the world.

 

To repent means to turn away—to change one’s mind. When a sinner repents, he says, “I know God says this is wrong, and I agree with Him. I am turning from my sin and turning to God for help.”

 

Faith is the act of trusting. We do not step out on nothing or merely hope in hope. Jesus is the object of our faith. We must believe that when Christ died on the cross, He bore our sins in His body. When He shed His blood and died, He paid our sin debt and satisfied the wrath of God. When He rose from the grave, He conquered death. We to overcome death by trusting in Him.

 

What Now?

 

If you know your sins have separated you from God and you want to be forgiven and saved from sin’s consequences, why not repent and believe in the finished work of Christ? Call out to God in prayer. Confess your faults to Him. Then confess that Jesus Christ is now your substitute. Claim Him as both your Lord and Savior.

 

Find a church in your area where you can identify with God’s people through baptism. That body of believers will help you grow in knowledge and service to your new King. Feel free to reach out to us. We would love to help you find a healthy church and rejoice with you as you begin this new life in Christ.