1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.

How simple can the gospel get? KISS, God loves you.

I’ve written six devotionals about the need to simplify the gospel and this is number seven. Seven is the number of completion. So I will let this be my last words.

I spent three decades living Satan’s lies. I have spent the rest of my life unraveling those lies in the light of God’s Word. Yes, the gospel is simple, absolutely. Correcting a lifetime of lies is complicated. You cannot forget everything that has happened in your life because it is part of your witness about the power of God unto salvation.

You cannot just read the Word of God and expect God to do all the work? Those walls we built to protect ourselves because we were weak vulnerable people need to come down. Those high towers of pride need to crumble like the walls of Jericho. The changes in us need to be nurtured, encouraged, developed and kept growing to be more Christ like.

 Do you need to know redemption, justification, sanctification, subjection, atonement, communion, election, evangelism, or a hundred more terms that we define to be saved? No. Absolutely not.

Understanding who you are in Christ, your calling, your gifts, and being able to fellowship with the saints effectively and in the loving manner in which Christ exampled means you need to study and understand more than the simple fact that you have been saved.

The essence of this great love God has for us is that it is meant for everyone and not a select few. The love which abides in you, needs to reach out to love others. Not just the people you know but to the stranger and the ones you never would have talked to before coming to Christ. Jesus broke bread with every type.

Do you understand the significance of breaking bread? Maybe you should check it out. It’s not that complicated.

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

This passage was available to all the religious types of Jesus’ day. When they came to Jesus did they remember this passage and ask right? They came to Jesus with the same question, what must I do to be saved. Considering that repentance is one of the first steps towards salvation, and that John the Baptist preach repentance, then their question is not unreasonable. But is it the right ask?

John was making the Way straight in the wilderness. That was his life’s mission and that straight path led to Jesus. Jesus comes and gathers to Himself the twelve. He is the Teacher and they are His disciples. Here is where many of us go wrong. We see the word disciple as student and starting thinking that being a student is all that is needed to be saved.

John 10:30 I and my Father are one.

A close personal relationship was at the forefront of everything Jesus was and did. Jesus even declared that He did nothing on His own.

John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Jesus did not make Adam’s mistake and substitute His own judgements for God the Father’s. He agreed with God because He had this close personal relationship and knew the will of the Father.

A right heart and a right spirit renders right judgement. Without that, the student will only apply what he has learned according to his own understanding.

If all I care about is avoiding eternal damnation, then I have skipped over the first commandment and left it unattended.

Return God’s love in a close personal relationship.