The Most Important Message

"The gospel, is not only the most important message in all of history; it is the only essential message in all of history. Yet we allow thousands of professing Christians to live their entire lives without clearly understanding it and experiencing the joy of living by it." Jerry Bridges

Is your life cross centered?

Do any of these describe you?

• You often lack joy
• You're not consistently growing in spiritual maturity
• Your love for God lacks passion
• You're always looking for some new technique, some "new truth" or new experience that will pull all the pieces of your faith together

As you learn to live a cross centered life, you'll learn:

• How to break free from joy-robbing, legalistic thinking and living
• How to leave behind the crippling effects of guilt and condemnation
• How to stop basing your faith on your emotions and circumstances
• How to grow in gratefulness, joy, and holiness

A good example of someone who lived a cross centered life was the apostle Paul. Paul recognized the danger of forgetting what is most important. He refused to be pulled away from the gospel. The cross was the centerpiece of Paul's theology. It wasn't merely one of Paul's messages; it was the message. He taught about other things as well, but whatever he taught was always derived from, and related to, the foundational reality that Jesus Christ died so that sinners would be reconciled to God and forgiven by God.

Regardless of our pasts, we've all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. (Romans 3:23)

Let us not forget the most important message that, Jesus, God's perfect, righteous Son, died in our place for our sins. Jesus took all the punishment; Jesus received all the wrath as He hung on the cross, so a sinner, like me and you could be completely forgiven.