FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
Just One Thing
At Forge this week, before Pastor Pete delivered his message, we were sitting around the table, talking as we often do. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a group of men sharing thoughts and conversation.
Then my brother Mike said something that really got my attention.
He said, in essence, that he marvels at how we complicate things when it comes to the Gospel, when, if you really think about it, it all comes down to JUST ONE THING.
I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
He said, go all the way back to the beginning. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. Think about that for a moment. They had everything. They lived in a place of perfection, in the presence of their Creator. There was no sin, no shame, no brokenness, no separation from God.
And God gave them one instruction. They could enjoy everything He had made, with one exception: they were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
JUST ONE THING…
But they couldn’t leave that one thing alone.
They listened to the serpent. They questioned God’s command. They decided they knew better. And when they disobeyed, everything changed. Sin entered the world, and the perfect relationship between God and humanity was broken.
JUST ONE THING…
And everything fell apart.
Now fast-forward to today. Thousands of years later, we’re still trying to figure it all out. We debate, we argue, we build complicated systems, and sometimes we make the Gospel sound like an overwhelming list of things we must accomplish to make ourselves right with God. But what if we’ve made it more complicated than it needs to be?
God already knew we couldn’t fix what sin had broken. We couldn’t earn our way back into His presence. We couldn’t be good enough, work hard enough, or do enough good deeds to bridge the gap. So, He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and rise again, making a way for us to be reconciled to God.
And now, there is JUST ONE THING, and one thing only, that we must do…
Put our faith in Jesus Christ. To repent, to trust Him as Lord and Savior, and to believe that He is the way to salvation. Not our goodness. Not our accomplishments. Not our church attendance. Not how much we know about the Bible.
Jesus.
Just Jesus.
That doesn’t mean the Christian life is always easy or that following Christ requires nothing more of us. Faith changes us. It transforms how we live, how we love, and how we treat others. But those things are the fruit of our faith, not the price of our salvation. And perhaps that’s where we get confused. We take what God has made possible through grace and turn it into something we think we have to earn.
My brother’s words this morning reminded me of something I never want to lose sight of: the Gospel is not a puzzle we have to solve or a price we have to pay.
It’s a gift we must receive.
From the Garden to the Cross, the story is really about our relationship with God, and what He has done to restore it. So maybe we need to stop making it so complicated, and accept…
JUST ONE THING.
Jesus Christ. Our Lord. Our Savior. Our only way home.
– Joe Bouch
