The Missing Part

WARNING! I am going to present the gospel of Jesus Christ, but in the first portion of the article I am going to leave a critical part of the gospel out. I challenge you to determine that critically important missing dimension.

The Message

Our world has big problems, doesn’t it? Look at the society we live in!

Wars continue around this world and since 9-11 we have been made painfully aware that there are many who hate North Americans, Christians and Jews – and believe that they are involved in a so-called “holy war” to eradicate us. Hatred and bigotry seem to be increasing, love and understanding diminishing.

Prisons are overcrowded, despite the fact that a huge building program of new prisons has been completed. Homeland security is focused on terrorism, but meanwhile organized street gangs threaten to overpower police departments in many cities throughout the United States.

The plague of illegal, addictive and deadly drugs is tearing an entire generation apart.

Our polluted environment is reeling from human corruption and greed. In the name of “growth and prosperity” we have besmirched our land, water and air.

It isn’t hard to prove that sin is having its way in our world today. Of course the Bible clearly states that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Our sin leads not only to human misery and painful penalties but it also separates us from God.

We need to change our ways, to turn from sin. It’s time for a clear message of repentance and reform to sound throughout our land.

We need to start obeying God before it’s too late.

What can we do? There is an answer to all of this bad news – there is another way to live our lives. What if our media, our school teachers, our entertainment and athletic stars would begin to not only encourage morality, but exemplify it?

What if we started now to depict the beauty and rewards of a happy marriage, in which husband and wife are faithful to each other, producing homes where two parents lovingly raise, discipline and provide for their children?

What if children did not come home, as latchkey children, to empty houses that both parents must work to pay for, but instead returned from school to homes where at least one parent was there to greet them?

What if teens didn’t disappear into their bedrooms after returning from school, and behind closed doors amuse themselves with music, cell phones, video games and explicit websites on the Internet?

I call on you all to join me in a crusade for morality. I call on you to help enact laws that punish those who provide and promote wickedness. Let’s stop glorifying violence, and pass legislation to prohibit the kind of movies, music and video games with which many of our youths are now preoccupied.

I would call our cause “the moral majority” but that name is already taken. I call on all Christians to actively promote morality and values. I call on all Christians to boycott companies that deal in filth. We can start a crusade for morality. We can help change our world. We don’t have to stand by and watch our world go to hell in a hand basket.

The Missing Part

That’s it. That’s my message. It’s a message that identifies the problem and proposes a solution. The solution I propose is a call to morality – a call to do something before it’s too late – a call to stop compromising with sin.

What’s missing? What part of the gospel – what critical part – have I neglected to include in this message? Please determine your answer before continuing. Thinkkkkkkkkkkk!






We have all been schooled in the idea that our entrance into God’s kingdom of heaven is based on our morals. But the gospel is not a checklist of rules that help us build character. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not primarily about morality. The gospel is moral, no doubt about that, but the gospel does not focus on what we do. The gospel is all about Jesus – what He has done on the cross for us; what He will do when we choose to have Him come and live in us; and then…what He will do through us to others as He lives His Life in us.

The gospel is not about programs, initiatives or agendas. The gospel is not a formula. The gospel is not about popping religious pills to make us better. The gospel is not about ceremonies or rituals we perform so that we and others can become better people. You see, Christianity is not one and the same as being moral. Some of the most moral people alive today are not Christians. Moral people may or may not be Christians; they may or may not be affiliated with any religion. Christians are moral, no doubt about that, but authentic Christians are more likely to repent and ask forgiveness than they are to put a priority on producing good morals.

The gospel is not about us changing other people or even changing ourselves in our own strength – it’s about Jesus changing us. The gospel is not a matter of us looking at how wrong other people are, and devising programs so that those people can qualify to become a member of our religious club. Religious, special, better-than-everybody-else clubs are not the answer.

Of course, one doesn’t need to be a Christian to acknowledge the undeniable fact that our world is in a world of hurt. The problem with proposing morality as the answer is that Jesus in us is reduced to an afterthought, a religious ornament, a nice piece of religious furniture that we look at, admire, but has no practical value. In such an atmosphere, when restrictions and deeds form our primary religion identification and affiliation, Jesus is rarely seen or heard, though His name is used.

If morality is the answer, then Jesus is completely unnecessary. If we can fix our own problems – who needs Jesus? If we believe that we can produce enough goodness to turn our world around, then knowing Jesus, accepting Him, believing and trusting in Him are irrelevant. Religious legalism appropriates the name of Jesus, but it puts Him in a museum, while the real and practical issue is what we do and what we don’t do.

Moral majority movements can quickly become all about us, and Jesus is left behind. Of course God wants us to be moral, rather than immoral. But he wants us to understand that our campaigns, our deeds, our programs, and our performances are not the real center of our lives. The real prize is Jesus. The real treasure that we have in jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7) is God’s amazing grace putting Jesus inside of us.

Jesus produces morality, but morality does not produce Jesus. Any religious program that suggests that morality is the real answer is in fact the wrong answer. The answer is choosing to have Jesus live in you. That’s it! Jesus. When we abide in union with Christ we know that changing what we do – becoming better people, building more character – doesn’t change WHO WE ARE. We know that when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior He makes us into new men and women, children of God in His Family. Living with Him in us will eventually transform our behavior in ways we could never accomplish apart from Him.

Salvation is completely and absolutely a product of God’s grace – all we need to do is accept it by choosing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to come and forever live in us.

[Back to Home]