I always thought the main message of the gospel was that when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior then we get to go up to Heaven after we die. I never really gave much consideration to what the gospel, or what I often heard being called the “good news” meant for my life here on Earth.
Now, I still believe that getting to live forever with Jesus in Heaven is really, really good news and I still think that Heaven is the ultimate reward for all of those who place their faith in Jesus’ sacrificial work on the cross. But over the past several years, God has shown me that I had never fully grasped the full message of the gospel. I’d always been missing out on a very big part of it. It’s a part I wish I would have known about way sooner.
I learned how the gospel isn’t just about how we get to go up to Heaven one day. It’s also about how we can bring a little bit of Heaven down here right now
“Our culture is so fixated on dying and going to heaven when the whole Scripture is about heaven coming to earth.” - N.T. Wright