Gospel = Good News

Very simple and simply great question:

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For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)


It’s sort of black-and-white.  In which side are we in?

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father (God) is not in him.( 1 John 2:15)

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? (Romans 6:16)


Free or slaved?

First, a question about the “benefits” of “worldly freedom (or pleasures)” :

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? (Romans 6:20-21a)

Second, the choice to be “slave of God”:

But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. (Romans 6:22)

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
 

About life with or without God:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:5-6)​
 

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More on life with God:

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:11-12)


Two basic elements needed to get connected with God:

1)   Power of God’s spirit (already transmitted)
2)   Our trust in it (reception required)

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, (2 Thessalonians 2:13)


To be specific about the very 1st step on our part, we are to accept the fact that God, the creator of heaven and earth, literally loves us “to death”:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

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Sounds too good to be true?  Yes, doesn't it?