God: 7 Fundamentals You Need to Know

God is perhaps the most misunderstood Person, even though the Bible is the best-selling book of all time. 

“The very year that Harry Potter maxed out in sales, the Bible still outsold Harry Potter,” Pastor Jack Wellman says in a Patheos article. With the popularity of the Bible, you might figure that people would know the basics of the gospel. So what is the gospel? The gospel is the good news that Jesus loves you so much he made a way for you to know him and love him deeply. Why not share this truth regularly?

Believing the good news changes your life. Do you or a counselee struggle with crazy emotions or strained relationships? Do you ever doubt you’re enough?

A while back Monica sought me for help with depression and anxiety. As we chatted I discovered she had misunderstandings about God. A Christian for decades, she needed a refresher on gospel basics.

But Monica felt hope as she began to remind herself of the gospel daily. She spoke truth to her heart and aligned her desires with God’s desires. A crucial piece was a Bible study on salvation, sanctification, and replacing life-sucking habits with God-honoring actions. Within two weeks, her depression began to lift. So did her anxiety and continual worry.

The Lord changed her heart! He changed her life!

Here’s a rundown of the seven gospel fundamentals.

1. One God

There is only one God (1 Timothy 2:5). He is a loving, perfectly good, perfectly holy, and perfectly righteous in all that he is and in all that he does. He always was and always will be. Indeed, he is eternal — having no beginning or end.

2. God Creates

God created all things (Genesis 1) — all that is seen and unseen. However, he did not create anything that is contrary to his perfectly good, holy, and righteous nature. Therefore, he did not create sin.

3. Desires Fellowship

God wants all people to enjoy close fellowship with Him. Fellowship is a type of spiritual bond that Christians experience with each other and with God. However, when sin entered the world through the first humans, Adam and Eve, every person born after that was born with a sin nature. Did you know the sin nature opposes his ways and standards?

4. Separation from God

Your sin nature and the sinful acts that come from that nature makes you an enemy of God (before you trust Jesus as your Savior). You are unable to please him in any way through your own efforts. In this spiritual condition, your destiny is hell and eternal separation from him.

5. Amazing Love

However, God loves you beyond comprehension. He had a wonderful plan since eternity past to save people from their sins and bring us back to him in a holy, close relationship. So he sent his perfectly good, holy, and righteous Son, Jesus Christ, into the world in order to die for the sins of the world. All people who put their trust in Jesus Christ and what he accomplished by his death and resurrection have all their sins forgiven and receive eternal life.

6. Christ’s Righteousness

When you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, at that moment you receive the righteousness of Christ, you become a child of God (John 1:12), you become a co-heir with Christ, and you are indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

7. Holy Spirit Indwells Every Believer

Because you are sealed by the Holy Spirit, he now lives permanently inside you (Gal. 2:20). This means you can never lose your salvation. You are eternally secure in Christ. The Holy Spirit will also comfort, guide, and teach you as he leads you and works in you to become more and more like Christ.