My life’s story is a common everyday life story most likely like yours, I was born in the great state of Ohio, raised in the then small town of Mt. Healthy, into a very common blue-collar neighborhood and environment. That short description of where life started for me probably fits most hardworking middle-class families today. I was raised by wonderful parents who taught us hard work, integrity, family loyalty and closeness. I am so grateful for the gift of my parents and four siblings. My parents moved from Kentucky to southern Ohio in 1958 for work and to raise their family in the traditional post war neighborhoods being built in those days. A small home of about thirteen hundred square feet, and a great 60’s neighborhood, where every parent was like a parent, and every mother was an extension of your mothers third eye, if you know what I mean. Thinking back on childhood experiences in that setting brings a smile on my face. Visiting our grandparents, relatives, and cousins in Kentucky bring back so many fond memories.
This website however is not just about me, it is about the fascination I have with the gospel that changed me. It’s about a life changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and an ever growing and changing life in Christ.
I did not grow up in a home dedicated to Christ in the sense that all of us were believers and were faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Like many people, we knew about God and the Bible, about religion and how we should respect other beliefs and practices, but it was more religion than it was about a relationship with God. I cannot remember a clear presentation of the gospel, did not go to church, never read the Bible, and did not have any sense other than a general religious sense of who Jesus Christ was. We were told that a person’s beliefs or relationship with God is private. It wasn’t until I read and studied the Bible that I found out that we are not to hide or seclude our faith from others. On the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5 Jesus is telling believers not to hide their faith under a basket, that’s quite the opposite of keeping your life in God private. Our family believed what they knew about Jesus Christ, but there is a difference between believing and receiving Jesus Christ as Savior.
In the fall of 1976 after graduating from High School in the spring, I joined the United States Navy. It was there for the first time in my life that I heard the glorious truth of the gospel on board the USS Inchon while sailing in the Mediterranean Sea in May of 1977. For the first time I fully understood the truths of the gospel as a fellow sailor simply explained to me specifically what Jesus Christ did on the cross for me. Romans 5:8, 1 Corinthians 15:3- 4, 2 Corinthians 5:21
Christ came into my life when I saw my sin as God described it in the Bible, Romans 3:23, 5:12, when I confessed and repented of my sin, 1 Corinthians 7:10, 1 John 1:9, and believed the gospel by grace through faith, Ephesians 2:8-9. I then humbly called on Him to save me. Romans 10:9-10, 13, and He showed me great mercy Ephesians 2:4-5. I did not know the extent of sins effect upon mankind Colossians 1:13, 22, and especially in my life. I did not know the price that Jesus paid on my behalf on the cross for my sin. Isaiah 53:5, 1 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24.
I am still amazed after all of these years and cannot get over how He transformed my life by His amazing Grace, and not by any works of my own, Ephesians 2:8- 9. God’s gift of eternal life changed my life forever John 3:16. The gospel is a gift from God, you do not work for a gift, I did not do works to obtain salvation, I was shown mercy, Titus 3:5. Mercy is something we all want and need, mercy is God’s compassion demonstrated through the gospel to sinners in desperate need of reconciliation and relationship with God. The gospel that I heard and believed so many years ago was not about religion and I did not have a “religious experience”. I did become a follower of Jesus Christ in the sense of having a true relationship with Him Luke 9:23.
It seems that anyone who wants to make the claim of being a Christian can simply make a statement to that effect, and presto! their claim is valid. But the true gospel that transforms lives is not a simple acknowledgement that one believes who Jesus is. Interestingly the Bible says that demons believe and shudder or tremble, James 2:19. Nodding to the fact that one is a believer without repentance and faith, as well as the marks of true gospel transformation is dangerously deceiving. Giving a nod to the gospel is one thing, fully comprehending and embracing the total demands and truths of the gospel is another. Christ saved me, He transformed my life, He made life worth living, my life is richer and fuller because of salvation. Salvation reorients one’s life and produces desires toward God and His Word. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10 I am so thankful that I repented of my sin and turned to Christ by faith and believed.
I want to add a word about confession and repentance because I want to be clear that they are not the same thing. Confession & Repentance 1 I did not just confess my sin, I repented of my sin. People confess sin all the time without repenting from their sin. Confession is the beginning act of working toward repentance from sin, toward the gospel driven act of repentance from sin. We identify our sin by confession, we agree with God about our sin in our confession, but then we move toward God and repent and turn from our sin thus asking God, and being granted by God forgiveness of our sins. Repentance is seeing your sin as God see’s and describes it in the Bible, and being so repulsed by that sin that you have a change of heart and mind about that sin, turning from it, turning to God for mercy from pending judgment, never to return to it again. I am simply pointing out that our sin is against God first, our sin is defined by God first and our confession is toward God first.
Jesus said a lot about repentance, Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Luke 5:32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Luke 13:3, 5 Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Jesus spoke this command indiscriminately to all who would listen. It was a call for radical inward change toward God and man. When a person encounters Christ and is confronted with the gospel they repent, and their lives are transformed. Let me explain a little further what I mean by what gospel transformation looks like in the Bible.
If you read the historical description of the Apostle Paul coming to Christ you will understand what being transformed by the gospel of Christ means, as well as being consumed by His love and giving your life to Him. If you read the book of Acts chapter 9, when Paul had an encounter with Jesus and believed, then later in chapter 22 you read his testimony during a trial, and then in chapter 26 as a prisoner testifying in his own defense before king Agrippa, you see how gospel transformation gripped Paul’s life. There are other places where he describes the influence that the gospel had on his life, Galatians 1:11-24, 1 Corinthians 15:8-10 and then 1 Timothy 1:12–17 where he makes reference to his past life as, “formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” But then he describes his new life in Christ. “But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”
Like Paul and every other follower of Christ, the gospel defines who I am, my life in Christ is what defines what and who I am. I am first and foremost a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, I am a child of God, that defines who I really am, John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. God made it possible through the gospel to make me a child of God, and by that single act my life has been completely defined by the gospel. My actions in every area of life, my whole life is defined by that relationship, Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Jesus Christ’s gospel makes individuals followers of Him. That is simple and profound because it is so life changing. The gospel always calls people to a relationship with Jesus Christ, not to a religious experience, and that relationship always produces spiritual fruit, and always shows growth into the likeness of Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3:18.
So, a believer is not defined by what they do, but who they are in Christ, what we do is just a reflection of who we are in Christ, Christ working in us. The gospel placed me in God’s family, and then Christ in me, caused me to do works that are indicative of a person who has Christ living in them. The Son of God lives in me causing me to desire to be like Him according to Gods eternal purpose and plan. 1 John 2:3 And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked…..29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. These verses perfectly describe a true life in Christ, “we have come to know him if we keep his commandments”, “whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him”, “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked”, “everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” What truly happened to me when I repented and asked Christ to forgive me and save me from my sin by faith is amazing and the verses above state this amazing fact. If you know Christ you not only want to, but you are compelled to become more like Him in every single part of your life, with every fiber of your being, 1 Peter 2:21.
As I become more like Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit through His Word, I have been changed and am being changed to be more like Him. Not perfect, but more like Him as I desire and do things in life that reflect this transformation, that reflect His life, that is now in me. My life is forever altered with this identity. John 14:15, Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Ephesians 2:10, 4:22-24, 5:1-2, 2 Peter 1:5-9, 1 John 2:6.
This is what I am talking about when I say that the gospel transforms lives and transformed my life to become a passionate, devoted, and dedicated follower of Jesus Christ. Life is not the same when you become a true follower of Jesus Christ because He transforms you in your inner person. This is relationship, just like I have a relationship with my wife, and we are one and we have altered each other’s lives for the better, so does Christ. I often tell people that I do not have religion with my wife, I have a relationship, I do not have religion with Christ I have a personal relationship with Him. 1 John 1:6-7
The gospel will change your life, and as you can see it is life transformational. Would you give your life to Christ, confessing your sin, asking for forgiveness by faith, turning from sin and by faith believe? Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Jesus will and does forgive, He will bear your burden, He has already bore our sins on the cross in order that you might live for Him, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24. He will heal the deepest wound you have, your sin, through the wounds He bore on the cross. 1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, Galatians 1:4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
The gospel is a promise made by God to you, John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Would you accept by faith the message of the gospel today? I pray that you will and that you will tell me of your decision.
Contact me at bradannah@hotmail.com