Congratulations! If Jesus saved you, you have a new job!

Ron Ford August 2, 2022

What you will learn in this lesson

The gospel of the Kingdom isn’t merely the good news that God will forgive you of your sins so you can go to heaven when you die. The gospel certainly includes forgiveness and heaven, but the gospel is actually about much more than that.

The gospel of the Kingdom is the good news about all that the creator accomplished through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He has done everything necessary to fix the disaster that began in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled. The good news of the gospel is that we can be forgiven of our sins and restored to the relationship we were originally intended to have with God and to the purpose we were placed on this earth to accomplish. Restored relationship and restored purpose are both included in the good news of the gospel.

Our culture tells us that our highest purpose is to do whatever it takes fulfill all our desires, meet all our own needs, get our way in everything we can, while accumulating lots of stuff. We are locked in an endless pursuit of personal fulfillment and self-actualization fueled by the belief that there is nothing more real or more important than our feelings, our thoughts, and our happiness.

But the Bible paints a very different reason for our presence on the earth. We were created to know the pure and endless love of the Sovereign Creator and to run this planet and mange it for him. The truth is, this mission is impossible if we are separated from him or if we rely on our own puny human resources. The bad news is humanity is in a bad way and the world we are responsible for is a mess. The good news is through Jesus God is putting it all right again.

If you want to see what you were actually created to be and do, just look closely at Jesus. He is the “firstborn of many brothers” (Romans 8:29) and the beginning of the new creation. What you will learn in this course is that your participation in Jesus’ Power Ministry is not an optional, add-on to spice up your ordinary or boring life. Learning to do what Jesus did, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is about learning to do what you were made for.

Warning: Guard Your Heart You may find yourself tempted to view Power Ministry as the way to finally find happiness and fulfill your deep longing for significance. Reread the three paragraphs above. The truth is your deepest longings and ambitions for purpose, meaning, and significance are found in Jesus, not in working for him. While Power Ministry will at times provide very significant and meaningful experiences, they should never take the place of Jesus in your heart. Remember, anything that takes the place only God should have in your life is called idoltatry. It may seem strange to encounter a warning about idolatry and Power Ministry, but there it is. Our hearts are prone to wander off track if we are not watchful. So, as you begin to live, love, and serve like Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, always keep your focus and affection on Jesus, and nothing else. Learn to do your job as a disciple of Jesus and give your best effort at all times, but keep your heart reserved for him and you will do fine.

What is God doing? The key is found in the one big story told in the Bible.

To often we get the impression that the Bible is just a collection of rules, or strange stories, or moral and ethical principles for living a better life and becoming better people. Actually, the Bible is first and foremost God’s self-revelation of himself to his lost and fallen human creatures (that’s us), and second, it is the revelation of his Kingdom’s purposes to fix all that has gone wrong.

We all can acknowledge that this world is a mess filled with too much pain, loss, and dispair, but the Bible is the story of all that God has done to fix what was broken and restore it to his original plan for good. It is one, single story that begins in Genesis and ends in the book of Revelation. It is also a story that explains who you are and what you were made for.

Why do we need power?

Why do those who love and follow Jesus need the power of the Holy Spirit? The answer is actually simple. Jesus saves us in order to restore us to what God originally intended for humanity.

Genesis 1:27 shows that Adam and Eve were placed on the earth in order to bear God’s image, that is, to represent the Creator’s interests on the earth. Adam and Eve had four things that were lost to humanity when they fell; they had an open and intimate relationship with the Creator, and they had been given the responsibility, authority, and power to manage God’s will on earth as in heaven.

Through Jesus’ all of this has been resolved and restored to those who become his disciples. When Jesus poured out the promised Holy Spirit on his disciples (Acts 2) it was to fully restore humanity to their created purpose in God’s Kingdom.

Bonus Material:

The following two videos were produced by The Bible Project and are excellent overviews of some of the key ideas we are addressing in this first lesson. Enjoy!