The Gospel & Acts in 2min

Connecting The Gospel & Acts to the Big Picture of the Bible

In order to better understand the gospels, let's place them within the big picture of the Bible. In the Bible, God reveals himself as a giving God. From heaven, God gives mankind a wonderful creation as well as his thoughts. And mankind accepts these heavenly gifts, but turns away from the giver himself. Since then, the relationship between heaven and earth has been broken. And mankind has suffered from the problem of sin which ends in death.

The Key Ideas of The Gospel & Acts

But God sees all this suffering and decides to carry out his plan to rescue mankind through Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, we see this heavenly solution to mankind's problem unfold. The Gospels show us how God gives his own son from heaven so that all people can be saved. To do this, God had to become a man. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

And in this way, divine and human nature were united in one person. And thus, the son entered into creation by taking on human nature with all of its characteristics and weaknesses yet never sinned. This person is called Jesus. Jesus lived the perfect life and showed that it is possible to live as a human in relationship with God. And it's in the four gospels that we see four different perspectives of Jesus Christ.

Matthew describes him as the heavenly king, Mark as the heavenly servant, Luke as the heavenly man, and John as the son of God who restores our relationship with heaven. And how does Jesus do this? Well, instead of rebelling against God like the first man, Jesus humbles himself. He serves people. He even goes so far as to die for them, allowing himself to be nailed to a cross to pay the penalty for sin, death.

But Jesus doesn't remain in the grave. After 3 days, he resurrects back to life, conquering death. And now, everyone who accepts the substitutionary death of Jesus is saved and becomes a follower of Jesus. In the book of Acts, we see how Jesus goes back to heaven. From there, he continues to work through his followers by dwelling in each of them personally through the Holy Spirit.

Summary + Application to Christ

And this is quite a novelty, a transition from an earthly Jewish system to a heavenly Christian one. From an earthly people, Israel, to a worldwide heavenly people, the church. To summarize, the gospels show us the heavenly solution to the greatest problem on earth. God gives his son to solve mankind's sin problem. Do you want to be saved? Entrust yourself to the son of God. He alone can solve your sin problem.

Action Steps

He wants to live with you both here on earth and soon in heaven.