Adorn the Gospel

Please note this site is just a personal ministry and if you find theological error I am more than happy to be corrected! Soli Deo Goria!

Hi! I’m Eric Gagnon. I’m an author, I’ve previously served as a pastor, and currently work at Proverbs 31 Ministries as the Theological Content Manager for the First 5 App. I have a Bachelors degree in Church Ministry (B.Div.) as well as a Masters Degree in Theology (M.A.Th.) from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. Me and my family live in Mint Hill, North Carolina.

What Is The Gospel?

The gospel is good news. Let me explain:

God made the world good. (Genesis 1:31) He made mankind good upright. (Ecclesiastes 7:29) Yet, we have all gone astray and broken God’s laws. (Isaiah 53:6) God’s requirement as the good Judge of the universe is that we be perfectly obedient in order to have right standing before Him. (Galatians 3:10, Romans 8:4, James 2:10) God wouldn’t be good if he turned a blind eye to our evil. Jesus said “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Jesus sent to Apostle Peter to remind us that we are to be holy, just as God himself is holy! (1 Peter 1:15-16) That is our requirement for right standing before God. Perfect righteousness and holiness! Since all have sinned (Romans 3:23) and continue to struggle with sin (1 John 1:8) and since God said the punishment for sin is conscious and eternal spiritual death (Romans 6:23), that puts all of us in quite a bad situation. One day each one of us will meet our maker, and without a miracle of God, none of us have a good enough defense for the crimes we have committed against a good and holy God. We’re doomed without a remedy. The good news is that God in his mercy has had compassion on us unworthy sinners. Without ceasing to be God, God became the man Jesus Christ. Fully God. Fully Man. Jesus lived the sinless life for us that we would not. He was thus able to lay down his perfect human life for us on a Roman cross as the payment for our sins. Since He is God, death could not hold him down, and he defeated death by rising again to eternal life, so that all who put their trust in him alone (not counting on our goodness whatsoever!) would also someday rise from the dead and live eternally with him. (Philippians 3:8-11)

If you trust that you are enough to make it to heaven, or that when you die your good deeds will outweigh your bad deeds, you my friend are on your way to destruction. However if you turn and trust in Christ alone, trusting that He alone is able to save you based on his good work alone, and that his payment for sin on the cross is both necessary and sufficient for you, then you will be saved. Its guarantied because it doesn’t depend on us but on Him. That’s amazing news! God calls all men everywhere to repent and believe this good news. It’s a costly gift that he offers to us for free. We are saved by this grace through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8). Those who truly believe this good news are changed and affected forever. They are never the same. Their lives are completely different.

If you have believed this news for the first time, please tell someone about it. Please find a gospel believing church and begin attending there in service to others and as a thankful obedience to God. There is no perfect church. But the rest of God’s people need you there with them. Here is a church search and another one here that may be helpful in finding a gospel believing church. I’d personally love to hear from you, and you can feel free to contact me and ask me any questions you would like.

What do you mean by “adorn the Gospel?”

God’s Word in Titus 2:10 says, “Adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” Titus 2:10. The gospel is a treasure – a diamond! It is our job to put it on a pillow in a display case, elevated for all to see, to show it off, to make it beautiful, to “adorn” it. The gospel is rare and beautiful – and our lives as Christians are like the pillow – to be used to prop up what is beautiful: Jesus Christ and His Gospel message. Additionally, we can make the Gospel shine brightly by doing everything we do to the glory of God. This means that we can bring glory to God in art, music, building chairs, account management, pouring hot metal, hanging drywall, cleaning buildings, writing good programming code, and every other kind of good work there is. God is the master creator, and we are like him when we create. And all good work can adorn the doctrine of God if the workers themselves share their faith in Christ. As Christians we don’t hide our faith. We share it. We share it because only the gospel has power to save: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16 “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18. I hope you may be blessed by this site and are yourself encouraged to share the gospel with many others.

“adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” Titus 2:10.