Dear friends:

This morning I woke up thinking about the sheer "simplicity of the gospel."

It really is simple, but too often complicated by humans and their religious rituals, religious kingdoms, sometimes complex, and even sometimes with funny looking costumes and hats.

Here it is:
"I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV).

Two verses stand out as demonstrating that simplicity;

1. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

Requirement: Believe in Him.

2.  "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9.)

Requirement: Faith.

RESULT: Gift, grace, and salvation.

God does it all.  All we do is believe.  Jesus did it all for us.

What about obedience?

Obedience springs from a grateful heart.

Jim