The Gospel Essentials - A Benchmark Study

Introduction 

For thousands of years, the true nature of God, Jesus Christ, and humans has been a subject of debate among theologians and philosophers ( Clauson, 2015) . As a result, many scholarly articles have been published in attempts to explain the mysteries of the existence of these subjects. Although the Bible explicitly stipulates man's origin, his nature excites different views, similarly to God’s and Jesus’ nature ( Clauson, 2015) . This paper seeks to analyze different scholarly articles and the Bible to present a description of the nature of God, Jesus, and humanity with regard to the Christian worldview. It also relates these subjects to the Christian restoration through the death of Jesus and their implications to an individual, the society, and the general Christian fraternity. To comprehensibly establish the connection between these elements, the paper examines the purpose and significance of each, in line with what is narrated in the Bible. 

Gospel Essential Beliefs 

Through the Word, which is primarily the pillar of the gospel, Christians gain knowledge about God, Jesus Christ, and humans together with their standards ( Clauson, 2015) . Therefore, the most significant gospel-essential beliefs in the Christian worldview entail the divine inspiration of the scripture, specific revelation to humanity, and the scripture's authority and illuminative nature. According to Towey (2013), these beliefs of the gospel revolve around the message about God, Christ, Sin, and the summon of faith, repentance, and redemption and play a crucial role in defining the totality of the Christian life framework. 

Nature of God 

For centuries, human beings have developed numerous presumptions to describe God's nature, but typically, it is impossible to understand God's totality with regard to His supremacy (Hughes, 2005) . The Bible, therefore, becomes a major tool that unleashes the complex nature of God. In 1 Corinthians 2:11, human beings are able to think right about God since he is knowable. However, the Bible also states in Deuteronomy 29:29 that God is incomprehensible and cannot be completely known. The existing knowledge about God, Christian worldview maintains that there is only one true living God who exists as three coeternal and consubstantial persons; God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. 

The Christian philosophy acknowledges these beings as one in substance, glory, and power and highly differentiated from nature, other beings, and the universe. Key characteristics used to reveal the true nature of God in the traditional Christian view include omniscience, existence, omnipotence, and goodness (Hughes, 2005) . Due to the mystery of His origin, human being describes Him as self-existent, implying that He is dependent of nothing eternal to Himself and is, therefore, the Alpha and the Omega. The omniscience relates to God’s infinite knowledge, omnipotent to His immeasurable power, and eternal due to infinite relation to time. The act of God creating humans in His own likeness, amassing provisions, and preserving the creations reveal His greatness, wisdom, and goodness. According to God’s eternal decree, all that exists is His creation and that He has already foreordained all things which will ever come to pass (Hughes, 2005) . Despite His goodness, mercy, and grace, God is known to show no tolerance to sin. As a result, God is considered fearful due to divine judgments that befall those who defile His law. 

Nature of Humanity 

Scholars define human nature as the fundamental dispositions and characteristics associated with humankind. The Christian view acknowledges man's nature as a crucial aspect of life due to the uniqueness that differentiates him from other creations ( Asumadu-Sarkodie, 2013) . Genesis 1:26-31 presents the creation of man with God's likeness, implying that to a certain undefined capacity, humans are like God. Therefore, with the ability to reason, create, socialize and make choices, the main role of Man was to exercise dominion over other creatures (Genesis 1:26-27) in ways that please God. However, Genesis 3 accounts for the root cause of human problems. Since man had free will compared to other worldly creatures, he was deceived by Satan to disobey God's command; as a result, the sinful nature attached to man permanently. 

Due to man's sinful nature, it is impossible to understand the true nature of knowledge since man's desires became evil, as accounted in Genesis 3 and 1 peter 4:3. Therefore, when as much as human beings strive to please God, it is impossible without God’s Grace since sin darkened our understanding (Ephesians 4:18). The extensive worldly corruption, catastrophes, and struggles are therefore associated with the fall of Adam and Eve ( Asumadu-Sarkodie, 2013) . Nonetheless, Christians believe that they have a duty to live moral lives so as to reunite with God at a future time He has ordained. 

Nature of Jesus 

As already revealed in God's nature, Jesus Christ is essentially God the Son. However, following the fall of man, Jesus became a human being through conception inspired by the Holy Spirit to redeem mankind. Therefore, He was pre-existent with God the Father, and all things were made by him as accounted in John 17:5. To establish his kingdom, he challenged His enemies by living a human life without sin (1 Peter 2:21-22). Through the power bestowed to Him by God, Jesus’s ministry focused on forgiveness of sin to purchase human souls for His kingdom's purpose ( Brown, 2011) . 

According to Colossians 1:15, Jesus is portrayed as the image of the invisible God due to the perfect life of obedience on earth. Therefore, the Kingdom of Jesus presents a schema of elected individuals who conform to his teachings and thus reigns over them ( Brown, 2011) . The establishment of the kingdom is a fulfillment of God’s will to take humanity back to God through death and resurrection. As a result, much of his work entailed preaching of the Kingdom of heaven. In order to expand the kingdom, Jesus commanded his disciples to teach the nations of the earth just as he taught them (Luke 9:1-3). 

Restoration 

After the fall of man, God intended to restore man to his initial state of perfection. As a result, the initial sacrifice made by God to cover his nakedness signified His ever-lasting mercies. With the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross, as the lamb of God final sacrifice, eternal restoration was established. According to the Christian worldview, restoration offers a broader perspective of lifestyle changes beyond feeling better, preventing diseases, and living longer ( Tryon, 2018) . For an individual to be restored in Jesus Christ, God's repentance, faith, and grace have to place a role. Through God's favor and undeserved help, God qualifies one to partake in the divine nature and eternal life ( Salvation_Tract) . This free and undeserved favor is termed as the grace of God. 

According to Titus 3:5-7, it is through the Grace that humankind is justified as righteous before God. To attain God's acceptance, repentance enables Christians to meet the required criteria of God's holiness for the purpose of acceptance. In Luke 13:3, human beings are destined to perish unless they repent. It is through the act of faith that Christians can please God (Hebrews 11:6). Self and societal transformation begin with repentance, which entails self-denial and self-discipline for the sake of Christ ( Salvation_Tract) . Through the act of faith, Christ establishes his good works in man, signifying the act of salvation, hence transformation. 

Christian Foundations 

Owing to the Holy nature of God, the Bible commands Christians to be Holy just like God (I Peter 1:15-16). However, the sinful nature reveals man's helplessness in meeting God's demands. Through Jesus Christ, God's redemption is revealed, which requires man to present repentance as an act of complete submission. As a result, through God’s grace, man is made righteous through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, which essentially created the basis of Christianity. These concepts challenge Christians to withdraw from the world and not be yoked together with unbelievers to avoid being influenced towards the wicked desires of the flesh (2 Corinthians 6:14). Even so, Christians have the calling to influence the world by harvesting more souls for Christ through preaching the gospel of salvation. These acts of social transformation, refraining from sin, and doing good are viewed as full-time service to God ( Theron & Lotter, 2009) . Not only are the Christian worldviews essential in influencing the world, but they also define the Christian codes of conduct while on earth. 

Analysis of the Implications of the Christian Worldview 

Theron & Lotter (2009) proposes that Christianity should be integrated with the societal aspects, including political, economical, educational, and social activities, to influence the world fully. The Christian worldviews emphasize a Christian way of seeing, perceiving, interpreting, approaching, and understanding the human life totality from the Biblical principle's perspective (Theron & Lotter, 2009). Therefore, the view fundamentally determines whether individuals will religiously involve with the world, hence defining their personal values, philosophy, norms, and principles, which subsequently determines their actions and decisions. The Christian worldview also forms a significant base in the formation of morals and ethical values that determine societal behaviors. 

Through the walk to the cross, Christians acknowledge the self-sacrificial love of Jesus and therefore develop key virtues like forgiveness. Other substantial impacts advocated by these essential Christianity concepts include the development of the virtue of love for God and other people, as well as confidence and hope towards the future. As a result, the Christian worldview is a coherent way of seeing the world in a spiritual aspect and separate from naturalism, deism, pantheism, polytheism, materialism, existentialism, and postmodernism (Spearman, 2005). The majority of people are often overwhelmed with many different beliefs despite there being one God and messiah. With different forms of interpretation of the Bible, the initial Christian church have split into different churches like the Roman Catholic, Evangelistic protestant, and Charismatic Pentecostal with regard to their beliefs. 

Conclusion 

Among the nature of beings discussed in the paper, it is evident that, unlike God, human nature is definable through the initial creation of Adam and Eve. However, major distortion caused by sin occurs, leading to human immortality and separation from God. Through God's divine nature, He initiates the process of saving humankind-a process, which typically connects man with Christ. Through the crucifixion of Christ, human nature is restored through man’s repentance with regard to God’s grace and one’s faith. It is through the Bible that God makes himself known to man; however, the complexity exhibited in God’s nature proves difficult for humans to understand his totality. The Christian worldview forms a significant aspect of the Christian living on earth, as well as the development of beliefs, norms, and values around the Christian communities. It is inevitable that this view has played a crucial role in minimizing the major world calamities like corruption, immorality, and wars. 

References 

Asumadu-Sarkodie, S. (2013). The Nature of a Christian Worldview, Christianity and the Elements of Philosophy.  Doi ,  10 (2.1), 1793-7929. file:///C:/Users/hp/Downloads/worldview.pdf 

Brown, R. (2011). The Kingdom of God and the Mission of God: Part 2.  Kingdom and Church in Frontier Mission , 49. https://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/28_1_PDFs/IJFM%2028%201_Brown.pdf 

Clauson, M. A. (2015). Human Nature and the Christian. https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1164&context=history_and_government_publications 

Hughes, G. (2005).  The Nature of God: An introduction to the philosophy of religion  (Vol. 1). Routledge. 

New King James Version. (1982). The Holy Bible. 

Salvation_Tract. (n.d.). The Gift of Salvation Principles of Salvation Living a Christian . Apostolic Christian Church: https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/5ec0a299/files/uploaded/Salvation_Tract_for_web_and_e-mail.pdf 

Spearman, M. L. (2005).  An exploratory factor analysis of philosophical belief systems . Alliant International University, Los Angeles. 

Theron, P. M., & Lotter, G. A. (2009). The necessity of an integral Christian worldview: reconnoitring the challenges for influencing the unbelieving world.  Koers ,  74 (3), 467-493. http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/koers/v74n3/05.pdf 

Towey, A. (2013).  An introduction to Christian theology . A&C Black. 

Tryon, D. N. P. (2018). Biblical concepts of restoration as a foundation for lifestyle change.  The Journal of Biblical Foundations of Faith and Learning ,  3 (1), 28. https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=jbffl