Salvation/ Gospel

I shared these stuff to bunch of folks who had no Christian background earlier last year. It was a different experience because it had a sort of uneasy feeling especially judging from the facial expression of those listening. There was the 'this guy has some interesting things to say' expression (thank goodness) but there were more of the 'what is this guy talking about', 'salva...what????', 'is this guy trying to convert me?', 'this guy is boooooooring' kind of expressions! Well anyway we all have to start somewhere don't we? I just wished they (those who invited me, well my youth pastor extended the invitation to me) told me earlier that these bunch of wonderful folks (they were wonderful) did not really understand English really well! I was asked to give a talk on Salvation. So I got ready to present a slightly renditioned version of salvation (slightly away from the reformed perspective that is). I will share them in point form, just like how I wrote them on my note pad.

1. The thing about humanity: Something is wrong
-people have always been at the centre stage of things
-they had their good moments as well as their bad ones
-in a lot of ways people have explained that humans are behind a lot of the destruction in the world. Some even explained that humans were the main contributor of destruction.
-Generally we have some sort of understanding that there lies a problem entailing humans.

2. The Bible explains humanity: Eikon (image of God)
-humans were created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-to rule, reproduce)
-The story goes well until "humpty dumpty had a great fall"; CRACK. The Eikon gets cracked. They disobeyed God and wanted to be solely independent of Him.
-Here lies the link to (point 1) the problem entailing humans. Humans get cracked and ceased in some degree of the original intent of being God's representative. So the crack affects humans relationship with God, himself, others and creation. This is the proposal of something has gone wrong.
-thus humans ceased to be what they were called to be.

3. Jesus: Restoring the Eikon (Jesus is the exact representation of God's image)
-He has a dual task of representation. He reflects God completely and reflected humans completely. Jesus' life and death is God's solution to save the world. God pin pointed on the source to heal the world. This is why salvation is geared towards humanity.
-God's mission is the salvation of the world and it starts with humans.
-God has made a route to end the destruction: Jesus-to save humanity.


Well that was the rough sketch. I had to cut some points out to make it simpler on the spot while I was talking to them. I'm not fully satisfied with the presentation but I was glad to be given that opportunity. Let's just say that there is never a perfect moment to start venture into new territory, as long as we start somewhere and build on how we present the Gospel. My hope is that mabey some of the things shared that day help in some sort of turning point in someones life that day.