Do you have a loved one or friend who does not know Jesus? Do you find any time you attempt to share your faith with them the words come out wrong? Do you become scared when sharing your faith? If so, I suggest writing a letter which explains the Gospel. Below is a letter which I wrote to my grandparents in order to explain the Gospel to them. Please, feel free to use this letter as a template to write your own.
Grams & Gramps,
I pray this letter finds you well. I pray you are not going stir crazy from all of the snow. Thank you for being great grandparents. You opened your home to all of us while we were growing up and I learned a lot from my dad’s stories but also from staying at your house. Gramps, you taught me how to shoot a bb gun, and throw a dart. I also learned how to be a man and selflessly lead a family from my dad’s stories about you from his childhood. Grams, you always cooked the best meals, though, my personal favorite is still chicken pot pie with the Quaker biscuits. I loved coming home and seeing your RV sitting in our driveway and looking at the map of all the States you had visited. You have taught and shared so much with me over the years that I wanted to take a minute and share with you the most important thing in my life.
The most important thing in my life is my relationship with Jesus Christ. I am what you would call a Christian. Christians down through the ages have believed in what is known as the Gospel. The word “Gospel” means “good news.” The good news is indeed good if we consider the serious nature of what is involved. In a concise statement, the gospel is this: Your debt of sin and the eternal consequences of it are cleared by God!
Each person is born in sin and is separated from God. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This means everyone is in the same dilemma. We have been created for God’s glory and yet our sin does not give Him glory. Our sinful state drives us to commit acts of sinful rebellion against God’s holy standards. We are thus subject to His just judgment and damnation in the lake of fire.
The Bible continues to tell us that the wages of sin is death. Our judgment is not only evident by the fact that we as humans physically die, but it also indicates that we are dead spiritually as will. Our physical life lasts for a while and then is over. Spiritually we are already dead and need to be given a new life.
People attempt to make themselves alive to God by being good, obeying whatever commandments from God’s Law they can remember, and abstaining from the socially terrible crimes that hurt others. Yet, God only accepts total perfection in thought and deed. This is the truth which struck me the hardest, I figured that I wasn’t as bad as others I had met or even Hitler or individuals in jail, therefore, God would see my good deeds which outweighed my bad and He would let me into Heaven. The Bible teaches however, that God is holy which means He must be separate from sin; God can have nothing to do with sinners. I realized that I was a sinner both in my thoughts and in my actions. The Bible teaches that God only accepts total perfection in thought and deed. Since we are born in sin, we have no chance of living a perfect life. Our predicament is bleak unless God does something to change it.
The same God who can have nothing to do with sin is the same God who provides a way for humanity to have a relationship with Him. Instead of us having to face God in judgment for our sin, God sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to take judgment for us. When he lived life, he lived a perfect law abiding life which we could not live. When he died, He paid a price we were unable to pay to God. When He rose again, He conquered sin and death.
Grams and Gramps you only need to receive this gift from God. The Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” I realized that left to myself I could not get to God. I was not perfect. Are you? If we are not perfect than we need someone who is, that someone is Jesus Christ. The most famous verse in the entire Bible sums up the Gospel like this, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”
In order to have a relationship with Jesus Christ you must recognize that you have sin and that you are helpless to cleanse it or avoid God’s judgment on it. You must turn from your sin and ask God to forgive you through His Son Jesus Christ. Finally, you must believe that Christ’s death paid for your sin and that his resurrection provides you with eternal life.
Grams and Gramps the decision to follow Jesus was the most important decision I ever made and this decision has changed my life completely. The Gospel is the reason why Julia and I are selling everything we own, packing a suitcase, and traveling around the world to work with the sick and poor in order to share with them the Gospel. I seriously plead with you to consider the words you have just read and to not let another minute go by without getting right with God. I love you. I care about you. I am praying for you and I would love to talk with you more about this.
Sincerely,
Elliott Welch
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