I don't remember the first time I encountered the Gospel. As someone who was raised in the church, and with two parents who had met at Bible College, the Gospel was present as absolute truth in my life, for as long as I can remember. This foundation paved the way for a desire to know Him more. While transitioning into my teenage years wasn't easy, I found myself coming back, again and again, to look for the God who cared for me so much that His will was for His own Son to give up His life for me. The truth of the gospel was an anchor for me throughout the physical, familial, and relational transition. However, it wasn't until college that I was pushed into a new understanding of the overpowering, all-encompassing truth of the Gospels. - Alexis
When I moved to Washington, DC and started college at American University as a freshman, I started in a Bible Study, or Life Group, that studied women in the Bible – the first time I had ever seen women in a Biblical context given any attention. Learning about many different women's roles in the genealogy, life, and ministry of Jesus, shown within the Gospels, transformed my understanding of the character and work of Jesus. During my sophomore year, I stepped into co-leadership in my own Life Group, and for the first time in my life, leaned into a consistent set-aside time of reading the Bible daily. I remember the first time I read all of the Gospels through their entirety – the dedication and perfection of love in Jesus' time on Earth prompted in me a desire to dig deeper into stories that I thought I knew by heart.
Now, years later, I am taken back to the accessible, foundational, transformative power of the Gospel books through a conversation that I had recently with one of our Student Leaders at Georgetown University. I was talking to her about the importance of inviting those who don't share our faith into our Life Groups, along with those of us who had known Christ for years before college. In thinking about how to reach those who believe and those who have yet to, we talked about the reason why staff encourages Student Leaders to start the year off with a study of one of the Gospels. The Gospels offer insight into who Jesus is, for those who may have just heard about Him, or those who have known Him for years. There is power in studying the character of God and the Earth-shaking story of Christ's life, death, and resurrection with a bunch of students. It was a sweet reminder that a study into the foundation of our faith will bring depth when those, who believe in Jesus, or not, wrestle with and push deeply into the text. It is then when God seems to show up bigger and more splendidly than before.
After spending the past couple of months learning and studying the Synoptic Gospels, through the courses that Chi Alpha provides for staff members, I have come to understand the importance of studying the Gospels over and over and over again. As someone who had grown up in the church, the Gospel provided an absolute truth that I followed up until college, and it was there that I realized I wanted to choose to dedicate the rest of my life to Christ. The Gospel has been a compass, lifesaver, and a love a story greater than any that I could be apart of for most of the entirety of my life. However, it is now that I am seeing the truth in the need for Christ-followers to maintain a certain level of "Holy Dissatisfaction" that prompts a revisiting and reminding of what the Gospel means for our lives today.
So, why is it important that we study the Gospels continually?
Because We Change.
God stays the same, but as we learn and grow our understanding of His steadfastness grows deeper the longer we walk with Him
Because It is Constant.
We study to see how the Gospel's good news triumphs over anything else we may encounter, whether good or bad, in every stage of life.
To Remember.
The Gospel reminds us that His love is real and true and good, even when we don't feel it.
For Identity.
As we get to know God through the Gospel, we can then learn about who we are as His children. It allows us to counter lies from the enemy.
To Internalize Truth.
So that we may rest in it, and then share it with others.
For Transformation.
To let the beauty of the greatest love story that there will ever be, take root and transform our lives again and again.
For Relationship With Him.
To let Him remind us of how much He loves us.
Because there is ALWAYS more to Him.
He is not finite, which means there is more goodness and love and depth than we can imagine, and He wants to share it with us. All we have to do is accept it.
