The Gospel is at the heart of the Christian faith, and it means “good news.” At its core, it is not a list of habits to adopt or a list of rules to obey, but it is a story that is to be entered into and experienced. The Gospel is the story that drives everything that I do. Here is that story.

Once upon a time, God created the universe. And the pinnacle of that creation was humankind. Humans were unlike anything else in the world—we had divine dignity, and we had a distinct purpose—to reflect the values of God in heaven on earth below.

But we didn’t do that. We rejected our identity and our calling, and as a result, we subjected ourselves to endless cycles of brokenness and death. The human experience is now characterized by sorrow, suffering, and strife.

But God intervened. About two thousand years ago, God sent his Son, Jesus, to rescue us. Jesus became a human being and taught us the way of heaven once again. Unfortunately, we didn’t like him, so we killed him. But in the greatest plot twist of history, Jesus from the dead. As it turned out, Jesus’ death was all a part of the plan of redemption. It was this act of self-sacrificial love in the midst of a world of hate that broke the curse of humanity, that put death on rewind, and that initiated a new world of wholeness within the old world of brokenness.

The more we familiarize ourselves with this story of transformation, the more our own life stories will be transformed. And not only will we as individuals be transformed into humans of love, peace, and justice, but we will also naturally join in on God’s movement to transform the whole world with those same qualities. We will become pioneers of the values of heaven on earth below, and we will remain so, until all is made right again.