The Offer:
What’s In It For Me?

A number of years ago, I was in a career that required a certain amount of sales performance. When one is selling a good or service it generally is advantageous to point out to the potential customer the benefits of your product. If the benefits of the product are markedly superior to anything else available in the marketplace, we may sometimes say that the product “sells itself.”

I don’t really like to talk about “selling” the gospel, but if I may be indulged in using an example drawn from sales, then the gospel of Christ truly sells itself. The benefits of the gospel, the Christian Life, are vastly superior to anything else, period! When God places His offer on the table, it is overwhelmingly in my best interest to take it!

What’s in it for me? What are the benefits of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

The Christian Life gives me the physical necessities of this life.

Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matthew 6:31-33 NKJV).

In the context of this passage, Jesus is talking about basic physical needs: something to eat, something to wear. We must be careful not to confuse wants and needs. Jesus is promising that we’ll get by – bread for today. If I ate today, God has delivered on His promise. If I had bread today, clothing on my back today, and a dry place to stay today – you tell me what more I needed, physically speaking. We won’t care in eternity if our wants were met. If we can just have our real needs, that is enough. That God promises.

The Christian Life gives me fellowship and encouragement from like-minded friends.

…that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me (Romans 1:12 NKJV).

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2 NKJV).

Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing (1 Thessalonians 5:11 NKJV).

Ever feel that you are all alone in the world? Do you sometimes feel that there is no one who would pick you up if you fell, no one who would offer a kind word if you failed, no one who would have your back if you were falsely accused or deserted – no one who cares? You need not feel like this if you are a faithful Christian. The Christian Life involves a community of obedient believers who care and therefore share. You have a safe place; you belong – if you’re a Christian.

The Christian Life gives me meaning, purpose, and hope in this life.

…in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began (Titus 1:2 NKJV).

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14 NKJV).

One who has lost hope, has truly lost everything. You may ask, “What is the point in living?” if you feel that your life has no meaning and therefore no hope. As a Christian, your life has meaning. You have a purpose for living: to show others Christ in you, to thus help save them from eternal doom, and to honor God who made you in the process. If you have Christian meaning and Christian purpose, then you have Christian hope. And that hope gets you out of bed every morning, carries you through every day, and confidently lays you down to sleep every night.

The Christian Life gives me spiritual life after physical death.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:54-55 KJV).

The Christian Life is all about heaven. It is an eternal existence that defies complete comprehension. It is not physical reward. It is better than that. It is beyond that. There is no death, no dying, no pain, no suffering, no disappointment, no unfairness – but that doesn’t fully describe it. There is perfect love, perfect peace, perfect happiness, perfect understanding – but that doesn’t fully describe it. God uses terms that we will understand to give us a glimpse of it, like streets paved with gold. But it won’t be literal gold, because all the elements of this earth will have been burned up. It’ll be better than gold. Heaven will be indescribably and incomprehensively: good! I want to go there. The Christian Life is the way.

Let’s believe and obey the gospel of Christ and walk in the way of salvation that terminates triumphantly in heaven itself!

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13 NKJV).