Your Favorite Gospel Illustrations?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Ryan&Amber2013

Puritan Board Senior
Do you have favorite Gospel illustrations, or passages that really stand out to you about the Gospel? I'm thinking about making a collection. I find that simply thinking on the Gospel is the best. Thanks!
 
I was just talking to a brother the other night at our community group, and he was sharing with me one I never heard.

He talked about a boy named Timmy, and Timmy pushed down another kid at school. What would happen to Timmy? The teacher would probably be notified and address it. What if Timmy then pushed the teacher? The principal would probably be notified and address it. What if Timmy then pushed down the principal? The police would probably get involved. What if Timmy then started pushing the police? There may be some legal repercussions, were a judge might get involved in the situation. What if Timmy then pushed down the judge? His punishment is now much more severe than when he pushed down his fellow student.

This is our predicament as people sinning against God. Because we are offending a much greater one than our fellow human beings, the punishment that our sins deserve is much more severe.

Pondering such things drives me so close to God.
 
Last edited:
Ezekiel calling the dry bones to come to life, and God calling flesh and sinew onto the dry bones, and breathing life into them.
 
I personally like the Evangelism Explosion illustration. It is very similar to the Navigator's Bridge to Life but it includes a bit more like the deity of Christ and a need for Church.

https://evangelismexplosion.org/resources/steps-to-life/
John 5:24 is probably my favorite gospel passage.

Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
 
The stripping off of Joshua's filthy garments in exchange for clean garments at the command of the Angel of the Lord in Zechariah ch 3.
 
Excellent passage from The Pilmgrim's Progress where Christian and Faithful are having a discussion along the road with the character, Talkative - who turns out to be just that and nothing more and quickly abandoned them:

Christian: ...This, Talkative is not aware of; he thinks that hearing and saying will make a good Christian; and thus he deceiveth his own soul. Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life. And let us assure ourselves, that at the day of doom men shall be judged according to their fruits. Matt. 13:23. It will not be said then, Did you believe? but, Were you doers, or talkers only? and accordingly shall they be judged. The end of the world is compared to our harvest, Matt. 13:30, and you know men at harvest regard nothing but fruit. Not that any thing can be accepted that is not of faith; but I speak this to show you how insignificant the profession of Talkative will be at that day.

Faithful: This brings to my mind that of Moses, by which he describeth the beast that is clean. Lev. 11; Deut. 14. He is such an one that parteth the hoof, and cheweth the cud; not that parteth the hoof only, or that cheweth the cud only. The hare cheweth the cud, but yet is unclean, because he parteth not the hoof. And this truly resembleth Talkative: he cheweth the cud, he seeketh knowledge; he cheweth upon the word, but he divideth not the hoof. He parteth not with the way of sinners; but, as the hare, he retaineth the foot of the dog or bear, and therefore he is unclean.

Christian: You have spoken, for aught I know, the true gospel sense of these texts. And I will add another thing: Paul calleth some men, yea, and those great talkers too, sounding brass, and tinkling cymbals, 1 Cor. 13:1, 3; that is, as he expounds them in another place, things without life giving sound. 1 Cor. 14:7. Things without life; that is, without the true faith and grace of the gospel; and consequently, things that shall never be placed in the kingdom of heaven among those that are the children of life; though their sound, by their talk, be as if it were the tongue or voice of an angel.
 
Man's basic problem is that his starting condition--of which he is generally ignorant for a variety of reasons--is helpless and miserable. That which he finds uncomfortable in his condition is either a distraction from the real issue, or it appalls him purely at a surface level; he is not prepared to probe his wound to test its severity. More importantly, he tends to insist on contributing to his own solution; or else sees whatever solution might come his way as his by right.

All of the above following the Christian Faith's diagnostic sentence (first line) enhances the predicament described. The Bible uses numerous and varied illustrations including prison, caught in natural disaster, bodily ailment/wound/incurable condition, and death (just to name a few) to set this reality before the unwilling eyes of this person or that, if possibly the grace of God will open blinded eyes to see the truth of the situation.

I think of St.Paul, arrested and struck physically blind on the road to Damascus, on his way to do war on the Lord through his saints. Like a soldier taken in battle, awakened in the moment and realizing his own self-deception had put him in the forefront of a battle "on the wrong side," he was led along to a room in the city that was for someone in his condition as dark as a dungeon cell, and just as serviceable for the King's utility. Saul (as Paul was then addressed) had a few days to contemplate his many wicked acts, perhaps primarily his supervision of Stephen's killing (which he ought then view as the murderous outworking of his envy and pride).

When Ananias intruded on his reverie, would it not be reasonable if Saul assumed this was the hour when the King (whose reign he had viciously opposed) should pass a capital sentence on him, to the delight of the beleaguered saints now freed from this officer's wasting abuse? Blind he might be, but his guilt was starkly visible to him, and the justice that belonged to one in his position was unavoidable. Instead of justice, Saul found mercy; he was pardoned, as one who had blasphemed in ignorance--an ignorance he owned, he did not make it an excuse.

Saul, or St.Paul as we are more familiar with him, discovered in the Lord Jesus the promised Christ. Here was the Mediator he and all the rest of the saved need: the Prophet, Priest, and King. This pardoning Lord chose to send Paul to the Gentiles; and I cannot help but think that with every step of further preparation Paul took, as well as with every step of his many journeys and trials thereafter in missionary enterprise, he could have often thought to himself how Stephen was the better man for this work for which he (Paul) was spared.

But in fact, it is because Paul was delivered from his helpless condition, and from the justice of heaven, that he was as effective (or moreso) than Stephen might have been. We only know how biblically minded Stephen was, how evidently suited to the ministry, and how tied in to the Gentile synagogue he was prior to his death; we do not know the circumstances of his conversion, if he was as stubbornly blind and hostile before the Savior came to his aid, though we can assume he saw Christ in the same basic perspective as Paul did once both men were in the kingdom of God rather than outside it.

Paul, for his part, was as much acquainted with the OT as Stephen had been as to its raw content. He had been a pupil of one of the greatest rabbis of his age, Gamaliel. He patiently waited at length to complete his instruction in the school of Christ; recall, Paul did not receive the gospel he was appointed to preach mediated through another apostle's ministry. Therefore, as one untimely born and as one who violently opposed the Son, he came to the Gentiles as a former conspirator against the Lord and his Anointed who was given one last chance to kiss the Son.

If God might save Saul of Tarsus, could there be an enemy whose repentance he must refuse?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top