The Gospel &...The Gospel

Maria Von Trapp once said the beginning is a very good place to start. I'm taking her advice and we are starting with the Gospel.

Welcome! I promised to meet you here in 2025, and boy is it 2025. Considering how January went, I think we are in for a hell of a year.

Thank you to all of you who have graciously decided to join me. Here, in this small corner of the internet, we will be delving into topics such as:

• The Gospel & the Mental Load

• The Gospel & Justin Bieber/P Diddy

• The Gospel & So Many Skin Care Ads

• The Gospel & the Cultural Idol of Perfection

• The Gospel & Grappling with the Hidden Sacrifice of Motherhood

I could go on forever, and we will get to the endless list of topics shortly, but for today, we must start at the beginning.

Theologian Frank Sheed said, “God is not only a fact of religion. He is a fact. Not to see him is to be wrong about everything, which includes being wrong about one's self.”

This means that the Gospel is the reality through which history unfolds, the background running through our lives. To see it means to see the whole picture. To miss it is to base life on only parts of the picture. In other words, the more you believe it, the more sane you become.

The problem is that most Christians do not know the Gospel, and even if they do know it, they often can’t articulate it. So, for the sake of sanity, this Substack, our faith, let’s define our terms.

Here it is. The Gospel in my own words:

1. The Original Plan: “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness, freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.” (CCC paragraph 1) We were created by love, and for love. This is why we are so deeply wounded when love is withheld. Our spirits remember why we were created.

2. The Rejection of that Plan: We rebelled against God’s invitation by sinning against Him, choosing to serve ourselves instead of God. “ [We] exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.” (Romas 1:25)

3. The Consequences: Sin brought death, disorder, and the devil's reign. These consequences deformed our entire beings and wreaked havoc on our relationship with God, other people, nature, and ourselves.

4. The Unfixable Problem: Sin’s lure and destructive effects held an unbreakable power over us. We became slaves to sin, destined for separation from God in eternity, and there was nothing we could do about it.

5. The New, Magnificent Plan: God, aware of our eternal disaster, would not allow us to be wholly cut off from Him. In the fullness of time, He came down in the person of Jesus Christ, the true God. He entered into the human experience as a true man. He lived the life we could never live and sacrificed what we could never sacrifice to pay the wage we could never pay. Then, as if that weren’t enough, He rose from the dead, defeating sin and death once and for all.

6. The Invitation Back into Communion: Because of Jesus, sin, and death are no longer the only option. Christ gave us a new one to place our trust in Him and allow Him to make us new creations. Through His power, we can conquer sin and better share in God's blessed life. He draws back into communion with Him. He transforms our hearts, orders our lives, and covers us with grace, joy, hope, love, and peace.

This is the Gospel message in a nutshell.

I had heard parts of this message repeatedly for most of my life, yet it didn’t capture my heart. I had never fully realized how deeply sin disfigured my life and how desperately I needed God’s grace until someone sat me down and explained it to me explicitly. I finally saw myself in the story. I recognized that I, Mallory Smyth, not the random person, rejected the love for which I was created. Face to face with my sin, I was profoundly humbled. I finally saw my need for a savior, and everything changed.

Seeing the world through the lens of the Gospel made my faith, and my daily life, make sense.

So here are some questions for you to think about.

Why do you feel in the core of your being that life should be better than it is? Why are you aware that you should behave better than you do? Why is it so hard to actually behave better? Could it be that our hearts remember God's original plan?

What makes you feel shame and regret? How does your selfish behavior affect your relationships? How does the disordered society you live in affect you? Could it be that sin causes these problems?

Have you given your life to Christ? If so, what has been the difference? Where do you see His grace changing and restoring you? How is He bringing you back into communion with Him?

It seems so simple on paper, but we all know it's not. I don’t know your experiences with Christianity. Maybe it’s been smooth sailing, and you love Jesus. Perhaps you have been bored by Christianity, deeply hurt by Christians, or something else, and I’m sorry. That experience doesn’t represent God’s magnificence, mercy, or love for you. But instead of rejecting the Gospel or putting it to the test. Does this story make sense with your daily reality?

I found that it did, and now, I can’t help but see it everywhere I look. I hope that you will, too, and it will change your life!

Ok, terms defined! Next…the culture!

Seeking Christ in this messy Culture with You,

Mallory Smyth

P.S. Let me know your thoughts on this post, your experiences, and your opinions in the comments. Of course, keep it clean and civil. Also, is there a topic burning in your heart? Let me know, and we will cover it. it!