The Gospel

[This is the script from my October 8, 2012 speech in Communications 287-003 at the University of Kentucky. The assignment was to give a 4-5 minute informational speech with no persuasive element.]

Do you fear death? How do you cope with that fear?

That's a loaded question, isn't it? According to Hanson's 2005 article entitled "Fear of death and muddled thinking- it is so much worse than you think," the average American spends 15% of their total life wealth on medicines to make them live longer. That's an awful lot of money, all in order to push the limits of one's life span.

Fear of death, at least to some degree, is fairly common. It is also common to find ways to cope with fears, including this one. Many people trust in different things to deal with the impending end of life.

Today, I want to describe how Christians deal with their future death. I do not aim to convince you or persuade you; I want a good grade, and this is an informative project. Honestly, I'll probably still get some bad peer reviews for this.

Regardless, I'm here today to inform you on what Christians call "the gospel," which is their belief on how to deal with death. Specifically, we will look at why people are going to die, and what God does about that.

I will stating the rest as if it were fact, simply to save time from having to say "Christians believe" before every sentence. You can be the judge of the view; I'm just telling you what Christians believe.

In the beginning of time, humans were in a good relationship with God. All was good. God was running everything, and people were OK with that. Then, these people felt the need to go against what God had said. This feeling that people know better than God is called sin. More specifically, Wayne Grudem, in his 1994 book Systematic Theology calls sin "any failure to conform to the law of God in act, attitude, or nature."

Christians believe that God is the great King of the universe, ruling over literally everything. Trip Lee, in his 2012 book The Good Life, states that "there is no small sin against a great God." You see, Christians believe that not only is God the King and Ruler of all, but to go against His rule is to directly rebel against Him, which is sin. Just like an earthly government has punishment for rebellion and law-breaking, the eternal God has eternal punishment for people's sin and rebellion.

That punishment is called Hell, and every person that has ever done anything wrong in their life, no matter how big or small we may think it is, is headed directly for an eternal punishment. We are all, thanks to our rebellion, destined to die and go to a literal Hell. Fortunately, God wasn't cool with that.

Jesus came to earth, as Trip Lee says, "on a death mission." The entire point of Jesus, God's Son, coming to earth was, as 1 Timothy 1:15 says, "to save sinners." The entire point of His 30 years of sinless, rebellion-lacking life on this planet was so that He would qualify before God as a substitute for sinners. He died and took the punishment that sinners deserve before the Judge of the universe.

If the Son of God stayed dead, though, this ain't good news, is it? Instead, 3 days later, Jesus overcame the clutches of death and rose to life. Not like a zombie; I'm talking full. Normal. Life. And with that defeat of death, Jesus gives the same defeat to everyone who trusts and believes in Him.

I personally am convinced that I was a hopelessly doomed rebel, hurtling toward Hell. Then Jesus, my Savior, gave me a new life in Him, and I no longer fear death. Instead, I look death in the face and rejoice in my God that saved me.

So, to close, I ask again: do you fear death?