For the past fifty years, Christians have focused on the first half of the gospel-persuading people to make decisions for Jesus so they would go to heaven when they died. Yet we've been missing an essential part of Jesus' mission. People need to hear the second half of the gospel-what it means to become a disciple of Jesus. The urgent task for the church today is more than getting people to heaven, it is getting heaven into people before they die. The Second Half of the Gospel brings the message of the gospel full circle as followers of Jesus awaken to the fullness of God's love and grow in their love for one another and the world.
We face two barriers to transformation. We have any inadequate understanding of the scope, sequence, and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And our lives lack the relational infrastructure needed to make this gospel vision a sustainable reality. Gospel transformation only happens when we remove the thin veneer covering our broken desires and are fully known and deeply loved. J. D. Walt offers a practical process for navigating people away from the tired approach of believing and behaving to one of beholding and becoming. He offers ways to move from arrested character development to activated character transformation, from duty-bound religious practice to delighting in the love of God and others.
Jesus said the world would know we are his followers by our love for one another. It is the quality of love that has the power to convince those who do not believe in him. And when the people of God awaken to the second half of the gospel, the world will experience that love and awaken to the first half of the Gospel-the powerful message of God's salvation.
