How Does the Gospel Help Us Walk Straight?

When we hear the gospel, we hear the good news that will bring healing to our sinful hearts. Jesus said He came as a Physician to the sick. His Word was meant to transform our lives from death to eternal life.

So believing in the gospel brings us eternal life. But what is eternal life? Jesus tells us in John that knowing God is life eternal, a gift we have been granted by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." — John 17:3 (KJV)

But how does knowing God help us walk straight?

The Man Who Never Walked

Let’s look at the cripple in Lystra in Acts 14.

"And there they preached the gospel." — Acts 14:7 (KJV)

Verse 7 tells us that Paul was preaching the gospel there, and this man heard the Word of God. He was a cripple from his mother’s womb. He had never walked a single step in his life.

We know that Romans 10 tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." — Romans 10:17 (KJV)

Paul looked upon the lame man and perceived that he had the faith to be healed.

Notice the order. The hearing came first. He could not have the faith to be healed until the gospel was preached and Christ was revealed to him. And then Paul cried out with a loud voice, and the man did not just stand upright. He leaped and walked.

So we can see that just as the man had faith to be healed, God also gives us the faith to be healed of our own lameness by hearing the gospel.

What the Gospel Actually Says

The gospel tells us that we are sinners, totally separate from God. But because of His mercy toward us, Christ was sent to pay the price we could not afford. He lived the perfect life, and gave Himself to die in our places. And then, He rose from the grave to defeat death. And just as He has risen, those who have been given faith and repentance will also rise to everlasting life in heaven to be with our Heavenly Father.

But our salvation wasn’t just from death. We were saved from the bondage of sin. Because Christ redeemed us, He will sanctify us day by day, so that we will become more and more like Him, going from glory to glory.

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." — 2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV)

This is the ability to walk straight.

How We Walked Crooked

But how did we walk crooked before, or even now? Romans 3 describes in length all the ways we have been lame, unable to walk righteously.

"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes." — Romans 3:10–18 (KJV)

Notice how much of that passage is about walking. Gone out of the way. Feet swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery in their ways. The way of peace they have not known. This is what lameness looks like.

We Are Still Being Made to Walk

But here’s something we have to be honest about. Getting saved doesn’t mean every part of us started walking straight that day.

We still have areas where we limp. Maybe it’s the temper you can’t seem to get under control. Maybe it’s the phone you can’t put down. Maybe it’s the same worry you’ve taken to God a hundred times and picked right back up. Maybe it’s a tongue that’s still quicker than it should be, or a heart that still wants what it shouldn’t want.

That’s not a sign you were never saved. That’s the reason God is still working on you.

Sanctification is day by day. It’s from glory to glory, not from glory to finished. And that work God is doing in us is truly manifest when we are constantly hearing His Word. It is the only thing that will change us, and it changes us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Which means the same thing that healed the man in Lystra is the same thing that heals us in the areas we’re still lame. Hearing the Word and believing with faith that God can do all things.

Shining the Light

As Christians, we walk among a “crooked and perverse nation” among whom we shine as lights in the world.

"That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world." — Philippians 2:15 (KJV)

We shine the light of the gospel just like Paul did in Lystra.

Even cooler, this light doesn’t just shine for those around us, but for our own Christian walk, so that we might walk uprightly like our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." — Psalm 119:105 (KJV)