When God Walked Alone

By Tim Haring

Can we know for sure we'll go to heaven when we die? If you ask the average person, you will likely hear, "I hope so!" But when it comes to our eternal destiny and the question of where we stand with God, is hoping so good enough? Can we afford to take a chance that we might be wrong?

Pastor, author and confe

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Academy Elite
• Release date: Jan 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781647465803

Tim Haring

Tim Haring has been a pastor for over 30 years. He is the founding and senior pastor of one of the largest churches in the state of West Virginia, a church that has helped birth several other growing churches in West Virginia. In addition, he has served as a coach for churches in several other states. Tim has also spoken at conferences in the U.S., Central America and Europe. He and his wife Karen have five children and live in Morgantown, WV.

Book preview

When God Walked Alone

Finding God and

Helping Others Find Him

Tim Haring

When God Walked Alone © 2020 by Tim Haring.

All rights reserved.

Published by Author Academy Elite

PO Box 43, Powell, OH 43065

www.AuthorAcademyElite.com

Cover design by Brandy Gibson

All rights reserved. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the author.

Identifiers:

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020920872

ISBN: 978-1-64746-578-0 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-64746-579-7 (hardback)

ISBN: 978-1-64746-580-3 (ebook)

Available in paperback, hardback, and e-book

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, HCSB®, and Holman CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Table of Contents

Preface

Note to the Reader

A Word of Thanks

Part One: Getting the Gospel Right

Chapter 1 What Is a Gospel?

Chapter 2 The Problem Is Sin (Missing the Mark with God)

Chapter 3 The Solution Is Jesus (Because of Who He Was and What He Came to Do for Us)

Chapter 4 The Response God Is Looking for Is Faith (or Trust)

Part Two: The Gospel Illustrated

Chapter 5 When God Walked Alone

Chapter 6 Jesus, the Lamb of God

Chapter 7 Jesus and the Saint

Chapter 8 Jesus and the Sinner

Chapter 9 A Jailor Discovers the Good News

Part Three: Getting It Wrong

Chapter 10 Careless, Confusing, and Incorrect Ways of Sharing the Gospel Message

Chapter 11 More Careless, Confusing, and Incorrect Ways of Sharing the Gospel Message

Part Four: Getting the Message Out

Chapter 12 Some Simple Approaches to Sharing Our Faith

Chapter 13 Tools in Our Toolbox

Chapter 14 Tools in Our Toolbox (Part 2)

Chapter 15 Walking the Gospel

Chapter 16 Let’s Do This!

Endnotes

Preface

Can we know for sure that we will spend eternity with our Creator in heaven when we die? Can we be confident that when our days on this earth are done, our sins will be forgiven and we will be welcomed into God’s presence as His children? According to one of Jesus’s closest friends, John, the answer to these questions is a resounding yes!

John, who penned four New Testament books under the direction of the Holy Spirit, explains why he wrote the book of 1 John: I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).

A scholar by the name of M.R. Vincent notes that the word know in this verse doesn’t mean to perceive. In other words, it does not just mean to know intellectually. Vincent writes that it means to know with settled and absolute knowledge. We can know with certainty where we stand with God, and that really is good news!

But on what basis can we have this assurance? Our confidence rests on the many promises God has given us as recorded throughout the pages of the Bible. These promises center upon God’s One and only Son, Jesus Christ, who died in our place for our sins. John writes,

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life.

—1 John 5:11-12

Both physical and eternal life are found in Jesus (John 1:4). This is the essence of what is referred to in the New Testament as the gospel. Jesus was the source of life at creation, and He became the source of eternal life at His resurrection (John 2:19-22). Therefore, those who have a relationship with Jesus Christ can know that they will be able to join Him in heaven when they die (see John 6:44).¹

If (according to 1 John 5:11-12) the one who has the Son has life, how exactly do we get the Son? How do we acquire this gift of eternal life? Is there something we need to do? Putting the question a little differently, what is our part, and what is God’s part? The question of our eternal destiny is not something we want to get wrong! Therefore, a proper understanding of the gospel message is essential. This book is about that message.

* * *

As the founding and senior pastor of one of the largest churches in the state of West Virginia—a church that has now helped birth several other growing churches—I have had many opportunities to conduct employment interviews for the purpose of hiring pastoral candidates and other senior staff members. My main responsibility in the interview process is to perform a doctrinal audit to determine how compatible a candidate is with our church’s beliefs and practices.

One of the questions I have asked each candidate is, Based upon your understanding, how does a person become a Christian? (In other words, how do sinful people get right with God?) I wanted the candidates to explain to me how they would communicate the gospel message to someone else.

The answers I received were often surprising given the fact that these candidates were usually Bible college or seminary graduates. Sometimes their answers simply lacked clarity, or they were confusing. Other times they were completely unbiblical. I would hear answers such as these:

We need to invite Jesus into our hearts.

We need to surrender our life to Christ (or give our life to Jesus).

"We need to make Jesus the Lord of our life."

We need to make a commitment to Jesus.

We need to follow Jesus.

We need to repent of our sins.

"We need to believe and get baptized in Jesus’s name."

Are any of these answers right? Are they biblical, and if not, why not? Is the correct answer a combination of some or all of these responses? Is it possible none of them are correct? Although the word gospel is sometimes used in the Bible to refer to the entirety of God’s redemptive plan to completely restore everything that went wrong in the Garden of Eden—that the gospel is about fixing the fall of Adam and Eve, reversing the curse related to sin, and bringing about a total restoration of all things—the focus of this book will be on the specific message people need to hear and believe to know where they stand with God.

So, why write another book related to the gospel message? Is there really a need for a book such as this? The answer is yes for three main reasons. First, as I mentioned earlier, our eternal destiny rests upon having a proper understanding and response to the gospel message.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the believers in Christ who lived in the city of Rome, penned these words: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes . . . (Romans 1:16a).

Whatever Paul meant by the word gospel in this verse, he said it was so powerful that those who had a faith response to the message would receive salvation. Throughout this book I will be defining salvation as deliverance from something and deliverance to something. When it comes to getting right with God, salvation refers to deliverance from the penalty of our sins (deliverance from the eternal judgment that awaits those who don’t know Christ) and deliverance to all the wonderful things God has for us.

There is a second reason, though, why I am writing this book. Our ability to live victorious Christian lives relates to a proper understanding of the gospel message. If we believe we have to do good works or go through a variety of religious hoops (ordinances, rituals, or other practices) to be saved, we will not understand the role of grace in our lives as Christians. An understanding of the true gospel will lead us to serve Christ and others out of gratitude and great love for Him. We will have a profound appreciation for what Jesus did for us on the cross. As Jesus said, concerning a woman who received the gift of forgiveness through faith in Him, He who has been forgiven much, loves much. Or as Paul put it,

For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died. And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.

—2 Corinthians 5:14-15

The foundation of the Christian life is the gospel message. The gospel message is not just the means by which we get right with God—it is something that should impact our lives every day. The very grace essential for salvation is the grace we need to live as we should as Christians.

But there is a third reason why I wanted to write this book, and it is perhaps the main reason. Recently, several well-known authors have written books that have muddied the gospel message. They have introduced unbiblical terminology based upon human reasoning and not on the Word of God. These misunderstandings are often parroted by other Christian leaders to their congregations. In other words, there is widespread misunderstanding about what the gospel message is.

Although this book is for anyone who wants to know for sure how to begin a relationship with God, it is especially for Christians who have a heart to be clearer as they communicate the gospel message with others. After completing When God Walked Alone, readers should be able to do the following:

Discover why there is so much confusion surrounding the message.

Understand why the finished work of Christ on the cross is sufficient to deliver us from the penalty of our sins.

Prove faith is the only requirement for receiving the gift of eternal life.

Learn some simple, short, and memorable gospel presentations that can be shared with others.

Identify seven careless, confusing, or incorrect words or phrases that are often used to present the gospel message.

Discover the resources God has provided for us to succeed in winning others to faith in Christ.

The gospel, which centers around Christ (Who died in our place for our sins), is God’s greatest gift to humanity. We have a message that not only changes lives in the present but results in believers receiving the gift of eternal life. However, to understand what the gospel message is and how we receive the gift of eternal life, we need to understand what God’s part is and what our part is. When God Walked Alone was written to answer this question.

Note to the Reader

Where would you look for answers to important questions such as What happens to people when they die? and How does a person get right with God? Would you look to a friend or a minister? Would you try to reason things out in your own mind? Would you turn to religious writings?

When I was growing up, I used to sing the children’s song Jesus Loves Me in Sunday school. One of the lines of the song went this way: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. The song was simple—and, some would argue, simplistic. Why should we believe something just because the Bible tells us so? Why should we trust a book that was written over two thousand years ago?

I am personally convinced the children’s song was right—we can know certain things because the Bible tells us so. Instead of trusting my own ideas about life and death and forgiveness and a host of other subjects, I have chosen to trust what