On the glacial green waters of the Flathead River I floated with a stranger. His name was Barry, and my job was to lead him safely through the precarious rapids. I was a whitewater raft guide in northwestern Montana.

I paddled in a sporty yellow kayak while Barry trailed me awkwardly in a Funyak—an inflatable kayak for beginners. The eight-mile float on the edge of Glacier National Park has several major rapids, with appropriate names like Bonecrusher and Jaws, but it also allows kayakers some extended calm stretches. The float was a perfect venue for me to talk with Barry.

He had quit his job on the East Coast and sped his red Corvette across the country on a midlife-crisis trek. Montana was one stop on his journey.

It was easy to see that Barry was searching for something he hadn't found yet. I wanted to talk to him about Jesus—to tell him how to have a relationship with God. But I struggled with the words.

In the same way, many believers, though well-versed in Christian lingo, struggle to communicate clearly with people about the most important message.

The essence of the gospel is profoundly simple. If I could live that day on the river with Barry again, here's what I would have told him:

God loves us and created us to live a full, amazing life through having a relationship with Him. But there is a problem. Because of sin, we can't have a relationship with God. The Book of Romans puts it this way: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (3:23).

What does that word sin mean? "Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude or nature," says Wayne Grudem in Systematic Theology. "Sin not only includes individual acts such as stealing or lying or committing murder, but also attitudes that are contrary to the attitudes God requires of us."

Sin dates back to Adam and Eve. God created the world out of nothing. He filled it with humans and made it beautiful. It was paradise. But those humans chose to go their own way—ignoring God's law—and we have been running up a "sin debt" ever since.

As of May 2005, the United States has accrued a debt of $7.7 trillion. While the government may never get around to paying this off, in theory it is possible to do so. However, we can never pay off our debt of sin on our own. God is just and demands payment; without it we are eternally separated from Him.

But there is hope. The gospel literally means "good news." The reason the news is so good is because we can have a personal relationship with the God of the universe. It sounds absurd, but it's true: He has provided a way to get us out of our sin debt. And to us it's free.

God sent His Son, Jesus, to the earth to live a perfect life, and then die and be crucified. Because He loves us, Jesus paid the penalty for the sin of mankind by dying on the cross. "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," says Romans 5:8.

With that powerful act on the cross, Jesus cleared our debt, which allows us to have a relationship with Him. It is the only escape from the fatal mess we are in.

Back to Barry. Between one of the rapids, I would have invited him to ask some questions about what I was saying, though trying not to allow things to steer too far off track. Then I would sum it all up and give him an opportunity to respond.

The gospel is, in a word, forgiveness. And through this forgiveness we can have a relationship with the eternal God, the one whom author A.W. Tozer called a "shoreless ocean."

Understanding this message of forgiveness is not enough. To begin a relationship with God, you must respond to His invitation. I would have made sure Barry understood this important step.

Perhaps by the end of the conversation, Barry would have been ready to surrender his life to God, or maybe not. As a communicator of the message, I am not responsible for the hearer's response. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, and I need to leave those results up to Him. Either way, Barry would have heard the gospel, and God would have been glorified.

But that's not what happened that day on the river. I helped Barry navigate through the rapids safely, and then he left without hearing the gospel. I can still see him speeding off in his sleek Corvette.

Since that day, I've had dozens more Barry-like encounters—at car dealerships, dentist's offices or on soccer teams. As I've learned to communicate the gospel more clearly, I am trying to seize such opportunities, rather than let them disappear in the distance.

You can contact the writer at Chris.Lawrence@ccci.org.

ACTION POINT - MAKE IT CLEAR > How would you explain the following integral elements of the gospel without using religious words? · relationship · sin · debt · forgiveness · surrender > Find Scripture to support each element.