Granger Smith Explains Gospel’s Power: ‘The Way For Our Salvation’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Country star turned pastor Granger Smith explained why the Gospel changes people’s lives and makes them followers of God.
Smith began his sermon at a Texas church with a passage from 1 Corinthians 15:
“This now I remind you Brothers of the Gospel I preached to you which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture. That He was buried and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.”
“If the Apostle Paul is saying that this message is of first importance, we don’t want to miss any of these words,” Smith said. “This is the mechanism that God uses [for] rebirth.”
In this passage, Paul explains that Jesus took humanity’s place on the cross and bore the wrath we deserved to restore our relationship with God. This needed to happen because God could not let sin go unpunished and required a substitute for humanity to be washed clean.
“That’s the primary function of our faith,” Smith said. “That’s what makes us Christians: [Jesus] died for our sins.”
However, Jesus did not stay dead. He rose from the grave on the third day, defeating death and giving us hope for what is to come when we will partake in a resurrection of our own bodies. In doing so, Jesus proved that he truly was the son of God.
“The death and resurrection, it was a fulfillment of the prophecy,” Smith explained. “On the road to Emmaus, you remember after the resurrection, Jesus is walking with the disciples, and he’s walking with these guys, and it says, the Bible says, Jesus interpreted for the disciples in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
“As we read the Old Testament scriptures in the light of the death and resurrection of Jesus, they will speak to us about the Gospel in continuation of God’s fulfillment in his dealings with his people,” he continued.
“The Gospel was not a last-minute decision by God. It was not a plan B,” he said. “It was always, always – from the beginning of time – the way for our salvation.”
And because of the Gospel – the death and resurrection of Jesus – we can live differently because we know we are saved by Christ and washed clean by his blood.
In America, this Gospel is something that most people have heard about in one way or another, yet not everyone who hears it believes. Smith believes that sometimes God uses significant events in our lives to bring it to life and allow its transforming power to take hold.
That was true in his life.
Though he grew up as a Christian, Smith did not really follow Christ until his son’s death caused him to turn to the Lord in desperation.
“My wife and I lost our little boy. River was 3 years old, and we went down a journey that I thought I could fix on my own with self-help and self-improvement and exercise and positivity and visualization, meditation and devotionals. I thought I could just mend it, fix it and move on, and I couldn’t,” he told Fox News.
“Well, it saved my life, essentially,” he said of his faith. “From the darkest of grief.”
“Many times the Lord will save a Christian, meaning bring them from spiritual death to life, by means of tragedy,” he added in his sermon. “In some cases, maybe with more stubborn people, people that have a strong inclination to trust in themselves, the Lord, for those people, will use occasionally extreme tragedies…I’m one of them.”
Through the death of his son, Smith found new life in Christ and decided to give up his country music career to pursue pastoral ministry full-time.
“I don’t want the Granger Smith name to be famous, instead I want to proclaim the name of Christ!” he said in an Instagram post following his last concert. “I want Him to be known! And I want to know Him more. That is the real reason I’m leaving music touring.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Country star Granger Smith recently spoke more about his decision to leave country music and pursue ministry in his local church.
“It sounds like a not-very-exciting news story — the story of a guy who had what I always dreamed of having, and turning it back over,” the singer laughed. “I’m turning it back in for a life at the local church. But I believe that that is what I am called to do.”
Smith also talked about the role faith had in his life following the tragic death of his son, River, who passed away in 2019 in a tragic accidental drowning.
“I cannot take credit myself for the radical transformation that the Lord did in my life through this tragedy,” he shared. “Sometimes, when that soil is cultivated, and we have to dig deep, and we can’t find it within ourselves, the Lord comes in and shows Himself in a very profound way.”
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