This week, Pastor Mark preached out of 1 Corinthians 15 on the centrality of the gospel of Christ in his sermon “Of First Importance," the second in the God’s Work, Our Witness series. In this post, Eric, who attends our Rainier Valley church, talks about how the gospel of Jesus Christ has changed him.

Eric and Megan

When Eric was growing up, his views of God and his own dad were pretty much the same: he knew both existed, but never saw either one of them.

“I didn’t have my dad in my life,” says Eric, 27. “I never really had any strong beliefs about God. I knew that he was there, but I never really seen what he did in my life.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t have any exposure to religion. Over the years, his mom took the family through a series of churches in Seattle—first Catholic, then Baptist, then Nation of Islam—none of which gave Eric any clearer picture of who God was.

“I was confused as a child,” says Eric. “I felt like nobody loved me, and because I didn’t know God and I didn’t know who he really was, I felt like he didn’t love me. It had a huge effect on my life.”

“Now, I understand and know and believe in my heart now that God has saved and redeemed me and that no matter what I do.”

Years later, as a young adult, someone invited him to a church retreat, he went—and everything changed. “God just—it’s such a supernatural type of thing that happened—really, literally opened my eyes. I accepted Christ, and it’s so crazy that I knew from that point that he was real. … I understood when Scripture said, ‘scales fell from his eyes,’” he says, a reference to the conversion of Saul in Acts 9. “The truth had been revealed to me, and ever since then, I’ve never been the same.”

Things changed quickly: Eric’s girlfriend, Megan, was at the time pregnant with their first child. After months of resisting her pressure to walk down the aisle, “I made the decision, a day after I gave my life [to Christ], ’Let’s get married,’” he says. “And a week later, we got married.”

Today, Eric and Megan have been married for nine years and live in Auburn. The couple has four daughters, Keturah, Quia, Karis, and Keonna, and one son, Christian. The oldest is 8-years-old, and the youngest just celebrated her first birthday. Eric works as a delivery driver for a courier service, and Megan homeschools the kids.

At the foundation of their parenting, says Eric, is the gospel—not that every aspect of the gospel made sense right away. “[Beforehand] it was more of condemning myself, ‘Man, I suck! I can’t get this right and I’m gonna go to Hell for this! I can’t keep falling back or falling off!’” he says. “It was stressful!”

“I wanna grow more. I don’t wanna be hitting a plateau with God to where I just stay in the same spot.”

Since coming to Mars Hill Church’s Rainier Valley earlier this year, though, his understanding of the gospel, in particular his adoption in Christ, has deepened.

“Understanding the gospel now, it’s a relief,” he says. “Now, I understand and know and believe in my heart now that God has saved and redeemed me and that no matter what I do—and [Deacon] Will [Wilson] put it in such an understanding way—I can never stop being his son, just like my son will never stop being my son, I can never stop being God’s son.”

And while it’s a grace freely given, he recognizes the cost of discipleship and the miles left to go.

“I wanna grow more. I don’t wanna be hitting a plateau with God to where I just stay in the same spot,” says Eric. “There’s so much to learn, I just wanna continue to grow, and be able to raise my family and be the godly father and husband that I’ve been created [to be], and that takes work to get to because I’m far from that right now.”

“God to me, he’s been a helper, a provider,” he says. “He’s been literally the center of my life.”

Eric and Megan are part of Mars Hill Rainier Valley, which you can follow on Facebook and Twitter. The Rainier Valley will officially launch on January 15 with services at 9:15 and 11:30 a.m.