Gospel

What does “gospel” mean?

The English word “gospel” comes from a Greek word that means “good news”. It is the announcement of a good message. The gospel, or good news, according to the word of God in the Bible is God’s message of peace between sinners and The Holy God through Jesus Christ; what God did in real, pinchable history to reconcile us to Himself through Jesus Christ.

Who is God?

God is one being in three Persons; The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, eternally existing in a loving relationship as the Triune God with no beginning or end. He is the One and only true and living God. He is wonderful and holy, righteous and good, creative and beautiful, love, truth, light, and life; He is perfect in every way and there is no darkness or evil in Him at all. Out of the abundant overflow from the fountain of who He is as Love and Life, He is The Almighty Creator of all things. Galaxies and fireflies, oceans and raindrops, mountains and anthills, plants, animals, angels, humans; everything was made by God and for God, including you.

Who are you?

God says that you and I and every human are made in His image. That doesn’t mean we are God, but that He made us with a unique purpose. We aren’t animals or plants or stars or angels; we are human beings, men and women, created with the purpose of enjoying a close relationship with God and reflecting who He is and what He’s like. But all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

What is sin?

When God made the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, He put them in a beautiful garden and gave them freedom to eat from every tree except for one – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told them if they ate from that tree then they would surely die. There was a serpent in the garden with them, who is Satan, and tempted them to distrust God and go against His word. Instead of listening to God and trusting Him, Adam and Eve gave into the temptation of the devil and their own desires, and ate the fruit from the forbidden tree. That’s when sin entered into the world. Sin is rebellion and defiance against God and His perfect law; a despising of God. Because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve, all of humanity and creation has fallen into spiritual and physical death. We fail to live out our purpose of enjoying God and reflecting what He’s like. We are now born with a sinful nature that is rebellious and hostile towards God. Instead of loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we hate Him and sin against Him in every way possible; including everything not done in faith, which God says is sin. The creation that God once said was good is now corrupted by evil; the relationship between God and humans is broken, the relationships between each other as people are broken, the relationship between us and creation is broken, and we all continually and willfully sin against our loving Creator. Our sin keeps us separated from God because He is holy and righteous so He cannot tolerate or ignore sin or else He wouldn’t be just, and He is. His perfect justice demands that our sins be punished and we are under His holy wrath. Since every person is born dead in sin, we cannot do anything to save ourselves or earn God’s favor and forgiveness. We need God’s mercy and forgiveness but He cannot just forgive us because of His inflexible justice. We are condemned.

So where’s the good news?

In the beginning of the bible after the fall of Adam and Eve, God mercifully promised to provide a Savior, and the good news is this: He has faithfully kept that promise! The Old Testament tells of the preparation for the coming Savior and The New Testament is the meeting of that Savior. God the Father sent His One and only Son – the second Person of the Trinity – into this broken and rebellious world to be a Man, Jesus of Nazareth, who is truly God and truly Man. God Himself came to us in the flesh and lived a sinless life of perfect obedience to His Father in the power of the Holy Spirit – the life we have failed to live, for us. Every moment of His earthly life was lived in perfect love and obedience to His Father – the way that God ought to be loved – and perfect love of His neighbor. Jesus did not need to earn righteousness for Himself because He is inherently righteous and sinless; He obeyed the law for us to earn the righteousness we need to be made right with God. He then voluntarily took the punishment that was due to us for our sins, which is death, and placed it on Himself by being crucified, suffering the complete wrath of God for sin, dying on a Roman cross, and being buried in a tomb for three days, in our place. All of the curses of God’s law that should have fell upon us, instead fell upon the head of Jesus. Jesus was condemned so we wouldn’t have to be. After that, He was buried in a tomb and resurrected bodily on the third day, proving He is indeed who He says He is and showing that God’s justice was fully satisfied by His work of redemption. The resurrection of Jesus proves that God the Father accepted His sacrifice as the payment for our redemption. Jesus has ascended into heaven to the place of honor and authority at the right hand of the Father where He is forever alive and intercedes for us as our victorious Savior God and reining King; all in accordance to what He promised He would do in His word.

How does this apply to us?

The very moment we put our trust in Jesus and what He did on our behalf, we are united to the crucified and risen Christ and sealed forever by the Holy Spirit; we are born again with a new heart that wants to obey God out of gratitude, we are adopted by God, and indwelt by the Spirit of Christ. Because Jesus satisfied the full wrath of God as our substitute, we are completely and totally forgiven of all of our sins – past, present, and future. Not only that, but because Jesus also lived a perfect life in our place, we stand before God as the very righteousness of His Son Jesus. He died for our penalty and He lived for our righteousness; He brought our sin debt to zero, and then credited His infinite and perfect righteousness to our account. Everything that Jesus is (apart from His Deity), all that He accomplished, and all He has, He shares with us! Because of Jesus, we are adopted and accepted into the family of God; we have all of the privileges of sonship in God’s family! We are now forever seen and treated by the Father as if we were Jesus, because Jesus was seen and treated by the Father as if He were us on the cross. He loved us first when we didn’t love Him.

The good news is that God justifies the ungodly; He is just and the Justifier of all who have faith in Jesus. In ourselves we are sinners, but in Christ we are counted by God as the righteousness of His Son – all because of Jesus, as an unfathomably gracious gift from God out of the riches of His great love, grace, and mercy. It is free and full forgiveness and acceptance from God to every sinner who trusts in Jesus alone.

The gospel of Jesus is not too good to be true; God is SO GOOD that the gospel IS true. Praise God!

Is Jesus enough for you?

Do you believe God’s testimony concerning His Son? Do you trust that Jesus Christ is who He says He is and has accomplished everything that was needed for your whole salvation? If you have given up on trying to be good enough and have placed your faith in Christ alone to be enough for you, then praise God and welcome to the family brother or sister! This is what it means to have gospel assurance; to look to Christ alone for salvation and believe He did it all for me without any of my help. All of God’s children have every one of His promises which are yes and amen in Christ, including His promise to never leave you or forsake you; to be your Father and love you as His child, now and for eternity!

If you have not placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation, I plead with you to do so this very moment; whoever you are, wherever you are, and whatever you’ve done. For we will all meet Him one day as either Savior or Judge when He returns again. It is appointed for every person to die once and then comes judgement. Those who receive His free gift will be with God forever in the New Heavens and New Earth, and those who reject His gift will be cut off from God and sentenced to hell for eternity. Friend, be found on that day hidden in Christ. God is worth having infinitely more than everything this world could ever offer.

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For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

(2 Corinthians 5:19-21)