If you walked up to someone and said the word “gospel” what would they think it means? It could be Gospel Music, it could be the Prosperity Gospel, and it could mean general good news. The Bible however is rather specific on what the Gospel is and we make it more specific by saying, The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The word Gospel means “good news” but there can never be good news unless there is “bad news” that the good news is a remedy for. The bad news is man’s condition before God. God does not see man as lacking help, needing encouragement, close to a relationship with him, or even wanting such a relationship. God describes man as dead. This deadness places man in opposition to God, willfully sinning against what he knows is right as well as God’s standard of perfection (righteousness). To sin is to miss the mark of God’s standard of perfection. Man breaths and moves about without a care in the world. He assumes that he is awakened to life and living for the moment as well as the unforeseen future. However, sin condemns him and keeps him from a Holy God. (Ephesians 2:1-2, Romans 1:18-32, John 3:18)
The future however bright it may seem, is bleak. Regardless of what man may like to think – God is just and a righteous judge. Thinking that he will judge man on a bell curve of man’s righteousness is foolish. We have earthly courts and judicial systems that do not judge on a bell curve and they serve as an example of what is to come. God must judge man, which is one of his roles as his Creator. For those that die in sin they will close their eyes on earth longing for rest only to open them to judgment. What is even more shocking is this judgment will be conducted by the one that God sent; Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 9:27, Acts 17:30-31, Luke 16:19-31, Revelation 20:11-15)
So what’s the good news? If you are one that can only be described as pursuing your desires and hating God, loving your sin and wanting to stay in them… there is good news.
God is just and gracious. He has not left man to make himself righteous before Him. He has not given a set of rules that man must follow to be made righteous before Him. He has provided a substitute against His wrath. He sent His Son into the word, born of a virgin (yes a virgin), He was fully man and yet fully God. He lived a life of perfect obedience to his Father (God) and did not sin against any of God’s standards of perfection. He was perfectly righteous… something that man on his own could never do. (Acts 14:14-17, Isaiah 64:6-7, Matthew 1:23, Hebrews 4:15)
This one that was perfectly righteousness should have been raised to a position of immediate power, ruling over His people. But in stark contrast to that he was condemned, beat, scourged, mocked, spit upon, forced to carry a wooden cross, nailed to a cross, and crucified. Yes it was a bloody, gruesome death – it is the punishment that every man deserves for willful and passive sins against God. This was not a punishment that Jesus Christ should have had to bear. (Matthew 21:9-11, Matthew 27)
Jesus died (yes, the God-man died) and was buried. For three days he was in the tomb, but death could not keep him. After three days he rose from the grave and appeared to his Disciples and over 500 direct eyewitnesses. After 40 days he ascended into Heaven leaving his Disciples to do the work of making Disciples throughout the Nations. (Matthew 27:50, 59-60, Matthew 28:1-10, Luke 24:51)
Jesus was sinless but he was punished as though he was a sinner. He was righteous but he was punished as though he was a violent transgressor. The willing torture and punishment of Jesus Christ was God’s justice in punishing sin; it was not Jesus’s sin (as he was sinless) but the sin of everyone that will turn from their sin and believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. For those that turn from sin and believe in Jesus, they are given His righteousness, and their sin was punished on the cross in the body of Jesus Christ. Jesus is your substitute. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21, Romans 4:5, 1 Peter 2:23-24)
So what is the message of the Gospel? Repent from your sin (turn) and believe in the one that God sent on your behalf, Jesus Christ. Its not enough to acknowledge this statement – you must do it and believe it. For those that that do not, they have no forgiveness.
This is the message that our Team is taking to Papua New Guinea. It is this message that God uses to move men from death to life… and it is only this message that brings men to God. There is no other way to be made right before God and enjoy him forever, because there is only one God and this is the only way that He saves.
I would encourage you to read all the references above. Take God’s Word on what He has said.
Image Credit: Francesco Pappalardo
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