WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
The Gospel
An observation of the different cultures, throughout history, shows at least four types of separations that exist as part of human life. These separations are; between people and God, between fellow human beings, within oneself, between people and nature.
The separation of people and God can be seen in the system of appeasement even in a pagan religious system. This reveals a common inner sense of awareness of a gap between Creator and humanity: a gap that needs to be mended. Next, that there is separation between fellow human beings is shown by the conflicts recorded in human history. Conflicts and fighting are always possible even between people having a good relationship. Third, separation from oneself is seen when people at times violate their most cherished values and moral standard. An inner struggle surfaces from time to time as our fleshly desires conflicts with what we believe to be right and moral. And lastly, mankind has been in constant struggle with the destructive effects of nature. Primitive people usually connect the “wrath” of nature with a displeased god or gods.
The Word of God provides not only the explanation for these separations, but more importantly, supplies the solution.
GOD THE CREATOR
For God to be Creator, He must of course be different from His creation. By virtue of being its Creator, the universe is owned by God and holds the absolute right to do with it as He pleases.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Revelation 4:11
GOD IS INFINITE
Finitude implies an origin, an end, and limitation. The universe has all these characteristics. In addition, the existence of finite beings is dependent on governing laws. Since God is not part of Hs creation, He has none of these limitations. God is therefore infinite.
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. Psalm 147:5
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3
THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD
An infinite being like God has no limitations. Limitations are indications by which distinctions can be made. This means that by definition, there can only be one infinite being. To assert that there is more than one such being is to imply boundaries by which we can distinguish one from the other. The very idea of infinity carries the notion of indivisibility and immeasurability.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Deuteronomy 6:4
Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 2 Samuel 7:22
There is none like you, O LORD, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 1 Chronicles 17:20
For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Psalm 86:10
one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:6
HUMANITY SINNED AGAINST GOD
The Bible provides the explanation to the inner sense of separation we have with God. We have transgressed His laws and strayed from His righteousness. Ever since humanity fell into sin, every religion has a system by which transgression can be atoned for, some even including human sacrifice. The separation from God is the true source of all the other separations we experience.
With nature…
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; Genesis 3:17
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. Genesis 3:18
With fellow humans…
Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Genesis 4:8
Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. Genesis 4:23
With self…
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. Romans 7:21
Bottom line…
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23
THE WAGES OF SIN
A holy and perfectly just God cannot allow sin to go unpunished. Because sin is an affront to God, the source of life, death became sins’ just desert.
For the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23
Because a human person is composed of physical and non-physical, death manifested itself in the total persona. Spiritual death left humanity alone with no knowledge of its Creator.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14
Physical death made human beings vulnerable to sickness, aging, and decay.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19
Unless something is done, the human-divine gulf will go on for all eternity.
They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 2 Thessalonians 1:9
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15
HUMANITY CANNOT SAVE ITSELF
Because of sin, humanity was placed under the power of death. Death can only be reversed through a resurrection, when life is bestowed. But the dead cannot bring itself back to life. Somebody else with the power to give life must do it. And that someone can only be God.
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4
You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. Nehemiah 9:6
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. John 1:3-4
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. John 5:20-21
GOD’S GLORY REVEALED IN HIS LOVE
Because God is love, He showed compassion to sinful humanity and provided the solution that will permanently mend the gap between people and Himself. This solution is His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3:36
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. John 5:24
Life can be bestowed to sinful humanity (dead because of sin) through faith. Faith is more than intellectual assent. It is an act of the will to put one’s self in total dependence and submission to the One who can give life.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5
Good deeds and behaviors are commendable and should be encouraged. But they are insufficient to atone for our sins. This again highlights the fact that life cannot come from within the dead. Only God can give life because He is life and its true source. That is why God provided a different means for us to attain a righteous standing before Him.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Romans 3:21-22
WHAT JESUS CHRIST DID
The offense of the sins against God is so great that it took His one and only Son, the Lord Jesus, to pay for them. God, in His love, was willing to take the burden of the offenses by the death of His Son. This is how our sins are to be atoned for.
But because the Lord Jesus is sinless, death could not hold him in its power. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus was unstoppable and inevitable.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY?
We have already established that we cannot attain a righteous standing before God through our own good deeds and behavior. But isn’t there some other way to be right before God by which Jesus need not die? To answer this, we need to look at the nature of forgiveness. Forgiveness is looking past a mistake or offense done. To be able to do this, it needs to be atoned for in order for justice to really be upheld. But the question is: who’s to pay? Now, if payment has been extracted from the offender, it no longer becomes forgiveness. True forgiveness is atoning for the offense made by another. This means not holding the offender accountable. Forgiveness is freely given because the brunt of the offense has been paid for by the offended person.
No one can fully grasp the true gravity of the offense except by the one offended. In the same way, only God knows the true extent of sin committed against Him. Therefore, only God has a say on the atonement needed to pay for the offenses. For God, it takes the life of His only begotten Son to pay for our sins. In so doing “He would be just (righteous) and the justifier (one who gives a righteous standing) of the one who has faith in Jesus.” God is righteous because the scales of justice have been balanced by the atonement of humanity’s sin. At the same time, all who will accept the provision of the Son of God by faith will benefit from the atonement. This is what we call imputation.
and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:24-25
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
Repent of your sins
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” John 5:14
Have faith in the Lord Jesus
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:21-23
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
As a consequence of having placed your faith in the Lord Jesus – who he is and what he has done – the following things happened:
You received forgiveness of sins
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14
You were given a righteous (just) standing before God
who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Romans 4:25
You were adopted by God
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, John 1:12
You have been given life everlasting
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:11
THE FUTURE GLORY
The present condition of living is an intermingling of joy and sorrow, pleasure and suffering, health and sickness, and inevitable death. The disorder and decay observable in the universe can be seen in the brokenness of human relationships, and society at large. But this was not the original intent of creation. Creation was made to reflect the glory of God, and much more so in humanity, specifically created in His image. Genesis 1:27 tells us that “… God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Because of sin, evil and suffering exists in this present age. But because God is powerful and merciful, He will eventually destroy evil, suffering, and death. This vision of the age to come was glimpsed by the apostle John written in the Book of Revelation.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4
Friend, placing your faith, your trust, in the Lord Jesus is the single most important decision you can ever make as it will define your eternal destiny. Why don’t you do that today?