The Gospel

The basic belief of Christians is that we all need Jesus Christ.  Sometimes people today say this is intolerant, but the truth is nobody actually wants a friend who tolerates them.  We need friends and family who respect us enough to tell us what they believe especially about the things that matter most We long for people in our lives who love us and will keep loving us and being our friends whether or not we believe as they do.  Christian minister John Piper puts it this way. We are simply hungry people telling other hungry people where there is food.

Here is a brief explanation of why Jesus Christ is good news for all people.  (By the way, we’re going to explain this using readings from the Bible because we are convinced it is the Word of God for people.)

God is intimately aware of every person and every part of our lives because He, ultimately, is where we have come from.  Psalm 139 says God is acquainted with all my ways and You (God) formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  This is why wherever we look across history and culture we find people searching for God and longing for His acceptance.  You could say it’s in our DNA.

Together as a human race and as individuals we have fallen away from God through the knowledge of evil.  In Genesis 3 we read the story of the first people to walk with God.  They are sorely tempted to give in to their desire to be more like God by gaining this knowledge they had not previously been given.  It says a lot about God’s love that he would not give them this knowledge and yet He would not deny them the chance to choose it.  God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” However, Satan in talking with Eve presses the temptation home, God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Adam and Eve each make the choice and their eyes were opened to evil.  That is a state we are in today.  We know right and wrong and our hearts live in this place. We suffer from living in a world that has fallen.  We suffer from living with hearts that are fallen.  The great tragedy is that this separates us from God.  Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Every person that is on their way back to God will at some point become aware of this situation.  Romans 3:19 talks about coming to a place where we are made silent by our sin.  This is not a bad thing.  It’s a good thing because as long as our view of our own sin is weak our understanding and appreciation of God’s love will remain weak as well. 

That’s why when we read the words of Isaiah the hearts of all those who know their sin are moved.  Isaiah is talking about Jesus when he says, But he was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)  And that’s why today when we read in the Gospel of John about the life of Jesus we begin to long for what Jesus brings.  In the beginning was the Word(Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  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.  The life shines in the darkness…  to all who receive him, who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God.  (John 1: ??) That’s why people who have become convinced that Jesus is exactly who He said He was are so drawn to Jesus.  His life brings the promise that God has made a way to heal all that is wrong in us and in the world.

When Jesus died on the cross his death accomplished something we could never accomplish for ourselves, the death of our sin, the root of our separation from God.  Romans 6:6 says it this way, We know that our old self was crucified with Him (Jesus) in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  Colossians says it this way, you who were dead in your trespasses…God made alive together with Him (Jesus), having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.

When we realize that Jesus walked out of a tomb three days after being publically executed we begin to believe that He is what the whole world has been waiting for.  Jesus is the one who makes reconciliation with God possible.  This means just like Adam and Eve we have a choice.  Do we want to be reconciled to God?

We are reconciled with God through Jesus when we repent of our sin and trust in Him to save us. This was Jesus’ basic message.  In Mark 1:15 He says, the time has come and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (the good news of Jesus). We are reminded in Romans 10:9 that If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

We begin a new life with Him through Jesus Christ filled with God’s Spirit.  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 (our) work, 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 2:9,10)