The Gospel

“Now after John had been delivered up into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mark 1:14-15) What is the meaning to life? It is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever; it is to know Him, worship Him, adore Him, revere Him, fear Him, love Him, and obey Him. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does Yahweh require of you but to do justice, to love lovingkindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) As we look at creation, we know there is a Creator, in the same way we look at a building and know there was a builder. To hold fast to the idea that a “big bang” was the cause of all that we see today is absurd. When has an explosion/implosion created anything other than havoc? And what was it that exploded/imploded? Where did that come from? If you truly start thinking on these things trying to trace back to the very beginning, the logic proves to be asinine. Hence why it is called a theory. Nothing cannot create anything. 

Let me instead impart the truth of our origins to you. “In the beginning God created…” (Genesis 1:1) God is the uncaused cause of all creation. He has existed from before the beginning of creation, He is from everlasting to everlasting. We worship the creation when we think that something in the vastness of the universe somehow created all life. This is idolatry. No matter what you may believe concerning our origins and the afterlife, whether that be reincarnation, eternal oblivion/non-existence, or whatever you may want to believe, we are told from the word of God “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”. (Hebrews 9:27) It was God who created us, we are the pinnacle of His creation. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’  And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:26-28) 

Our biggest problem in life is that we are estranged from God; we’re unrighteous, unholy, rebellious creatures who have turned in rebellion to our Creator. This all began in the Garden with our original parents, Adam and Eve. They were created “very good”, without sin, meaning they were righteous. However, their disobedience to God’s one command led to the fall and the introduction of sin to the world. Now everyone born into this world are conceived in sin. The sin nature is inherited from Adam in the womb. This sin separated/estranged us from God. It meant that the spiritual death that occurred in Adam the day he sinned would be passed down to all his posterity for all of time. We are held in bondage to our sin, in love with our sin, care nothing for God; in fact, we hate God, we have made ourselves enemies with Him, and the sad part of all this is that apart from God opening our eyes to the truth, we don’t even realize the magnitude of our condition. We suppress the truth of God, because we love our sin. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Romans 1:18-21) 

We don’t want to know God; we don’t care for things like righteousness or holiness; we hate God. We continue to live in sinful rebellion toward God, seeking our own selfish desires. This was not what God intended for the pinnacle of His creation. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23) Death is the wages or the reward we earn for sin. God is holy, righteous, good, and just. That means that sinners must be punished. The cop who simply overlooks crime is not exercising justice, nor is he good; in the same respect, the judge who pardons the guilty criminal is not exercising justice, neither is he good. God demands justice be served because He is good, holy, and righteous. Therefore, sinners must be punished for their willful rebellion and their forsaking of God through said sin. Not only this, but all men sin, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23) So, to sum it up, we have all sinned, the wages for that sin is death, and as quoted earlier, after this death comes judgment. There is indeed an afterlife if there is judgment. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:25-29)

God will be glorified in your damnation as He casts you into hell, or He will be glorified in raising you in glory with His Son, with the ultimate reward being God Himself. However, does the passage in John 5 (that I just quoted) speak of doing good in and of yourself to be raised to life? Absolutely not, it speaks of those who have been born again, bearing the fruits of regeneration, which is good works; they will be raised to eternal life. It is impossible within to appease God apart from His Spirit at work within us. We can’t earn His favor, neither can we merit our own salvation through any attempts of our own, whether that be through doing good works, or seeking to justify the goodness of our lives in comparison to another’s, believing we will be judged based upon another. We are judged according to God’s standard, His holy and righteous standard, which we have all broken and are all worthy of eternal damnation. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10) We’re all condemned by this passage; we all fall under the unrighteous category. God’s law, known as the Ten Commandments, were not given to condemn the people, neither was it given as a list of things we can do to merit salvation. It acts as a mirror to observe our condition, and furthermore it is the schoolmaster to lead us unto the One wherein our hope should lie. 

So, what did God do to save guilty sinners such as you and I? Perhaps you’ve said, “He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die for us”. Do you grasp the legal ramifications of that? Before we dive into that, let us grasp just an infinitesimal meaning of who Jesus Christ is. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Jesus Christ also known as the Logos, or the Word of God is God. Our God is triune; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; three persons, one in essence; all co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existent. To deny the trinity is to willfully neglect the truth of God as He has revealed Himself in Holy Scripture. While the word “trinity” is not found in His word, the concept is made abundantly clear all throughout His infallible, inerrant, and all-sufficient word. Jesus Christ is from everlasting to everlasting and furthermore, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.” (Hebrews 13:8-9) Let us not be deceived when it comes to Christ as He has revealed Himself in the word. To belief upon another Christ, an altered Christ from that which we receive in the word is not only idolatry, but it is detrimental and will lead to your ultimate demise. 

God had planned before the foundation of the world to send His Son in the likeness of man to redeem fallen man. We see the doctrine of predestination and election here, as He chose those whom He would save, based on nothing in and of themselves, but solely upon His goodwill. “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4-6) We also see He was made in the likeness of man, which brings us to the incarnation. “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”(Isaiah 7:14) The Holy Spirit overshadowed the virgin Mary, and she conceived the Lord. He was born of God through a virgin, meaning He was free of the sin nature. He was truly God and truly man. However, being truly man, He was still temped in every way as we are. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) To deny the fact the He took on flesh, is once again to neglect what He has revealed about Himself in the word, and furthermore to distort the gospel which leaves you outside of Christ and without hope for salvation. He lived the life you and I could not, perfectly obedient, fulfilling all righteousness, and perfectly submissive to the Father. He was condemned to death on a Roman cross based on the charge of blasphemy, as He declared Himself to be God. “And Jesus said, ‘I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’” (Mark 14:62) On the cross, He took your sins upon Himself, suffering the wrath of God you were due. He endured the penalty for your sinful rebellion. He was forsaken by God, and died to atone for the sins of all who would believe. 

This is the good news of reconciliation. He was imputed our sins, and His righteousness was imputed to us who believe, known as double imputation. He not only has given His life in your stead, but He justified you, which is a legal declaration that you are right with God, covered by the righteousness of Christ, so when God looks upon you, He sees His perfect Son. He has redeemed you from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and as you’re being sanctified, the presence of sin, until glory where there will be no more sin, nor the effects of sin. Furthermore, He has adopted you into His family, no longer enemies of God, but made blood bought sons of the living God. For those who believe, He has poured out His Spirit within, equipping and enabling them to live as one who is born again, ransomed from the bondage to sin, the fear of death, and the wrath of God. We truly are saved by God, from God, unto God. He is our reward for those who are granted faith and repentance, and live in humble and submissive obedience to His Lordship. Now what is repentance, and is it necessary? Repentance is a turning unto God from sin, it is an acknowledging, confessing and forsaking sin, and a whole-hearted, genuine turning unto God. It is to admit the same, confessing your guilt, your sin; it is to agree with God. Repentance is not a one and done act in the life of a believer, rather it is an ongoing process our whole life. It is certainly necessary, for we can’t continue in sin and think we have fellowship with Him. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not do the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:6-10) Faith is what is required to believe upon the Lord, it is the instrument or the hand that reaches out to receive the salvation offered. Understand that it is not your faith that saves you, rather it is the person and finished work of Christ that saves. However, even in this, we cannot muster up faith within ourselves, we are dead and therefore can do nothing. This faith must come from God who must first quicken us, causing us to be regenerated, brought to spiritual life. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ, the glorious gospel of grace. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) 

Christ died, yes, but He rose on the third day, proving that He was indeed God, and that God had accepted His finished work. Forty days after His resurrection, He ascended to the right hand of God where He now sits interceding for His own. We have the promise that He will come again to judge the living and the dead. “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.” (Matthew 24:30-31) “In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, maligning you,but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” (1 Peter 4:4-5) We have but this one life, and it is but a vapor, here for a moment and gone the next. “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14) “For, ‘All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ And this is the word which was proclaimed to you as good news.” (1 Peter 1:24-25) Do not succumb to the schemes of the enemy and think that you have until tomorrow to put this off. Many thought the same and never made it home to their families, never were able to say goodbye to their loved ones. Let me urge you today, repent and believe upon the gospel, submit your life unto the Lordship of Jesus Christ. For you cannot split Him up, you have Him not as Savior, if He is not also your Lord. This means obedience, and true faith will necessitate obedience. If you will turn today to the living God from your sin, and cry out to Him for salvation, you will not be ashamed. “Seek Yahweh while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7) “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22) “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes upon Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him, for ‘Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (Romans 10:8-13)