The Gospel
Oftentimes when I give the gospel, the good news, I tell people it only makes sense in light of the bad news. You see, the bible reveals both. Both the bad news and the good news. Let me start with the bad news. The bad news is that every single one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, as it says in Romans 3:23.
What that means is that every man, woman, and child that's ever lived, except Jesus, has rebelled against God in thought, word and deed. That's bad. The bad news gets worse when we consider the fact that this leads to death. Not just temporary death, a separation of body and soul where our body goes to the ground, but one day an eternal separation from God in the eternal lake of fire so says Jesus of Nazareth in Matthew 10:28, that's bad news.
I can't think of any worse news than the fact that human beings, all of us, have rebelled against God, and one day we're heading for a lake of fire. That's as bad as it gets.
But it's in light of that bad news that the good news of the gospel shines so. The good news is that God had set forth a plan from the very beginning to set forth his Son. The Son who existed as God and with God from all eternity. He at a point in time in history humbled himself and became a man through the virgin birth.
This Jesus was truly God and truly man in one person and he took upon that role so that he could live the perfect life that Adam never did, that he could live the perfect life that no Israelite ever could. He would take upon that role to live the perfect life that you and I could never. So that by faith in him, his righteousness could be credited to our account.
But Jesus didn't merely come to live the perfect life. He also came to die a substitutionary death. Jesus the just on behalf of us the unjust. When Jesus died on the cross, he took upon himself the full measure of God's wrath that we deserve to be punished with, and he paid it off in full. That is for those who trust in him.
The proof that Jesus accomplished both the perfect life, and the substitutionary death is proven by the fact that on the third day after his death, he was bodily raised from the dead.
This resurrection proves all of Jesus' claims. When Jesus says that He is the Way, The Truth, and The Life, that no one comes to the Father but by Him, we can believe it. Why? God raised Him from the dead.
This Jesus ascended into the heavens where he's seated at the right hand of God. From where he's coming again in fury and anger against his enemies, but bringing salvation and a kingdom for his people. What must we do? Well, this Jesus doesn't simply give a suggestion. He gives a command.
He commands every single person to repent and to believe the gospel. Repentance, metanoia (greek), is a change of mind and a change of direction of one's life in which we turn from idolatry, and we turn to God on his terms, which is faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.
Today, if you will trust upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have the forgiveness of sins and the absolute assurance of everlasting life given to you by a Savior who came not the first time to wipe his enemies out, but by the Lord Jesus Christ who came the first time to be the meek and merciful suffering servant that God has chosen.