The Gospel

I Corinthians 15:1-4 - “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”


So these are the 3 components of the gospel:
- Jesus died for our sins
- He was Buried
- He rose again on the 3rd day

I grew up in church. But even as a “PK”, I always had 2 questions in my mind growing up. These questions weren’t answered for me until this past year.
1) What’s so bad about sin?
2) What does someone dying on a cross have to do with my sin?


Question 1...
God is Righteous and Holy:

This is a quote from a book called 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die:
“God’s Law demanded, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all you soul and with all your might’ (Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more. This is what sin is--dishonoring God by preferring other things over Him, and acting on those preferences. Therefore, the Bible says, ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). We glorify what we enjoy most. And it isn’t God.
Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. The Creator the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love Him is not trivial--it is treason. It defames God and destroys human happiness.
Since God is just, He does not sweep these crimes under the rug of the universe. He feels a holy wrath against them. They deserve to be punished, and He has made this clear: ‘For the wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23). ‘The soul who sins shall die’ (Ezekiel 18:4).
There is a holy curse hanging over all sin. Not to punish would be unjust. The demeaning of God would be indorsed. A lie would reign at the core of reality. Therefore, God says, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’ (Galatians 3:10; Deuteronomy 27:26).”

The level of an insult rises with the level of the sovereign. Another words, if I were to slap my little sister, Katie, across the face, that would obviously not be very nice, but it’s not a really big deal when put into perspective. However, if I were to slap my mom, that’s a lot different. And better yet, if I were to slap the President of the United States, or the King of England, that is not just a no-no, it’s gonna get me thrown in prison, or shot! Now what if I slapped the King of king’s; the King of the Universe across the face? That’s not just gonna get me thrown in prison… That’s deserving of a punishment much worse!

As the quote above says, “sin is treason!” “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23); “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4); Someone Must Pay! Sin is not a game to God.

And all of us have sinned…
Romans 3:10-18 - “…There is no one righteous, not even one; There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

God hungers for righteousness and justice, so His judgment on sin cannot be forgotten or done away with. It must be delivered, and it must punish sin!
So how could we ever escape the wrath of God?


Question 2...
God is Merciful:
God has just as strong a hunger for mercy as he does for justice - Matthew 12:7; Romans 5:8; John 8:3-11
God’s desire for Mercy and His desire for Justice, both must be satisfied.

1 John 4:10 - This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Romans 5:6-8 - You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

For example:
Imagine a dark rain cloud is hanging over your head (The dark rain cloud is wrath). Everybody in the world has a dark cloud over their heads. The only way to get the sunshine (mercy), and not the rain (judgment) is by switching places with someone. But you can’t switch places with me because I have a rain cloud too, so it would accomplish nothing. We need to switch places with someone who has sunshine over their head.

All of us have sinned and deserve judgment. Only Jesus lived without sin and thus, deserves mercy. So Jesus, the Perfect Lamb of God, took our place and received all the judgment that we deserved so that we could receive all the mercy that He deserved.

The Cross is the only place where God’s Justice and God’s Mercy are both fully satisfied.

God KILLED His Son Jesus, so He wouldn’t have to Kill us! That’s the mercy of God!
Isaiah 53:10 - “…Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer…”



Knowing these things to be true, we must respond.

The first response is to completely deny the Truth and Mercy of the Almighty God and spend eternity in Hell under His terrible wrath.
John 3:18 says, “…he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Revelation 21:8 - “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
Revelation 14:11 - “And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."


The second response is for unbelievers who have read this post and believe it to be true and are wondering what to do next.
Romans 10:9-13 says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

So if you believe the gospel, or good news, that I have shared with you here--that though we are sinners and deserve Hell, God in His amazing mercy sent His Son, Jesus, to receive the wrath that we deserved so that we could receive the mercy that He deserved--then all you have to do after believing it in your heart is tell Jesus that He is your “Lord”. Now the word “Lord” has lost its meaning in our culture. Basically what it means is “master”. In other words, if you make Jesus your master, your boss, the leader of your life, you will be saved.

Hebrews 2:1-3 - We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.


And finally, the third response is for those who have made a comittment to follow Jesus, but are not living a life obedient to Him.
Titus 2:14 says, “[Jesus] gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

Definition: Zeal - excessive fervor to do something or accomplish some end…

We are to be “zealous for good works”. That means we are to have excessive fervor for good works; we are to be crazy about doing what is right and pleasing to the Lord!



Romans 12:1-2 - Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

It says “in view of God’s mercy” give your life to God. That means, in view of the gospel; in view of everything we see herein above, Live For God!

The Bible is very clear about the fact that we are not saved by works, but when we are saved, works will follow. If they don’t, you might not be saved.

Romans 6:1-2 - What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?



Prayer:

Jesus, thank You so much for Your mercy. I am a hopeless sinner, destined for the eternal wrath of God apart from You. Thank you for receiving the wrath that I deserved so that I could receive the mercy of God that You deserved.
In view of Your mercy and because You loved me first, I give my whole life to You. You decided how I am to live, who I am to be, where I am to go and what I am to do. You, in Your great mercy are in charge of my destiny, and I submit to You Lord.
Teach me how to love You and to be like You.