The Christian Gospel
By Matt Wiser
What is
the Gospel? This might seem like an odd
question to some, especially for a Church newsletter. Surely everyone knows what the Gospel is,
don’t they? It is, after all, the
central message of the Christian Faith.
Sadly,
there is a great deal of confusion surrounding even this most basic and
critical Christian tenant. Across much
of the visible Church today you will hear phrases such as, “live the Gospel,”
or “be the Gospel.” But as it turns out,
these phrases don’t make any sense, in fact, when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
correctly understood these phrases, popular as they may be, are meaningless
collections of words.
The
Gospel is good news, indeed that is what the word means. It is a proclamation. It is not something that can be lived, and it
is not something that we can be. It is a
message, it is information, it is a truth claim about something that has been
done, not something that we can do. Let
me explain.
The
Gospel begins with our sinfulness. Why
is the Gospel a necessary message? It is
because of sin. Our own sinfulness must
be understood in order for us to understand why the Gospel is good news. A proclamation of the Gospel to someone who
has no awareness of their own sin seems like irrelevant crazy talk. Think of it this way, it’s the middle of the
night, your house is on fire, and you don’t know it. Some helpful, good hearted passerby sees that
your house is on fire and runs up and starts pounding on your front door. You get out of bed and answer the door, and
immediately the person begins raving frantically that they are there to rescue
you and that you must get out of the house right away. Are you not going to think that this person
is a lunatic? Will you not be more
likely to slam and lock the door and call the police rather than follow
them? But what if instead the first
words they say are, “your house is on fire!” and then they tell you to leave
it? Now you know the problem, and you
can see why a rescue was necessary in the first place.
It is
true of all of us that we are sinners.
The Bible says this in Romans 3:10-18, “as it is written: “None is
righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All
have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not
even one.” “Their throat is an open
grave; they use their tongues to deceive.’” “The venom of asps is under
their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their
feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the
way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their
eyes.”” And Isaiah 53:6a says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned—every one—to his own way;” And
lest we be tempted to think that this is only true for some other people, but
not for us, let us look at Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you were dead in the
trespasses and sins in which you once walked,
following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among
whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the
desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of
wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
And
what does sinfulness and unrighteousness earn for us? The wrath of God, but don’t take my word for
it. Romans 1:18 says, “For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Moreover Romans 2:5 tells us, “But because of
your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself
on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.”
If we
were to end there, the news is devastating.
In fact it is meant to be. This
is far more serious than a knock on the door to tell you that the house is on
fire. This is the truth of God that
demolishes all of our perceived self-righteousness. We have been informed of the sinful condition
of all of mankind, there is not a single one of us that escapes this
condemnation.
But
praise be to God, the story doesn’t end there.
Enter the Gospel. To put it as
concisely as I know how, the Gospel is this:
Jesus Christ, God the Son, entered humanity, took on flesh, lived a
perfectly sinless life, fulfilling all righteousness, all the demands of the
law, and died upon a Roman cross, bearing our sins, and enduring the just wrath
of God against those sins so that, for those who are in Him, there is no
punishment left to be poured out upon us.
(Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus.”) 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew
no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” So, on account of Christ, and His completed
work, when God looks at me He does not see the wretched sinner that I truly
am. Instead, my guilt, my shame, the
wicked and evil thoughts, whatever they be, were placed upon Christ, and He was
punished for them all, and treated as if He, and not I, were guilty of each and
every one of them. I deserve eternal
damnation for these sins, but Christ, upon the cross, bore the weight of that
eternal hell in my behalf. Now, I am
treated by God as if I had lived Christ’s own perfectly sinless life, having
fulfilled all righteousness, every demand of the law. All who reach out to Him with the empty hand
of Faith will find Him to be a perfect Savior.
Having
seen our condemned state in Ephesians 2:1-3 (quoted above), we see the
wonderful truth of the Gospel, beginning in verse 4 and following, “But God,
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved
us, even when we were dead in our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been
saved— and raised us up with him and seated
us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so
that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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.”
And
finally, Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he
was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on
him the iniquity of us all.”
