The Gospel

So what’s the point?  What’s this ‘Jesus stuff’ all about?  Many people have already formed a conclusion about all of this ‘Christian’ stuff and are comfortable.  But what if their conclusion is wrong?  What if Jesus wasn’t just another man who lived, and the Bible in not just another book?

The word “gospel” literally means “good message.”  What is this good message?  Well, to answer that, we have to rewind the tape a little to the beginning:

Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

That’s correct friends.  God made everything…the earth, the stars, the molecule, the fish, the meteors…everything that we can see.  And even the things that we can’t see because we haven’t created a powerful enough telescope yet.  Everything was made be GOD not by hard work and sweat, but by His words.  I know…pretty powerful God, huh?  He spoke and light was born.  He spoke to the earth and plants showed up.  He spoke to the water fish showed up.  But then God spoke to Himself:

Genesis 1:26 - Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Now, this ‘man’ was different from any other creature that God created.  This man was made in God’s image…a spiritual replica is Himself, having a free will.  And God gave this man, Adam, specific instructions.  Keep his creation in order and stay away from a certain tree in the garden.  Eating from this tree would result in death.  But Eve was deceived by the devil into disobeying God.  They both ate, and they died. Not only physically, but spiritually.  And ’spiritual death’ means separation from God…forever.  And that, friends, was the fall of all mankind.

So every person born after Adam comes here in the same condition…fallen.   But that is not the end of the story. You see, God is perfectly holy.  Therefore, He can’t turn a blind eye to sin.  That would be like a court judge knowing that a defendant was guilty, but letting him go free anyway.  For the judge to be JUST, he would HAVE to punish the crime!   God is a just Judge, so He had to punish sin.  But God would do the unthinkable…He would take the punishment for man’s sin Himself!!

God proceeded to orchestrate history…rising up a chosen people, speaking through kings, peasants, and prophets about the coming Messiah that would save them from their sin (Isaiah 53:5-6) and establish His kingdom that would never end (Daniel 2:44). In the Old Testament, God gives over 300 prophecies about this Messiah so that there would be no mistaking him.  And I don’t mean vague ‘palm reader’ prophesies, but specific details of the Messiah’s birth, life, death, and resurrection.

When the world stage was finally set, along came Jesus.  Who is Jesus?  He is the one that the prophets had be talking about for thousands of years…the Messiah and Savior.  Jesus is God in the flesh!  Yep!  He is fully man and fully God!  You see, only God could live a perfect life without sin…and only a man could suffer for our sin.  Jesus did both.  Here are some scriptures about Christ being God and man:  John 1:1-4, 14, Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 9:6, John 10:29-30, Philippians 2:5-8, John 8:56-58, John 14:8-9, Colossians 2:9.

Jesus didn’t “inherit” sin from Adam like the rest of us did, because he was not born from the seed of a man!  That was the purpose for the virgin birth.  Jesus Christ went on to live a perfect life without committing sin (2 Cor 5:21), performing miracles, and teaching people about God’s kingdom.  In turn, he was mocked, talked about, spit on, beaten, stabbed, and nailed to a cross (Mat 27:29-31).  What was happening?  Jesus was NOT a sinner, but on the cross he was treated by God as if he were.  He was treated as if he committed every sin that every believer would ever commit (2 Cor 5:21).  The wrath of God for OUR sin was exhausted on Jesus Christ on the cross and he died (death being part of the penalty for sin).

But after three days and nights, God’s wrath for OUR sin was satisfied and Christ rose again.  Jesus had to rise again because, being that he was NOT a sinner, death had no claim over him.

So what is the “Good message?”  It’s that, while we were yet in sin, Christ was made to be sin for us (2 Cor 5:21).  He became our substitute, our ransom (1 Timothy 2:6).  When we, by faith, believe and receive the work of Christ, we are made righteous (Rom 5:19).  An exchange takes place.  God credits our sin to the cross of Christ and the righteousness of Christ gets credited to our ‘account.’  God sees us as if we lived the perfect life of Christ.  A transfer also takes place.  We are rescued from the power of darkness and enter into the kingdom of Jesus Christ (Col 1:12-14).

God has made salvation available for all men, but it’s not automatic.  The Bible says:

Romans 10:9 – 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.

I don’t care how bad you think you’ve been, or how long you’ve been rejecting God.  God is in love with you!  That’s why He sent Jesus in the first place (John 3:16, Rom 5:8).  I want you to go over the scriptures given on this page.  See who Jesus is and what he had to go through to save you.  Believe in your heart that Christ is who he says he is and that God validated that by raising him from the dead.  Confess that with your mouth and you WILL be saved.  Then drop me an email so that I can rejoice with you!  Welcome to the Kingdom of God!  Love You.

God Bless
-RC Admin