The Gospel
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, will not perish but have eternal life.”
If you were able to join us for the Sunday service this past week during Pea Soup Days, you probably remember the guest speaker asking who could recite John 3:16. It was followed by the statement that we all should have this tattooed on our arm. Well, I don’t know about it being tattooed on us, but it should for sure be a scripture that is treasured in our hearts because of how wonderfully it reminds us of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ!
“Gospel” is a word that you will hear quite often if you spend time around our church. Simply stated, the Gospel means “good news.” However, for there to be good news there must also be bad news. Sadly, the bad news is that you and I, and in fact every person on earth, don’t start life with a relationship with God. Each of us live our lives not wanting to live it as God calls us to, but as we want to. So, we either, knowingly or not, live this life telling God that we know better than He does. And even though He created everything, we neither acknowledge Him nor thank Him. Instead, we belittle the name of God and tell Him that life is not about Him but about us. This life of rebellion is what the Bible calls sin.
Sin is another church word that gets thrown around a lot. Sin is acting immorally, or not living by God’s perfect standard. It is rejecting God and living by our own ideal of what it means to be “good.” Think back to a time when you broke some rule or acted out in a way that was unacceptable. Most likely there was a punishment handed down to you if you were caught. Well, we too will be punished for our rebellion against God, and unlike with our earthly parents or authorities, God doesn’t miss anything we have done, nor will He allow us to belittle His name.
The punishment is that God will pour out His holy wrath in correct judgment over people who have rejected Him. And those who are under His wrath will be separated from Him for all of eternity in a place called Hell. We must understand what Hell really is. It is the absence of all things that are truly good, and it is a place where God has chosen to remove His presence, and the eternal soul of man, including rebellious angels whom the Bible calls demons, will be forever tormented and punished.
Here is where the Gospel, the Good News comes in. God looks at our rebellion, hears and sees us belittling His name, and then in His grace and mercy sends His Son, Jesus Christ. And then God crushes Him (Jesus), pouring out our punishment on Him so that forgiveness of our sin can be extended to us by having Jesus receive the punishment due to us. Jesus was killed and the full wrath of God for everyone’s sin fell on Him, and then God raised Jesus from the dead after He was in the tomb for three days. And the forgiveness given to us is received by faith in Jesus as our Savior. Faith is believing in our head, heart, and soul that Jesus is God the Son Who has come to do this very thing – to deliver us from the punishment of sin and bring us forgiveness.
God’s power displayed through Jesus is the power to forgive all sin, but we must confess and repent of our old ways (sin and rebellion) and ask God to save us from the just punishment that we deserve which is waiting for us when we die. And when that happens, God hears and completely forgives all our past, present, and future sins, which allows Jesus’s sacrifice of His life to be applied to our lives.
This is where new life begins. By faith in Jesus, we are brought into a new relationship, which is a relationship with God, and then we have the guarantee and assurance of the hope that we will one day be able to be at peace in a place called Heaven.
This little devotion, I pray, has reminded you that life is more than what is happening today. I hope you are reminded that God has shown His love for you by sending His Son, Jesus. May this encourage you in today’s circumstances, whatever they are. And may this remembrance of what Christ has done bring you joy and peace because God has promised it for those who believe, which is eternal life with Him in Heaven!
Prayer
Father, we thank You for Jesus. We thank You for sending Your Son to save us from sin and death to pay for our punishment. In being reminded of our sin, we once again ask that You help us to continually turn away from it and live as You would have us to live – in step with You and Your Word. Father, encourage us with the truth of the Gospel “so that Christ may dwell in [our] hearts through faith—that [we], being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3) We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
