This blog was birthed from a place of understanding of what the Gospel was biblically and I knew I couldn’t continue without adressing it. Everything I write is veiwed and blossomed through the lenses of this truth.

Growing up, I never really understood what it meant went people would say “the Gospel” or “the good news of Christ Jesus”. These phrases seemed so spiritualized with vague understanding of what either one meant or entailed. If you read nothing else, I pray you read this blog and the Holy Spirit brings understanding.

I think the American church does a disservice by not diving deeper into the Gospel. I grew up hearing mostly topical preaching (preaching in a style that uses the bible to support a specific topic) with very little understanding of the Bible itself. Instead of a Gospel-focus, sermons were mostly filled with Bible inspired self help, leaving me feeling good for a little while but ultimately, malnourished and confused as to who God was or my relationship to Him. Now, I don’t know if it was an intentional leaving out of teaching the Bible or perhaps they assumed we all just understood foundational truths of God, but in order for us to stand firm on our faith, we have to have a clear understandings on the basics of Christianity.

Why Do We Need The Gospel?

First, to understand the good news, we have to understand the bad news. We are sinful brings from birth and due to our sinful hearts, we are unable to have a relationship with God the way He intended. It all began the day that Adam and Eve took bite of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The single sin that screamed we no longer desire to love and serve God but we ourselves can serve as our own gods, our own providers. In the great words of R.C. Sproul, it was cosmic treason, and now, we too are polluted with that same natural inclination to cosmic treason.

“And you were dead in your transgressions and sins,[…]the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our firsthand of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.” -Ephesians 2:1-3

Did you read that? We are, by nature children of wrath, sons of disobedience. Due to God’s natural disgust to sin, we are unable to ever, in our natural state, have a relationship with God. This is the really sad news. You and I, apart from Christ, are sinful and heading down the road of wrath.Our ending place is eternity, not only seperated from the grace of God but forever drinking the cup of wrath that we rightly deserve. This can be a hard thing to understand. The reality is, no one is good not even one. We are all on route to hell as we speak.

The Courtroom

Throughout the Old Testament, we see the cost for our sins. There had to be the shed of blood, there had to be a sacrifice in order to cleanse us of our sins. There is always a cost for redemption. A popular way to think of it this is to view a courtroom, when a criminal is tried in court and found guilty, there is a punishment. Without punishment, there is no justice given. A good judge would never look at a murderer and say “ehh, you were mostly good your whole life, don’t worry about the murder sentence, we’ll just throw that under the rug.” The outrage! I think we can all agree, this would be a crooked judge. This is not how God judges.

God gave us the Ten Commandments as His standard of good. The Holy Law. Each time we break those commandments, there must be consequence. Because we sin against such a mighty and holy God, our consequence must match the grievance. Have you ever lied? Lusted in your heart? Stolen a pen from the office? Hated another person? You now stand before God as a lying, adulterer, a thief, and a murderer. I know that sounds dramatic, but this is the seriousness that God holds our sin. This is where the good news comes in.

God Intervenes

So we’ve established that you are a lying adulterer, a thief, and a murderer. You stand before the judge. A good and perfect, just judge would throw you in jail in a heartbeat. No good judge would allow you to walk no matter how “good” you may have been before or after. However, in this scenario, the judge decides to bring his son into the courtroom. A man who has done no wrong. Not only did no wrong, but did everything right perfectly his whole life. He is dearly loved by the judge. He walks into the courtroom and they both agree that the son will take all of your punishment. Not only does he take the punishment, but he gives you his reputation in exchange for yours. You walk, perfect and loved by the judge like one of his own. The judge locks up his son and you walk free. This is what Christ did.

The Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the God-man, lived a perfect life here among us. He was hung on a cross, killed in the most brutal and humiliating way, and willingly drank the cup of wrath that was intended for us, every last drop. He hung on the cross, crushed under the weight of our sin, to give us redemption.

I always found it crazy that before He died, He sweat blood. His body couldn’t physically handle the punishment that was to come. I always believed it was because he understood the intensity of the physical pain of the cross. However, in reality, he understood the realness and appauling nature of sin. He understood the seperation that sin brings. It was the cup he wanted to pass over him not the cross. The cup of the Father’s wrath, the punishment for the sins of those who would become His children. The man who knew no sin was going to hold the guilt and shame of His people. This is the weight of our sin.

Sin, for us, is completely normal. We sin before we even make it to the breakfast table. It’s when we grab our phone before we look to God. It’s went we grumble about our children without any desire to count it all joy. It’s when we do anything without the desire to love God. We live in a fallen, sinful  world, but sin is incredibly weighty and incredibly offensive to our Creator. We cannot love both sin and God. We must be forgiven, we must be redeemed and washed clean through the atonement of Christ.

How Do We Respond To This?

Ok, that was a lot. So, what are we suppose to do about this? How can we be redeemed? We need only repent and receive. Repentance is a turning from our sins, our disobedient actions toward God. Repenting and receiving the free gift that Christ gives us. When we repent and believe that we need a Savior, we can begin walking in God’s design for us. We must make repenting, walking, and receiving a lifestlye.

We dont need to do anything to recieve this gift because one, we frankly have nothing to offer God anyways. No confessions, no burnt offerings, no good deeds just repenting and receiving. Secondly, if we could do anything to earn right standing with God, then Christ’s sacrifice is void. His blood is not enough. Can you imagine? What sad news to know that even God couldn’t save us from all the brokenness. Thank God, Christ’s blood is enough. The punishment for sin and shame and death has been taken. This is the best news.

[…]“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” -Mark 1:15