In it's most simple sense the gospel is good news. Whether or not you recognize the goodness of that news, however, will vary more or less on your understanding and acceptance of the news. In short, if you believe it, it is very good news.
Allow me to give you a slightly longer summary of the Gospel. It is that God is holy and whatever is unholy goes to hell forever; yet God has graciously made a way through Jesus for unholy things to become holy and go to heaven.
This summary probably does not convince you of your danger or the deep need you have of true conversion, nor does it explain the way of salvation in Jesus. Let us look at this Gospel a bit closer.
Background:
God is unimaginably holy and pure. The slightest disobedience to His commands is called sin. Every sin ever committed is viewed by God as a crime against His perfect holiness. By nature God hates all sin with infinite hatred. All sinners and every sin will be judged by God and compared to the infinite righteousness of Himself. He will destroy whatever comes short.
The Problem Brought Closer:
God made man for the purpose of worshiping and serving Him, but all men have sinned and fall short of the glorious standard of God. God keeps His word - He has promised to demonstrate justice by forever punishing anyone and everything that is not perfectly righteous and pure. For this purpose God has made a place called hell where He will isolate sinners from all goodness forever.
The absence of goodness is deeper than you or I can fathom. A place without goodness is a place without hope, joy, peace, and love. The absence of hope is total despair. A place without joy is a place of wailing misery. A place of no peace is a place of unending, agonizing torment. God describes hell as a lake of fire that never ceases to burn. It will make men weep and gnash their teeth, and they will hate God forever in this place because they honored themselves and their sin more than Him.
God is just and fair, thus the severity of this punishment shows us how holy God must be, and how sinful our sins are.
The Problem Made Worse:
On the Day of Judgment God will not accept bribes or excuses. No amount of so-called good works will make up for the slightest sin. God is disgusted that a you would dare to consider your heart pure enough to approach the holiness of God. He is not satisfied that you think (wrongly) that He is a loving father-figure waiting to bandage your ruined soul at death. (At this point you must keep in mind that God is not evil because He wants to destroy you, but rather you are so blinded and corrupted by the sins that you are an addict of that you cannot see how deserving of death you are. This God truly is right, and you are bitterly wrong and deceived by sin.) In short, all men are utterly hopeless in themselves because they have sinned against the holiness of God and will be judged, found guilty, and damned.
The Gospel:
God was willing to make His love and forgiveness known by providing a way of salvation for a people He would save by grace through faith. For this reason God the Son came in the humble form of a man, named Jesus. He lived perfectly and sinlessly and was persecuted by self-righteous men. According to the will of God, He offered His life as a sacrifice for sins and paid the ransom of the debt owed by sinners. He was brutally beaten and hung on a painful cross. Then the full wrath of God the Father was poured on Jesus as He bore the eternal penalty that you and I deserve. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” [Heb 9] Three days later God raised Jesus from the dead to prove His victory over death. He appeared to hundreds of witnesses and then ascended into heaven. He now sits at the throne of God the Father, ready to forgive all who repent and believe on Him.
How to be saved:
You cannot save yourself by any amount of self-guilt or promises to live better. God alone saves and He does not have to save you. He saves only those He chooses to save, and He saves them only because He has chosen to show grace to some. No one deserves grace or else it would not be grace. However, God promises that all who repent and believe on Christ shall be saved.
This means that if you are willing to forsake your life of sin, forsake control of your earthly destiny, and willing to surrender yourself to the commands and will of God; and if you believe that Christ was a worthy sacrifice for your and all sins, then you may have confidence that God is saving you. But do not stop here. Many people come this far and then stop because they think they have repented but in their heart they were satisfied to hold on to certain sins. You must be born again of God's Spirit. Do not cease to repent and believe and to pray for forgiveness until He very clearly and undeniably changes your heart and mind. By the grace of God get rid of and destroy every known sin in your life. Pray night and day and shake heaven until He saves you from the old life you lived.
What then?
All who are saved by God love and grow in holiness. If after time you do not love and grow in holiness, you were not and will not be saved by God. You must repent and believe. You must be born again.
Allow me to give you a slightly longer summary of the Gospel. It is that God is holy and whatever is unholy goes to hell forever; yet God has graciously made a way through Jesus for unholy things to become holy and go to heaven.
This summary probably does not convince you of your danger or the deep need you have of true conversion, nor does it explain the way of salvation in Jesus. Let us look at this Gospel a bit closer.
Background:
God is unimaginably holy and pure. The slightest disobedience to His commands is called sin. Every sin ever committed is viewed by God as a crime against His perfect holiness. By nature God hates all sin with infinite hatred. All sinners and every sin will be judged by God and compared to the infinite righteousness of Himself. He will destroy whatever comes short.
The Problem Brought Closer:
God made man for the purpose of worshiping and serving Him, but all men have sinned and fall short of the glorious standard of God. God keeps His word - He has promised to demonstrate justice by forever punishing anyone and everything that is not perfectly righteous and pure. For this purpose God has made a place called hell where He will isolate sinners from all goodness forever.
The absence of goodness is deeper than you or I can fathom. A place without goodness is a place without hope, joy, peace, and love. The absence of hope is total despair. A place without joy is a place of wailing misery. A place of no peace is a place of unending, agonizing torment. God describes hell as a lake of fire that never ceases to burn. It will make men weep and gnash their teeth, and they will hate God forever in this place because they honored themselves and their sin more than Him.
God is just and fair, thus the severity of this punishment shows us how holy God must be, and how sinful our sins are.
The Problem Made Worse:
On the Day of Judgment God will not accept bribes or excuses. No amount of so-called good works will make up for the slightest sin. God is disgusted that a you would dare to consider your heart pure enough to approach the holiness of God. He is not satisfied that you think (wrongly) that He is a loving father-figure waiting to bandage your ruined soul at death. (At this point you must keep in mind that God is not evil because He wants to destroy you, but rather you are so blinded and corrupted by the sins that you are an addict of that you cannot see how deserving of death you are. This God truly is right, and you are bitterly wrong and deceived by sin.) In short, all men are utterly hopeless in themselves because they have sinned against the holiness of God and will be judged, found guilty, and damned.
The Gospel:
God was willing to make His love and forgiveness known by providing a way of salvation for a people He would save by grace through faith. For this reason God the Son came in the humble form of a man, named Jesus. He lived perfectly and sinlessly and was persecuted by self-righteous men. According to the will of God, He offered His life as a sacrifice for sins and paid the ransom of the debt owed by sinners. He was brutally beaten and hung on a painful cross. Then the full wrath of God the Father was poured on Jesus as He bore the eternal penalty that you and I deserve. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” [Heb 9] Three days later God raised Jesus from the dead to prove His victory over death. He appeared to hundreds of witnesses and then ascended into heaven. He now sits at the throne of God the Father, ready to forgive all who repent and believe on Him.
How to be saved:
You cannot save yourself by any amount of self-guilt or promises to live better. God alone saves and He does not have to save you. He saves only those He chooses to save, and He saves them only because He has chosen to show grace to some. No one deserves grace or else it would not be grace. However, God promises that all who repent and believe on Christ shall be saved.
This means that if you are willing to forsake your life of sin, forsake control of your earthly destiny, and willing to surrender yourself to the commands and will of God; and if you believe that Christ was a worthy sacrifice for your and all sins, then you may have confidence that God is saving you. But do not stop here. Many people come this far and then stop because they think they have repented but in their heart they were satisfied to hold on to certain sins. You must be born again of God's Spirit. Do not cease to repent and believe and to pray for forgiveness until He very clearly and undeniably changes your heart and mind. By the grace of God get rid of and destroy every known sin in your life. Pray night and day and shake heaven until He saves you from the old life you lived.
What then?
All who are saved by God love and grow in holiness. If after time you do not love and grow in holiness, you were not and will not be saved by God. You must repent and believe. You must be born again.
2 comments:
Wow, this is what I was just looking for God Bless You.
This is on point! Well said!
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