Simply put, The Gospel is the Good News of salvation in Christ Jesus.
Why do we need a saviour?
Many people have heard of Jesus dying on the cross but don’t value it as they don’t understand what it means or how this event has any relevance to their lives. The word of God says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge” (Hos 4:6). Chew on this thought:
“Good people don’t go to Heaven.”
The statement “good people go to Heaven” isn’t biblical.
While most other religions are grounded on a moral-based performance system or our ability to be able to earn our place in Heaven, the God of the Bible says otherwise, that even our righteous deeds are as filthy rags in his sight (Isa 64:6).
Why? Because God, though rich in mercy, is also a just and holy judge with an absolute intolerance to sin. Since the fall of man, all have sinned and in doing so, fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Sin is a virus. One that has polluted our species since it first entered through Adam. We all have a proclivity for sin—an innate craving that our flesh is enslaved to.
“The line between good and evil runs not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The issue with sin is that it produces all the evil that is carried out in society, separating us not only from each other but from God, who is holy. A holy and righteous God can’t let evil win, so he demands the punishment for all sin to be death (Romans 6:23). “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement” (Heb 9:27). The minute we’ve sinned our lives have been indebted to God and the only reason he hasn’t collected is because he is patient with us, slow in pouring out his wrath, “not willing that any shall perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 peter 3:9).
The dilemma God faced was that he wanted to give us mercy out of his perfect love for us, but his righteous and moral nature also demanded absolute justice and the punishment of evil.
Only through Jesus, this is truly rectified.
God demands life as the atonement for sin. He always has and always will. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel had to sacrifice animals once a year for the forgiveness of their sins as “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb 9:22). Why? Because “life is in the blood” (Lev 17:11). So, in a way, the sins of Israel were imbued upon the innocent animal, and God accepted its life instead of theirs. – A temporary solution that could never fully satisfy the wrath of God.
God, in his mercy, set in place a plan to redeem humanity. The same God that walked the corridors of Heaven, stripped himself of his glory, humbled himself in the form of a servant (Phil 2:6-7) and put on the same body we sinners have to reveal himself as the holy Lamb of God (John 1:29). – Jesus, God incarnate, would willingly give his life as a sacrifice for the atonement of the sins of all humanity, past, present and future.
“For our sake he made him who did not know sin, to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” – 2 Cor 5:21
Through Jesus, God displays his perfect love and mercy for us, as well as his just, incorruptible nature and intolerance to sin. Through Jesus, we can receive complete forgiveness, and God promises to forget our sins (Heb 8:12), while God still upholds his righteousness and just nature as sin and all the evil in the world is still punished, but laid upon the body of one person.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life”- John 3:16
In return, all God asks for us is to put our faith in Jesus (John 17:3, John 6:40). The minute we put genuine faith in Jesus, we become adopted Children of God (John 1:12), heirs to his heavenly kingdom, receive the free gift of eternal life and are declared righteous by God (Phil 3:9) who no longer sees our sins as we have been washed clean by the blood of the spotless lamb of God (Isaiah 1:18).
Only in Jesus is there forgiveness for sin (1 John 1:7). Only through Jesus can we be saved and become in right standing with God (Acts 4:12). Not by our own merit or self-righteousness, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” – Eph 2:8
“Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who have died to sin continue to live in it?” – Romans 6:1-2
Genuine faith in Christ produces repentance. Meaning to turn from all sin and to instead hunger for righteousness.
While sin separated, Christ restored. True Christianity isn’t a religion or a lifestyle, but a personal relationship with the author of life himself. A relationship only made possible because of Jesus, our mediator, who places the Holy Spirit inside of the heart of the believer (John 14:16,26).
To think the entry requirements to Heaven is based on merit is a pure deception of the enemy. One that deludes humanity into pridefully thinking we can earn favour with God. It drains the fear of God in men, leaves us complacent in our sins and makes Jesus’ sacrifice satirical and cheap. “If righteousness were through keeping the law, then Christ died for no purpose”. – Gal 2:21
Don’t trust in your goodness to save you, trust in the saviour.
Not convinced? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17) Don’t take my word for it, take Jesus’ word! Seek and you will find. Discover him for yourself by reading the Gospels of Christ: The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and critique him to be worthy of your faith, someone to live for.
If these words have touched an area of your heart and you would like to accept Jesus into your life then wherever you are, say this prayer to God:
“Father Lord, I thank you sending your Son to die for me. I believe Jesus died and rose again for my sake and I desire to have a relationship with him. I am deciding from today to no longer live for myself but to turn from my sin and to live only for you. Holy Spirit come into my heart. Fill me with your love and your peace. Open my eyes to reveal what I couldn’t see before. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen.”
These aren’t just empty words, but a declaration to God and to yourself that you will seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. It’s not the prayer that saves you, but the sincerity of faith that the words of the prayer produce. “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me” (Jer 29:13).
