The Gospel

You.

Yes, you. You are a sinner. (Romans 3:23). Whether you even claim to believe in God, you stand condemned under His holy judgment, because what can be known about Him is evident to you.

And you know it.

Therefore, you are without excuse (Romans 1:18-20). Period. Your conscience bears witness against you, and the fact that your mind deliberates between good and evil (as you know it does) shows that you are aware of the morality God requires of you (Romans 2:15). But you follow your heart. “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable––who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies” (Mathew 15:19).

But there is no God. “The fool says in his heart, ‘God does not exist.’ They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:1-3). But you outweigh the bad with the good. “For the mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8). Even your most altruistic acts impress God about as much as a manure-stained, dilapidated old rag lying out in a field somewhere (Isaiah 64:6).

What is required of you? Perfection (Mathew 5:48). Are you perfect? No. So what hope do you have against God? None. What do you deserve? Death (Romans 6:23). What may you expect? God’s wrath (John 3:36). Where may you expect to go? The Lake of Fire. Hell. Forever (Revelation 20:15; Mathew 10:28). “This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). But…

God.

Yes, God.

Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh…

God did!

…He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

– Romans 8:1-4

What is this that God did? “He made the One [Jesus, His Son] who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him [Jesus].” 1 Peter 2:24: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” Two-thousand years ago, God sent His very own Son, Jesus Christ, to live here on earth as a man; to live a life of perfect obedience: “The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Then one day the Son was crucified. On that day, for a finite amount of time…

The Infinite Son suffered an infinite amount of wrath stored up since the beginning of time caused by His Infinite Father’s infinite holy, righteous, and just displeasure (Isaiah 53:10) over each one of our infinitely damning sins––of which there are infinity…Why?

Because of His Infinite. Love. And Mercy. Towards us.

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that whoever will believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17). “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). God offers forgiveness––complete, total forgiveness––though Jesus Christ. To whom? To all who will believe. No exceptions (Acts 10:43; 1 John 2:2).

What must you do? “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:30). Repent of your sins and commit to turn from them (Mark 1:15; John 6:28).

But there’s more. God didn’t just leave us with the promise of eternal life, amazing as that is. God didn’t only secure our ticket to heaven, as unfathomably gracious, merciful, and loving as that is. God also provided a way for us to know freedom from sin here in this world. He has given us His Holy Spirit. “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6). “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).

What love has God shown you? “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). What is our response in the face of this earth-shattering love? “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

Why? First, because He is God, and we are grateful to Him. But also so that, partly here on earth and fully there in heaven, we might know abundant, glorious, flawless, captivating, beautiful, splendid, delicious, overflowing, incomprehensible, complete, unsurpassed, eternal…

Life.

Yes, life.

That is the Gospel.