If anyone wishes to come
after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
- Luke 9:23b NASB
"Christianity is for
losers."
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the summary explanation of who he was, what he did, and the eternal relationship with him that can be had. The word gospel literally means "good news". It's good news because it's an answer to a problem. In order to understand the gospel, therefore, we must first understand the problem. So what's the problem?
Problem:
Worthiness.
Worthy means to be deserving. How deserving are you? Are you deserving of good things in return for the life you have lived? Or as some like to ask, do you deserve to go to heaven when you die?
We typically respond by saying we've tried to live pretty good lives; lives that were more good than bad. We have helped others, done things for charities, volunteered time, and given money. These have been worthy acts, tangible actions worth something to someone else. We like to think of them as evidence of our worth. But by the same token, we've also committed other acts - unworthy acts. To what extent can it be argued that our unworthy acts make us unworthy individuals?
If there's one thing that everyone agrees on, it's that no one's perfect. We've each committed certain injustices. We've bent a law here or there, stretched the truth occasionally, gotten a little out of control, left some kind act undone, or thought of ourselves first when we should have been thinking of someone else.
Of course, those are the littler injustices. Looking deeper, there is another tier of injustices we've committed; hurtful things, embarrassing things to which we hate to admit. Things which may have also been done to us. To name just a few: being unjustly judged, cheated, insulted, intimidated, ignored, mistreated, abandoned, forgotten, stood up, divorced, robbed, ridiculed, threatened, cursed, or worse. There are even lower tiers of injustice when we think about atrocities like torture, rape, murder, or genocide.
Setting aside the more subjective question of ourselves for the moment, how deserving would you say are those other people who have committed injustices against you? Does the person who robbed from you deserve the same as the person who gave to you? The people who insulted you, or hurt you, or treated you like dirt...do they deserve the same as the people who troubled themselves to love you?
They don't. Injustice does not deserve to be rewarded at all. If there's to be any justice, either in this world or the next, then the consequence of unjust acts must be different from that of just acts. Just acts must be rewarded better than unjust ones. This is simply another way of saying injustice must be punished.
Now the question comes back to us: What punishment do we bear for the injustices we've committed? We know we've each been someone else's worker of iniquity, someone else's thoughtless stranger, or at times someone else's hurtful friend. We could have been better parents, children, bosses, employees, neighbors, spouses, etc. So what is the consequence for our sin? What punishment do our own injustices merit?
The Bible reveals
to us very clearly, for example in Romans 6:23, that
the penalty of sin is death. Eternal death for any sin
whatsoever. Worse punishment for worse sins (Luke
God is not casually watching our lives like so many television shows that he might rate the better ones at the end and be done with us. The special relationship God wants with us is explained in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both sets of writings actually use the same word picture. This might emphasize how closely it resembles that which God wants. That picture is one of a bride and groom, or a husband and wife; the most enduring and encompassing love relationship to which we can relate.
God, the perfect husband, awaits as it were his perfect bride; a bride as perfect as himself - anyone to whom he can reveal himself completely and share love unendingly. He seeks people to whom he can express a passion or glory that is immensely great. So great that Moses, after having been allowed just a glimpse of God's glory, had to be sheilded from people afterwards (Exodus 34). His face radiated God's glory in such a way that all others were terrified to come near him; perhaps too conscious and ashamed of their own unworthiness. That is just a hint of the love awaiting anyone who will be found worthy.
Who is worthy of
this perfect love? Who is worthy to receive this indescribable passion God is
reserving? Tragically, none of us. Neither you nor me. We have all sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God (Romans
2. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is one who is worthy and his name is Jesus. God himself came to earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Known to us as the Son of God, and long prophecied throughout the Old Testament to come, Jesus first and foremost lived a life that was finally worthy of the radiant passion that Moses glimpsed. To Jesus alone did God say, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). Jesus alone perfectly obeyed God's laws. Jesus alone loved with a perfect love. Jesus alone committed no sin.
More than just coming to live as our example, Jesus also came to die. When Jesus died upon the cross, he took upon himself sin's penalty of death on behalf of all who will believe. Only Jesus was capable of dying for another's sin, for only he was without sin; he had no personal penalty to pay. Jesus' death on the cross was actually the forthcoming act of mankind's salvation which the Old Testament sacrificial system was designed to teach. That was the expression of the gospel to those who had preceded Christ. As only an almighty God would and could do, Jesus, out of love for his people, became their sacrificial lamb.
If you believe in Jesus, then it was your penalty for sin that he bore on that cross. As Isaiah spoke hundreds of years before Christ (53:5-6):
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was
crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of
us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us
all.
If you believe in Jesus, God's wrath over your sin debt no longer remains. In exchange, the righteous quality of life Jesus had lived, his worthy life, is now credited to you. Because Jesus himself was without sin, he rose again from the dead to be with God the Father. Jesus now reigns from heaven with all authority given to him; his salvation work accomplished, his life for yours, your spiritual debt paid in full.
If you believe in Jesus, then the life you're living now belongs to Christ. You are a new creation, a continuation of Christ's life; you are not your own. The words you choose, the actions you take, the places you go, the people you touch: it should all be as Christ. Jesus-the-hand in you-the-glove. To the extent you're living the life of Christ, you are worthy; you're no longer a spiritual loser.
If you believe in Jesus, not only is he in you, but the Bible says you are in him. That might be how, in the spiritual sense, the moment you believe, your old self died back on that cross two thousand years ago. Every core aspect about you was crucified; your pride, your selfishness, your lusts, your will, every sinful aspect of your soul - now all dead to the world.
Not being physically dead, of course, and still subject to sin until you are, God commands you to be a living sacrifice. Every day, in effect, you are to put to death what resembles your old self and be born afresh to God. Filling yourself with the Holy Spirit whom Jesus has sent to help each and every believer, you are to persevere over the inclination to sin, and thereby grow towards the goal of living in perfect and continual communion with the Father.
Love the Father as Jesus loved him; serve as he served, obey as he obeyed. That is being a Christian; or literally a "little Christ".
The gospel is thus humanity's single hope for eternal life; a call to self denial, submitting to the will and authority of God, and following in the teachings, way, and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is what it means to believe in Jesus. If you truly believe in him, you act in concert with his living presence. If you are in concert with him, you not only share in his death on the cross, but you share in his righteousness, or spiritual worthiness. By sharing in his worthiness, you are enabled to share in his eternal life. Have faith that Jesus has accomplished all of this for you, because that is the only way anyone is ever rescued to heaven.
Salvation is
found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by
which we must be saved.
- Acts 4:12
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the
gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through
it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a
few find it.
- Matthew 7:13-14
Jesus himself is the narrow gate which he contrasts to the wide gate and broad road. The wide gate or broad road is the summation of every way people think they are getting to heaven other than by faith in the work and person of Jesus and the cross. The broad road collectively appeals to far more people than the narrow path, and probably fills more churches. That might be successful marketing, but that's not the gospel.
What today's spiritual consumer wants, the gospel might not have. But what the gospel does have is Jesus at its center, and it's Jesus that you need. Jesus paid the ultimate price, and won the ultimate victory. He didn't endure the cross for nothing; not if your salvation could have been accomplished any other way. Nor would his apostles have endured their own torturous deaths for refusing to preach Christ as risen if there was any doubt about it in their minds.
I assure you the gospel is truly good news, even if the only reason left to believe it is simply because it is true. Such might be the case considering the following aspects of the extreme narrowness of the gospel:
1. The gospel is rooted in specific historical events. It is also rooted in humanity's position before an unchanging and uncompromising God. As such, the gospel message is the same today as it was in Jesus' day. The gospel does not change.
2. A clear presentation of the gospel does not mean that it will be believed. On the contrary, Jesus indicated more people will reject the gospel than believe it. That's partly how you can tell if you're dealing with the authentic message. The media mogul's comment at the top is possible evidence that even he, to his credit, has heard or understands the true gospel message.
3. Remember that the angry mob didn't shout "Crucify him" because Jesus was only saying we should be nice to one another. Some of them, likewise, heard or understood his true message. The message has never been widely popular, but being popular was not one of Jesus' goals. Being popular is not a goal of the gospel.
4. Jesus Christ is the core of the gospel, and the cross reminds us of the send-off he got. In return for believing, you, too, will experience some form of rejection. Certain friends or family might think less of you, joke about you, or be angry. Declaring your newfound belief might even get you killed if you live in a nation ruled by Islamic Shari' ah law.
5. What the gospel is not: the gospel is not about increasing your self esteem, or giving you self-improvement techniques, or just making you happy. Believing in the gospel is no guarantee that you'll get any of this "stuff". God willing, you might receive the blessings you want and more, but the gospel isn't about what God can do for you. It's chiefly about what God has already done for you.
6. The true gospel is very narrow in delineating the way to pleasing God. It is so narrow that, according to the Bible, it is actually impossible to believe the gospel unless the hearer is first drawn to it by God (John 6:63-66). That is exactly why the gospel should be presented honestly and with enough clarity for people to reject it. In one sense, it isn't a message for everyone.
As if belief were a competing product to the alternative, the consequence of having believed is eternal life in the presence of the perfect Lord Jesus Christ. The consequence for not doing so is eternity in darkness, torment, and self-hatred for having neglected such a great salvation.
The reward awaiting believers, more specifically, seems to be nicely summed up in the first seven verses of chapter twenty-one in the book of Revelation. As is often the case with God's providence, this happened to be the topic of last Sunday's sermon by one of my pastors:
Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away, and there was no longer any sea.
First to note is the renewal of all of creation. This is not any slight improvement to the status quo, but an entire re-working of life as we know it. Darkness and chaos will be gone, and whatever exists will be shaped in accordance with the character and holiness of God.
I saw the
Not just creation, but believers themselves will be recreated in the likeness of and to the glory of Jesus Christ. Gone is the sin that stains our lives. Believers will be clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ, and in the righteous acts they were given to accomplish while on the old earth.
And I heard a
loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men,
and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be
with them and be their God.
Most importantly, with sin taken away, no longer will God be separated from those who believe. The glory that Moses only glimpsed will be ever-present with believers forever.
He will wipe
every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying
or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
God himself will comfort believers from all that has transpired, and never again will there be the agonies of life with which we are all so familiar.
He who was seated
on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said,
"Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
These promises of a new life in the presence and unveiled love of God are certain, and furthermore God wants everyone to hear them and have confidence.
He said to me:
"It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To
him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the
water of life.
All that needs to be done in order to provide you with access to heaven has been accomplished for you. If you thirst for what God promises, if you are not content with that which passes for life here and now, you can find satisfaction by believing in Christ. For those that have faith that Jesus paid the penalty for all their sin, Jesus indeed paid it all.
He who overcomes
will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
All that remains
for those who believe is the exercising of that belief. If you truly believe
Jesus to be the Christ, Emmanuel ("God with us"), then your life will
reflect it. It will reflect it more and more each and every day until the Lord
calls you to himself and finally welcomes you,
"Well done, good and faithful servant!"
To his culture, Jesus spoke in parables, likening the kingdom of God to elements which his audience knew well. His examples still speak clearly today. Following his example, but with far less effectiveness, here are some of my own writings for today's culture. Perhaps they will assist you to see some part of the gospel more clearly. (Click to read)
Parable of the stray cat: This is a true story generally illustrating the care and rescue we receive from the Lord. It better illustrates the role of Jesus before the Father who is always interceding for us.
The traffic ticket: This is an amusing, fictional dialogue featuring the most common objections to the Bible and Christianity. Beyond that, it's a surprisingly accurate illustration of sinful humanity's legal standing before a holy and just God.
Analogy of the sinking ship: If someone handed you a piece of paper telling you the ship you're on is sinking, but it didn't look that way, what would you do? You'd find out if it's true. This analogy logically walks you through why you should do the same concerning the Bible.
Story of the S.S. Titanic: This is another true story; the real-life events of the Titanic's crew and passengers, broken down event-by-event to show how both Christians and non-Christians are making the same mistakes. This is one of my favorite writings, as the longer I live and the more details of the ship's history I learn, the more the tragic saga seems to perfectly capture the predicaments of both the spiritually saved and the lost.