The Essence of
the Gospel
God created us for His own glory.
God is the creator of all things. All things whatsoever are from Him, through
Him and to Him. They are His possession and over them He has absolute
claim. He created mankind in His own image in order to serve and worship
Him and He decided in Himself to love beyond reason a people so that
they could recognize Him as creator and love and enjoy Him. In this,
they bring glory to Him, which is His entire purpose. God favoured
us above all His other creatures but we are wholly dependent on Him
to be formed in His true image, just as the clay is dependant on the
potter to receive its form. God has written on our hearts and minds
a law to live by. He has made clear how we are to bring Him glory.
There never has been a time when we did not know God or what He requires.
Representative texts:
Genesis 1:1-2, 26-27; 12:3, Psalms 73:24-26, Isaiah 43:7; 48:11;
64:8, John 1:2-3; 17:22-24,
Acts 17:24-27, Romans 1:18-20; 9:21; 11:36, 1
Corinthians 10:31
But because of
our complete sinfulness, we're separated from Him and His love.
Mankind has fallen from God's favour through sinful disobedience,
even unwilling to obey God's first law in the Garden of Eden (the Earthly
Paradise) and as a consequence is now spiritually dead in sin. Our disobedience
of His
laws (sin) has
not brought us peace or joy but has simply cut the bond that was between
us, estranging us from His love and mercy.
And because we are no longer under His mercy, we must, because
of our sinful rebellion, come under the rightful judgement of His holiness
and justice. Moreover, because He is perfect in every way, His
justice is such that only perfect obedience can re-establish
our relationship with Him. Such obedience is beyond us however,
being spiritually dead because of sin. Therefore, on our
own we have no hope of being found innocent and must suffer the
penalty that God's hatred of sin demands. This
penalty is to spend everlasting eternity in conscious punishment
and torment in Hell, separated from our Creator because of our
rebellion toward Him.
Representative texts:
Genesis 2:17; 3:6-8, 17-19, 22-24; 6:5, Jeremiah 17:9, Matthew 15:19;
25:41; 28:18, John 5:26-30, Romans 3:10-17, 23; 5:12; 7:5;
8:7, Colossians 1:21; 2:9, Ephesians 2:1, Hebrews 1:1-4; 5:8-9, James 1:14-15
Jesus alone
has freed from sin those who believe, by His atoning death on
the cross.
But because God still loves us and has made promises to us that
He keeps because of who He is, He covenanted with His son, Jesus
Christ, to do for us what we cannot do on our
own. In order to pay the outstanding debt created by our sin,
and to appease the just wrath of God against sin, a sacrifice
was required. But such a sacrifice, in order to fulfill a perfect
God's requirement for perfect justice, must also be perfect.
This only Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, could accomplish.
The Father and the Son decided in eternity past to save some
out from all others through the sheer gift of grace, which is
also God's perfect mercy. God decreed that He would save some
through the penal and substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ. These
He gave to Christ as a kind of "love gift" and who
would become His bride, the Church of all true believers. Jesus
paid the price owed to God, by dying for His own people
on the cross. He then guaranteed and sealed salvation for us by rising from
the dead, ascending back to the Father and by sending the Holy
Spirit who is Councilor, Helper, and Regenerator of our souls.
Representative texts:
Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 42:6, Jeremiah 31:33, Matthew 5:48, John 2:18-22;
3:16; 14:26; 16:7; 17:1-10, Acts 4:33, Romans 5:17-19; 8:3, 1 Corinthians
1:30-31, [read together Galatians 4:4, 1Timothy 2:6, Romans 4:25] Ephesians
2:1-5, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, 2 Timothy 1:9-10, Hebrews 2:10, 14:15; 4:15
Having been
set free by Christ we are eternally reconciled to God.
Jesus' sacrifice was not made for all people but only for those
who would repent of their sin, believe in Him as their Lord and
Saviour, proclaim their belief openly and without shame and become baptized
in His name. These are enabled to do this entirely by the power of God through
the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, who first regenerates the
chosen sinner
and gives
the
gift of faith. He reckons the sinner not guilty because of the
perfect righteousness of Christ and comes to dwell in the heart, so creating
a new person in Christ. We are given to believe, through Scripture,
that God will draw to Himself all those who, in eternity past,
He foreknew and foreloved: these then sincerely seek Him through
genuine repentance of sin and acceptance of Him by faith. Holy
Scripture, which was written by God the Holy Spirit through the
agency of certain men, testifies that by this the sinner is enabled
to understand the predicament he is in as well as knowing for certain
that only through the shed blood of Christ is the way to true freedom,
lasting joy, and eternal life in Heaven. There is no other way. When the
sinner is made new through the regenerating power of
God, he receives the assurance of salvation as well as the desire to
do the will of God, knowing that his salvation can never be finally,
utterly lost.
Representative texts:
Job 19:25-27, Ezekiel 36:31, Joel 2:12-13, Mark 1:15; 16:15-16, John
17:20-23, Romans 3:25-26, 28; 4:5-8; 8:28-30; 10:9, 17, 2 Corinthians 5:19-21,
Galatians 2:20; 3:14, 22; 5:5-6, Ephesians 2:8; 3:17-19, 2 Timothy 3:16,
1 John 5:13 |