What’s The Gospel?

The Gospel starts with God. The God who created all things. The God who made us. The God who loves us.

God created us to be in a relationship with him. Can you imagine what perfect love is like? What it’s like to know the Creator of the Universe? To be loved by him? To be God’s friend? That’s how God created us to live with him.

But our need for help started with people. It started with Adam and Eve. They chose to disobey God. They chose to reject God. When they chose to reject God, they tried put themselves in God’s place. They wanted to call the shots. Their hearts went from being open handed towards God to being a clinched fist. That’s what sin is: Breaking God’s commands and perverting His good designs. It’s a clinched fist towards the Creator. It’s personal. It’s against God.

What God did next is how we get the Gospel. God sent Adam and Eve out of his presence, but he did it with a promise. God hated the sin that they have cherished, but he loved them. He sent them out with a promise: One day, he’s send a son that would be wounded by their sin, but would save them by God’s grace.

We’re all born just like Adam and Eve. They’re our ancient parents, but we have the same problems in our own heart. That clinched fist is in all of us.

But God kept his promise. He didn’t leave us to our clinched fist hearts towards his face. He sent that son he promised. God sent his Son. He sent the Savior. He sent Jesus.

In Jesus life, he lived the perfect life of obedience to God’s good designs that we haven’t. He lived how we should have. But he did more. He showed us God’s compassion for us. Jesus was sent by God the Father to show us his heart of compassion. God’s heart of redeeming love was shown to us in Jesus.

And then Jesus died for all the punishment we deserve for our sin. He looked at us, and died in our place on the cross. He died to bear God’s wrath against us for our clinched-fish hearts towards God. He died for all our lies, cheats, lusts, hate, jealousies, addictions.

But he also died for all of our goodness. He died to free us from thinking we can prove our worth to God. He died to free us from our badness and our goodness. Jesus died to be everything we need. Jesus died so that we could be welcomed into the relationship of love that we were designed for.

Then Jesus rose from the grave. He rose to start a new world. He rose to make real this world of grace. He rose to bring us back into a new life with God. Now he sits at God’s right hand, where he prays for us. Whatever Jesus prays for, he gets. He watches over us. He cares for us. He also gives us his Spirit. His Spirit gives us new life. His Spirit opens our clinched-fist hearts to be open and eager for God to feed us. His Spirit makes us sons and daughters of the living God, and puts us in God’s family, the church.

The Gospel takes us from being enemies of God to being God’s family. The Gospel exists because we’ve sinned, but more importantly, because God is gracious. God is loving. God is eager to save us. God is eager to change us.

Most importantly, God is made to look great by the Gospel. Isn’t this story amazing? It’s hard to believe it’s true. The Gospel saves us, and glorifies God through Jesus Christ. Christ is the center. He is where mankind and God are reconciled. Jesus Christ is the Gospel.