We have seen that there are certain Biblical teachings that make the
gospel of Jesus what it is. Without even one of these elements, you do not
have the gospel as described in Biblical terms. In many parts of the
church at the beginning of the twenty first century some of these elements
have been forsaken. It is so important for us to know what these
indisputable elements are. Once knowing what they are, we should be able
to clearly and simply relate them to others. This is the mandate that has
been given us from the Lord Himself.
The Deity of Christ, that is, Jesus being God is the first element that
we need to understand. Jesus was, when He was on earth, fully God and
fully human. There has been no other person in the history of humanity
that has been like Jesus. He was and is one of a kind, never to be
duplicated again. He now sits on the throne of the universe as Lord of all
there is. He is so powerful that He has absolutely no competition or
rivals. You may think that the devil is His competition, but not really.
The devil is more of an annoyance than anything. Jesus is also Saviour for
anyone who gives his life to Him, and begins that trusting relationship.
He saves su from many thing, not the least is from God Himself.
Once we understand who Jesus was and is, we need to understand who we
are in the sight of God. We are totally depraved and worthless when
compared to God. This is a hard thought for us to accept in this day and
age when relativism has penetrated our thinking. Like the popular book
title from the 1970’s said, "I’m Okay – You’re Okay".
The world around us believes that man is basically very good. That was the
case when Adam was first created, but according to Scripture that is not
the case any longer. When man fell away from God and His ways, he became
totally depraved of all goodness. Leave anyone to his natural tendencies,
and he will sink to a level beyond what we could ever imagine. We do have
restraints put on us by society and ourselves that for the most part helps
us not to sink to such a state. Beyond these restraints man is capable of
any evil imaginable. Especially in light of who God is in His perfect
nature and character, we are worthless.
For this very reason, God put forward a Law that would show us why and
where we have gone astray. He chose a people, a nation in Old Testament
days to be an example of what He wanted a group of people to be like. He
gave these people the Law, telling them what was right and what was wrong.
He made provision in this Law for them to find acceptance with Himself
when they went astray and broke the Law. Yet this Law and its provisions
was temporary. It would not satisfy God’s perfect justice. These chosen
people constantly went astray and did what they felt was good in their own
depraved thinking. God could not turn His back on their depravity for
ever, so He did something about it.
What He did was perfect in every way. God Himself became a man. That
man was named Jesus. Jesus, who was God in human flesh, lived the perfect
life. He was the first and last in history to ever live such a life. God,
in His perfect sense of justice was satisfied with the perfect life of
Jesus. Finally someone actually lived the way He wanted man to live.
In fact Jesus lived the perfect life for us, or on our behalf. This is
partly why Jesus can intercede on our behalf before God. His perfect life
is a constant reminder to God that it has been done, that the perfect life
has been lived. When looking on mankind in his depravity, God always turns
to see Jesus. When looking at Jesus, He is pleased. The very presence of
Jesus tempers God’s feelings of wrath for those He loves. Jesus takes
our case before the Father when necessary, which is basically all of the
time. He stands before God as a lawyer, defending the people who trust in
Him. It is important to realize that Jesus will not defend anyone who has
not asked Him to do so.
Living the perfect life was not the end of the matter for Jesus.
Someone had to be punished for our evil ways. This was the problem. God is
totally perfect in His sense of justice. This means that He has to punish
people for their sin. The ultimate punishment would be death. Because of
God’s sense of perfect justice, He has great anger and wrath towards the
wrong doer. Everything about God is perfect. In modern language you might
even say that God is extreme. His anger and wrath are extreme as well. He
had to punish someone for our sin. The punishment had to be an execution.
Does this sound somewhat severe? It certainly does. Severity in every
respect is common place when it comes to such perfection as seen in God..
Yet on the other hand, God is perfect in His love. More than perfect,
He is total and extreme in His love. God does not do anything in half
hearted ways. God loved us with such an extreme love that He needed to do
something extreme to help us out.
In human terms this is a dilemma, but God had an answer. God is
perfectly just and therefore needs to execute the ones He loves for the
evil they do. His everlasting love towards us is in major conflict with
His anger and wrath, and sense of justice. So what can He do? Part of Him
needs to kill us for our sin, but part of Him loves us too much to do
that.
The solution is found in Jesus. He would be punished for our sin. The
Perfect One would be executed as a criminal for the sin of all mankind.
Also, while on the cross He became sick with all imaginable illnesses in
order that we could be healed in all imaginable ways. As a result God’s
perfect sense of justice and His accompanying anger was appeased or
satisfied by the death of Jesus. He no longer had that overwhelming desire
to punish us. Punishment for man’s evil had been paid for by Jesus on
the cross.
Jesus paid the price to God that was necessary for us to be free from
guilt. Guilt is not a feeling. Guilt is a place in which we stand before
God, whether we feel guilty or not. By being punished for our sins, we are
no longer guilty. This was an excessive measure on God’s part. If anyone
chooses to neglect such a great gift, there remains only one thing for
him. What remains is God’s wrath and anger that was appeased by Jesus on
the cross. If it took the execution of Jesus, knowing who Jesus is, to
satisfy God’s wrath, how much more wrath will be poured out on those who
reject God’s provision for our sin. Remember, God does everything in
ways beyond our thinking. This is why I have used the word extreme so
often in trying to explain this. It is hard to put into words the
attributes of God. Simply put, God was really angry with us. So angry that
He had to kill Jesus. Now if we neglect what He has done for us, how much
more angry will He become with those who reject His act of love. I am not
capable of describing how God will feel on the day He judges mankind for
how they have responded to Jesus.
Yes Jesus was executed in our place, but He did not stay in the grave.
He rose from the dead, thus conquering death and the devil. Because death,
the result of sin, was conquered, we too can be raised to a new life at
the appropriate time. The resurrection of Jesus is the forerunner to our
own resurrection at the end of this age. Christ’s resurrection is
fundamental to the gospel. Without Jesus being raised from the dead,
everything would be over. Jesus not only had to die for our sin, He had to
conquer sin with all of its consequences. Death is the last consequence of
sin that He had to have victory over. Jesus beat sin by living the perfect
life. He also beat sin by His resurrection because death was the result of
sin. So He conquered sin in all of its various aspects. If He had not been
raised from the dead, sin would have beat Him. But Jesus did rise from the
dead. He did have complete victory over sin. Somebody actually won the war
with sin.
Jesus became what the Law could never be. He obeyed the Law which no
one else could ever do. The Law wanted us to live perfectly. We could not
do that. Jesus lived the perfect life for us. God was then satisfied with
His life. All of the animal sacrifices that the Law required to make us
right in God’s sight were over. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, the
sacrifice to end all sacrifices. There is no more sacrifice to be made.
There is no sacrifice that is more perfect than the sacrifice of Jesus,
the Son of God. Thus the Law was laid aside. The Law was no longer
necessary. Jesus replaced the Law.
If God’s Law has been replaced with Jesus, so also any man made
religious rule made for the purpose of salvation should be laid aside.
There is no law, and there is nothing we can do that is better than what
has already been done. If we say we must do this or that to be a true
Christian then we are telling Jesus what He has done is not good enough.
We as lowly human beings need to improve on what the Ultimate God has
done. That makes no sense. It is completely folly and stupidity on our
part. But look at history. We are constantly trying to improve on what
Jesus has done. How arrogant! How foolish!
Our response to God’s perfect solution to our problem is to repent.
This means to turn from the direction that we are going, and turn towards
Him. Once we have made this change in our thinking, we need to reach out
to Jesus in true faith. We step towards Him and tell Him that we trust Him
totally for our lives, including our salvation. By salvation I mean, our
acceptance by God, our re-union with Him, and all that goes along with
this union. Our salvation will be complete someday when Jesus returns for
us who trust in Him. At that time we will be like Him and God’s perfect
plan will be concluded. He will have a group of perfect people. At that
time His original intention for mankind will have been restored.
Once repenting and then giving our lives to Him in a trusting
relationship, we will receive the Holy Spirit of God. It is the Holy
Spirit that unites us with God and enables us to walk on this path towards
perfection that will be realized at the return of Christ. The Holy Spirit
is God’s seal, or stamp of approval on us, stating that we belong to
Him. Without the Holy Spirit our salvation is not complete. Without the
Holy Spirit we do not belong to God.
Once we have repented, believed and received the Holy Spirit, we have
become something new. The Bible calls this a new creation. In child birth,
you might say that God created us. With this new birth, you might say that
He has re-created us. In this new creation there are many benefits, too
many to elaborate on here. One major benefit is that God now views us as
totally right in every aspect of who we are. He sees us as righteous, even
as He Himself is righteous. This is hard to imagine. God actually views us
as being perfect, just as He is perfect, even though we are not. How
thankful we should be.
This is the perfect gospel of God. Only a perfect, ultimate and extreme
God can put such a perfect plan into action and complete it to the end.
That is exactly what He has done. Is all this extreme? It certainly is. I
thank Him daily for such a great salvation. The God that true Christians
serve, that is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the
ultimate God. He never does anything in half measures. It is not in His
nature to do so. Every part of who God is and what He does is perfect,
ultimate and eternal. Human language fails greatly in trying to explain
this. We can not properly relate who God is and what He has done, yet we
can see it and experience it, and to a small degree even understand it.
I give thanks to God daily for His perfect plan of the salvation of
mankind and the universe around us. I give thanks to Jesus as well for
being more than willing to go through all that He did on our behalf, even
though it was not His place to do so. I give thanks to the Holy Spirit who
is with me, enabling me to be united with the God who has created all that
ever will be It is all a very wonderful reality.
Maybe you have heard old time preachers talk about the "call of
God". If you have heard of such a thing, this is what they mean. God,
at some point in your life, maybe it’s right now, will come to you in a
special way. It is like He is knocking at the door of your life. Maybe a
human way of looking at it would be like a telephone call. That is why
some call this experience the "call of God". You will know that
it is God. You may ask, "how will I know"? Trust me, you will
just know. He will ask you to give your life to Jesus. He will not ask you
to give yourself to anyone else. He will ask you to repent, meaning to let
go of your own way of living. He will ask you to trust Jesus for every
aspect of your life. By responding in a positive way, you are actually
calling out to God yourself. Once you make this call, He will come to you
and you will receive His Holy Spirit. You will be born again. You will be
saved. You will be converted. There are so many different ways of saying
what happens to you at this point.
In the John 6:44 Jesus said that no one could come to Him except the
Father draws him. How does God the Father draw people like you and I to
Jesus? The answer to this question is simple. The Holy Spirit is the one
who draws you and I to the point of making a choice to follow Jesus or
not.
If you are reading this book and have not responded to Jesus in a
positive way, I pray that the Holy Spirit can use these words in such a
way that you will want to come to Jesus, and meet Him face to face.
There is a special, and somewhat secret place deep inside you and I.
You might say that it is at the centre of who we are. Some might call this
your soul. Some might call it your spirit. Whatever you call it, it is a
place where God's Spirit can speak to you and I. Does He speak to us in
words? Sometimes He does. Does He speak to us in an emotional feeling?
Sometimes He does that too. However God’s Spirit comes to you, He will
do something that will cause you to come to a point of decision. The
decision concerns Jesus, and how you will respond to Him and what He has
done for you.
Once you realize that the presence of God is with you by His Holy
Spirit, He will enable you to call on Him. Paul, in Romans 10:13 says that
"whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved". Saved
from what? Saved from God and His wrath. Saved from hell, saved from many
bad decisions we make, saved from the worlds way of doing things, saved
from so many other things.
There are two aspects to this call. God calling you, and you calling
out to Him . This is clear from the above two verses I have mentioned. You
will have that chance to call out to God. He will come to you in a
recognizable way. You will know it’s Him. He will point you to Jesus. My
prayer is that you will respond to His call in a positive way. Your
eternal destiny depends on how you respond. It depends on how you call out
to Him, whether by saying yes to Him, or by saying no.
Life is short. Eternity is very long. It’s not worth gambling over
your future any longer. This may be your chance to allow the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ into your life to do as He wishes. We
never know how many chances He will give us. We never know how long we
have left in this life to make this choice. Once our last breath has been
breathed, that is it. It is all over. After we die it is too late to make
your choice. How we respond to Jesus in this life will determine what
happens to us after death.
If God’s Holy Spirit is speaking to you about the Lord Jesus Christ
at this moment, say yes to Him. Don’t take any chance by saying no. Don’t
take any chances by ignoring His call. This is the Creator Himself
speaking to you. Let Him speak. Seriously consider His call. Seriously
consider what I have said in the previous chapters of this book. Then say
yes to Jesus. Let Him be your Lord, your Master, the One you give yourself
too. When He becomes this to you, He will also become the one who rescues
you from all you need rescuing from. The traditional way of saying this is
that Jesus will then become your Saviour. The biggest thing you need to be
rescued from is God Himself. When you say yes to Him, He will give you His
Spirit and you will become a new person. You will view all things in a new
and different light. He will view you as if you are totally right and
perfect in every aspect of your life. Just imagine, the Creator of all
things will view you in the same way that He views His One and Only
Perfect Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Say yes to Him now. Why would you not want to say anything else?
For those of us who have already said yes to Jesus, after understanding
the truths written in this book, we can only respond with great
thankfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is worthy of all our devotion.
Home Page
Previous Page
sdsweetman@sympatico.ca