The Gospel of Jesus Christ


Introduction
 There is a very great deal of pain and darkness in the world in which we live. When I look around, I am often enthralled, it is true, by the beauty and the wonder of Creation, but I also see so much corruption, suffering, and death, that I have sometimes become very jaded, in fact, about whether there were any real hope for anyone and whether I could ever really do anyone any good, simply because of how incredibly dark the world and others seem. Even young children are increasingly so taken by what should at least be only adult corruptions that when I look at things on my own I can see no way out, no salvation, and no hope for the world or purpose in anything.

 But I am not alone; we are not alone, and so that perspective is wrong. We have not been abandoned by the God who made us, but he himself has come to redeem us, in the person of Jesus Christ. And I have found rest and hope in the story -- and much more, in the actual Person and presence -- of the God whose love and humility are so great that he would not abandon his creation to its destruction even when that was what it both deserved and wanted. But instead he rose from his throne, laid aside his crown, and clothed himself in the flesh of a slave, going to the furthest reaches -- the farthest outer territories -- of his creation to bear with us, as one of us, our pain, our suffering, and our death, to pay for us the penalty for our sin, so that even in death we might not be separated from his presence. When we rejected him, he would not leave us alone but humbled himself to our level to restore his fellowship to us, and he made even our rejection of him in the flesh the way of our salvation, for by his death he destroyed death itself, since it could not hold his infinite life, and he rose from the grave so that he could also raise us up, freeing us from both the stain and the power of sin and ultimately even from the power of death.

 And this is the truth that gives me hope and rescues me from darkness, from sin, and from despair at the broken state of the world and the people in it; it -- he -- is my inspiration and both the foundation and substance of my life: this God whose peace overcomes all our violence, whose love reaches further than any rebel can ever run, whose gift of himself exceeds all our debt, whose infinite life conquers all our death and raises us far beyond its power. He is my peace in the midst of chaos; he is my love and ability to love; he is my redemption from sin, from Satan, and from myself; and he is my life, both now and for eternity. He is gracious, compassionate, and merciful, and he delights in restoring sinners to himself, and there is nothing and no one outside of his reach or beyond his ability to redeem, and the message he sends me to bring is not, “you can live by better rules,” but, “you can be remade.” Leave the emptiness of yourself and come be filled with all his fullness.

God
So let us talk a little about this God before whom I have grown up. The Bible reveals a God of such superabounding love, beauty, joy, and goodness that He freely willed to create the universe from nothing and fill it with beauty and goodness simply because He delighted in it. (Gen. 1) As the crowning glory of creation, God made man “in His image” (Gen. 1:26-27), so that, in man, creation might participate in the very life and love of God -- loving and trusting and obeying God as God loves and provides for and blesses creation.
This, then, is the God with which we have to do in Christianity -- a God so loving, so selfless, so outward-going in His goodness and mercy that He, although complete and wanting for nothing in Himself, freely made a universe of creatures filled with His goodness for no other reason than so that they could know and delight in Him and He in them. He is like the man who finally obtains the house he has always dreamed of and immediately invites all his friends, relatives, and neighbors over, simply that they might share in his delight. But this man, just because of his delight in the house and those invited and his desire that all should rejoice in it as he does, would not put up with anyone who began to abuse others or the house. So we must remember that this is also a supremely holy God (Ps. 77:13; Ps. 99:9; Is. 5:16; Rev. 4:8; etc.), whose righteousness produces and upholds the “rightness” of the universe, whose goodness produces all the good there is -- “for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33). “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). And this God, infinite in wisdom and knowledge, supreme in goodness, can never contradict Himself, nor is He ever at odds with Himself. So when in love He called the universe in general, and man in particular, from nothing to know Him and share in His life and then pronounced it all “very good” (Gen 1:31), He meant it, and He desired that it should remain good and continue ever more fully in His goodness.

Man

But we see now only a distorted image of that original goodness; we see ourselves and the world filled with sin and suffering and death, when we were created for righteousness and joy and life. Our first father, Adam, disobeyed God’s command -- turning away from the Creator who made him, the Lord who commanded his allegiance, the God who alone could fill him with life and peace and joy. Adam chose himself over God, his own way over God’s way; he wanted to be god himself, by himself, and by putting himself and the world in God’s place (see Gen. 3), he turned from the only Creator to worship and serve creation, instead -- and we have all done the same ever since (Rom. 1:18-32).
So creation abides now under the curse of death, because its caretaker (mankind) has forsaken the only Life and Peace there is and turned to serve lesser things -- in fact, to serve himself. And this is the justice of God, the same justice that upholds the order of the universe and preserves it from chaos -- for how could it be right for such utter rebellion and depravity to go unpunished? Moreover, how could those who forsake their only life continue to live? We would think it a great feat of idiocy if a man insisted on eating glass and rubber instead of food and then complained that he was dying. And we would think very little indeed of a father who claimed to love his son dearly but encouraged him to lie, cheat, steal, and take copious amounts of amphetamines, or, if the son was sick with cancer, never did anything to stop the disease from which he was slowly dying. So with this God of infinite goodness -- of love, mercy, and righteousness. He does indeed love us (and all of creation) with His whole being, and that is exactly why the sin in which we live -- the corruption which is destroying the people and universe He made and loves -- invites from Him such a terrible wrath.
He cannot simply “let us off the hook;” we were made for union with Him, and we have turned away. And how can we come back? Light has no fellowship with darkness (2 Cor. 4:13); to even approach Him in the state in which we now are would be to destroy ourselves in the consuming fire of His holiness. “In Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), and we are most certainly now darkness, but we were made to be in Him, to know Him, and to partake of His light. But now how can we? His light is only torment to us, “for everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (John 3:20). And we destroy not only ourselves and each other, but the whole creation of which we were made caretakers.
So now how shall we answer this God whose position we have usurped, whose creation we have destroyed, whose love we do not want and whose presence we cannot stand? Will we presume to beg on the riches of His love and mercy to forgive us? It is His love and mercy, as much as His justice, that now kill us (sinful, self-centered creatures that we are!), for it is love for us that will not let our folly go unpunished (and so unnoticed) and a great mercy to both us and creation that we do not live forever upon the earth. We think that we will escape wrath and judgement because God is good; but we know so very little of real goodness, and we desire far less. We are all self-centered, self-serving, self-worshipping fools, and the deeper we look inside ourselves and the more soberly we look at history, the more clearly we recognize that there is nothing good about us, so that if God is as good as we hear from the Bible that He is (or even as good as we purport to think he is), He must certainly -- for that very reason -- destroy us all. Though He certainly loves us in what we were made to be, yet just as certainly He hates what we have become. And what good would mere forgiveness of our disobedience do, when our original purpose (and our only hope for life, peace, and joy) is union with a God with whom we now have nothing in common and whom we do not desire?

Christ
    So we had utterly turned away from God, our only life, and had brought the curse of death upon ourselves (Gen 3:19). But God in His great mercy was unwilling to leave His creatures to their destruction, and so He sent His eternal Son to assume our humanity and be born of a virgin as the man Jesus. This Jesus lived a sinless life in complete dependence on and obedience to God the Father (John 5:30; John 8:28; John 14:10) -- the life, in fact, that we should have lived. This obedience to God led Him to the cross, where he died a sinner's death at the hands of the Jewish and Roman leaders. But it was not possible that death should hold Him (Acts 2:24), and God the Father raised His Son from the grave on the third day, vindicating Him before all the earth and exalting Him far above all other power and authority (Phil. 2:9).
    And this Jesus, the incarnate eternal Son of God, fully God and fully man, is our salvation. We had turned away from God and severed ourselves from His life, casting ourselves into both physical and spiritual corruption and death, and we had no way on our own of raising ourselves to again meet with the transcendent Creator. But by His incarnation, in His own body, the Son of God restored our fellowship with Him. God Himself reunited us to Himself when we could do nothing to restore communion, by clothing Himself in our flesh so that His Spirit might again dwell within us.
    Again, we had fallen into sin and corruption, and this law of sin ruled all of mankind so that all were subject to the penalty of sin, which is death (Rom. 5:12-14). But Jesus, by His perfect life, retold our story the right way, in accordance with the will of God. He "was in all ways tempted as we are, yet was without sin” (Heb. 4:15), and so He destroyed the power of sin in our flesh by being victorious over it in the flesh. And so He is able to help us in our weakness, because His Spirit can now give us victory over that same sin and free us from its rule. Further, by suffering the death which we all deserved, He fulfilled the curse of the law that we were all under and so redeemed us from it (Gal 3:13). The wrath of God has already been poured out; the debt has already been paid. Justice delivered Himself up to satisfy His own demands because we could not -- and because He would not abandon us to destruction. So in the name of Jesus alone we find forgiveness of sins (Acts 4:12), and by His death He destroyed death itself, for since He has suffered all our curse, that curse no longer has power over any who belong to Him, and death no longer separates us from our God but instead unites us to Him (Rom. 6:5; Phil 3:10-11).
    But even death was not the end: The grave swallowed Life Himself, and hell was not big enough to contain Him. So He rose to life again, physically, and ascended into heaven, raising our humanity up with Him to the bosom of the Father. And so Jesus Christ Himself is the promise of our resurrection and the one in whom our human nature is united to God and joined to His eternal fellowship of love. That is why Jesus said, "This is eternal life, that they know You, the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3). By His resurrection, He destroyed forever all the power of death and hell -- what was previously the boundary and end of our existence, the limit that made all the rest of life meaningless and vain, is now a place of broken limits and shattered gates, forever surpassed by the sheer excess of the love and life of God. And since it did not hold Jesus, it cannot hold any who are His. His promise is not to erase death as though it never happened, but to be with us even in it and raise us past it, far beyond the reach of all evil and suffering: immortal, impassible, invincible, united in Him to the Father Almighty to share forever in His infinite love and peace.
    So the promises we have in Jesus are forgiveness of sins, because He bore our penalty; the replacement of our debt by His perfect record, because He repented of and conquered sin in our place and for us; real union with God by the Spirit whom Christ promised to all who believe in Him now, here on earth, by which we are joined in fellowship to God Himself; freedom from the domineering power of sin and fear of death by that same Spirit, who purifies us and strengthens us to resist evil and turn from ourselves to God; freedom, ultimately, from even death and suffering in the resurrection from the dead, when not only we but all creation will be remade and fully united to God, to share in all His life and glory forever. And so this Jesus, who unites God to us and us to God, who lived and died for us as we should have, who rose from the dead to conquer all the power of death and evil, has been exalted to the right hand of God Most High, made Lord and ruler of all -- and seeing that in Him we have such wonderful promises and that He is Himself so worthy of love and obedience (infinitely more so than ourselves and all worldly powers, which bring only death), how could we not fall at His feet and beg that He accept us as His servants and followers and become indeed our Lord and Master?

Faith
And now, what are we to do? That we cannot save ourselves is clear, not only from Scripture but from actual experience. We cannot of our own make ourselves holy, nor (no matter how good we think ourselves to be) can we ever conquer death. We recognize that something has gone terribly wrong with both ourselves and all of creation, and we have heard the glorious news of the God who entered creation to become its Savior. But what are we to do with that news? Jesus has come to forgive us and redeem us, to purify us and unite us to Himself, but how are we to take hold of Him?
The answer always given in the Bible by the apostles and Jesus Himself is simple: “Repent and believe” (Mark 1:15). That is it. It is both easy and hard: In a sense, there is almost nothing to it. You must repent of all your old ways, of all your sin and self-sufficiency and pride, acknowledge your bankruptcy and guilt before God, beg His pardon through Jesus Christ, and then open yourself to receive Him as both Savior and Lord. That is all.
And yet, it bears more explanation. Repentance is often cheapened these days into merely an apology. That is not nearly the same thing. To repent of something means to actually turn away from it, to repudiate and renounce it entirely. So when you come to God and take that first step of repentance, it is not merely a weak, “I’m sorry,” but a full and entire renunciation of all that you are and have ever been and thought and done. It is, in fact, a kind of death; it is a participation in the cross of Christ, where He died for the sins of the whole world so that He might rise in the life of God. But you must not wait to come to God until you feel able to fully repudiate everything in your past life -- you cannot. No one can. We are not good enough to fully hate and turn away from our evil or our self-will. That is why Jesus, before beginning His earthly ministry, underwent a baptism by the prophet John for forgiveness of sins -- not because He had anything of His own to repent for, but so that He might do for us what we could not and repent in our place, so that however small and weak our repentance might be, still if we make the attempt honestly, trusting not in our adequacy (our ability to “get it right”) but in the adequacy of Jesus Christ (the fact that He has already gotten it right on our behalf), the Father will accept it. So first is to earnestly desire to turn away from yourself and sin and toward God and righteousness, but even here you must trust not in your own repentance but in that of Jesus.
Secondly, believe. This belief in Jesus is often termed “faith,” and it is much more than mere mental assent. It is not enough to believe in my mind that a plane is able to take me somewhere; I must actually get on it, or else I will remain where I am in spite of my correct mental notion. Nevertheless, however shaky my notion may be, if I get on the plane, I will certainly arrive at my destination, because the result is not based on the strength of my mental assent but the adequacy of the plane. In the same way, a saving faith in Jesus is a faith lived out. To believe in Christ means to trust in who He is and what He has done, to fully rely upon Him in all things, and to submit oneself to Him in complete obedience and love -- and that means to walk in the way in which He walked, to follow the commandments of God (1 John 2:6; James 1:22-25; James 2:14-26). But we do not do these works because they save us, rather, we do them because Christ has already saved us and the obedience we display in our lives is both the outworking of our trust in Him and the very thing He has saved us for (Eph. 2:10). For certainly, if He saves us from sin, then He saves us for righteousness. If we are saved from selfishness and death, then we are saved to love and life (Rom 6:16-23). But again, we are able to obey because Christ has already obeyed -- so He both puts His Spirit in us to transform us and help us to obey, and by the vicarious perfection He has given us assures us that we are already accepted by the Father in spite of our inadequacies. Because we have already been saved, we are able to work in love and gratitude, knowing that there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ (Rom. 8:1).
So this is what it comes down to: If you have any desire to be freed from self-centeredness, from evil, from death, then turn from it immediately -- not by your own power, for you already know that is useless and weak -- casting yourself wholly upon the mercies of God in the name of Jesus Christ, who died and rose that you, who were dead (Col. 2:13), might live. Do not wait for the perfect opportunity or feeling, for it will never come, and there is no need of it, for God Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ has already done all your work: He has repented for you, lived for you, died for you, and risen for you, so that you might have His record and even your weakest attempts at repentance and righteousness might be counted as a participation in His perfection and accepted by God, so long as those attempts are based wholly on trust in Jesus as your Savior and submission to Him as your Lord and Master. Wait no longer, but immediately turn away from yourself and come to God in prayer, repenting of all you are and have been, thanking Him for the salvation He has wrought for you in Jesus Christ, and asking Him to make His home in you and so unite you to Himself and remake you into His image. Such a prayer may go something like this:

Most merciful God, who sent your Son Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord of all who would put their trust in Him, have mercy on me and forgive me for His sake. I confess that I have lived in rebellion, worshipping and serving myself and other idols in Your place, and now I desire to turn away from sin and from myself and turn to worship and serve and love You, instead. Thank You for fulfilling all righteousness and justice on my behalf so that I could freely receive Your mercy. Thank You for sending Jesus to restore Your life to me, to live for me a sinless life, to die the death that I deserved, and to rise again to raise me up and unite me to You. I confess that I have trusted in myself and followed my own ways, but now I repent of my self-will and place all my trust in the work of Jesus, who gives me His perfect record, cleanses me of all my guilt, and frees me from the controlling power of sin. I give myself wholly to You, my only Savior and King, and I ask that you would remake me into Your image and grant me the grace to follow and love and obey You all of my days. In the name of Jesus Christ Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, amen.

Follow-Up (Living and Growing as a Christian)

If you have just put your trust in Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior, you have just made the most important decision of your life. You have passed from death to life, from the curse of sin to the promise of God in Jesus Christ (John 5:24). Your fellowship with God, which had been broken, has now been restored, and you have begun to experience the purpose for which you were made: fellowship with God and participation in His life and work.
But you must now go on to experience this -- to participate in the life and fellowship of God (and the saints) -- more and more. You may have a great deal of emotion about your decision to repent and turn to Christ right now, but some of that will fade and change over time, and, although the Lord will teach you an abiding peace and joy in the depth of your soul, there will be days where your emotions will war against you and make you feel far from God. Remember, then, to trust in the rock of Christ and in the solemn promise of God, who does not lie (Heb. 6:18), for the assurance of your salvation (John 3:16), rather than in the shifting sands of your own emotions. Do not deceive yourself, though: One who has truly turned to Christ and been united to Him by the Holy Spirit will begin to evidence an increasing desire to know the Lord and grow in His holiness; if you feel yourself lacking such a desire, then pray to the Lord for it! But do not lie and say that you have trusted Christ while still trying to live a life of disobedience to Him -- such is not salvation (James 2:14,17, I John 1:6, 2:4, 3:14).
If you desire, then, to grow in your relationship with the Lord, take heart! You have already begun by repenting of your former disobedience and trusting in Jesus to save you, and the way to continue is to keep doing the same thing (Col. 2:6). The goal of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not merely our one-time forgiveness but a real transformation of everything that we are, so that we may come to share -- mind, soul, spirit, and even body -- entirely in the holiness and life and love of God. This is the promise of our salvation. Christians often call this transformation the process of “sanctification,” and it is carried out in the same way our original “justification” is: by repentance and faith. We are meant daily, and even moment-by-moment, to come before God in humble repentance for our continual self-worship and disobedience and ask for Him to transform and renew us, not only in our actions but in our minds and hearts, as well, putting our faith in Jesus Christ who defeated sin for us in the flesh and gives us the Holy Spirit to remake us into His image, as He is the image of the Father (Rom. 12:2; Col. 1:15; Gen. 1:26; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 John 3:2-3; etc.).
God ordains innumerable particular ways in which He helps us to grow in His holiness. In fact, each moment and every circumstance of your life is an address to you from God, calling you to respond to Him and participate in His life. But there are five general means which He has ordained for all Christians in order that they might grow in their relationship with Him (and thus also with one another). You should be aware of these, and begin to take part in them immediately.
The first is the reading of the Bible. This is God’s divinely inspired word to us, in which He reveals Himself to us and speaks His Truth into our lives (2 Tim. 3:16; 1 Cor. 10:11). Jesus Himself referred to it as our spiritual food (Matt. 4:4). If our minds are truly to be transformed and conformed to the mind and desires of God, we must allow them to be washed and soaked in His thoughts and stories, and those are found in the Bible (Eph. 5:26). If you are in confusion about where to start, I would suggest beginning with one of the Gospels (since they are the stories of Jesus, whom you have just given your life to), particularly the Gospel of John. You may also find it helpful to begin each day with a Psalm or two, and end perhaps with a couple verses from the book of Proverbs. If you feel the Holy Spirit prompting you to read something else, then listen to Him -- but do not give in to laziness and forgo reading entirely, nor to a falsely spiritual lack of discipline and just let the Bible fall open randomly every time you come to devotions, in the hope of finding a surprise blessing. Let your study of Scripture be wise and orderly, for “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33). And do not be a silly individualist and think that you must read nothing but the Bible and interpret it all on your own. By all means, read it prayerfully, asking God to grant you understanding, and bring your questions before Him -- but also seek out wise and mature Christians to discuss it with, and make use of the study Bibles and devotional and theological works that exist for the very purpose of helping others come to better know the Lord. I would recommend beginning with older works, ones that have stood the test of time and remained accepted by the church. Save the newest books for when your discernment and knowledge of Scripture have grown.
The second thing to do is the very thing you did at the first: It is to pray. In prayer, we speak to God, we bring our requests and questions and problems and selves before Him and learn to fellowship with Him, to contemplate His goodness, and to listen for His voice. It is not so different from any other relationship: If you would have one, you must spend time with the other, talking and listening. In the reading of Scripture, we listen to God. In prayer, we speak to Him. It is true that God knows everything already (Matt. 6:8), but He still desires that we should speak to Him because that is part of a relationship. It is also how we learn to trust Him, and it is in bringing our questions and requests to God that we find and put into practice the faith to trust Him for the answers. So we are called to pray continually, and to bring our requests to God in faith (1 Thess. 5:17; Phil. 4:6; Eph. 6:18).
Third is worship, by which we mean the remembrance and contemplation of God and His works and the offering to Him of the obedience, praise, and thanksgiving that are due to Him. It is true that the entire life of a Christian is meant to be one continual act of worship, but we are also called to come together as a community for a particularly focused time of worship once a week (typically on Sunday, the Lord’s Day). It is at this time when we worship God together in community, make communal confession to Him, and as a community pray to Him for one another and the world and rejoice in His goodness. It is also at this time that Communion (the “Eucharist” or “Lord’s Supper”) is observed in remembrance of Jesus’ death and  accordance with His command (1 Cor. 11:23-26). It is also here that Baptism is observed and those who have trusted in Christ for salvation make public confession and are officially welcomed into the fellowship of the Body of Christ, the Church (Matt. 28:19; 1 Pet. 2:21; Rom. 6:4; Eph. 4:4-6). Again, here in the communal gathering for worship is where the Bible is taught to Christians in a way that will aid them in their spiritual growth. For this reason, it is imperative that you find a church where Christ is honored and His Word is taught both accurately and faithfully. You should begin immediately to find and attend such a church.
Fourth, you are called to fellowship with other believers. We are all saved to the Body of Christ, the communion of saints -- together, not separately. Cords are made stronger by the entwining of many threads; fires are made brighter by many logs. Even so, we need the encouragement and wisdom and correction of one another in order to continue in the life of faith (Gal 6:1-2). We hold each other up, and it is in community that we experience the love and goodness of God clothed with the humanity of one another -- for the church is the continued presence of Christ in the world, and it is by our love for one another (which can only be known and shared in community) that Jesus said we would be recognized as His disciples (John 13:35). So do not try to live the Christian life alone; find a church and attend regularly. Find Christian friends, and build real relationships with them (Heb. 10:25).
Finally, we come to service and outreach. If we are saved from disobedience, rebellion, and sin, then we are saved to obedience, service, and righteousness. So while our salvation rests not in our good works but in the Person of Christ, the very substance of that salvation is to participate in the life of Christ, which includes participation in His work. So we are all uniquely gifted and called to use those gifts and our resources to do good to others for the sake of God (1 Pet. 4:10; Heb. 13:16; Gal. 6:9-10; Eph. 2:10). So part of the purpose of our salvation is so that we can love and serve others, both Christians and non-Christians. Further, we are all called as disciples of Jesus to carry His love into the world and share His Gospel -- indeed, share Him -- with those who do not know Him. All Christians are called to also be evangelists to those whose lives touch theirs.
I have explained things as well as I can here. If you would like to learn more, or if you know someone who would like to learn the basics of Christianity and is willing to read about it, I highly recommend Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis, or, for shorter attention spans but a much less in-depth look at things, Basic Christianity, by John Stott. There are many other books, of course, but these are two of the most widely-read, easy to understand, and practically useful as attested to by the church in general. Even better than those, however, is often simply to read the Bible itself: I recommend beginning in the New Testament, with one of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), or with some of the shorter Epistles (like James, Ephesians, or Philippians).
The new life upon which you have embarked may be summed up easily: It is Christ (Phil. 1:21). Your life is in Him, and His Spirit is in you, and it is by Him that you live (Col 3:3). And to partake of that life and participate in it -- to have fellowship with God and His saints -- you must set your mind on things above, where Christ is (Col. 3:1-2) and walk in the way in which He walked (1 John 2:6). And if you begin to engage in the activities listed here, relying always upon the grace of God in Jesus Christ and not your own strength or actions for your salvation and spiritual growth, then you will have begun to do just that. May the Lord our God bless and keep you, and wholly sanctify you, and cause you to abide ever more fully in Him, in the union He has established for you with Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, so that you might walk always in His love and come to know Him fully, which is eternal life. Amen.

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