Good News! A Gospel Explanation

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

The Gospel is Good News!  That’s what the word Gospel means, good news!  So, what is that news, and why is it so good? 

We need to go to the beginning, actually. In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, it says right off the bat, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  When you read Genesis 1, you observe God’s creation of the world and all of life, climaxing with the creation of humanity! And, at the end of each creative breath, Genesis says God said “it was good.” When God created man, in His image, He said, “it is very good.” So, God created a good world. A perfect paradise.

God gave man and woman, Adam and Eve, all of creation to subdue and enjoy. He ordered them over every living thing, and gave them every plant and tree as food, but He set one tree apart, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God did say to not eat from that tree, or they would die.

Yet there was a conspirator at work, the serpent. In Genesis three he slithers up to the woman and pulls the nastiest trick on the planet of all. He gets Eve to doubt God’s goodness and His word, and she takes the fruit, and eats it, and then gives some to Adam. It ushered in evil and death into a once perfect world.

I wasn’t there when this happened, but I’ve thought a lot about it. I think, Adam wasn’t paying enough attention. I really think he was sitting there watching Eve from a distance and thinking, “Oh I love Eve!  I’m so happy with Eve! I love it when she does that and that and oh my goodness Eve is the best gift from God ever!” And I just think he got distracted from what was going on, because he saw Eve with the snake, and he didn’t think, what’s going on, he was too busy thinking, “Eve and I are going to have so much fun tonight!” And she came up with fruit, and I’m sure she didn’t say where the fruit came from.  I mean, I think she knew she’d made a big mistake when she took a bite and was like, Crap Adam has to go down with me, I don’t want to face God alone, and she snuck the fruit to Adam, like, Oh honey try this, it’s different! And Adam was like, Oh Eve, I love Eve, wonderful, sure new fruit, hmmmm… and when it hit his lips he was immediately like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE EVE!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME??? Oh my… I just think they had the rockiest marriage after that. To experience perfection and then everything go wrong… and the shame… oh it was so sad. Everything had been perfect, and suddenly it all was wrong!

That is all speculation. Please read Genesis 3 to get the story straight from Moses.

Before the fall, everything was in right relationship with each other. Man related to God rightly, man related to other people rightly, man related to himself rightly, and man related to creation rightly. With a few poor decisions and utmost rebellion to an infinitely good God, well, man’s relationship with God was broken, his relationship with others was shattered, his relationship with himself was screwed up, and his relationship with creation was now distorted. Everything really turned upside down.

Therefore, death entered the world. Death was not in God’s original creation. But when sin entered the picture, God knew death was actually a mercy, for man’s corruption would grow worse and worse. To live forever in such a fallen wicked state would be a terrible way to spend eternity.

Here’s the thing, though. Even though these terrible things happened, it didn’t throw God off. He knew they would happen just so. So, as he’s doling out punishments for Adam and Eve and the serpent, he gives a promise, that Eve would bear a seed, that would crush the serpent’s head.

So… we’ve covered creation and fall, half of the Gospel story.

Sin is bad. It is uttermost rebellion against a good and Holy God. Whether it was momentary confusion or doubt that triggered Eve in that moment, it was a slap in the face to her creator. She decided she knew better than God. It was an utter failure in trust, and it was a self-centered distortion of the world. In that moment, instead of saying to God, “Thy will be done,” Eve said, “My will be done.” She did know good and evil at that moment. She realized that evil is rebellion towards God. Sin brought everything evil into the world.

When we sin, we are slapping God in the face in arrogance. We are choosing ourselves first, we are presuming to be a god unto ourselves. We are worshipping ourselves.

God does not tolerate idolatry. And, sin ushered in idol factories into every heart of mankind.

The wages of sin is death. That’s the price we have to pay for our sin.  And all of us have sinned. There’s not a person on the planet who’s lived a perfect life.

But, what if the seed that God promised Eve was divine?

4000 years after the fall, someone enter the story of history. Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He is unique. He’s God’s Son.

Because Jesus is God, he alone is able to live a perfect life. Because Jesus is man, he is able to bear the punishment of our sin upon himself. Because Jesus is God, he alone endures the wrath of God on the cross and bears upon his body the penalty for sin that we deserve. He is the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus is crucified for our sins… thankfully, He is God, and three days later He rises from the dead! He is resurrected!  He lives!

Because He lives, we can experience eternal life through Him.

That’s the good news!  Even though we’re sinners, and we deserve death and eternal punishment (hell!) Jesus took the penalty we deserve upon himself so that we could have life and a restored relationship with Him!

A lot of people are in denial of the reality of hell and how bad it is. Hell is very very very bad, a place of everlasting torment. And Jesus warned about hell more than he even talked about heaven. When you realize you deserved hell, and that now by placing your faith and hope and trust in Christ alone, you can have eternal life,-that is the best news ever!

Also, when you accept Christ into your life, you become a new creation!

Jesus’ dying in our place is the redemption we need.

Ever since the resurrection, God has been restoring creation to what He intended it to be in the Garden. 

When you fast forward through the New Testament to Revelation, you learn that God brings a new heaven and new earth. But, that’s a brief summary o the Bible in a nutshell: creation, fall, redemption, restoration. It’s the big picture story that every other story falls into place underneath. What gets fun as you read the Bible is as you start in Genesis and venture into humanity’s history, you see things point to Jesus in every story! The whole Bible is about Jesus!

I don’t have the time to expand on this more. But I will point you to a few books that can help you start to put pieces of the puzzle together yourself.

According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy

From Even to the New Jerusalem by T. Desmond Alexander

The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones

For beginners, I’d start with the Jesus Storybook Bible. Jones does an excellent job picking out hints of our need for a greater savior throughout each story she highlights from the Old Testament. Each of these books though should put you in a better understanding as you read the word, though.

Look at these other books as tools that can help you as you mine for jewels in the Bible. They aren’t meant to replace your time in the Word, but to enhance your time in the Word.

Guard your time wisely. Time is short, and we’re not guaranteed tomorrow.

Which makes the urgency of responding to this good news more… well… urgent.

If you have never accepted Christ into your life, and you’ve read this post now, and you don’t make a decision, and then you die, you will suffer in hell eternally. That’s the reality.

If you’ve prayed a prayer to accept Christ in the past, but live your life exactly as the rest of the world lives, well, maybe you haven’t experience saving faith. Because if you are in Christ, you are a NEW CREATION. You don’t live the same way anymore. The good news isn’t just a ticket out of eternal punishment, it is an invitation to a relationship with the living God who desires to make you holy and new. So, if you’re reading this post, and think you’re good with God, yet your life reflects the same values as the culture around us, I would beg you to really reflect on your relationship with Christ. Saving faith is enduring faith, not a momentary decision, but a lifelong progression in intimacy with the Father and the sanctification process.

God loves you, and He sent His Son to die for you, so that you could live! So please, get right with Him today!  PLEASE DO NOT DELAY!!!