Monday Mercies
What the heck is “The Gospel”? I’ve heard it all the time growing up. Heck, it’s the first thing I think about when I think about the Disney movie, Hercules. The little ladies on the Grecian vases singing at the top of their lungs, “And thaaaaattt’ss the Gossspeelll truuuuuuuuth.” I’m attaching this video next because if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re going to think I’m crazy. But those of you who know, you KNOW.
ANYWAY – so what IS the Gospel truth? Yall, I’ve been a Christian my whole life and I couldn’t answer this question until about a year ago because no one really explained it to me, and to be honest, I never asked for an explanation.
Romans 5:1–11 does a great job of explaining the Gospel, but if you want the skinny version, I’ll explain it a bit more below. I think it’s important though that you read the Bible and what the Bible says, and try not to just take my word for things.
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
So let’s break this down :
The word Gospel LITERALLY means “good news.” And WOW is it good news, indeed. It is the plan that God set out to save us from sin and eternal separation from Him. In order to know the good news, we need to look at the BAD news. Yes, there is bad news, but hold your horses because Jesus swoops in saves the day.
So, here’s the bad news. We are ALL sinners. Every single one of us. What is sin? It’s when we miss the mark that God had set for us. We go off the beaten path that He clearly made and we took a detour and sometimes we make our way back, but sometimes, there are people who don’t make it back. The penalty for sin is death. We DESERVE to die and live separated from God for forever. That’s the bad news. And that’s the truth.
Okay, okay, now that I just scared you into thinking that you’re going to hell for the rest of your life, let me tell you the GOOD news. The VERY good news. The best news, honestly. Because we can not EARN our way back to God, He came to us instead. From Romans 5:8 we read “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” HE died for US, y’all! JESUS. DIED. FOR US. It’s just mind blowing. He did not have to. We don’t deserve it. Jesus didn’t say “I will die for you when you get good enough”. He died for us when we were trash, for a lack of better word. But He did it because He loves us THAT much. Let me tell you something, NO ONE will EVER love you as much as Jesus does. That’s a fact. I’ll put my stamp on it. Even though we deserve the death penalty for our sin, Jesus took that penalty. He died in our place. And then, three days later, he beat death, rose from the dead and conquered sin.
God has his hand out, ready for you to take it. He’s always there, but you have to take the action of accepting him as your savior. It’s as easy as ABC.
- Admit that you need Him
- Believe that He can save you from eternal death
- Commit to having a relationship with Him
