The Gospel
The thing that unites us at Mt. Zion is that every one of us has heard and believed the Gospel. We have put our faith and trust in Christ. We believe in Christ as presented in the Scriptures.
What does the Bible say?
In the New Testament book of Luke, Jesus walks with two of his disciples and explains to them how the Old Testament anticipates his birth, life, death, and resurrection. Throughout the entire Old Testament, readers are able to see a foretelling of what will happen when Christ comes into the world; the New Testament reveals what the Old Testament concealed.
Jesus' life is captured in four books within the New Testament collectively referred to as The Gospels, which means Good News. The books answer questions like:
Who is Jesus?
Why did He have to die?
What should be our response to Him?
Who is Jesus?
In the fourth book of the New Testament, the writer, John, states very clearly that Jesus is divine, that is He is God. John was one of Jesus' closest disciples, commonly known as one of The Twelve or an Apostle. John was with Jesus every day of Jesus' ministry and was present at the Cross as Jesus died. He knew Jesus well. Here is how John begins his book about Jesus:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth...No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
John 1:1-3,14, & 18
John is not only claiming that Jesus, the Word, was with God but is God. Jesus was in the beginning, as in He has always existed. John also states that Jesus made all things. He then says Jesus, the Word, became flesh. He became a man. Jesus, God, became a man and dwelt among men. It is through Jesus that God has been made fully known.
Why did He have to die?
For the answer to this question, we have to go all the way back to the beginning, to the first book of the Bible, Genesis. As the Bible begins, we see God making the entire universe, as referenced in the passage above, John 1:1-3. God then creates two humans whose names are Adam and Eve. He places these two people in a garden and has a special relationship with them. He walks with them and talks with them. He has given them every tree in the garden as food but has forbidden them to eat of one tree.
One day, the man and woman chose to disobey God, because they desire to live their own way, and they eat the fruit from that tree. Because they have rejected God's command, they must be punished. God has told them they would die if they disobeyed His commands; however, God is gracious and does not kill them but simply put them out of the garden but also out of the special relationship with Himself. Their violation of his command results in the breaking of that relationship. We call this violation of God's command sin. This sin creates separation between God and man.
Because God is holy, He cannot tolerate sin. Because our sin violates God's law, God decides what the punishment for violating his law is, and He has determined that punishment is death. When we die without our sins forgiven, we are deserving of God's punishment, and He has said that because we have violated his commands, we are deserving of eternal separation from God. Once we have died without forgiveness, there is no manner in which our sins can be forgiven.
While God is a just God, He is also a gracious and merciful God. He has made a way for our sins to be forgiven and this is where Jesus fits in this story. Prior to the birth of Jesus, God's people, Israel, were required to engage in animal sacrifices regularly for the forgiveness of sin. Yet, because these animals were not perfect, they could not fully pay the price for the sin, so they had to continue to sacrifice year after year. When Jesus is born, all of the Old Testament promises of a Savior coming to pay the penalty for man's sin where beginning to be fulfilled.
God had promised to send someone who would take away the sin for good, a final sacrifice. This person would need to be perfect, without any sin. AND this person would need to die to pay the price for that sin. Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise. Because no one is perfect, God promised that he would be that person himself. Because Jesus is God, He could perfectly pay that penalty. So, God, in the person of Jesus, comes as truly God and truly man and is able to live a perfect life and die to pay for the sins of man.
This is why Jesus had to die. Sin requires death as a payment. When Jesus was on the cross, God's rather for man's sin was placed on Jesus. Centuries before Jesus was born, a prophet said the following about the one God would send to be our substitute and pay the penalty for our sin:
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
Isaiah 53:4-7
Jesus' perfect life and sacrificial death, then, requires a response from man.
What should be our response to Him?
This question is critical. You may believe that Jesus existed. You might even believe He died on the cross. You may even believe that he was raised from the dead. You may believe all of this and still not be saved. You have probably heard people say things like, "I believe in Jesus (or God); I'm just not a religious person." Simply believing Jesus was a real person who died on a real cross centuries ago is not what the Bible or Christians mean when they say to believe in Jesus.
When Jesus says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life," what does he mean by "whoever believes in him"? He is
saying that we believe He is who He says He is, the Son of God who has come into the work to pay the penalty for sin for those who repent and trust in him.
What does it mean to "repent"? It means that we recognize that we have violated God's law and require forgiveness, salvation. It does not matter how small we think the sin might be (lying, petty theft, a little greed); what matters is who we have sinned against, a holy God. Because of even one minor sin against a holy God, everything about us is corrupted, even our thinking. Due to sin, we convince ourselves that those little wrongs we do are not that bad and surely not deserving of punishment. However, we are wrong.
Truly believing in Jesus means that we agree with God that we are sinners and deserving of punishment, but it also means that we look to Christ and what He has done on the cross and that He has taken the wrath we deserve for our sin. Because we recognize that is what we deserve and that we trust He has paid our penalty, we turn from darkness to light, from our sin to Him, and seek to follow His commandments and desire to no longer violate his law. We desire to know more about Him and are consumed with living our lives for Him.
The question of who Jesus is is the most important question. Jesus even asked his own disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” The people of Jesus’ day answered that question in many different ways. The people of today do the same. Jesus approved Peter’s response in Mark 8:29, “You are the Christ.”
Jesus is the Christ, a title which means, Messiah, or Savior. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
After raising a man named Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said these words, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (Jn. 11:25).