Principles of the Gospel, Part 2
In yesterday’s post, we learned that the word Gospel means good news. What about the Gospel of Jesus Christ that makes it good news? To answer that question, we need to go to the beginning.
God is the Creator. As with any creator, He knows our purpose and how we are designed. Out of all the incredible and glorious things He created, He made us to reflect His image. That means we are supposed to embody the characteristics that He does.
He is holy. We were supposed to be as holy as He was. We failed, are failing, and will fail by sinning. We tried to overstep our bounds and replace God through our sins. We thought something was better than Him and indulged in it. God only loved us, provided for us, helped us, guided us, and has never done anything against us. He has never betrayed us or done anything that would be considered Him being unfaithful to us. The pain God describes how He feels when we sin is like someone who loved their spouse deeply and their spouse had an affair. It is cosmic treason to betray God by sinning.
If who we most loved was tortured, violated, and killed, and a judge gave a light sentence or just excused the defendant, we would be outraged, hurt, feel violated, and eventually possibly move into despair. If all judges did that, society would break down, and crime would soar. We need justice for society to thrive.
God is infinitely more holy than any human judge. A holy God doesn’t tolerate sin. A holy God would see sin as unjust. Since God is infinitely holy, justice would demand an infinite price.
However, as stated above, God loves us. He wants us to be close to Him for all eternity. He wants to clean us and make us as holy as we were supposed to be so we can be with Him for all eternity.
Herein lies the dilemma. If God minimizes our sins, He will not be holy and just and everything will break down. If He only punished us as we deserve to be punished, He would lose out on having us for all eternity.
Something has to happen that can satisfy His justice and transform us to be holy. That’s where the Gospel of Jesus Christ comes in. We will unpack this more in our next post.
Return to the first post here.
Prayer: Father, you created us. You know how we should function. We rebelled against you. We betrayed you worse than anyone who has been betrayed would experience. Yet, despite that, your love for us never diminished. Thank you for loving us differently than we loved you. Thank you for wanting us despite how we did not want you. Thank you that our sin will never stop you from loving us with all you have and are.
Chew On This:
What’s it like to know that you were doomed and deserved to pay for your own sins?