First off, I’m glad you sent me that text. It sounds like God is drawing you near to him. The questions you asked are the exact same questions that the Bible sets out to answer. You asked me to explain the nature of the gospel. Interestingly enough, I think you’ll find that the gospel explains why God made humanity and why he made you. “The gospel” literally means, “the good news”. Christianity is not about condemnation; rather, it is about liberation. It’s good news! In fact, the way that the Bible talks about this gospel makes it seem like nothing can compare to it.
I think what we learn from the gospel is that the best “good news” is almost always in response to the worst “bad news”. The worst bad news is that we all have spiritual cancer. We all have individually declared war on God. We have all gone rogue. The Bible describes this by using words like “enemies” (Romans 5:10) “rebels” (Isaiah 1:2) “haters of God” (Romans 1:30) “hostile to God” (Romans 8:7) to describe us. All of these verses explain the results of sin. Sin is first and formally against God. Even when we sin against others, we sin against God because God is the moral law-maker. Think about it, if you murder somebody, you break the law. Who’s law? Not the person you murdered. You break the United States Government law. The person cannot punish you (because they’re dead), neither can their family (it would be against the law for them to take matters into their own hands). However, The United States government can and will punish you. Why? Because you broke THEIR law. The same is true for God. All moral failures are seen as against God and will be prosecuted in God’s courthouse. Stealing is wrong because it hurts another person and it is a blatant infraction against God’s moral law. Therefore, God will hold you accountable for your moral failures (sins).
Now this is not the way life was supposed to be. God knows best and he created us for his glory. That may sound strange to you but I would like to suggest that it is the greatest news in the world! You were not made for yourself. You were made to be amazed and fascinated by the creator God. I once heard a story about Barry Bonds taking his kids to an empty ball park. He would hit home runs and oftentimes the balls he hit would fly out of the park. His kids would stand in amazement. They loved their Dad. Their Dad was the greatest homerun hitter in the world…and he was THEIR Dad! So when I say that God made you for his glory, what I mean is that God made you to watch him hit home runs! Barry Bond’s kids can’t hit baseballs very far. Don’t get me wrong, hitting the ball is fun. However, it’s not nearly as much fun as it is to watch your Dad clobber a baseball 500 feet in the air. In that moment, Barry Bonds gets glory from his children and his children get joy from their Father. It’s the perfect relationship.
God made you so that you would be fascinated with him. Have you seen those Dos Equis commercials? You know, the one that says, “He IS the most interesting man in the world” You know what I’m talking about? Well, God is the most interesting being in the world. If he had a commercial I think it would go like this, “He created the universe by saying 4 words. He once made a virgin give birth. He tried dying once. He didn’t like it…so he came back to life. When time is running out…he pauses it. He IS the most interesting God in the world.”
God is awesome! He created you to know how awesome he is more and more every day. We call this “increasing revelation”. Since God is infinite in nature, you can never be bored with him. The reason Jesus says that we can have “eternal life” is because that’s how long it takes to know how amazing God is. (Side note: I know this goes without saying but, eternity never ends). You will never know God fully. And that is awesome. He is an ever-increasing reservoir of enjoyment and fascination. He created you so that you could experience him. He is the greatest gift you could ever receive.
However, your sin causes a problem. One of God’s attributes is his holiness. This means that he is completely “other” than us. We are human and God is holy. The holiness of God is his superiority in all things. It is what makes God fascinating. It is also the greatest difference between us and him. God’s holiness transcends all of his attributes. God’s love is a holy love. God’s wrath is a holy wrath. Whatever God does, he does it to the “holy” degree. Since God is holy, he detests sin. Holiness involves a complete lack of sin. Since God is sinless, sin is a huge deal to him. He takes it personally because he created morality to reflect him. “Thou shall not steal” because God is an honest man. “Thou shall not murder” because God doesn’t destroy life…he gives life! God is anti-murder because he is pro-creation. God has designed the universe to work a certain way. This was his precious plan. God created you and gave you an instructions manual (The Bible & your conscience).
As cars run on gas so do humans run on God. As air is essential for physical life so is God’s word essential for spiritual life. When we reject God and live differently than the way he created us, we spiritually die. (Ephesians 2:1 – And you were dead in your sins). What this means is that you become numb to God. Not only will you do bad things but you won’t even think it’s that bad. You’ll get used to the darkness. You’ll have no idea what you’re missing. In the end, you won’t even sense your need for God (Romans 3:11).
Another one of God’s attributes is his justice. All of God’s attributes are good. We love justice. There are people who are still upset about the OJ Simpson verdict because they feel as though justice was not served. We can’t stand the idea of guilty people getting off scotch-free. With God, we never have to worry about this. God is the perfect police man because he sees every infraction. God is the perfect prosecutor because he knows the law inside and out. God is the perfect judge because he is full of integrity. He refuses to accept a bribe because he has everything he needs/wants. God is perfectly just. However, since we have committed injustice, God is obligated by his very nature to punish us.
God is the worst person to sin against because he created morality. Not only did he create it but he created it by simply stating his own personal values. It’s like I invite you into my house and I tell you that you may enjoy anything you see: my computer, my TV, my Xbox, anything. You may even help yourself to whatever is in my fridge. However, I ask you not to prop your feet on my glass coffee table. My deceased grandmother gave it to me and it is fragile. I value it. It’s very special to me. I would even venture to say that it’s a part of me. What if in direct rebellion to my request and generosity you prop your boots on my coffee table and break it? I would be livid! And I would be perfectly right to be. So it is with God. He created morality because it reflects who he is…and you and I have broken it. We defame and disrespect him after he invited us into his house (his universe) and gave us access to all that is his.
The punishment for national treason is life in prison. However, the punishment for universal treason is life in eternal prison. Hell. We all deserve this. Even one sin indicts us. Therefore, it’s not about how much good we’ve done. It doesn’t matter how much community service a murderer has done…he is a murderer. We’re not on trial for doing good things; we’re on trial for doing bad things. Good does not outweigh bad. It’s like comparing apples to oranges. If Mother Teresa murdered somebody, she would go to jail. No questions asked. It really wouldn’t matter how good she was.
This is where it gets sticky. We are all in a divine pickle. We’ve sinned, and in so doing we have offended a holy and righteous God. And because this God is holy and righteous, he MUST punish our sins. If he doesn’t, he would be guilty of injustice. Think of it this way, in court, if a lawyer can prove that a witness has lied, that witness’s testimony is discredited and thrown out. It would be rendered useless. Now check this out. How is the Bible labeled? The Old and New “Testament”. The Bible is the “testimony” of God. Now if God is lying about punishing sin, his testimony ought to be thrown out and discredited. He is not a God we can trust if he is lying about punishing injustice. Our situation just got stickier. We are guilty and there is no way around it. God’s very reputation is at stake. He cannot and will not act out of character and let us go scotch-free.
This is where it gets interesting. Remember how I said that the gospel is good news? Remember my cancer analogy? Our sticky situation is like finding cancer in our body. Now remember how I said that the best "good news" is usually in response to the worst "bad news"? Well this is how God gets rid of our spiritual cancer. He decides to be our substitute. This is the very essence of the gospel. We celebrate Christmas because this is the day where God became a human. He didn’t stop being God, rather, he became a holy human. Remember how I said morality reflects him? Well when Jesus is on earth, he never once sins. It’s not so much that Jesus kept a bunch of random rules. Rather, it’s that Jesus is the manifestation of moral rules. He doesn’t steal because he is infinitely generous. He doesn’t murder because he is the creator of the human race. He doesn’t lie because he is infinitely honest. He is the perfect moral example of a human.
God has a plan in all of this. He lives a life of what the Bible calls, “righteousness” so that he can earn our spot in heaven. It’s not enough to be sinless, you must be “righteous” in order to get to heaven. Jesus then, acting as our substitute, goes to the cross and is willingly beaten, whipped, flogged and finally crucified…in our place. He dies…in our place. He is punished for sins…in our place. Three days later he rises from the dead in order to prove that he is God and to assure us that he can pay our punishment in full.
Now in the court of God, this is the perfect solution to our sticky situation. We owe God a debt for our sins and we must pay up. What Jesus does is he pays our debt and then deposits his righteousness into our spiritual bank account. Not only does this take care of our sin but it gives us a surplus of righteousness. Our sin was punished. Jesus took our punishment. That takes care of God’s justice. Our unrighteousness has been replaced with Jesus’ righteousness. That takes care of God’s holiness. Everything can be fixed. Our sins are taken care of, Jesus gave us his perfect record, we have a 4.0 morality GPA, God’s justice is upheld and we can finally be united to God for eternity. “This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God” (John 17:3). The goal of all of this is that we would know God. That’s what you were made for.
However, this good news does not apply to everybody. There is a restriction. God will only apply this good news to those who relinquish control of their life, lay down their firearms, and turn to Jesus to save them. This is an act of humility. Essentially, becoming a Christian is like giving up. It is waving the white flag. It’s admitting moral defeat and accepting God’s peace treaty. God’s peace treaty is simple. It contains only three words. “Trust and obey”. Those who do not surrender will be prosecuted in the court of God. They will be founded guilty of sin and punished in eternal prison. But those who lay down their firearms, who do not seek to justify themselves, but rather seek pardon solely through the sacrifice of Jesus in their place, will receive new life. They will be filled with the spirit of God and know God. They will grow in their relationship with God and learn to love God!
God could have let us die in our sin. He is by no means obligated to give us a way out of our rebellion. After all, WE started it. But one of God’s attributes is love. Because he loves us and wants us to be fascinated by his glory, he created a way out of our condemnation. We are saved from the wrath of God to see the glory of God for the praise of God (1 Thess 1:10, 2 Cor 4:6 Eph 1:4-6). That’s the gospel. It’s good news! However, this news is not like the 7 o’clock news or like ESPN news. This news demands a response. It’s urgent news. It’s the type of news that if embraced, will change your life now and for eternity.
So what do you think?
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