What is the Gospel - A Message About the Person and Work of Jesus Christ (Part 1 of 2)
Review: God and Sin
We have started our series on the gospel, specifically asking ourselves the question, "What is the gospel?" We've looked at it so far in two points. We started by looking at the gospel in relationship to God, establishing a firm foundation that the gospel is a message about God. It is a God-centered message. If we don't start with the understanding of God—with some basic theology surrounding who God is and what God does—the rest of the gospel breaks down to some degree. It becomes vulnerable to turning into a man-centered gospel or something else-centered.
We would misunderstand very key and crucial parts of the gospel if we didn't start with that understanding. In fact, that's how the Bible ultimately starts. We would misunderstand things about God and how he interacts in history if we didn't start with the fact that he is Creator, and everything ultimately owes its allegiance to God by virtue of him creating us.
The second part was equally important: understanding why the good news is here. If we don't establish a base of understanding what sin ultimately is, then repentance is a meaningless concept. Why repent of something if we don't understand it as sin? It would be pointless, like saying you can't sit in the chairs you're sitting in right now—you need to sit in another chair. Why? Because Jesus Christ was crucified for you to sit in another chair. That doesn't make sense. It doesn't give motivation or reason to change.
The gospel explains sin to us, and that's very good news. It's like a physician explaining your terminal illness with such precision that it demonstrates full knowledge of your condition. The illness is tragic bad news, but it's good news because this physician knows exactly what to do—providing a solution so you'll never experience this illness again, with relief from its effects and an eternal future of health.
The Problems Sin Creates
God is a holy God—an infinitely holy God, holy, holy, holy. Because he is Creator and Sustainer of the universe, he is well within his rights to dictate how his creation should live. When creation deviates from his decreed plan, he is right to say that is wrong—that is sin, deserving of eternal wrath.
People think, "I'm not as bad as I could be. Is God really going to send me to hell because I lied or stole once?" But given God's infinite holiness and value, any particular sin is an offense against him. He is just to condemn eternally for it. Anything that goes against God, fails to value him, or fails to treasure him is sin, deserving wrath. It's a deceptive, ruinous, miserable lifestyle.
Doing what God says not to do, or not doing what he says to do—these offend him and prompt his anger and wrath because he is holy and will not tolerate sin. Every breath we take is from God, so it's dangerous to live in ongoing offense against the God supplying our life.
Deuteronomy warns that in due time, the foot of the sinner will slip. There is a point where continual sin leads to stumbling into the pits of hell. We sin against God while he holds us over that pit. We must pay attention.
Christ's Work Addresses Our Impotence
As we look at the gospel as a message about the person and work of Christ, recognize the issues his work accomplishes:
There is nothing in man that can commend him to God legally. Because of sin and Romans 3, everybody has failed to glorify God—fallen below his standard that human life should bring praise, glory, honor, and worship to God. We deserve wrath. Nothing man does makes him legally acceptable in God's courtroom. God, as Creator and Judge, declares truth about his creation and sentences accordingly.
No one can represent himself successfully. It's like a drunk driver crashing into a pole, stumbling out with booze spilling—nothing to present to the officer to prove innocence.
Nothing in man moves him to God relationally. Man is dead in sin, incapable and unwilling to draw near or desire God. The things of God seem foolish.
Sin's ruin and misery hinder the righteous life God intends. It's deceptive, promising joy in sin without consequences.
Most significantly, God's wrath: He will punish sin because his law and holiness demand retribution. He cannot simply acquit; justice must be satisfied.
But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Romans 4:23–5:9 (ESV)
Justification by Faith
The context of Romans 4 deals with Old Testament examples of justification—Abraham and David. They weren't saved by rituals, law-keeping, or sacrifices, but by faith in God, looking forward to Christ's work, which transcends time to atone for sin.
It wasn't written just for Abraham, but for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord. What was imputed to Abraham? Righteousness. Everyone is sinful, under wrath, unable to commend themselves legally or relationally, living in ruin under curse—like David, a man after God's heart, yet once damnable.
Galatians 3:10 says we are under a curse. To correct it is to receive blessing: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered (Romans 4:6–7). This is the central gospel blessing—God counts someone righteous apart from works, not imputing their sins.
It's not about witnessing miracles or healings; it's God forgiving sins. God considers them righteous by not reckoning their sins, bypassing the rap sheet. Every thought, deed, and action is recorded—Psalm 130: If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?
People think good deeds impress God, outweighing sins—like paying for coffee behind you. But the text negates works-righteousness. No one dies for a righteous person; Christ didn't come for the self-righteous.
Justified apart from works. We don't want curse and wrath; we want peace and blessing. The chasm is impossible—but God sent his Son.
The Person and Work of Christ
John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Christ is fully God—divine, listed as God in Scripture. But God cannot die, and sin's wage is death—a judgment death.
So he took on humanity, retaining deity, so his sacrifice has infinite value—the only way for redemption, permanent peace, eternal life without judgment. Salvation cannot be lost; his work's value is infinite.
He died on the cross, shed blood (Hebrews: no forgiveness without shedding of blood), justifying us. God passes over sins because the law is satisfied—not arbitrarily, but righteously. It would be wrong to condemn us now.
We are legally commended, saved from wrath. It's actual forgiveness—Christ stood in your place, taking what you deserved. It was you who should have cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Christ's Rescue from Eternal Wrath
That was you who was supposed to breathe your last breath and then be carried into an eternity of continually receiving that wrath. That's what makes hell so terrible. It's not an issue of whether or not God is present or absent. The reality is that God's wrath will be specifically focused on you for the rest of eternity future. Christ saved you from that. So it saves you from that curse, it saves you from that ruin, it saves you from that misery. And he did this by shedding his blood, he did this by resurrecting from the dead.
One of the most useful realities that a Christian can have, especially within a godless world, is the irrefutable fact that Jesus Christ lived the greatest moral life in history. The morality of Christ is unmatched, and of course we understand that to be the righteousness of God. As he lived this life of morality, he was hated by those who were self-righteous. He was crucified, he was put to death, and then subsequent to his death, he was alive again. An irrefutable fact that allows us to trust in the realities that have been given to us. And in fact, his life is even regarded as our life.
The Gospel: Christ's Life and Death Imputed to Us
It's not only the work of Christ. It's not only the gospel that Jesus died for us, but that Jesus lived in satisfaction to the law. It's not as if he were just simply a sinless person who came and died for us. He was a sinless person who lived a sinless life and lived in obedience to what God had commanded. And his life then is counted—this is justification. It is counted and it is considered, because Abraham was considered righteous with God's righteousness.
And so his life is considered to be our life. In addition to God actually examining and scrutinizing our lives to see the deeds that we have done as those for whom Christ was crucified, as he goes through that rap sheet, he is looking at it through the lens of his own son's rap sheet—looking at what has been recorded about his son and considering us as having lived that particular kind of life. He's even looking at us when the obedience that Christ performed and accomplished in his own death is considered to be our obedience as well, which is why the Apostle Paul can say in Galatians 2, "I've been crucified with Christ."
We can be considered to have the same death as his. This is the work that your Savior has accomplished on your behalf to grant you a life—an eternal life—far more significant to be lived than a life of sin.
The Ultimate Result: Peace, Joy, and Hope in Suffering
It's important to recognize something that's right smack dab in the middle of this text that we could technically understand as an ultimate result of some of these things. If all God did for us was send his Son to die upon the cross to save us of our sins, that would have been the greatest thing in the world and would have been sufficient for us to experience a blessed life. That would have been the most omnipotent act in and of itself. And yet in addition to that, he continues in his omnipotence to pour out his love and his grace upon us and grants us things within this life that are mind-blowingly amazing. Because of salvation, we can be freed up from sin to enjoy the gifts that God ultimately gives to us.
If you'll notice, there's something present within our text that helps to illustrate that. Starting in verse one:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have the ceasefire of arms. We have the laying down of weapons in relationship to God. We have an established, restored, positive relationship with God.
In verse two:
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
It's a valuable life now. Here's something to rejoice in, something to get excited about, something to be so thrilled with that we couldn't help but respond in worship and adoration to God. We rejoice, we experience joy and happiness in the hope of the glory of God. The glory of God is that infinitely valuable and enjoyable aspect of God that we can now rejoice in the hope of receiving and experiencing.
Not only that:
We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
In addition to the significant and incredible reality of the work of Jesus Christ and granting us one of the greatest privileges—and indeed that's what the word "blessed" encompasses—that you would have your sins forgiven, it is those individuals that don't understand the travesty of their sins that don't get excited and enjoy the gospel of Jesus Christ and are indifferent toward forgiveness of sins. When we get to a point where we are still in response to the gospel and response to the work of Jesus Christ, we can rest assured sin is probably more important to us. It's why it's so important to understand the fullness of the gospel.
We are given forgiveness of sins, and if that's not enough cause for joy, there is a particular aspect of life known as adversity, known as suffering, that every single one of us is going to go through at some point—and it's going to increase as Christians, most likely. In that, there is a significant advantage that God grants to you, an advantage that is missing from those individuals that don't have the gospel, that are having to experience suffering without joy, having to experience suffering without happiness.
There's a lot of people that try to rationalize joy away from happiness as if these are two separated concepts. Joy is something that at the very least produces happiness, if it's not synonymous with happiness. That's what we're talking about. He's saying here that there is an ability to experience suffering—which is going to happen—and that as you experience suffering, you can do so rejoicing. You can do so in celebration of something. You can do so with an advantage that other individuals don't have and in fact are more inclined to be overwhelmed by suffering.
It's because of the gospel. It's because of the reality of knowing on a constant and consistent basis that the horror of sin has been effectively, permanently, and efficiently dealt with because of Jesus Christ. And that this suffering actually has an intended purpose: to produce endurance.
Suffering Produces Endurance, Character, and Hope
I always remember my soccer tryouts and how horrible they were because of how out of shape I was. I remember running—we had to do two miles in 12 minutes and 30 seconds, which if you're in shape is really not a big deal. I remember getting lapped. Then we had to go out on the field and do things known as six packs. We'd run around the soccer field—sprint the length from the goal line to the halfway line, stop and take a break, then sprint the rest of the way around, jog another section, and so on.
Then we had Swedish circuits. You had to do all these crazy and ridiculous things—touch your knees to your chest, run all over the place. And as a goalie, I thought it would be easy, but it was one of the worst positions conditioning-wise. Sprint out to the halfway line and back, sprint backwards, catch a chipped ball. Or jump over eight balls, then the coach would punt one at you. If you dropped it, 50 pushups. I dropped it the first time, and after a thousand pushups, you can't lift your arms to catch the next one.
If I had some endurance... It's the same with suffering, only amplified. Having to go through something so terrible, so difficult, without joy and without endurance is to be overtaken by it and to not have hope. This endurance allows you to go through suffering, and it increases so you can go through more and more suffering with joy. This also produces character—a better way of saying it would produce a better you. It increases your mental and moral qualities. You would have things about your life that are commendable, so valuable because of going through endurance with the gospel, going through suffering with endurance with the gospel.
And it produces hope, which is arguably one of the most sought-after principles in anyone's life: having hope of your future. And these are accomplished for you in the gospel.
