THE ESSENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL

The essence of the Christian gospel is this; “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Tim. 1:15

Scripture never says He came to set us an example, and those who say this and teach it as the spirit of the gospel, distort the scriptures to their own ruin. Many in Christendom have come to believe Christianity to be no more than a life of respectable behavior and that it is all that God requires. This idea is in effect the basis of all religion and it is this belief, which separates religion from the truth. The truth is that Jesus Christ died for sinners (Rom. 5:8); but if we are able to gain acceptance with God by our respectable behavior, then his coming was needless, his death was for nothing, and why? Because if we were able to please God by our own efforts, religion would be sufficient, his coming would be unnecessary. The fact that the Bible tells us that Christ came to save sinners is God’s declaration of man’s inability to save himself; and the fact that none of us are righteous (Rom. 3:10) is evident to anyone who measures himself against the standards of perfection.

Those who protest that such a comparison is unfair do not look beyond this present life. In their ignorance of God, people compare themselves to other people and inevitably reach a satisfactory estimation. Their expectation of eternity is simply a mystical continuation of this life without its bitterness and heartache. They have no understanding of the righteousness of God’s kingdom and no comprehension of the holiness of God.

If we are honest with ourselves we must see that we are not righteous as God is righteous, not holy as God is holy, and therefore not reconciled to God. It is because of this, and the fact that we cannot achieve that reconciliation by our own standards of righteousness, that we are lost. If we are honest with ourselves we must come to the realization that we need God to save us, to reconcile us to himself and it is at this point of our need that the Scriptures reassure us, in that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Tim. 1:15 and “ all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”. 2 Cor.5: 18

Why is Jesus Christ so important? In the gospel of Luke 1:35, we are told that the child who would be born of the Virgin Mary would be God’s son; not the son of a human father, but the result of the Spirit’s power impregnating the womb of Mary. Her child would be the son of God. In this way the Saviour would be free from the inherent sin of Adam, and by constant obedience to the Father would remain free from personal sin. Why is this necessary and what has this to do with our salvation?

The ‘wages of sin is death’ Rom. 6:23a (and because of inherent and personal sin we are all dead to God), therefore to pay the wages of sin one must first have the necessary assets. Those assets are a perfect sinless life, which Jesus Christ in his birth and in his life demonstrated to all of creation. The wages of sin were paid when the perfect Saviour sacrificed his life; bore the wages of our sin in his own body on the cross (1Peter 2:24) and died. It was in his death that the penalty for our sins was met; it is in his resurrection from the dead where we have our guarantee of present and future salvation.

It is by God’s grace that we are saved, it is not of human righteousness nor of any work we can accomplish; salvation is ours through faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Saviour and simply a matter of believing and accepting all that he achieved on our behalf. When we do no more than believe, God’s holiness is uncompromised and he is free to give to us eternal life and an inheritance in his eternal kingdom.

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, will not perish but will have everlasting life. John 3:16

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Acts 16:31