Monday, March 8, 2021 Some material taken from The Gospel Is The Answer
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:14-17
What Is The Gospel And What Does It Mean For Us?
The Gospel is the good news that God loves the world enough to give His only Son to die for our sin and offer us salvation (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…).
God loves us and this is the best news. He loved us, when we were sinners, enough to save our sinful souls. Even before we accepted His gift, He saved us. His love for us is immeasurable and no human being could love us more. Because He loves us so much, we can go to Him with everything. Even the things we do that no one else knows because we are so ashamed, He already knows and loves us anyway. Every problem we have, He will have the very best answer for us.
The Gospel is good news that we do not (and cannot) earn our salvation because the work of redemption was finished on the cross (John 19:30). Jesus is the payment for our sins ( He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2). God gave His only Son for us to atone for our sins - to take the payment for you and me - so we don’t have to pay the wages of sin, which is death. There is nothing we could ever do that would qualify us or make us “good enough” to receive His gift. We could never perform enough “works” to earn our redemption. The good news is that we don’t have to do anything but accept His gift of salvation.
The Gospel is the good news that we, who were once enemies of God, have been reconciled by the sacrifice of Christ and adopted into the family of God (Romans 5:10; But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God… John 1:12). The shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross covers our sin and makes us new. When we are in sin we are separated from God, but the shed blood of Jesus cleanses us and justifies us so we are no longer enemies of God, but His children. Adopted into His family, we are given rights as His children to everything He has. There is nothing that He cannot do for His children because He loves us. There may be things He chooses not to do, but there is always a purpose in everything He does and does not do.
The Gospel is good news because our salvation is guaranteed and secured through Christ (John And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. 14:3-4). There is nothing that can change that and no one can take it away. We are secured forever.
THE GOSPEL IS THE ANSWER
The Gospel is good news because it provides the power needed for living the Christian life and it is the answer for every situation we will ever face.
We spend countless hours and dollars trying to figure out the answers to our problems. This doesn’t include the cost physically and emotionally of striving to solve our own issues instead of going to God first. Self-help books can be good and it is always a good idea to work on being a better person but they do not hold the answers we seek. The only book that has all the answers for us is the Word of God. The Bible has an answer to every single issue we could ever face in our lives - big or small.
The truth, however, is that self-help aids miss the point of Christianity: Humans are not in need of self-improvement. We are in need of a Savior. This is not to say that all self-help methods are inherently bad; simply that anything that emphasizes “self” to the exclusion of God is off the mark and not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. - Sam Nobles
The Gospel is the answer to everything. If you cannot line it up with the Word of God, it is not right. Life is not a puzzle to figure out. We cannot twist it around and around to make it fit, and when we try to do it that way, we make many more problems for ourselves. The Gospel is the answer key to life - straight up. It is not watered down and it is not disguised. It is truth, and the truth will set us free - free from every twisted problem we will ever have.
