God's Gospel, III

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1, 14)

As we examined a few weeks ago, the Bible is God’s counteroffensive against sin. It is the story of how God made it right, how He is making it right, and how He will one day make it right finally and forever! Mark starts his narrative of Jesus’ life with the words, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” John’s opening statement carried an even greater punch: “In the beginning was the Word…” The Word was God and the Word became flesh. Jesus was God in the flesh.

God’s response to our depravity was a Savior. Matthew records the angel’s confirmation to Joseph concerning Mary’s divine conception, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” In clear, angelic testimony, the plan of God involved your salvation and mine. The Son would sacrifice his life for us. He would be an open display of the incredible love of God.

In Romans 3, Paul spoke of the impact of his sacrifice:

“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. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. . . . For by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many were made righteous” (Romans 5: 8-11, 19).

God’s love was portrayed by the representative obedience of Jesus Christ. He did what Adam could not. He displayed perfect, righteous obedience. You and I were made sinners by our forefather Adam. We inherited sin and death from him. In contrast to his blatant rejection of God’s authority, we see perfect obedience displayed at Calvary. He cared. He loved. He humbled himself and honored the Father. He gave. He laid it down. He gave it up. He gave it all. Why did He need to die in the first place?

In His book The Passion of Jesus Christ, John Piper describes 50 reasons why Jesus Christ suffered and died. Here are just a few of the reasons Christ died in our stead:

I. To Receive The Wrath That We Deserved. (Matt. 26: 39; Heb. 2: 17)

II. To Restore What Was Destroyed By Adam. (Gen. 3: 15; Rom. 5: 12-21)

III. To Reconcile Us To God. (2 Cor. 5: 18-21; Col. 1: 19-20)

IV. To Rescue Us From Final Judgment. (John 3: 16; Heb. 9: 28)

V. To Raise Us To Life Eternal. (Romans 6: 5; 8: 11)

VI. To Reveal The Savior’s Love For Us. (Gal. 2: 20)

VII. To Reassure Us When Our Loved Ones Die.

VIII. To Redeem Us From Our Empty Lives. (Eph. 1: 7; I Peter 1: 18-19)

IX. To Release The Spirit Of God In Our Lives.

X. To Reflect His Grace and Glory Forever.

So, the perfect sacrifice of Jesus fully appeased the fierce wrath of God. As such, all who believe and repent, resulting in saving faith, will be declared righteous. How do we respond to the sacrifice of Christ in a way that results in true, saving faith? Next week.

Derek

Our “bless the children” has been a megs-awesome success. We needed $4250 to clothe 170 kids in Santa Elena, Honduras. We raised about $14,000. Thank you for your incredible faithfulness to this mission venture.

Tonight (5:30 PM) we are going to be at Kitty Stone Elementary School to trim and clean up their landscaping around the quads. I am thankful that when a need arises in our community, we are asked to respond. That speaks volumes about our ministry in the community. Again, thank you for your constant faithfulness.

This Wednesday at 6:15 PM, we are going to lay hands on our second New York mission team (Aug. 1-6). This team consists of:

Bob and Eloise Crossley

Rick and Mindy Cheyne

Odell Christopher

John Martin

Chuck Tomlinson

Mike Nelson

Derek Staples