The Gospel
The Gospel Changes Everything
The gospel is the heart of the Christian message. Literally, “gospel” means “good news.” But good news about what? It’s the good news that God did for us what we could not do for ourselves: He saved us through his Son Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect live we could not live, died the death we deserved because of our sin, and rose to new life, conquering sin and death. By faith in him, we are reconciled to God and are being made whole by his Spirit.
The Gospel is God’s great narrative of history and can be understood by looking at creation, curse, cross, and consummation.
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Jesus is fully God and fully man. He came to earth, lived perfectly, and willingly offered himself on the cross as our substitute, absorbing the full curse of our sin on our behalf. His sacrifice and resurrection inaugurated his kingdom and granted us his identity – to become sons and daughters of God, enjoying communion with God once more. This comes to pass on account of Jesus’ work alone, not our own.
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One day Jesus will return and fully remove sin’s penalty, power, and presence from the earth. The devastating curse will finally be lifted. His return will usher in the final reversal of the curse brought upon the earth and her inhabitants by man’s sin. Humans will enjoy full communion with God for eternity, living with him in a perfectly ordered and restored heaven and earth.
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God created a good world; everything was in perfect order as it should have been, ruled by the Sovereign Lord. Man and woman had uninterrupted communion with God himself, knowing and being known by him fully.
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But our first parents (Adam and Eve) rebelled against God and brought sin and death and corruption into the world by their disobedience. They could no longer stay in communion with God, and their relationship with one another would suffer as well. This is the state all humans find themselves in: They are spiritually dead, unable to do anything to restore their relationship with God – inhabiting a world marked by injustice, fighting, and suffering. Humans are under a curse.
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