Hi, Everyone! While Eric is recovering from a medical procedure that prevents him from typing while he recovers, I have had the honor of being asked to fill in for a few weeks. I pray that you will find a short series on the basics of our faith as edifying as the teaching that my Dad has been writing.

- Steve

Most of us have heard the words, “the gospel”, which is translated into plain English as “good news”. Many even have an idea what the gospel is…or at least think so. Most Christians would sum up the gospel something like this, “Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins so we can escape hell and go to heaven when we die.” One popular teaching says the gospel is, “everyone goes to heaven, because love”. This teaching leans on the concept that God is loving. For some, the gospel means that people who believe in Jesus and work hard enough to follow all the rules get to go to heaven while people who break the rules do not. This understanding relies on the concept that God is just.

Scripture puts the truth of the gospel somewhere in between these two viewpoints. In God’s nature, love and justice are perfectly balanced. The Bible says, “I will proclaim the name of the LORD; how glorious is our God! He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!” (Deuteronomy 32:2-3) However, we are creatures born without God’s perfect nature. When we do something that is contrary to God’s nature, that is called “sin”. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3:23) Scripture tells us, “He will judge everyone according to what they have done. He will pour out His anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness.” (Romans 2:8) This means that because God is so completely good and just, sin cannot be in His presence, and it is punished because of His nature.

Never fear, the good news is just around the corner! “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Salvation began when God left some of His divine attributes behind so He could be born into a human body. We know that human today by the name Jesus. The consequence of our sin was placed on Jesus through His death on a Roman cross so we can live in restored relationship with God. “For God made Christ (Jesus), who never sinned, to [become] our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Jesus died to pay the penalty of all of humanity’s sins throughout all time. He was able to pay that price for us because He never sinned and had no penalty to pay of His own. For those who accept salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus, it means that God sees us as guiltless people who can stand confidently in His presence. Scripture tells us that, “now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.” (Colossians 1:22-23)

The sacrifice of Jesus is valid for anyone who believes and accepts it. “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) As all things are balanced in God’s nature, the gospel comes with a warning, however: those who reject the truth of salvation through Jesus experience eternal punishment. Scripture tells us, “Anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” (John 3:36)

Those who reject the sacrifice of Jesus will not benefit from it and will suffer eternal separation from God in a place called hell. This is in the nature of a perfectly just God. Those who faithfully believe in the saving work of Jesus through His death and resurrection will spend eternity in God’s presence in a recreated and perfected heaven and earth. This is in the nature of a perfectly loving God.

This is what we call “salvation”: being saved from complete separation from God forever, so we can be together with God forever. Often, this is as far as people go in their understanding of the gospel of Jesus. Let me be clear, the way of salvation outlined above is excellent. It pleases God to unite us with Him so we can have a close relationship with Him. This was done because He loves us in a way that is too great to fully comprehend. These things are right and good. However, the gospel goes much deeper and gets better the further in we go.

What does it really mean that we are saved from our sins? Did Jesus die to give us a “get out of hell free” card? If people view this as being the extent of the gospel, it is easy to come at life with a skewed perspective. If that is the limit of God's plan, then He would have created billions of evil creatures who all deserve to die and go to hell. From that perspective, it would be easy to believe that God created humanity for destruction and then chose to die so He could save some of us from that destruction. This is a distortion of the truth, however. When we discover God’s purpose for creating us, it leads us to our own purpose. Next week, we will discuss that more.

*All verses are from the NLT.