The Heart Of The Gospel

(2 Corinthians 5:21) "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (ESV)


The background for this verse is from Isaiah 53, an Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah.  This one verse offers an excellent summary of the gospel.  It tells us how to be reconciled to God.  It also provides us with understanding of the atonement and justification.  

God the Father made Jesus to be sin, that is he was treated as sin.  Jesus of course was without sin.  He did not actually become sinful but took the sin of all believers on himself.  It became as if our sin belonged to Christ an not to us.  And this was done for our sake.  Christ became our substitute, taking the punishment we deserved on himself.  He endured the wrath of God for us.  Through Christ the just requirements of God's law were met.  This is known as substitutionary atonement.  Jesus made atonement for all those who believe in him.  

In the second part of the verse we read that we become the righteousness of God.  The righteousness of God is the same as the righteousness of Christ.  Just as our sin is imputed to Christ, his righteousness is imputed to all who believe in him.  The word imputed means counted as ours or credited to us.  We receive what theologians sometimes refer to as an alien righteousness.  A righteousness that is not our own.  Contrary to popular opinion we cannot get to heaven by our own righteousness.  We fall short of God's standard and are not truly righteous. But Jesus lived a perfect life without sin allowing him to become our perfect substitute.  We receive Christ's righteousness and he takes our sin.  Believers stand before God as righteous and forgiven.   This is known as justification, which means to declare righteous.  This is the heart of the gospel.  

After Easter

Many people attended church on Easter Sunday.  For many of those it will be the only time of the year that they actually attend church services.  Do those people think they can earn God's favor by making an appearance at church?  Maybe they heard the gospel and realize that they cannot earn God's favor.  Maybe they came to see that salvation is by God's grace.

Hopefully at least a large portion of the people actually heard the true gospel and Biblical teaching.  Unfortunately in the modern church Biblical teaching is in short supply.  And in many cases we are ashamed of the gospel.  

Also the lives of many professing Christians do not match what they profess to believe.  There life and thought are no different from than that of unbelievers.  Studies show that most professing Christians have little knowledge and understanding of the Bible.  What a sad state the modern church is in! 

Oh that we would recover a love for the Word of God.  If we could only recover true devotion to Christ.  The name Christian needs to have its true meaning restored.   If only the world could see Christians who are true followers of Jesus.  Biblical Christianity must be restored.  This is what unbelievers need to see and hear.  

Resurrection Day

Our modern Easter celebration includes things such as the Easter Bunny, egg hunts, and chocolate candy, even chocolate crosses.  A chocolate cross seems to be a gross trivialization of the cross of Christ.  After all the cross was an instrument of torture and execution.  It also takes away the profound theological implications of the cross of Christ.  
Many churches will have egg hunts and many Christians will focus on the Easter Bunny and the secular celebration.  This focus is all wrong because it takes the focus off of Christ.  We must move away from the Easter celebration and move to the celebration of Resurrection Day.  

After all Christianity hinges on the resurrection of Christ.  If there is no resurrection then there is no Christianity  (1 Corinthians 15).  The problem we all have is sin.  Because we have sinned against a holy God by breaking his law we now face his wrath and eternity in hell.  We have no true righteousness of our own.  But Jesus lived a perfect life without sin in order to be our perfect substitute.  He died on the cross to pay for the sins of his people.  His death was  a propitiation for our sins.  In other words Christ's work on the cross turns away the wrath of God from us.  Jesus was then raised bodily from the dead, not just spiritually as some liberal scholars would have us believe.  But Jesus was raised from the dead bodily, victorious over sin, death, and the devil.  The resurrection is also proof that Jesus is God.  

All people must repent of their sins and trust in Christ alone for salvation.  Jesus is the only way to heaven.  The sins of believers are placed on Jesus, while his righteousness is counted as ours. 

So is it reasonable to believe in the resurrection of Christ?  The evidence for the existence of God is overwhelming.  So if God exists and he can create out of nothing, surely he could raise his Son from the dead. Also there were over 500 witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.  It is not likely all these people would be delusional.  The opponents of Christianity only had to produce the body of Jesus to disprove it.  But they never did because they could not produce it.  The disciples were changed by the resurrection of Christ and they proclaimed it boldly.  Many of them even died for their faith in Jesus.  People don't usually die for something they know not to be true.  The logical conclusion is that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God.   

No God, No Evil

Atheists often bring up the problem of evil for Christians.  They ask how can God be good and omnipotent (all powerful) and still allow evil?  Have atheists struck a fatal blow against Christianity?  Or do atheists have their own problem of evil?  

The atheist actually finds himself in a quandary.  He says there is no God and then proceeds to talk about evil.  But if there is evil, there must also be good.  If there is good and evil then we have a moral framework.  For a moral framework to exist there must be an absolute authority who is outside of us and greater than us.  

An atheist has no basis on which to categorize or define evil.  Without God as a transcendent authority there is no good or evil.  It has been said that if God does not exist then all things are permissible.  

Atheism has no basis for morality and cannot consistently speak of good and evil.  Atheists cannot even call murder or child abuse wrong and be consistent.  Atheists must borrow from the Christian worldview in order to have the concepts of good and evil.  Atheism simply cannot be consistently lived.  Good is what is in line with God's law and character.  Evil is whatever violates his law and character.  

The atheist defeats his own argument and refutes himself.  If there is no God then there can be no evil.  In order to speak of evil, God must exist.  The existence of evil does not disprove the existence of God.  To the contrary, the existence of evil is proof for the existence of God.