Rom 3:23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
The gospel is good news: Christ began His ministry by saying, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. ” (Matthew 4:17)
John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
1Co 15:3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.
1Co 15:4 He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said
Act 17:31 For He has set a day for judging the world with justice by the Man He has appointed, and He proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from the dead.”
In 1 Co 15:3 above, Paul calls the good news a message that had been passed on to him; which he, in turn passed on, as we must.
The 3 minute video below illustrates God’s purpose in giving His Son to pay for the sins of those who will believe in Him by faith, that they might be saved from God’s wrath against sin.
The video lists the scriptures that explain why man needs a Savior; that Christ is that Savior; and that by faith man can be united with Christ and be reconciled with God the Father and saved from His wrath and hell.
Videos 2 and 3 very briefly explain two other aspects of the biblical gospel.
The following 4 minute video explains how a believer is “justified” or made righteous, by God the Father and what that means. I am reposting this video because it is a wonderful explanation of how one is UNITED with Christ. Being united to Christ is the source of all of a believers benefits.
Since the above video mentions that one is unified with Christ by faith, I wanted add one more 3 minute video to clarify just what biblical faith is for those who may not know. The initial 30 seconds of the following video are a bit technical, but the last 2 minutes are far more understandable.
Below are comments on concepts from all three above videos (these things become much more meaningful when you have read through the Bible and are actively reading it; as these are subjects that are hard to state in a brief manner, they need to be thought upon, prayed upon, etc):
- Man was separated from God by sin; mankind and the earth were cursed; man was ejected from Eden — see Genesis 1-3
- Sin corrupted man entirely; Adam and Eve died spiritually when they sinned; thereafter, no human had spiritual life, only physical life, see Romans 5 to learn about the difference between those who only have physical life (those “in Adam”) and those who have both physical and spiritual life (those “in Christ”); see John 3 to learn about how one is born-again, that is, how one receives spiritual life. NOTE: one cannot give himself physical or spiritual life. His parents give him physical life; the Holy Spirit gives spiritual life
- God gave the 10 commandments to Moses and Israel in Exodus 20; however, no one but Christ (in His earthly life) ever kept them and earned righteousness (for us) by that method. Therefore, anyone attempting to earn righteousness or salvation, or heaven by following God’s commands will fail. One sin is all it takes to fail; even if we weren’t born in sin, we would have committed one sin in a very short time after being born and be on our way to eternal punishment
- So, Christ earned righteousness by God’s law while he was on earth, and that benefits us; but He also died on the cross to pay for the sins of any person who believes in Him by faith (for more information of what it means to believe in Him, see: Archives, May 2019, Decisionism vs the Doctrine of Regeneration…)
- So, if you truly believe in Christ by faith, then you will begin your journey of sanctification which Dr. Piper spoke of in the second video above (for more information about that process, see, categories, The Beatitude Life)
- In this process of sanctification, one is at war against sin; the Holy Spirit enables a believer to see his sin more clearly and encourages him to seek deliverance by prayer and God’s other means of grace (see Archives, February 2019, God’s Appointed Means of Grace)
- The pilgrimage of sanctification ends when one leaves this world; that is, at glorification (see Romans 8)
In closing, I want to define one more biblical term that helps in understanding all of the above: imputation.
Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us when we are justified; and our sin, to Him. This is most easily understood in banking terms: my sin is transferred to Christ’s account and His righteousness, to my account. The transformation is a spiritual process that is completed by God the Father, as discussed in Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4.