The Gospel of Jesus Christ:

The Christian faith declares that mankind stands in a tragic and perilous state. We witness enormous evils in our world and a legion of perhaps more subtle ones within our own hearts. Our times are marked by warfare, strife, injustice and immorality. In biblical language, this means men are sinners. We all fall short of how God wants us to live and as such we are subject to death and to the bondage of dark powers.

In other words, we are under what the Bible calls God's wrath. This wrath is simply the righteous judgment of God whose goodness, love and purity can not allow evil to remain unpunished in His creation. This wrath, while active now, shall be fully and justly meted out on the last day at the final judgment. A judgment which no human being can escape.

The question which confronts man in his predicament is this: What shall be done about the wrath of God against my sin and my resultant death and judgment?

At the heart of the Christian Faith is the person of Jesus Christ (the word Christ means Jesus is Israel's promised Messiah). The Scriptures teach that Jesus was both the divine Son of God and man in one person. He was God and He became one of us by entering into our humanity. As such, Jesus becomes the only perfect Mediator between God and man.

The Bible teaches that, as the God-Man, Jesus has done what we should have done. He has obeyed God perfectly and fully in our humanity. But, we need not only Jesus' obedient life, we need His obedient death. The wrath of God must be satisfied. His justice requires that our sins be paid for. So God, in His great love sends Jesus, in our humanity, to bear His wrath and pay for our sins. This is the significance of Jesus' life and death.

Furthermore, the Scriptures gloriously declare that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day. In Jesus, death has been conquered! Eternal Life and Immortality have been disclosed to the world.

In light of who Jesus is and what He has done, the gospel (a word which means good news) is simply this: God has provided a Savior in His Son Jesus Christ. He has come in your humanity and lived, died and been raised on your behalf. If you confess Him as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you shall be saved from the power of death and the wrath of God due us on account of our sins. Salvation is living faith (or trust) in the person of the Risen Jesus. Faith unites us to Christ so that all that He is, we become in the sight of God. His righteousness and purity becomes our righteousness and purity. His victory over death means, that though we may die, we will be raised and acquitted in the judgment because by faith we are united to the One whom God has raised.

Trust in Jesus today. Place your faith in the One who has come in our humanity to bear our sins and to conquer death!

Amen.