The Gospel (Part 2 of 5)

Last time I introduced a simple definition of the Christian gospel or good news. My hope is to give you a better understanding of the Gospel and the ability to share it clearly, concisely, and completely with others. To do that I'm taking 5 blog posts to provide an in-depth look at each part of the Gospel message.  The simple statement we are working from is this:

GOD chose to rescue
MAN out of our sinful rebellion though
JESUS and offers us the 
GRACE of forgiveness and new life.

Last time we looked at GOD rescuing us (see that post here).  In part 2 we will look at MAN and our sinful rebellion.

The Bible clearly says that no one is exempt, but that all have sinned (Rom 3:23). We all like sheep have gone astray, turning to our own ways (Is. 53:6). There is no one righteous and no one who seeks God. (Rom. 3:10-11) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. (Is. 64:6-7).

But what does it really mean that MAN is sinful?

Pastor and theologian, R.C. Sproul, shares three ways in which scripture describes our sin against God.  First sin is a debt.  Not a financial debt, but a moral debt.  God as our Creator has the right to require certain obligations from His creation. When we fail to live up to our moral obligations we incur a debt.  But, we don't like this. We don't like having obligations imposed upon us... we are FREE!  We reject this notion of moral obligations and certainly reject the idea of being indebted. This just further shows our sinfulness. Now, you can become upset about this, but that will just lead to more indebtedness!

Secondly, scripture describes our sin as enmity.  Enmity means to position oneself against or to stand as an enemy.  This is a picture of our moral protest, our rebellion. Scripture clearly says that in our natural, sinful state we are enemies of God (Rom 5:10, Col 1:21).

Thirdly, sin is criminal.   Sin is transgressing, or violating, God's law.  God's law is simply an expression of His Chrarcter.  His love for all, His perfect justice, His honesty, His kindness, His holiness, etc.  We, being made in the image of God are to live like His Image.  When we don't we violate His Character in which He made us.  When we sin we violate, we transgress the Law (Character) of God.  Like any violation of the law it come with a penalty. 1

If you were to smack me across the face, what would the penalty be?

Scripture says the wages of sin, or what sin deserves, is death.  Now that might seem a bit harsh, but consider it this way....   If you were to smack me across the face, what would the penalty be? I would get a little upset, but not much more.  If you were to smack a police officer across the face, what would the penalty be? You would probably be arrested and be put in jail. If you were to smack the president across the face, what would the penalty be?  You would be lucky if you didn't get shot! 2

The offense was the same in all three scenarios--smacking someone across the face, but, you see, it is the one the offense is against that makes the difference.  And we have done far more than smack God across the face. We have committed treason against our Creator. We have each staged a personal coup.  We have taken the life God gave us, the image God has given us and said, "Thanks, I'll take it from here.  I don't want to go Your way, do things in Your Character, I want to be my own boss---I'm free!"  This kind of treason carries the penalty of death... and through death it was paid in full! We will look at that in part 3.


1 http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/cosmic-treason/
2 heard this illustration from my friend Luke Rosenberger