In a recent post, I blogged (with the help of a video of Russell Moore) about the true nature of the gospel and the message that Christianity has to spread to the world. In this entry, I hope to get a little more specific about what I know to be the good news of the coming of Jesus Christ. My hunch is that, especially in the South, most non-Christians, atheists, and genuine truth seekers unfortunately know more about an evangelical’s political position rather than the true content of the gospel. Because of that, there are many out there who are confused as to what Christianity really teaches. For that reason, this post is for those people, so here goes:
First, there is something wrong with the world. I don’t think anyone would disagree with this. Look at all the injustice in the world. Look at the way that societies work, look at economic and political systems, look at the state of our culture. It is by far not perfect and deeply flawed. Everyone, including Christians, believes that. Christians, however, go deeper than just pointing out problems with the world around us. Ultimately, the reason that the world is broken is not because capitalism or communism are flawed systems, or because society corrupts us, or because of bad governments. What is wrong with the world are individual imperfections, commonly referred to by Christians as “sin.” The reason that the world is messed up on so many levels is because universally every one of us is flawed, broken, sinful, and depraved creatures that at our core level do not seek after God or the good of others, but seek only to satisfy our sinful desires. We don't just do bad things every now and then, we are essentially bad people who don't seek after God. What’s worse is that we cannot fix this on our own. So first, Christians hold to the undeniable fact that we as humans have rebelled against God.
Second, there is nothing wrong with God. I don’t think anyone doubts that either. God by definition is perfect. In the beginning, God created humans as beings who desired after Him and loved Him. But something went terribly wrong. Out of our own free agency, humans chose to set their hearts on things and idols rather than God (thus, the current situation of the world). And thus it still is with you and me. Instead of seeking after God (that is, following God’s laws and commandments), we follow our sinful desires and choose things that lead to death. Because God is perfect, he cannot stand the presence of imperfect beings that do not seek Him. Therefore, at death we are sent to Hell, away from the presence of God for eternity. This is a crucial step. “Good people” don’t go to heaven because all their good works are like nothing before God. God is infinitely perfect, and we cannot ever earn his salvation by doing good works for all of our lives because these works can never pay back our sin debt or measure up to God’s perfection. This goes for Adolf Hitler just as well as it goes for Mother Teresa and you and me.
Third, God is a loving God. Although because we did in the past rebel through the first humans and rebel today through our own actions and therefore deserve eternal punishment, God loved the world enough to send Jesus Christ, who was and is God, to bear God’s punishment for us. Instead of casting us into hell, God chose to offer us salvation through this Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life for us (never rebelling against God or seeking sinful things) and then offered himself as a sacrifice to God, taking upon Him our sins. Through His work, he makes us righteous and gives us a perfect moral and legal status in the sight of God. For those who trust in Christ to save them, God grants unto them Christ’s righteousness, which covers all our sins, forgives them, provides us with new righteousness, and then begins the long process of making us beings who truly love God and not the world. This then is God’s plan to restore this flawed world: to save humans and restore us back to what we were always meant to be. Here’s the catch: there is no other way to this salvation than Jesus Christ. If the world is messed up and us along with it, and if God is just and demands perfection, then the ONLY way that we can ever be perfect is through the atoning work of a person who was both a man and God, and not through any other teaching or practice. Only one road leads to God, heaven, and restoration, and that road is Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, what I have done is take the three statements “the world is messed up,” “God is perfect,” and “God is loving,” and prove that Jesus is the only way to heaven. Atheists aside, I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t believe those three statements. However, very few people take these three statements and draw the logical conclusions: that Christ is the only way to fix this mess that we call humanity. If people would connect the dots and were truly honest to their convictions, then I think we’d really understand what it means to see us as messed up, to see God as perfect, and to see God as loving. In light of that, this is the only conclusion that can be drawn: “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Tim 1:15, ESV). We would do well to remember that.
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2 comments:
Many unbelievers believe that God is unjust in saying that Christ is the only way, but here's a few points on that issue:
1) God is God, so He gets to set up His creation anyway He wants.
2) God is just, so what he does is always just; not because it meets our definition of justice, but His actions are just because He is just.
Here's a question to consider that would offer further enlightenment on your expression of the gospel; Must I have a first hand knowledge of Jesus Christ, and a personal relationship with Him, in order to benefit from His atoning work? (Think Old Testament believers, and individuals who have not heard the gospel.)
Thanks for the comment pastor Kent.
With concern for the Old Testament saints, they obviously did not have a firsthand knowledge of Jesus or his work, but were still saved by faith in God, namely that He would keep His covanent, and in His future promise of redeeming Israel. That is to say that Christ covered for their sins in the future. As for those who have never heard the gospel, I have no clue as to their status before God.
So salvation then is a relinquishing of our own righteousness and works as a path to God and instead trusting in an alien righteousness that is not our own to (first) forgive our sins and (second) provide us with a righteousness of God's to cover for our failures and imperfections.
Is that what you are hinting at?
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