“The
beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” – Mark 1:1
Now
that we have established who Jesus is, let us turn our attention to why He
came. Should we be left with any doubt
after reading Matthew, Mark makes it clear – Jesus is the Son of God!
Jesus
once asked His disciples, “Whom do ye say that I am?” Hear the big fisherman named Peter stand and
say “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responded by saying that Peter did not
come to this realization on His own, but it was revealed unto Him by the Father
(Matt. 16: 15-17). The Father proclaims
the Son; in fact, He is still proclaiming the Son! We have the Holy Bible in which the Son is
revealed in both testaments. The book of
Revelation’s central theme is Jesus Christ being revealed as King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. Make no mistake – Jesus is
the Son of God!
“For
God so love the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John
3:16). This was the first Bible verse
that many of us memorized as children. Thank
God for saints who stressed to me the importance of memorizing scripture as a
child. But I am afraid that our
familiarity with it has caused it to lose some of its power in our lives – our fault,
not His. It’s time to take a fresh look at this verse
again, and let it say to us what we need to hear.
God
loves the world…that includes you, me, and everyone who has ever lived or is
going to live. He loved us before we
ever loved Him or even knew Him. How do
we know? Because He gave His Son – Jesus
Christ, born of a virgin – to die as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. Once and for all on the cross, Jesus paid the
ultimate price for the sins of humanity – that includes you and me. Just as the sins of the people were placed
upon the sacrifice each year as an atonement, our sins – yours and mine – were
placed upon Jesus on the cross. The shedding
of His blood brought atonement for them.
By placing our faith in what Jesus did upon the cross, we receive
remission of sins and eternal life.
That, my friends, is the gospel!
Some
will say, “It can’t be that simple or easy.
There must be more to it than that.”
Friends, if it takes something else in addition to what Jesus did on the
cross, then He died in vain. That’s all
there is to it. Anyone who says that it
takes something more is preaching a false doctrine! Paul dealt with this in his letter to the
Galatians. False teachers had crept in,
and were teaching the people that in addition to being saved they had to follow
Jewish law and be circumcised. Paul, who
himself was circumcised, offered his opinion on the matter. “Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you?” (Gal. 3:1). He said if anyone,
even an angel from heaven, preaches any other gospel, let him be accursed (Gal.
1: 8-9). Our faith is not to be in
anything other than the finished work of Jesus.
If we are placing our faith in anything else, we are in error.
What
is the gospel? It is the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is
this gospel that we are commanded to proclaim to the world. “Repent and believe the gospel!” was the
message of the early church, and it should still be ours today. A quick glance at religious programming on
television, however, reveals those that preach another gospel. We find those that I refer to as “prosperity
preachers.” If I send in $25, God will
send me back $100. My friends, that is
nothing but a message of manipulation and God cannot nor will He be
manipulated. God is calling men
everywhere to repent – not to be rich. The
message of the true church has never changed nor will it. Do I believe in giving to God what is
His? Absolutely. But what I won’t do is think that I can use
God like a return in the stock market.
He’s not a 401k, He’s a consuming fire.
Let
us go back to preaching the gospel! May
the message of John the Baptist be our message – “Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the whole world.”
Have you believed? This is not
just about believing that He’s real, or even that He is the Son of God. The demons believe that…and they
tremble. Believing is about putting your faith in Jesus and what He did on
the cross. It’s about repentance. Have you repented of your sins? I’m not talking about turning over a new leaf
– or even a turn around. I’m talking
about falling before God in what the scripture refers to as godly sorrow. When you see yourself as God sees you, for
that is what true confession is – agreeing with God that we are sinners and
there is absolutely nothing we can do within ourselves to change that. Friends, THAT’S why God sent His only
begotten Son – to pay the ultimate price for our sins so we could go free. Through what He did at Calvary, His righteousness
was imputed to us because on our own there is no righteousness that makes us
good enough. Again I ask – have you
believed?
Jesus
said you must be born again. This second
birth is a spiritual birth and it means to be born from above. The Spirit of God comes in and transforms
your life. But you must repent of you
sins with godly sorrow – agreeing with God that you are a sinner and without
Him there is no hope for you. That’s
what Peter meant when he preached “repent and be converted, that your sins be
blotted out!” Believe the gospel – put your
faith in what Jesus did on the cross – and by faith believe that His word is
true and that He will forgive your sins.
Have
you been baptized? Baptism is not an
option, it is a commandment. It is the
first act of obedience that shows you have repented and put your faith in Jesus. It identifies you publicly with the body of
Christ. Remember, Jesus said that if we
are ashamed to confess Him before this generation, He will be ashamed to
confess us before His Father in Heaven.
Take
up your cross – daily – and follow Jesus.
Following Christ means that you will follow Him in suffering and
persecution. Jesus said that if the
world hated Him, it would hate us. If we
don’t take up our cross and follow him, we can’t be his disciple. We can’t live our lives our way and follow
our own path and then claim to follow Jesus – it just won’t work.
Chris,
why are you saying all of this? Who
would even want to be saved after all that?
Because
there are people all over the land who have a hole in their heart they just can’t
seem to fill. Are you one of those? You’ve tried everything. You’ve done all the right stuff – gone to
church, maybe taught Sunday School or done other work in the church – you’ve
been baptized, you’ve taken communion, you’ve done it all. But something is still missing and you just
can’t put your finger on it.
See
yourself as God sees you – a sinner without hope in this world. Repent and put your faith in Christ’s work on
the cross – not just something you celebrate on Easter. Let Him fill that hole in your heart and
transform your life. He will do it!
The Evangelist
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