My Faith

The Gospel

Crosses…..you see them everywhere… but when I was young, I never understood why “crosses” were a such big deal. To me they just looked like weird “plus signs.”

The reason I didn’t understand was because I hadn’t realized the history behind the cross. I didn’t know the Bible, and unless one clearly understands the “big picture” story of the Bible, the cross is just an odd “plus sign.” Let’s take a journey to explore history and the Bible to see why the cross has become such a powerful symbol.

There are six realities that sum up the story of the Bible. Each of these powerful and fascinating realities have captivated people’s imagination for many years. Let’s start at the beginning of the story.

1. Things started off well

The first reality that people find in the Bible is that things started off well. A holy, loving, and all-powerful God created a perfect world. Sounds good, right?

Genesis 1:1,36a “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth…And God saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good.”

In the beginning there was one God, loving, wonderful and holy (without sin). He existed in three persons, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. One of the very first conversations that we know God had was with himself when he said, “Let us make man in our image.” Gen 1:26

So, God created man and woman, to worship Him and enjoy the unique bond of being created in His image.

The world God made and placed man in, was perfect–the perfect environment in which to grow and enjoy Him forever. There was no suffering, sickness, or death. God and man were in perfect relationship with each other, and man’s innocence was aligned in perfect harmony with God’s holiness.

This is actually a very beautiful truth, but it is only the beginning of our story. Reality two is much more tragic.

2. Things got Bad

Not long after creation the humans that God created in His image rebelled against him.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—“

Adam and Eve, the first humans, directly and purposefully chose to disobey God. They disregarded His authority and rejected His love. Genesis 3 tells the story of our rebellion.

It started with a simple request from God, “Enjoy everything in the entire world that I have made for you, but this one tree.” Would man obey his creator in this one small, simple test?

No. Eve ate of the tree and gave it to her husband, and he ate. In one defiant act of rebellion, man declared his independence from God and man has been alienated from God ever since.

This rejection and disobedience was called sin and because Adam and Eve rejected God and disobeyed him, therefore man’s special relationship with God was broken. Instead of worshipping and loving God, we have become creators of little false gods to capture our attention. We live for temporal things like jobs, money, pleasure, sports, family far more than for the God who loved us and created us.

Our sin and rebellion were repulsive to God’s beautiful holiness and have created a chasm between God and man called death. Things are no longer the way they are supposed to be. Death is not the only consequence of sin because things went from bad to worse in the third reality.

3. Things went from Bad to Worse

Man’s sin and rebellion have reaped catastrophic consequences beyond death upon this earth.

Like a virus, sin passed from generation-to-generation distorting God’s original design for everything. All we must do is look at history to see the consequences of sin. The story of the flood, recorded in Genesis 7 was a result of violence and there have been wars, evil dictators, murders, jealousy, rage, sexual abuse, cruelty to the weak and poor, neglect and brutalization of children ever since.

Man’s newfound penchant for sin has brought all kinds of pain and suffering into God’s perfect world.

The Bible teaches us that God is angry about it (Psalm 60:1). Psalm 7:11 tells us that “God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day.” (NIV)

The good and just God of the universe has promised to one day punish the world with fire because of evil.

2 Peter 3:3-7 “I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
5 They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. 7 And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.”
(NLT)

When you compare God’s original design with who and where we are today, you realize that we are amazingly and fatally, flawed. Grudges, lies, hatred… Just think of the hidden thoughts that we have had that we would never utter out loud.

We are truly and fatally flawed, which drives one to the question…is there any hope?

4. Things Are Getting Brighter

Of course, there is hope! Hope is what the Bible is about! Jesus Christ is the promise of rescue and hope. He is the fourth reality!

Jesus was promised a thousand years before He came. Promised first to Adam and Eve, then to Abraham, Moses, King David and many prophets like Isaiah and Micah. The entire Old Testament leads up to a pivotal moment when God became human in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus’ birth was miraculous; He was born of a virgin.
Jesus’ life was unique, He never sinned, and His many miracles proved divine power.
Jesus’ death was uniquely not a tragedy but a sacrifice, to rescue us from sin.

Jesus willingly, obediently and unselfishly died on the cross to pay for the sins of mankind. In the greatest display of mercy and grace ever seen, the perfectly innocent God-man died for us, the hopelessly guilty.

1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,”

Jesus’ death ransoms us from the consequences of our rebellion and sin. Atoning for sin in a way that God’s holiness and justice are met with love and mercy.

That leads us to the fifth reality, one that Christians celebrate every year on Easter Sunday morning.

5. Things become extra special

Christ’s Resurrection reveals something extra special.

The scourging, abuse, the crown of thorns, the spikes through His hands and feet, the spear in His side… they were all certainly fatal to Jesus. Hundreds watched while He suffered, bled, and died. He was an innocent man, crucified and punished like He was the worst of sinners.

It would have been a complete and utter tragedy if we did not know two things:
A) Jesus signed up for it. God’s plan all along according to both the Old and New Testament is that someone would come and heal us by His stripes or wounds (Isa. 53 “by His stripes we are healed”).
B) Jesus had the power to overcome death. While the death of Jesus was brutal – his resurrection is a powerful victory over the ravages of death.

The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is not some misfortune that Jesus suffered through –it is a hero’s journey that he walked through to defeat both sin and death.

Jesus revealed that He alone has the power to defeat death and bring himself back to life and to give life—eternal, indestructible, and abundant life.

John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Jesus Christ’s unselfish gift of life is what makes the resurrection so beautiful and Easter Sunday morning so special.

In John 11 just before Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. Jesus declared. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

Then to prove it, He proceeded to resurrect Lazarus, who had been dead for over three days!

Jesus’ resurrection proves His power and authority over all things. Every corrupting and devastating consequence that sin brought into the world, Christ overcame and defeated. Easter Sunday morning represents that victory.

This brings us to the sixth and final reality… one that is potentially difficult.

6. There are things you must Believe

The Bible is God’s amazing story of redemption, and He desires all of us to be a part of that story. A new story of harmony and joy with Him, freedom from sin. By joining God in His story, all of us find forgiveness, peace, and purpose.

But it takes faith. It takes believing God is who He says He is and has done what He has said He has done. It will also take owning the inconvenient truth that our sins and our disobedience, have put us in the place where we need Jesus.

Instead of believing that we can somehow save ourselves from the consequences of sin we must transfer our trust to what Jesus provided by dying on the cross.

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

We must put our faith in Jesus.

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Our salvation is only accomplished through Christ’s death on the cross. Now we see why the cross has become such an incredible symbol for Christians and why crosses are seen everywhere.

I’m not sure what you have been living for or focusing your life on but if it is not Jesus Christ you need to make a change. You must turn from your sins to Christ and believe in the Gospel. Let me tell you quickly how to do that.

  1. First, you must make a determination in your mind that your sins have offended God and need to be paid for. When we deceive ourselves into thinking our sins are not so bad, we deny our need for Jesus and His death burial and resurrection. When we do that Bible says we will “die in your sins.” (John 8:24).
  2. You must listen to the Spirit of God. If He is bringing conviction right now, join in with what He is doing. We must not reject Him, let us not rationalize our sin or distract ourselves. By faith ask the Lord to give you peace with Him through the cleansing blood of Jesus death.
  3. You must settle in your heart once and for all that it is impossible for you to get to heaven without the price Jesus paid on the cross. We will never work our way there. God’s redemption plan is our only way for forgiveness and a renewed relationship with God.
  4. You must choose to love the Lord your God with all your heart because of the gift of His son. In the book of Ephesians God describes his relationship to believers as a marriage (Eph. 5). Choose to love, receive, and bind yourself to Him. Choose Him as your first love!
  5. You must purpose in your heart to be wholly committed to Him and his ways. Dedicated, unswerving, devoted, faithful to him and him alone. He died for you… Will you live for Him?

There is no such thing as forced belief. Either we believe these six realities, or we don’t. Either we picture ourselves as sinners in need of mercy and forgiveness or we don’t. Those who believe, have this singular thought running through their heads: “I am a sinner who needs the forgiveness that Jesus provided.”

If you are convinced that God created you for more than you are experiencing right now,
If you are persuaded that you are a sinner, and that sin has and will continue to wreck your life.
If you believe that Jesus is God’s Son and that He died to pay for your sins.

You would want to trust him right now, right?

“God, I have sinned my whole life –If you were to judge me right now, you would be right in sentencing me to everlasting punishment, but I am looking to your son Jesus, I understand and believe that His death on the cross paid for my sins- So God I am turning from my sin to my only hope –Jesus. I am trust Him to give me eternal life starting right now.”

© Paul L.  Davis

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