The essence of the Gospel is the Cross. That we were created by God who made us to be part of His family. But our sin caused us to be estranged from Him, for a Holy and righteous God has to judge sin. And as the Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) But for some reason , God loves us with an everlasting love, and will not let us go.
So what does He do? When the time is right, God the Father sends His son Jesus Christ to be incarnated as a man. A a man, at the age of 33 (in AD 33 in Jerusalem), he was crucified on a Roman Cross on trumped-up charges and crimes He did not commit. This was all prophesised would happen for 2,000 years.
On the surface, and in the eyes of man, it could have been seen as political drama. But the Scriptures, particularly the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John peel the curtain back, and tell what is the most mindblowing story of all.
The unfolding plan of God to save mankind, and to reconcile them to Himself. Or because the Bible describes God as the heavenly Father, this drama can be expressed as God the Father making a way for His children to come home. Or, in the words of the poet Francis Thompson, God the Father is like “the hound of heaven”, pursuing His children until they come home.
What is mindblowing about the Gospel?
- The Gospel says someone was willing to pay the price for my sin, so that the righteous Judge presiding over the case could acquit me and let me go free. The price that was paid: the death penalty. Someone was willing to take my place – not just in jail, but to take the death penalty?
- That someone – Jesus Christ – was willing to do this while I was still a sinner, estranged from and at odds with Him.
“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7) - The one who died for me is not just anyone. It is Jesus Christ, whom the Bible says is the Creator of all things – the earth, the galaxy, the atom, humans, animals; and also all spiritual beings.
Of Jesus, it is said. “For by him, all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him, all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17)
If our eyes behold Everest, the Milky Way, the vast oceans and declare these are majestic, then this says that the Majestic Creator God who spoke these creations became a man to die for me!!? This is mindboggling. No wonder the Psalmist says, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8) - The plan of God the Father was this – that Jesus would atone (pay the price) for our sin, that we may be reconciled to Him and be his sons and daughters (!!). Us, fallen, weak, sinful, ignoble men – not just pardoned but restored to royal status as the King’s children?!! Impossible, but true!
“But to all who did receive Him (Jesus), who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12)
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) - Our citizenship is in heaven, and one day, God will transform our lowly mortal bodies to be like His glorious body (!!)
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able to even to subdue all things to Himself.” - This was always the Father’s plan from the beginning of time. Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8) for us.
No matter how depraved, how lost, how far we have wandered from the Father, the Gospel message is the same – you can’t be so far gone that His love cannot reach you. That’s why it’s called the Gospel – the Good News of God! This IS Good News!! This is mindboggling. “What is man is you are mindful of him.”
The Hound of Heaven
This video below is a modern adaptation of “The Hound of Heaven”, a poem written by Francis Thompson, whose drug addictions made him a vagrant of London. He did all he could to flee from God, but God found Him. Because God’s love for us is all-consuming.