Redemption
The word Gospel means ‘good news’. The Gospel is a message about God working out of His love, His wisdom and in perfect justice to save us from His wrath. Read 1 Corinthians 5:1-6 and notice five things Paul highlights about the Gospel.
Christ Died for our Sins
– The good news starts here. We in
our sin deserved death, but God in his mercy sent Jesus to take our
punishment. Jesus went to the
cross, bore my sin, and took the wrath of God in my place. The punishment I should have received
fell on Jesus instead. Paul writes
it this way in Romans 5:8 – “but God shows his love for us in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us.” It is important that we understand that at no point could we (or can we) save ourselves. It is only by
God’s grace through the work of Jesus as our substitute that we can be saved.
He Was Buried – It is
important we understand that Jesus actually died. This is necessary because Scripture tells us that the wages
of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Death is the
punishment for sin, and if Jesus did not die then the punishment hasn’t been
met. If that’s the case then the
penalty still lingers and I am still held responsible.
He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures – Here Paul points to the resurrection. Paul says that without the resurrection
our faith is futile and we are still in our sins (1 Corinthians
15:17). The resurrection shows that Jesus has
been victorious over sin and death. Because Jesus met the full requirements for sin’s penalty through his
death on the cross, sin has been paid in full and death no longer has any right
to hold him in the grave. (1 Peter 3:18).
He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve – The resurrection was not just a spiritual event,
it was also a physical reality. Jesus really rose from the dead just as he said he would. He was seen by a number of people on a
number of different occasions.
For I delivered to you . . . what I also received – it is not simply enough to understand the facts of
the Gospel. Upon hearing the
Gospel, man must respond to the risen Lord. How does one do this?: by God’s grace & through repentance and faith.
So what does Jesus mean? By "repent" Jesus means turn from yourself, your agenda, your
own will, and trust in Him. So by God’s grace, we turn from
ourselves and place our trust in Jesus for salvation and rule.