Reason 22 – Jesus Came to Die To Bring Us to God

“When all is said and done, God is the gospel. Gospel means “good news.” Christianity is not first theology, but news. It is like prisoners of war hearing by hidden radio that the allies have landed and rescue is only a matter of time. The guards wonder why all the rejoicing. But what is the ultimate good in the good news? It all ends in one thing: God himself. All the words of the gospel lead to him, or they are not gospel. For example, salvation is not good news if it only saves from hell and not for God. Forgiveness is not good news if it only gives relief from guilt and doesn’t open the way to
God. Justification is not good news if it only makes us legally acceptable to God but doesn’t bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage but doesn’t bring us to God. Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in the Father’s family but not in his arms. This is crucial. Many people seem to embrace the good news without embracing God. There is no sure evidence that we have a new heart just because we want to escape hell. That’s a perfectly natural desire, not a supernatural one. It doesn’t take a new heart to want the psychological relief of forgiveness, or the removal of God’s wrath, or the inheritance of God’s world. All these things are understandable without any spiritual change. You don’t need to be born again to want these things. But the evidence that we have been changed is that we want these things because they bring us to the enjoyment of God. This is the greatest thing Christ died for. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).”

Reflecting on this reminds me how I can easily miss the fact that the Gospel is not all about me, but about God. In my early Christian days, I can recall the wonderful realization that I was not going to be eternally condemned. That was good news to me. However what I missed was that the Gospel wasn’t all about my wants and desires to be delivered but about God’s love and plan for sinners all over the world and throughout the ages. I know of many people who believe and teach a message of freedom from one of man’s greatest natural fears; death. I believed this for many years. But there is more, so much more. The Gospel is not an antidote for my natural desires. God is the Gospel and He transcends the natural and the supernatural. God and His Gospel is the fulfillment of all that is good and holy and just.

This YouTube video articulates this better than I can.

Questions: If you have “received Christ” do you see him merely as a quick and simple solution to one of life’s biggest worries? Have you considered that the Gospel is not a list of facts or a ticket to heaven or merely a “good deal” from God, but that God Himself is the Gospel?

I highly recommend this book – God is the Gospel