Gospel
The Good News about Jesus began long before he was even born – it began at creation. Because God is the Creator, He is also the Ruler over everything He created. “It is He who made us, and we are his.”(Psalm 100:3) Because God made us and is our Ruler, He has rightfully demanded that we love and honor Him above anyone or anything else. But instead of joyfully obeying, we have disobeyed God every day since birth by pursuing empty pleasures and selfish goals. Our attempts to satisfy ourselves with another promotion at work or the next must-have, big-ticket purchase only leave us empty and highlight the futility of our selfishness and disobedience to God – our Creator and Ruler. God’s description of our condition is that our hearts are desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). We need to be healed, and the Good News is that Jesus came to heal sick, disobedient people.
Jesus’ story on earth began roughly 2,000 years ago. His birth was completely unique. Through God’s power, Jesus’ virgin mother conceived Him without having sex. Jesus grew up in a small Middle Eastern town called Nazareth. Unlike any other child ever born, Jesus never thought, desired, or acted in a sinful way. He was completely sinless. As He grew older, Jesus began to heal blind people, turn water into wine, and raise dead people to life. He did all of these things to make it obvious that He was God – the Creator and Ruler. He told everyone that He was born to heal people’s sick and disobedient hearts. He told them that they must repent of their sin and believe in Him as their only hope. The government of the day accused Jesus of crimes He had not committed. They tortured Him like a terrorist, nailed Him to some wood they stuck in the ground, and left Him hanging there until He died. Jesus’ friends and relatives took His body down and buried Him. Then, three days later, Jesus came back to life, proving again that He was God. Over the next forty days, over 500 people saw Him and testified that He really was alive. Finally, in front of a crowd of people, Jesus ascended back to Heaven.
The Good News about Jesus is that He came to heal people’s sick and disobedient hearts. The bad news for humanity is that we have all broken God’s law – the law that we must never break because God is our Creator and Ruler. He demands our obedience and will not tolerate sin. God hates sin so much that He promised to destroy anyone who sins. Because our hearts are sick and disobedient there is nothing that we can do to avoid God’s wrath and destruction. But Jesus did what no other person could do; He lived a perfect life and died in the place of sick, disobedient sinners. Jesus did not die because He was wrongly accused and hated; Jesus died on purpose to rescue sinners from the wrath of God. God killed Jesus instead of us. Jesus took our place and absorbed God’s righteous wrath. Jesus received the punishment we deserved in order to heal our sick, disobedient hearts and to turn God’s wrath to favor.
Jesus calls every person to repent of their sin and believe in Him as their only hope. He promises that you will find healing for your heart, His righteous obedience instead of your disobedience and no more of God’s wrath – only favor forever.
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