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The Gospel

The word gospel means “good news.” But good news only lands on a person who knows the bad news first. So let me start there.

God is holy. We are not. Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23), and sin is not a smudge to be wiped off. Scripture calls it a debt, and it uses that word on purpose. It is a debt none of us can pay. No amount of effort, religion, or self-improvement closes the distance between a holy God and a man like me.

That is where Jesus comes in.

The gospel is the announcement of who Jesus is and what He did. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, lived the perfect life we could never live. He kept the law of God from the inside out, without a single failure. Then He went to the cross and absorbed the full penalty our sin deserved. Three days later He walked out of the tomb, and death has never recovered. In His sinless life God supplied the obedience the law demands. In His death God removed the curse the law pronounces. God provides what God requires.

Engraved illustration: Jesus standing on a rock in the wilderness with the Scriptures open in his hands, a serpent slipping away
He livedthe obedience the law demands
Engraved illustration: three crosses on a hill under a dark sky, the center cross lit from above
He diedthe curse the law pronounces, removed
Engraved illustration: the stone rolled away from an empty tomb, folded grave cloths inside, dawn light pouring out
He roseand death has never recovered

Here is the part that still stops me. God declares you righteous while you are still a sinner. He does not wait for you to clean yourself up. He takes His own Son’s righteousness and credits it to your account the moment you trust in Christ alone. R.C. Sproul said it as plainly as it can be said: “We are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith, and by faith alone.”

The Great Exchange: your debt goes to the cross, His righteousness is credited to your account The Great Exchange Two accounts. One cross. 2 Corinthians 5:21 Your Account Every proud thoughtowed Every careless wordowed Every grudge keptowed Every good left undoneowed . . . and the rest Balance Unpayable PAID IN FULL Christ's Account A sinless lifekept The law, from the inside outkept Every word of the Fatherkept Obedience unto deathkept . . . without a single failure Balance Righteousness credited to you the moment you trust Him your debt, laid on Him His righteousness, credited to you “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

So this is not a self-improvement program, and it is not religion. Every religion on earth is a ladder we climb toward God. The gospel is God climbing down to us. It is a rescue: planned by the Father, accomplished by the Son, received by faith. Nothing in your hands. Everything in His.

Engraved illustration: a man climbs a ladder that ends in empty sky, while Christ comes down a golden stair toward a man sitting on the ground with his head in his hands
Every religion is a ladder. The ladder runs out. The gospel is God coming down the stairs to the man who could not climb.

If you have never placed your trust in Jesus, the invitation is open to you right now, wherever you happen to be sitting. Admit that you cannot save yourself. Believe that Christ died in your place and rose again. Trust Him, and Him alone, as your Lord and Savior.

That is the gospel. And if it has just become yours, I would love to hear about it. Write me at david@490.life.

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