Good News For Today 24 – Author Unknown – Christ Is Not The Gospel.[i]
Hello, My name is David Hibbert, and I’ve got some good news for you!
Here’s how one man explained the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ.
Many people mistakenly think that it is Christ Himself that is the Gospel. But this is not so. Christ has always been “Himself”. He is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever”, according to Hebrew 13:8.
But there has not always been a Gospel of salvation for lost sinners. The Gospel came into existence when Jesus died for us on the cross. It is not what Christ IS, but what He DID — that is the Gospel.
Our forgiveness and justification are due to the shedding of Christ’s blood.
We are not forgiven and justified by His incarnation, even though that was a wonderful miracle. We are not forgiven and justified by His life and example, even though His life was spotless and perfect. In fact, His life only points out what great sinners we are, and how far we have fallen short of God’s standards of perfection.
Instead, we are forgiven and justified only by the death of Christ.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And verse 9 says, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”
What Christ did for us, when He died in our place, taking the punishment for our sins, and THEN rising again from the dead, that is what paid the price for our forgiveness, and our justification, and that is the Gospel.
And that’s your Good News For Today!
[i] Sunday School Times.
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