The Simple Yet Profound Truth of the Gospel

The gospel is the greatest news ever told. The word literally means good news. That's what gospel means. It's the Greek word evangelion, which is where we get our English words evangelism, evangelist, evangelical. That's where we get those words. So a church that would call itself an evangelical church, which we would, is saying, hey, at the core of who we are is the good news of the gospel. That's who we are. A church without the gospel, in my opinion, not a church. Collection of people. Taking up time. Doing whatever it is you're doing. But a church that has the gospel, that's where the word comes from. It's the good news. So here's what I want to talk about today about the gospel. Number one, the gospel is simple. It's simple. [00:00:53] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


It may be simple to understand, but when you actually break down all the things that are going on in a person's life when they decide to follow Jesus, it's actually pretty astounding. It's sort of like pregnancy, quite frankly. Pregnancy is pretty simple. Like, it's basic biology. It's ones and zeros. It's mortar and pestle, right? Like, it's just simple math at that point. But when you break down, what actually happens in the moment, what all the thousands of things that have to happen, the chemistry and the science and the miracle and everything that happened, it's all of a sudden very astounding. [00:02:56] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


And this belief system that happens when Jesus comes into our prism, if you will, it affects everything about us as individuals, doctrinal, missional, and personal. It affects us doctrinally. In other words, what we believe. And here's why that's important because what we believe affects everything. What you believe affects your thoughts and your thoughts affect your actions and your actions affect your behavior and all of these things. What you believe is crucial. It's at the foundation. It also affects us missionally. And this is, in other words, where you live. And I don't mean geographically. I mean, do you have a purpose for living? How do you fit into this world? Where do you live as it relates to relating to this world? Do you know your purpose? [00:08:22] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


Jesus comes into us and changes us. He changes the outcome. Changes our output. He changes our direction from that moment on. Our lives are now refracted because of the light of Jesus that is inside of us, just like the white light is refracted into many colors. I want to look at four of those refracted natures today. Now, I know it's not all seven, right? We just don't have time, right? It's not ROYGBIV, sorry. So pick four of your favorite colors and just call it that. Good. Okay, we'll cover the other three some other time. Four. New refracted layers that we have about us. And this is showing you the complexity of the gospel. Jesus comes in. That's all simple. But when he does, he changes our outcome. He changes everything about us. The first thing, this is justification. [00:10:47] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You caught, like you're guilty. We got video evidence, and I declare you not guilty. That's justification. Before, when God would see me, before Jesus came into my life, he would see sin, all of my sin. Now, because of Jesus, he doesn't see my sin. He sees righteousness that is Christ's in me. So he sees me, watch this, justified, never sinned. [00:11:53] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


Everything about our old self and old nature is gone. It's dead. It's not just like hiding behind the corner. It's dead. It's dead. It's dead. We have a new creation. This is where it gets a little confusing because some of you are like, well, wait a second. I mean, I'm still me. I became a believer whenever it was in my life, and I had a sin struggle, and I thought if I came to Christ that that sin struggle would go away, and for some of you, maybe it did overnight. Boom, by the grace of God, amen. For some of you, no. [00:13:10] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


That's what redemption means, to be set free. If our old creation was in bondage, our new creation is now completely free. The chains have been broken. The shackles have been removed. The curse has been lifted. Jesus is the Redeemer, and we are the redeemed. Now, do we still struggle with sin? Yes, because of our flesh and our humanity. But listen, we are not in bondage to the penalty of that sin. [00:14:28] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


Like what's better than saying to someone, look, regardless of what your family situation was or maybe even still is, you are now a part of this family. And being a part of this family comes with all the rights and privileges of being a part of this family. Isn't that just not beautiful? It's not just a beautiful picture of what God does for us. Hey, regardless of anything that might have been or it may still kind of be in the picture, you're in my family now. And if you're in my family, then you get all the rights and privileges of being in my family. That's adoption. [00:15:45] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


Most people, I would say nine times out of 10 in my experience, most people have the same longings, deep, longings embedded in them. We talked about one of those last week. We talked about the deep longing for community and connection and all of that because that's from our creator. And so since God created us, we're created in the image of God. We're just going to look like daddy. There's going to be some things where we look like daddy. And that's one of them, connection. Well, there are some other things that we have in common, deep longings that most people that you meet will have, longings for acceptance, hope, approval. [00:23:02] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


We get to meet their natural longing for hope with the truth of our new life. What is more hopeful than everything becoming new? It turns out there is more to this life. Romans chapter 8 verse 22, we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up until the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoptions as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Verse 24, watch this. For in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a Christian without hope. That's an oxymoron. Think about it. Think about your Christian faith and what you believe. You believe in an invisible man who, begotten by an invisible God who apparently lives in us inside invisibly. [00:28:31] (72 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)