Good News For You
"What is this Gospel stuff that you talk about?"Well, the word Gospel, itself, actually means: Good News. You see, the Bible (which is God's story) tells us that right after God created the universe, He created us humans, in His image. Of course, since God is perfect, He created us to be perfect too. Adam and Eve were meant to live with, and love, God forever. God wants our love, and so He gave us the right to choose to love Him. God certainly could have made humans so that they had to be perfect and love Him. However, that would not have been worth much; after all what would you think about building a robot that was programmed to sit there and say "I love you," over and over without any change. That would not really give you a "warm fuzzy," would it? It's pretty simple to build a robot to follow it's programming and tell you that it loves you, but it shows real talent to create one that can make up it's own mind. However, you cannot have freedom of choice without a choice. God gave Adam and Eve the choice of either obeying His rules or not. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve decided to disobey rather than obey Him. The result of that decision was their (and our) separation from God. This separation included pain, sickness and death. As Oliver Hardy used to say: "that's another fine mess you got us into." God is omniscient, which means He knows everything. So, this "fine mess" was no surprise to Him. Right from the beginning, God foreshadowed His plans to fix up that fine mess: He said to Satan (disguised as the serpent) that:
"… I will put enmity
Shortly after that, God told men that: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul." (Lev 17:11) It would require a death to pay for (atone) a person's disobedience. In other words, we have earned the death penalty for our sins (disobedience of God's commands.) About two thousand years ago, God fulfilled a huge number of prophesies that had been made regarding this Promise. His Son, Jesus, came to Earth for the purpose of paying our death penalty. By living a perfect life and then being executed to pay for sins (which He did not commit,) Jesus was able to pay for our sins. This payment was the equivalent of getting a “presidential pardon” directly from God, Himself; a Pardon that Jesus is able to give to anyone, and everyone, that He wishes. The Bible puts it this way: "If we confess our sins, He (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) If you build a robot and program it to kill someone for you, you may be arrested and sentenced to death. If you are sitting in the electric chair waiting for the executioner to pull the switch and a courier comes in with a signed pardon from the Governor or President, you must accept that pardon. If you refuse to accept it, the executioner will still pull the switch and you will die for your crime. In the same way, you must accept the pardon that Jesus offers you. We accept this pardon by believing in Jesus and that He can give us that pardon. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." (John 1:12) There is a simple method taught to people who want to tell others about Jesus: it is just the first three letters of the English alphabet (A, B, C.)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version ®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Return to Granzeier's Faith Page This page was last updated by Art G. Granzeier III on Mon 29 Jul 2019 |