What is the Gospel?

Part 3: Jesus Christ the Saviour

In Greg Gilbert’s book, “What is the Gospel?” he highlights 4 main parts to

understanding the Gospel – the Good News that God has revealed to us and
wants everyone to understand, believe in and everyone to display.

2 Weeks ago we looked at the Good News about God – He is there, He is our
Creator, He is Holy & Righteous and as such we His image-bearing creatures
are accountable to Him. We also touched on what is so good about the love &
the wrath of God.

Last week, we identified that there is a sickness or problem in the world and
agree with the Genesis 3 diagnosis of Man’s sin. It has resulted in captivity
to self & Satan and strife with others, even creation itself – for everyone. But
the worst is the separation from God whose character is attacked, is
personally offended by our rebellion – and as such He is perfectly right to
judge sin and us along with it. And we also learned the good news about the
fact that in our state – we cannot save ourselves! So don’t even try!

So without hearing todays message – we understand from the first 2 parts,

the good news about the bad news, about the Good News that:

we are sinners destined to be condemned. We cannot be more in

danger than we are as a result of our personal sin and God’s Holy and
Righteous Justice.

BUT…

God has acted in His Love and Mercy to save sinners just like you and me.

1. Prophecy

From the beginning – the time when Adam & Eve first sinned – God’s facets
are already reflected to us in His judgement of curse upon us for committing
sin but also there is a graciousness about God.
 God did not immediately destroy Adam & Even.
 God clothed Adam & Eve’s nakedness with the skins of animals.
 God advertised a plan to destroy the catalyst to our sin – the antagonist
– Satan, in Genesis 3:15 God says to the snake:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and her offspring;
He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

This was the first morsel, nibble of the gospel – scholars call it the
“Protoevangelion”, meaning ‘first gospel’. This was pointing forward to
the defeat of the serpent by a future descendant of the woman – so as
you read the Bible, we see this seed of Hope, like a scarlet thread,
germinate and grow until it is the desire of all nations and is fulfilled in

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 the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God! And though Satan could
bruise Jesus, Jesus overcame Satan with the skull-crushing blow at the
cross of Golgotha! [Yeah!!!]

God takes the initiative to deliver us from our sins. The Bible is the story of
His counteroffensive against sin. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the antidote
& He comes on a rescue mission – to set us free from self-destructive
idolatry, and bring us into restored unity and love with people from every race
and nation and to reconcile us to the Glory of God in His Kingdom which will
never end! [Yeah!!!]

2. Fully God, Fully Man

So, the long Old testament awaited Saviour Jesus comes. His entrance onto
the stage of humanity is extraordinary from the very conception! Matthew &
Luke tell of how a young virgin named Mary received amazing news:

Luke 1:26 – 35
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of
Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name
was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28
And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is
with you! 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to
discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her,
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And
behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall
call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of
the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his
father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and
of his kingdom there will be no end.

34 And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin?

35And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of
God.

John begins his story in similar extraordinary fashion! John 1:1, 14

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen
his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and
truth.
These astounding claims – a virgin birth, the Son of God, the Word of God,
from the beginning – the Word becoming flesh is simply this:

God comes to man! Yet, as a man, God comes!

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The Son of God – Jesus – is the only one who can save man, who cannot
save himself. If Jesus were not God, He would not be able to save us – just
like I cant save you or myself. He is fully God; He alone can conquer sin,
death and crush the serpent’s head!

Yet only man should pay the price, and which man among us can do this?
Who can represent us to the Father – This is why it is so important to know
and love the truth that Jesus is also fully man, He knows our weaknesses,
knows all our temptations, yet He is a great representative because He is
without sin!

3. Lion King

When Jesus began His ministry, He brought with Him the rule and reign of His
Kingdom. Effectively, this is what Adam should have done in the beginning,
but here, Jesus initiates the restoration of all things by inaugurating His
Kingdom with these words: “The kingdom of God is at hand, Repent and
believe the Good News”

This was to fulfil prophesy in Isaiah 9:6, 7

6 For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.

When the Jews saw the miraculous signs that Jesus did as He began to bring
in the Kingdom by casting out demons, forgiving sins and rolling back the
effects of the curse – many were surprized at the way in which this Kingdom
was coming. Yes, this Kingdom will reign forever, it will restore all things,
but… They all were anticipating an earthly, political kingdom to overthrow the
Roman Empire’s hold over the nation of Israel.

Jesus kingdom brought spiritual healing, restoration and life! The real needs
are met by the Kingdom of God reigning in the hearts of men and woman as
the Holy Spirit manifests its effects and fruit destroying all the works of the
enemy over all people everywhere!

Wow! That is good news, but how do we get included into the Kingdom –
there is still the issue of sin and separation from God?

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From Greg Gilbert’s book:

“But here is where the kingdom of God gets really good. You see, King
Jesus came not only to inaugurate the Kingdom of God, but also to bring
sinners into it by dying in their place and for their sin, taking punishment
on himself and securing forgiveness for them, making them righteous in
God’s sight, and qualifying them to share in the inheritance of the
kingdom.”1

4. Lamb Stand-in

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

In John’s Revelation he speaks of Jesus, fully God and fully man, pictured as
a Lion yet, a Lamb. He is a powerful ruling King, yet, a suffering Shepherd.
He is in every way majestic, but also amazingly humble. Jesus, to the dismay
of His disciples spoke often about why He had come – He had come to serve,
he had come to lay down His life, He had come to die.

Everything in the balance of scripture points to Jesus.

When John the baptist introduced Jesus as the “Lamb”, Jews would have
immediately associated it with the Passover. In Exodus we learn of the
deliverance of Israel from Egypt by the mighty saving power of God! After 9
plagues as signs to Israel that God would deliver them and signs to the
Egyptian Pharaoh, that he had better let them go, the 10 th plague was the
worst. God told Moses and the Israelites that on a certain night He would
send the angel of death to sweep over the land and kill every firstborn child –
unless they obeyed what God commanded – to take the blood of a spotless
Lamb, without any defect and using a Hyssop branch, put the blood on the
doorframes of their homes. God promised that when the angel of death saw
the blood, he would “pass over” the house and spare it the judgement of
death.

The Lamb became the substitute. This became the basis for all of the
sacrificial Law. The life is in the blood, and “without the shedding of blood,
there can be no forgiveness of sins.” And so under the sacrificial law system,
there had to always be blood sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin. To show
Israel, that sin is no small matter, and that when God says, “we will surely
die for our sins” He is not joking. Sin will cost you. Forgiveness comes at a
price.

Another Old Testament example of substitution is the scapegoat. A goat

would have hands laid upon its head, and a confession of sin would be made
– in such a way, the sins would be imputed to the goat – that is, the goat was
perfectly innocent, but God then counted it as if the goat had sinned, and the
priest doing the confession would send the goat away – and He would then
be free of his sin. The goat was innocent but took the penalty. The priest and
the people for whom the confession was made were guilty, but now free.
1
Greg Gilbert What is the Gospel? Crossway, 2010 pg. 64

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Jesus is our Lamb! Jesus is our scapegoat!

Isaiah 53: 3 – 12 reads,

He was despised and rejected
by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief;
and as one from whom men hide their
faces
he was despised, and we esteemed
him not.
4 Surely he has borne our grief’s
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our
transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that
brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own
way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its
shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was
taken away;
and as for his generation, who
considered
that he was cut off out of the land of
the living,
stricken for the transgression of my
people?
9 And they made his grave with the
wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to
crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for
sin,
he shall see his offspring; he shall
prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in
his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he
shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous
one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion
with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong,
because he poured out his soul to
death
and was numbered with the
transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the
transgressors.

5. Death

At the cross, God did his greatest work to save us through His Son Jesus. To
have Christ (as Ghandi liked it) as just an example is not enough. He is our
sin bearer! He is our substitute. Jesus poured out His life as a ransom for
many!
How is Jesus Our Substitute?
John Barnett - Taken from "How to Escape the Fires of Hell"

On the cross, God treated Jesus as if He had committed every sin ever
committed by every person who would ever believe. Did you get that?
God treated Him as if He committed, personally, every sin ever

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 committed by every person who would ever believe though the fact is
He committed none of them. That’s the great doctrine of substitution.
And that’s the first side of imputation. God imputed our sins to Him. He
was guilty of none of them. God treated Him as if He committed all of
them. And He just unloaded His fury for all the sins of all the people
who would ever believe in Him in the history of the world. He unloaded
all His fury against all their sins on Christ… He was without sin. But sin
was credited to His account as if He had personally committed it and
then God punished Him though the fact is He never committed any of
it. That’s imputation.

Jesus lived a full life was that He might live a complete life fully
righteous. That He might live a complete life absolutely without sin,
absolutely perfect, so that that perfect life could be credited to your
account. That’s the backside of imputation. On the cross, God treated
Jesus as if He lived your life so He could treat you as if you lived His
life. That’s the Gospel. That’s substitution.

This is how a God who is Holy and Righteous and Just in every way as our
Creator and Father refuses in His love to pour His wrath on you and me,
without stepping in and by His great Mercy and Love, takes the punishment
that we deserve away from us, and pays its price Himself! He took my place!

What greater Love is there than this? While we are more hopeless and more
flawed than we have ever been, He shows us at the same time that we are
more loved and more valuably accepted than we ever will be – at the cross!

1 Peter 2:22 – 25
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When
he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not
threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to
sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the
Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

The Life of Jesus Christ is one of Atonement: the Work Christ did in His life
and in His death to earn our salvation. He bore:

 The weight of obedience to all God’s law (As if Adam obeyed!)

 A Life of suffering under curse conditions, the same as us
 The Pain of the cross – Physically in His body
 The Pain of bearing all our sin – psychologically, emotionally, anguish.
 Abandonment – from Everyone but the worst for us: “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?” The weight of shame and guilt!
 The Wrath of God, stored up and unleashed!

God knew He would inflict the pain, and Christ knew He would receive it!
The Love of the Father to have to do it for us, and the love of Jesus, to have
to receive it for us, is amazing!

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6. Resurrection

But this is only true and wonderful if in fact Jesus did not stay dead. He told
His disciples that He would suffer, that He would die, but that 3 days later, He
would rise form the dead! Many have claimed to be something special, but
Jesus claimed that He was God and that He would save us from our sins.

Because Jesus rose from the dead – every word He has spoken about
Himself and about what He has come to do is vindicated and unequivocally
true!

Because God, has raised Jesus up, it means the following for His people:

 Once and for all, this sacrifice is complete

 His blood washes consciences and cleanses his people from
remaining sin, and overcomes the Accuser! (the Devil)
 Christ’s death met the 4 needs that we have as sinners:

o We deserved to die as the penalty for sin

o We deserved to bear God’s Wrath against sin
o We are separated from God by our sins
o We are in bondage to sin and the kingdom of Satan

These are met in the following ways:

o Sacrifice for us (Imputation)

o Propitiation – removes the wrath of God (He is appeased)
o Reconciliation – His people are reunited and restored to
peace with God
o Redemption – redeemed from and other ruling power.

2 Corinthians 5:18 – 21
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us
the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world
to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us
the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Say this with me: There is healing in His wounds, life through His death,
pardon through His pain, salvation through His suffering.

Today, Jesus is interceding for His people! This leaves us with one last
question – Is what Jesus has done automatically mine? Will this save
everybody or do I need to receive it and accept it in some way?

What does it mean to be a Christ follower and just who are “His people?”