The Theology of the Gospel
The Picture of the Gospel and the Necessity of Jesus
The Position:
God is a perfect God who can have no part with sin. This notion is explainable through the Old Testament priestly laws. Haggai 2:12-13 gives the following logic: ““If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?”’ Then the priests answered and said, “No.” 13 And Haggai said, “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?” So the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.” 14 Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.”
Something clean cannot come into contact with something unclean lest it becomes unclean itself, for the unclean thing will by its nature defile it. Something clean can never cleanse something that is unclean, but something unclean can easily defile something that is clean. To put it another way, a clean white shirt can never make mud white no matter how white the shirt is, but mud can easily turn a white shirt black.
We are sin-filled people. The Bible instructs us to confess our “sins”. This refers to the sinful acts that we commit. There is nobody who can realistically claim to have never committed a wrongful act, however for those who try to convince themselves of just that the Bible expands further. Paul, the apostle, not only instructs us to repent of our wrongful acts but also differentiates between sin in the singular and sins in the plural, for in addition to our sins (our wrongful acts), we also possess an imperfect sin nature. Our wrongful acts are a symptom of this underlying sin nature. Romans 7:18 states “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.” Paul is saying that nothing good dwells within us and this shows in our actions. Even when we wish to do good we make mistakes. Whilst there may be aspects of our lives that we can improve through self-discipline, we cannot alter our nature. We always gravitate back towards that which is unfruitful and unhelpful. Like a smoker craves a cigarette our nature craves that which is not good and can be damaging to us and those around us.
In Jonah 1 the crew members cannot sail the ship out of the storm, despite trying through everything they knew and with all their strength. In the same way, it is impossible to alter our position with God, no matter how hard we try or how well-intentioned we may be. Our sin nature is a matter of fact and we cannot change our status through our actions.
People can gain wisdom through life experience and it is certainly easier to deal with a situation if we have dealt with it before, therefore it seems plausible that we can learn to lessen the amount of sinful acts we commit each day (for example, an older person is less likely to make the same amount of mistakes as a younger teen). However, no matter how clean somebody may live, they cannot change their nature. Our nature is not something that can be trained. It is not something that can be lessened over time nor is it habitual. It is our inheritance. It is rooted within our DNA and very much part of us.
In a manufacturing process different raw materials are combined together to create a final product. With some products, the raw materials can be separated and returned back to their original state, but some cannot. When making bread, each ingredient is mixed together. Once the ingredients are mixed together it is impossible to separate them out again. This is how our nature is with sin. Sin is infused within us and cannot be separated. It has been added and is now within our nature. We are born into this sinful state. Even Paul the apostle describes himself as being carnal and sold under sin (Romans 7:14) referring to himself as “the chief of all sinners”.
Having a sinful nature has not always been the case. The Bible tells us that God made mankind perfect in his own image and without sin. Genesis 1:27 tells us God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. He breathed His Spirit into man And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7). God’s Spirit is what gave us life and God was able to freely walk with man and be one with us (Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…). In God’s own words, “it was good”.
When man disobeyed God sin was added to the mix and mans’ nature altered. God could no longer have any part with this newly corrupted being and the harmony between God’s life-giving Spirit and Adam was fractured resulting in an enmity between man and God that has existed ever since. Ephesians 2:14 refers to the one man becoming two.
The result of sin is separation from God (first seen in the second part of Genesis 3:8: “and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden”) and death. The separation from God’s life-giving Spirit has left man alone with his corruptible decaying self. In consequence a death sentence has been handed down: “in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19). Romans 6:23 tells us, “the wages of sin is death”. Death is a reality that we all know and have experienced in some way and will personally experience at least once in our lives. Death is the only inevitability that we all share in.
In Genesis 1:27 God created man in His own image. After the introduction of sin we read in Genesis 5:3 that “Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” Compare this verse to Genesis 1:27. In Genesis 1 God created Adam in His own image, however now in Genesis 5:3 Adam created his son in his own image, not Gods. It is Adam’s corrupted nature that is passed onto his son, rather than God’s perfect nature. Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Seth inherited his father’s nature, not the spirit of the father God. We are all born into this sinful system from our birth. Theoretically, even if a person was to lock themselves away in a room and never commit a sinful act again, they would still have the sinful nature that separates them from God. Separation from God is like removing the life-support machine.
When we stand before God we will be held accountable according to His standard, which has been revealed to us through the Ten Commandments. A citizen of England is subject to the laws of sovereign England and Wales. In the same way, a citizens of this world is subject to the laws of Almighty God. We have all broken God’s laws and have been measured and found wanting. It is justice when our courts punish perpetrators of the law. How much more just must it be for those in contravention of God’s law to be punished in the court of Almighty God. It is impossible to be blameless before the law of God because we are all already in contravention of it. Romans 3:20 states therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
No matter how mournful one may be about the state of their nature, nothing can be done to alter or improve it. We are all inherently imperfect, therefore no amount of good deeds or charitable acts will help. The law is good and one should strive to keep it, however we can never possibly achieve such a feat. Like the crew members in Jonah who were brought to the realisation that they had no choice but to trust Jonah’s instructions, the law exists to bring us to the realisation that we are not perfect and there is nothing that we can do in our own strength to justify ourselves in the eyes of the law or repair the fracture between ourselves and God. Whilst the law is very good it provides no hope for us to cling to and merely reveals how accursed we are in our current state.
So let us hear the conclusion of the matter: ever since the fall of Adam, we have been created in the image of man which reserves for us a hopeless inheritance. We are all guilty before God and cannot hope to enter into His presence on our own merit. God does not desire this for us and He wants us to disclaim this sinful inheritance and claim another incorruptible inheritance that He has prepared for us.
A blueprint for this exclusive way is set out in Isaiah 59-60, written approximately 600 years before Jesus came to earth. For those people at the time of Isaiah, the concept of a saviour was something to look forward to. For us today, salvation through Christ Jesus is available to us right now if we ask.
The first part of Isaiah 59:2 clarifies our current position without God:
Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear."
Isaiah 59:9-15 “Therefore justice is far from us, Nor does righteousness overtake us; We look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, but we walk in blackness! 10 We grope for the wall like the blind, And we grope as if we had no eyes; We stumble at noonday as at twilight; We are as dead men in desolate places. 11 We all growl like bears, And moan sadly like doves; We look for justice, but there is none; For salvation, but it is far from us. 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You, And our sins testify against us; For our transgressions are with us, And as for our iniquities, we know them: 13 In transgressing and lying against the Lord, And departing from our God, Speaking oppression and revolt, Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, And equity cannot enter. 15 So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.”
How fitting a description for our world today. No matter how many attempts to better itself, whether political or social, our world continues in its depravity, falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. It is filled with people yearning for fulfilment in the oddest of places without success; there is violence, wars and rumours of wars; there is oppression and revolt, lying and blaspheming; dishonesty, selfishness and considerable lack of justice; and this tempestuous state is constantly increasing. Our world is undeniably chaotic and unpredictable. It turns on anyone who is different or does not agree with its viewpoint. This world is the hopeless consequence of separation from God in which we all partake.
The Lord Jesus:
Isaiah 59:15-16“… Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor…”
God searched for an intercessor to bridge the gap that exists between us to make it possible for man and God to be harmonious once again, however as we all partake in this sinful inheritance, God was unable to find this intercessor among us. He therefore provided the intercessor as Himself. Isaiah 59:16: "Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness, it sustained Him.” God sent His own son in His likeness, the Lord Jesus, to act as the necessary intercessor between us and the Father. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
God has only ever created two people in His likeness. He created Adam in His likeness who brought about sin and He created Jesus in His likeness to rescue us from our sin. The Lord Jesus is the second Adam because He is the only man since Adam to be created in God’s perfect image. He did not inherit Adam’s nature, but God’s life-giving Spirit. 1 Corinthians 15:45 explains: And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
The Lord Jesus came to create one new man from the two and reinstate the rightful position that was before to make it possible once again for God’s life giving Spirit to reside with man. Jesus did not come as a higher power, but as a human. Hebrews 2 refers to Him as the ultimate High Priest because we are able to relate to Him. He was weak to all the same temptations that we are weak to, yet He remained strong.
Hebrews 2:16-18 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
The Lord Jesus humiliated Himself for our sake. Almighty God descended from on high to meet us, making Himself lower than the angels and taking on the form of common man. Even then, in such humiliation, He did not come as a mighty king, but somebody of humble means so that nobody should desire Him. Isaiah 53:3 tells us He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He willingly became accursed upon the cross and allowed Himself to be held under the power of death for a time so that we may be freed from the hold sin has over each and every one of us.
We are unable to deal with the requirements of the law and therefore have no power over the sentence that has been placed upon us as a consequence of the law. Romans 8:30 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. Knowing this, Jesus, the sinless Man who had fulfilled the law, died to sin for us and descended into Sheol. In doing so, He was able to condemn sin in the flesh because He had no sin and therefore sin could not hold Him. He was sufficient to break the curse of the law. Romans 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. His final humiliation was to subject Himself to the power of death and in doing so He defeated death and made a way for us to be free from the curse of the law upon us. Death is the only eventuality that we all have in common. It is the perpetual plague from which you cannot escape. However, as it is a consequence of sin it had no power over Jesus who had no sin. Whilst His earthly body physically died, death could not keep Him and for the first time the power of death was broken. A precedent was set there and then. He retrieved the keys of death and rose up on the third day. Revelation 1:18: “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of death.”
Jonah 2:4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
Jonah in his disobedience was cast out of God’s sight. This is a shadow, both of the separation we will all experience if we remain in our current state and what Jesus endured for our sake upon the cross. The Lord Jesus was forsaken by His Father, as the full curse of the law came down upon Him. He became sin and Almighty God could not even look upon Him. He was completely cast out of His own Father’s sight, yet as prophesied in Scripture He would look again toward the holy temple. Psalm 16:10 “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see Corruption.”
In John 2:19 Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple: “Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up””. John 2:21 goes on to clarify that Jesus is referring to the temple of His body, therefore predicting His death and resurrection, yet spiritually His statement is significant also. In Mark 14:58 one of Jesus’s accusers testifies against Him claiming “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.’ Whilst Jesus’s accusers were false witnesses, this statement is true. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, the Lord has done away with the old covenant that God had with His people. He has destroyed the physical letter of the law and brought in a spiritual and better covenant of salvation through grace. There is no longer any use for a high priest to make sacrifices for atonement of sin at the temple, as custom used to be, for now Jesus has made the ultimate atonement and through this God is able to reside within us. Quoting the prophet Jeremiah from around 580 years before Jesus, Hebrews 10:16 states This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them. For those of us who are cast out of God’s sight through our sin, we are able to look again toward the holy temple through putting our faith in Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15:4 He was buried, and He rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. No longer is there any need for a temple made by hands, for God has chosen to build His temple within those who put their faith in Jesus and atone for their sin through Him and His sacrifice that He made for us.
Through Jesus’s ultimate sacrifice on our behalf He now holds two offices: one, as the ultimate High Priest making continual intercession for us to God; and two, as the king of kings, victorious over death and His enemies, declared in Isaiah 33:22: “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is out King; He will save us.”
Three days and three nights the Son of Man resided in the heart of the earth, just as Jonah resided in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Jonah is just a shadow of the much greater Christ who was to come. Whereas Jonah cried out to the Lord from the belly of the fish without any hindsight of what would happen to him the Lord Jesus was well aware that He would be killed, descend and ascend again on the third day, victorious by the power of God (Mark 8:31 “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”).
God sent the Lord Jesus as a sacrifice on our behalf. Most people never come to this realisation as they are too busy revelling in what the world has to offer. They fail to see that everything this world has is temporary. No state or material is permanent. For those that reach such realisation, the Lord Jesus has provided a way to be saved by taking the punishment that you deserve upon Himself. Galatians 3:13 tells us that to redeem us from the curse of the law, Jesus became the curse Himself. He allowed Himself to be crucified to take the punishment that we deserve upon Himself so that through Him we may be reconciled to God. Jesus sacrificed Himself on your behalf. He was sufficient because He had no sin in Him. Sin is death and He is sinless therefore when He died, death could not hold Him.
In order to defeat the curse of the flesh that we suffer, Jesus came in the flesh, condemned sin in the flesh and defeated death in the flesh and through the power of God He was able to raise from the dead on the third day. He was sufficient to take away the sins of us all, much more sufficient than the animal sacrifices the Jews had to continuously make for atonement.
Nothing says it better than Hebrews 10:1; 11-14 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. … 11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
The sacrifice of Jonah when he was cast overboard in order to save the lives of the men onboard deflected the wrath of God away from the ship and crew, however it was not enough to take away the sins of the people. In comparison, Jesus Christ, died once for all sins.
As we are imperfect and guilty we do not have the legal substance to be able to satisfy the debt that we owe for our offence of the law. However as the Lord Jesus is sinless His sacrifice is more than sufficient to satisfy.
It is no coincidence that Christ died by way of a judicial sentence handed down by the Roman Empire. This is the judicial sentence intended for us. The Roman Empire represented the highest judicial power of the day, appointed by the grace of God Himself. No wonder their trial of Christ resulted in them finding no fault in Him. Yet still, despite Christ’s innocence, they numbered Him with transgressors and He was crucified in between two condemned criminals.
Luke 23:14-15 indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him; 15 no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him.
Luke 23:22-24 Then he said to them the third time, “Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go.” 23 But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed. 24 So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested.
Christ’s death had to be by way of judicial sentence, because it was through His death that He Himself could serve the sentence that is reserved for us. Instead of the punishment under the law being handed down upon us, God out of His love handed down our punishment upon Him. That is why it says in Isaiah 53:5, written around 700 years before Jesus’s death, but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. Jesus dealt with the curse of the law so that you don’t have to.
There are two possible ways to be one with God: either keep God’s law or trust in Christ. Nobody except Christ has kept God’s law, therefore our only hope is to trust in Christ. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.
Jesus was sinless and blameless yet He laid down His life and allowed Himself to be sentenced for crimes that He had not committed. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” God the Father poured out His wrath, reserved only for sin, upon Jesus.
The Lord Jesus wilfully bore His Father’s wrath Himself as a substitute for us. Just as Jonah’s sacrifice deflected God’s wrath away from the ship, saving those onboard, Jesus’s sacrifice has the power to deflect God’s wrath away from us forevermore if we ask. He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.
Just like the crew members in Jonah had to take an active decision to believe the instruction of Jonah to be saved, you must make an active decision to trust Christ for God’s wrath to be quenched. Christ has taken the punishment that we deserve and paid the ultimate price. He gave His life so that we may have ours. None are good, no not one. However Jesus is.
Like any gift the recipient must first accept it before benefitting from its value. To share in God’s perfect inheritance is to believe on Christ and the sacrifice that He has made.
Romans 10:13 assures us whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:9 promises us that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Our position With Christ:
By putting your faith in Christ Jesus, you do away with your old sinful man. You are able to reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:11). By possessing the gift of God, you will possess the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus who makes you free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). You will no longer live in the flesh but in the Spirit. Through the Spirit of Christ, God’s Holy Spirit will once again be able to reside within you. No longer will you be governed by the things of the world, but by the Spirit of God, as originally intended for you.
By accepting Jesus, when you stand before God, no longer will God look upon you the sinner, but upon His perfect Son within you who has already paid the punishment you deserve upon the cross. The contravention of God’s law has been dealt with and the issue of our sinful inheritance was dealt with when the old man was crucified and killed with Christ upon the cross.
To be saved, do away with your old man created in the image of imperfect man by putting it on the cross with Jesus who can deal with it. Romans 6:11 tells those who have done this that they can “count yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Disclaim the sinful inheritance and pick up the inheritance of God that is offered to you now and made available through Jesus. He made him who knew no sin to become sin for us. The perfect Christ wilfully sacrificed and crucified upon that tree, to take the punishment that we deserve upon Himself, so that by putting our trust in Him we may walk free.
Jesus is the last Adam, because His sacrifice is sufficient once and for all. 1 Peter 3:18 tells us ‘Christ died for sins once for all’, past, present and future. There is no need for anybody else. Through Christ Jesus it is finished. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, we should no longer be slaves to sin (Romans 6:6).
Ephesians 2:14 - 18: “14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.”
God’s search for the intercessor concluded with Jesus who is able to make intercession on our behalf to God. Hebrews 7:25, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. He is constantly interceding on behalf of those who approach Him and ask for forgiveness so that His conviction that is spent may cover them.
Only Jesus, the Last Adam, was sufficient to settle that sin upon the cross and therefore it is only through Jesus that we may approach God and be heard by Him. Only Christ has the power to break down that wall of separation that exists between us and God. Ephesians 2:14: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation”.
Jesus is the only way to heaven for He is the only man still created in the likeness of God. Nobody else in history can boast such a feat and therefore nobody else is worthy to be able to deal with our sin and imperfection, for we are all numbered together, but Jesus. John 14:6 states: “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 3:3 states: “Verily, verily I say to you, nobody can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” John 3:13 states: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man.”
Nothing says it better than 1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
-BACChristian
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