A Tale of two men

A tale of two men: What is the Gospel? 

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”

                                                                                                                1 Corinthians 15: 3-4

I became a follower of Jesus from a very young age and begun going along to groups at church. In high school I was quite involved with the Christian Union as one of the leaders. In college, I was even more involved doing missions and discipleship and basically living out my Christian faith.  Although I confessed Christ as my Lord and saviour I barely understood what the gospel was and why it was good news. It seemed to me like a cultural movement, one to which we needed to recruit people and belonging to which, one needed to adhere to certain moral expectations.

It is only years later when I read the Bible more carefully that the light of the gospel begun to dawn on me.  I think most people do not really understand what the gospel is, let alone its implications.  Many see Christianity or being saved as possessing a ticket to heaven, others view it as joining an exclusive club of special people and many others, perhaps in following in the steps of their families, find themselves in this cultural/religious movement whose claims they agree with but not necessarily understand.

So what is the gospel?

The word gospel simply means ‘good news’ and usually refers to the four ‘gospel accounts’ of the life of Jesus Christ – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  But then what good news are we exactly talking about? To understand the good news, we will take a few steps back in time and first hear some really bad news. 

A Holy, Just and Righteous God

When we look at our world today it is full of bad news. Terrorism, corruption, immorality, murders and kidnappings, accidents, tribalism, racism, loneliness, diseases, poverty and death are everywhere. But it was not so from the beginning. We are told in the Bible that God made a perfect world – he looked and behold, it was all good. (Gen 1:31) There was no lack or pain or suffering or death. It was a perfect relationship of a holy God and his created order. Human beings, created in God’s image lived in perfect harmony with God, each other and with nature. 

But this did not last for long. A disastrous event happened when the devil tempted human beings to disobey God and they fell for it. They disobeyed God’s law and the consequences were severe – their relationship with God was eternally broken, their relationship with each other was severely strained and their relationship with the rest of creation was damaged. From that moment on the earth and all in it suffered under the judgement of God. No longer could we expect to enjoy God’s presence like Adam and Eve did, nor expect to enjoy eternal life. A holy God could not relate with a sinful, disobedient people and since He is just and holy he had to judge sin and not just look the other way.

But the really bad news is that this was going to be the eternal state of things. You and I, by the one act of disobedience of our first parents, were eternally separated from God. Never again to be his people enjoying his presence in His holy place. Even more depressing is knowing that there is nothing we could do about it unless God himself acted to redeem us from our fallen state. We had been corrupted by sin totally, we were responsible for it and we could do nothing about it since as scripture reveals, we were dead in our transgressions. (Ephesians 2:1)

A Loving, Gracious and Forgiving God

Although it really grieved the heart of God to see the broken relationship between himself and his created people, he initiated a process of restoration to bring back fallen humanity into a perfect relationship with him. He promised a redeemer right there [Genesis 3:9, 15b] who would overcome the deceiver and restore the broken relationship. This promised ‘serpent crusher’ is Jesus Christ who was born of a virgin girl from Nazareth named Mary. 

A new chapter was now opening. Another Adam had come onto the scene. He who had long been promised through the prophets had finally arrived and His name was Jesus Christ. The good news of God’s grace was now taking shape. Jesus Christ led a perfect life and was obedient in every way. In the end, he was crucified on a cross like a sinner even though he had committed no offence. He suffered judgement on behalf of you and I because God poured His wrath on Christ who was sinless so that the guilty may be counted free. That really is the good news of God’s grace – God’s goodness freely lavished on guilty sinners. 

Imagine it like this – you go to a private school and the child of the owner of the school is in also in the school – it is a beautiful school with all the facilities you can imagine. One day, out of sheer mischief, you obtain some chemical from the laboratory and poison the food and the entire school is exposed to food poisoning. Soon the police are involved because the entire population is at risk. The director learns of the situation and comes in and is informed of your act of felony – this time you are being held at the Deputy Head Teacher’s office. He carefully considers the matter and decides that the felony will be blamed on his son, who was innocent all along. This hurts the director deeply but he knows it is the only way to save you from a lifetime in prison. His own son is whisked away by the police and suffers separation from his loving father. He knows that the father means well and is totally confident of His father’s decisions.  The director then pays all the fines and expenses for those who were sick and the court fines so that his son is released from prison.  He then comes to you and tells you to go back to class, as everything has been restored to normal.  Imagine hearing that! That is really good news, so amazing it is, that our proud selves can hardly accept it. That is Grace – totally undeserved favour. 

Two Men

Essentially then, the gospel is a narrative about two men – the first man, Adam and the second Adam, Christ. The first represents the natural man, who is fallen and subject to God’s judgement and eternal separation from God in Adam, there is death, wrath and indeed law. The second man is Christ in whom there is forgiveness of sins and restoration of the relationship with God lost in the first Adam. In Christ, there is hope of resurrection from the dead as He himself was resurrected. In Him there is life, grace and redemption. 

The gospel is about a swap – a substitution of a sinner with a righteous man. One who is guilty and deserves death goes free and the innocent one is punished. The big question then is – in whom are you found? The first or the second Adam? This is indeed of first importance. 

“And be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith”

-          Philippians 3:9