3 minute message that will save your life by Phil Johnson

The Gospel Begins with Bad News

The gospel begins in the book of Romans and pretty much everywhere the Apostle Paul goes into details about giving the gospel. The gospel begins with bad news. Gospel means good news, but it begins with bad news.

The bad news is that we are all fallen, sinful, and incapable of recovering ourselves from that condition. So that left to ourselves, all of us deserve punishment. The wages of sin is death, scripture says.

And it also says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And Paul in Romans goes on for three chapters like that, convicting us of sin and convincing us that we are thoroughly sinful and that there's nothing we can do about it.

Christ as the Propitiation for Our Sins

And when you get to that point, the heart says, how is this good news? How is that a positive thing? But Paul suddenly shifts in the middle of Romans 3 and says, however, God sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Meaning that Christ took the guilt of our sins on himself, was sent to the cross, and died for our sin. If the wages of sin is death, somebody had to die. And he did that in our place and in our stead.

So that scripture says, in the most famous verse in scripture, John 3 .16, whosoever believes in him won't perish, but will have eternal life. And that's how, because he not only fulfilled the law perfectly in every regard, there was no sin in him.

Scripture says he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. So he didn't deserve to die, and yet he did die in our place. He basically traded places with us so that he became sin for us, scripture says, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

The Righteousness of God in Christ

That's 2 Corinthians 5 .21, and it means that Christ essentially traded places with us so that we get the benefit of his perfect life. And he has already paid the debt of our imperfect lives. And that is the gospel that whoever lays hold of Christ by faith is united with him spiritually in such a way that we can stand before God clothed in a robe of perfect righteousness, despite our guilt, because the guilt's been paid for, and thereby we have eternal life.

That's the gospel. It's available only in Christ. He is the one Savior whom God has provided as a resource to save us from sins, and anyone who thinks he can save himself or clean up his own life sufficiently to please God is going to be sadly disappointed, because scripture says all our righteousnesses and all the good things we do are like filthy rags.

You don't need filthy rags. You need a robe of perfect righteousness, and only Christ can supply that.

That's the gospel.