Many people try to sugar-coat the Gospel by saying “God loves you,” and ending it with that. But love is nothing without action. We can’t tell people who have never heard of Jesus, that if they really concentrate, they will be able to feel God’s love. The evidence of His powerful and perfect love is through His life as Jesus. And if we’re going to talk about Jesus’ life and why He had to die for us—well that’s pretty offensive.
“Jesus saved you.” From what? Honestly, from yourself. We cannot pretend that our default mode as human-beings is generally moral. We can’t pretend that the crap that goes on in this world is suddenly ok now because it’s normal.
If I told you that 27 million people were doing something, would you say that was normal and ok? I mean 27 million people. That’s a lot of people, so it must be ok and we must not have to worry about it. In fact, let’s just join them!
What if I told you that 27 million is how many slaves there are in the world today? I think it’s safe to say that most people will be blown away by that fact because slavery is a blatantly disgusting injustice. But what if I said that casual sex is an injustice? Just because society has deemed it normal does not make it normal.
The world tells us a lot of lies that tend to make sense because people mindlessly believe what they hear and see. Many people can argue that religious people mindlessly go through the motions and believe what they hear because they don’t really have to think. I would agree that many people are stuck in that default mode, but buying into what the world tells you is exactly the same default mode that is not easy to escape. It’s not easy to escape the flow.
As Christians, we are called to live a life that is against the flow. To question what we are told every single day and to look at Jesus for the truth.
So when people believe in Jesus, but don’t believe He had to save us, it’s because the world has told us that we aren’t that bad, that people just need to calm down, it’s all good, we didn’t need saving.
The Gospel is offensive because it is telling someone that they need saving from themselves. But we live in a society that is all about ourselves. How can YOU succeed? How can YOU make the most money? How can YOU move up in the world? What can YOU get? We, by nature, are selfish beings living in such deep-rooted sin that we don’t even notice what sin is anymore. Only by the perfect power of the Holy Spirit can we see evil and run from it.
But we are so blinded and enticed by the world; the sex, the money, the success, the happiness, the wealth, the fame, the selfishness—that we can’t see the perfection that calls us into His arms.
We need to be saved from ourselves. Everyday. Saving is not just a one time deal, it’s an everyday kind of deal. Because, by nature, our flesh is against God. Our Creator made us knowing exactly how to fulfill us and give us the life that we were created to live, but our flesh is trying to give us the opposite. And it’s so easy to follow your own flesh. Our flesh knows what is attractive to us, knows how to make us turn away from perfect love. Our sinful nature tells us to get what makes us comfortable and happy. In our sin, we are lazy people who are ok with watching others suffer. We don’t know how to do anything good for ourselves or for other people. When we haven’t surrendered to Jesus, no matter how hard we try, we continue to submit to our own fleshly desires. We continue to fail, we continue to feel empty, confused, trapped. We try to find fulfillment, but we can’t find it looking in ourselves.
We are thirsty. We try this well and that well looking for water because we are so thirsty. Crawling through the desert, weak and wounded, and we cannot find water. But the well that never will run dry is right in front of us giving His life for us.
But we are dead souls bound to our own selfish and empty desires, blindly crawling through the desert and we cannot see until God opens our eyes. We cannot come to him unless we know how much we need him. We were dead until Jesus came to bring us to life. He came in human-likeness. The likeness of sin—yet He was without sin. The flawless sacrifice to bring us to life.
“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” -Romans 8:3-8
And when He died, He broke our chains, which bonded us to our sin. We were no longer bound to our own selfish desires that took us away from God’s perfect love—we were bound to Jesus. And we still are bound to Jesus, forever.
There is no way you can understand the Gospel if you do not believe with all of your heart that you were a rebel—thoughtlessly submitting to your own sin and disobeying God. By admitting that we, by nature, are evil, we are offending ourselves. We are saying to ourselves that we can’t do it on our own, that we aren’t strong enough, smart enough, fearless enough, and we can’t love enough in order to live the life God created for us. We aren’t and we can’t. Not alone. But we weren’t asked to do it alone.
God asks us to do impossible tasks, but He doesn’t ask us to do them alone because He knows that we can’t. So out of His incomprehensible love, He died for us. Even though, by our actions and words, we told Him we hated him. We ran from Him telling Him that He didn’t know what He was talking about—that we knew exactly what we were doing. We were selfish.
But He loved us so much that He forgave us. He told us that it was ok that we ran from Him and disobeyed. He wants us so much that He died for us. He is calling us by name to come into His all-powerful Kingdom. He is asking us to be part of the biggest thing in the universe. How could we ever say no to His amazing invitation? How could we tell Him that His grace and mercy weren’t enough? His suffering wasn’t enough and we still want to try and figure it out for ourselves.
You will fail if you do it alone.
You will NEVER fail if God does it through you.
The Gospel takes humility. It takes falling on your knees and surrendering your broken life to Jesus. Because He is the only one who will take your completely broken and wasted life. He wants your life. Because He will make you whole, fill you up with His perfect and unfailing love, and send you to do work in His glorious Kingdom. We have the chance to work for someone who is wisdom and strength and love and joy. We have the chance to play on a team that will without a doubt win. We get to give God glory with our lives! We are free from sin because Christ set us free. It was nothing that we did ourselves, but God’s grace alone. And because of this grace we get to do His work and share in the inheritance of His glorious Kingdom.
Fall at His feet and surrender your life to bring Him glory and you will see the glorious work that He can do through you.
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