At ECC, we are all about the gospel. The gospel is good news, not advice, because it is the story of what God has done to save us and ultimately renew the entire creation. It is the announcement that Jesus Christ—through his life, death, and resurrection—is the King of the world.
God is holy. We are sinful.
The Triune God—the blessed, holy, righteous, eternal, sovereign ruler of all—created this world and all that is in it for his glory. Man, as created in God’s image, was given a unique role, being able to have fellowship with this personal God. We were created in the image of God to know, love, obey, and enjoy him forever, flourishing under his righteous rule. But our first parents disobeyed God and willfully rebelled against him. As a result of this sin, man’s fellowship with God was broken and it affected all of creation. And because we are all descended from Adam, we are all born into sin and bear his corruption (Gen. 1-3; Rom. 5:12-19).
We are fallen creatures, living in a fallen world. This does not mean that we are incapable of performing acts of kindness, but it does mean that we are slaves to sin, utterly incapable of understanding, loving, or pleasing God on our own. (Rom. 3:10-18; 8:7-8). In rejecting God we make a mess not only of our own lives, but of our society and the world (Rom. 1:18-32). Our whole world is full of people bent on doing what suits them, and not following God’s ways, no matter how “good” people claim to be. We all act like little gods and the result is misery. The suffering and injustice that we see around us all go back to our sinful rebellion against God.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
God is just. We deserve death.
Sin is breaking God’s law. as the New City Catechism puts it, “Sin is rejecting or ignoring God in the world he created, rebelling against him by living without reference to him, not being or doing what he requires in his law—resulting in our death and the disintegration of all creation.” It is a violation of the holiness (the moral purity and excellence) of God Almighty; it is essentially cosmic treason. To violate the rule of an infinite God has an equally infinite consequence: death (Rom. 6:23). This is not just physical death, but spiritual death experiencing His wrath in hell. Sin cannot be “swept under the rug,” and any good we try and do cannot “outweigh” the bad we have done because our very nature is evil. If God is to be the perfectly just, good, and righteous God that he is, he cannot let the guilty go unpunished. We have broken his law and stand before the Judge of all the earth guilty and condemned.
Our situation is desperate. If we are to be saved from God’s righteous wrath and see our fellowship with him restored, we need someone to pay the price for our sin and rebellion against him (Heb. 9:22). We need someone who can perfectly fulfill and obey the law of God for us (Rom. 3:19-20). Yet we also need someone who can deliver us from the power of sin and defeat death itself (Rom. 7:24).
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
God is gracious. He provided a Redeemer.
This is the gospel: in love, God sent his Son into the world not to bring condemnation but salvation (John 3:16-17). Jesus, both fully God and fully man, was born of a virgin by the Spirit of God, not from the corrupted seed of man. He lived a perfect life of obedience to God, knowing no sin (1 Pet. 2:22) and fulfilling the law in our place, yet was crucified. Jesus Christ laid down his life as our substitute to atone for the sins of those who would believe upon him (Rom. 5:8-10)! “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (1 Cor. 5:21).
Jesus paid the debt he did not owe and that we could not pay. And just as Christ took our sins and bore them on the cross, he now gives us his righteousness and fills us with his Spirit (Acts 2:38; Eph. 1:13-14). Therefore, when God sees us, he sees the perfect life of his Son. Christ’s death satisfied the demands of God’s justice, and Christ’s perfect life satisfied the demands of God’s holiness. But that’s not all…
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
Jesus is alive. He reigns and is coming again.
Because God accepted his sacrifice for sins, he raised Jesus from the dead three days later, disarming the rulers and authorities of this world, defeating death, and delivering “all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb. 2:14-15; Col. 2:13-15). He ascended to the right hand of the Father, exalted as Lord over all, to rule over his church in the midst of his enemies. He is now our advocate before the Father, who intercedes for his people and secures their salvation (1 John 2:1; Heb. 7:25).
The gospel is the good news that God reigns as King through the sacrifice and exaltation of Jesus. The Bible promises that one day, he will return in glory to fully establish his kingdom and to call all humanity to account for their actions. Until then, Jesus holds out the promise of abundant life, both now and eternally. Our sins can be forgiven through Christ’s death, our guilt and shame can be removed, and we can begin a new life with God, filled with the Holy Spirit, no longer as rebels but as his adopted sons and daughters (Gal. 4:4-8)! What’s more, when we are pardoned through Jesus’ death, we can be sure that when Jesus does return to judge the world, we will be acceptable to him (1 Thess. 4:13-18). Because of the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection, our holy, just, and gracious God is able to forgive and save all those who place their faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:24-26).
“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9).
Jesus is Lord. We must repent and believe.
The Bible makes clear that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life (John 14:6). He is the only Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). To receive this gift of salvation, we must place our trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:22-24), turn from our sins, and be baptized as a sign and seal of our new life with Christ (Acts 2:38-39; Rom. 6:3-7; Col. 2:11-12). As citizens of heaven, we must continue in repentance: humbly acknowledging and confessing that we are sinful, and making a conscious choice to turn from our sin and pursue Christ (1 John 2:3). We then are able to live free of guilt and condemnation, knowing our identity as adopted children of God, as new creations (Rom. 8:1, 1 John 3:1)! His glorious grace enables and motivates us to live godly lives, overflowing with love towards God and our fellow man while we wait for the great and glorious day when Christ returns for his people, his church, his bride (Tit. 2:11-14).
The gospel is God’s grace from beginning to end. At the heart of this good news is that we can have communion with God through our union with Christ. This is the hope that we have as Christians (Eph. 1:3-14). Jesus is Lord (Phil. 2:5-11) and in him God’s new creation has broken into history (Col. 1:13-18), and all people are therefore summoned to trust and submit to him in love, worship, and obedience.
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:3-7)
To learn more about the gospel and following Jesus, contact us and visit us on a Sunday! We’d love to meet you and help you begin to grow and walk in faithfulness and obedience to Jesus with other Christians in a local church (Acts 2:42; Heb. 10:19-25). For more information on the Christian life, check out our resources for new believers.