The Gospel
The Gospel: In a nutshell
God created Man in His own image in order to glorify Him by worshipping Him and taking dominion of the earth. Mankind rebelled against God and brought sin and misery into the world. God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to redeem Mankind by dying for our sins and rising from the dead, and thus reestablishing Man in his created purpose before God on the earth.
The Gospel: The Whole Picture
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). All things visible and invisible, God created everything from the stars and the planets to the seas and the mountains. He created all living creatures, the birds of the air, the fish in the seas, the beasts of the land. He created them all, and God said it was good (Gen. 1:4, 10,12, etc.). Then God created Man, and He created him in His own image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). Male and female, He created them (Gen. 1:27). God created Mankind, and He commanded that they would be “fruitful and multiply” so that they could fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the earth. God created Man and Woman, and it was “very good” (Gen. 1:31).
Man’s chief end would be to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Mankind would achieve this by worshipping God, and by fulfilling the above stated command to take dominion. A man would be called by God to leave his mother and father’s house, to take and be joined to his wife in marriage, and to bring forth and raise children in the world, teaching them to love God and to do His will (Gen. 2:24-25). This is why Mankind was created; this is why we are here.
Unfortunately, it would not take long for our first parents to rebel against God. Under the guise of a serpent, Satan would succeed in leading Mankind into rebellion against God (Gen. 3:1-7). This brought forth sin and all misery into the world. Mankind was now separated from our holy and righteous God and was deserving of death and eternal misery. However, instead of swift judgment, God gave our first parents a promise (Gen. 3:15). God promised that one day, the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, thus one day reversing the effects that sin would have upon the world. This victory over the serpent and curse of sin would also involve the seed of the woman being mortally wounded in the process. This was the great promise of mercy and salvation to all who would believe throughout the early ages of human history.
This promise of a coming Savior would be revealed throughout the history of Mankind through shadows, types, and prophecies that are found throughout the Old Testament Scriptures (Is. 53, Ps. 2,22,110, Deut. 18, etc.). This promise of redemption from sin and reconciliation to God would be the great hope of the people of God in history.
However, the power that sin would have over the world and especially Mankind would be astronomical. Man and his offspring, having sinned, was now corrupted in their nature, was “dead in sin” and now completely incapable and unwilling to love and obey God, was enslaved to sin’s passions, the philosophies of the world, and under the power of the devil (Eph. 2:1-3). Not only was Man’s relationship with God severed, but also his relationships with his fellow Man were greatly impacted for the worst. Not only could man not love God with all of his heart, but he was now incapable of loving his neighbor as himself, thus being in constant rebellion against God’s two greatest commandments (Deut. 6:5, Lev. 19:18). Not only does Mankind regularly break the first table of the Ten Commandments against God (‘You shall have no other gods before Me’, ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain’, etc.), but Man also regularly breaks the second table of the Ten Commandments against his fellow Man (You shall not steal’, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, “You shall not murder’, etc.). Mankind is in sin against God and against his neighbor on a daily, regular, moment-by-moment basis.
Human abortion is perhaps one of the greatest fruits of Man’s Fall into sin. Mankind, having originally been created to love God, now hates God in his sin. Mankind, having been created to love his neighbor as himself, is now willing to lie, cheat, steal from, and even murder his neighbor. Mankind, having been created to be fruitful and multiply in order to take dominion through marriage and children, is now at war against his own offspring! In our culture today, many men and women would rather curse God and hate their closest neighbor by murdering them through the act of abortion, instead of loving God and obeying the creation/dominion mandate. In our sin and rebellion against our Creator, we find ourselves doing the exact opposite of what we were created to do. But God did not abandon us to such a miserable state.
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that anyone who would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life (John. 3:16). Having promised our first parents to send a Savior, the “seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15), God sent His only Son, the eternal God-Man Jesus Christ. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, fully God but also fully man, completely undefiled by the sin of Mankind. He walked this earth 2,000 years ago and lived a perfect life, never sinning in thought, word, or deed. He did this representing all who would believe in Him before God His Father. He then died an excruciating death upon a wooden cross, becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). On the cross, Jesus took upon Himself the sins of His people, and took the wrath of God against sin upon Himself, paying the ultimate price for sin. Thus the Son of God destroyed the power of the devil over Mankind and the world, whilst being dealt a mortal blow (Gen. 3:15, Hb. 2:14). And Jesus died, and He was buried in a tomb. But on the third day, Jesus rose again from the dead, according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4). He rose from the dead because death could not contain Him (Acts. 2:24). He rose from the dead just as He told His disciples He would (Mt. 17:22-23, Mk. 9:30-32). Jesus rose from the dead as proof that He was the promised Savior of the world (Acts. 2:36). And being raised from the dead, Jesus Christ has been appointed by God as King and Lord of all things (Ps. 2:7, Acts. 2:36, Mt. 28:18).
Therefore, the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God is given through faith in Jesus Christ. Through faith in His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins, you may have peace with God (Rom. 5:1). You must repent of your sin and rebellion against God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart (Acts. 17:30, Rom. 10:9). When one does this, their sin is removed from them (Jesus having paid for it on the cross), and they receive the righteousness of Christ through faith (credit for His good works done during His life). Therefore, they are justified before God as if they had never sinned (Rom. 3:24-26). This is the only way to be forgiven of sin and reconciled to God (Jn. 14:6). Every man, woman and child must do this. You yourself are commanded to do this. For God has set aside a Day at the end of history (no one knows the day except God) when He will judge all of Mankind for all our deeds (Acts. 17:30-31, Ecc. 12:13-14). All those who have not repented of their sin and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, will be cast into the Lake of Fire, which burns forever, and will be tormented day and night for all eternity before God (Rev. 14:10-11, 20:15, Mt. 25:46) There the devil will be cast as well (Rev. 20:10). However, those who have repented and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ will be ushered into the presence of God and will enjoy fellowship with Him and the saints forever and ever! This is the end of history as we know it, but in eternity, the souls of Mankind will live forever, either in the presence of God’s loving-kindness and mercy, or in the presence of His holy wrath and indignation against sin in the Lake of Fire.
Through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, God is willing to forgive all sin. This includes the sin of abortion. Yes, God is willing to even forgive perhaps the most wicked act a human being could ever commit against another human being, the killing of their own children. Jesus Christ suffered and died for such sinners (Is. 53:5, 1 Cor. 6:11). If you have committed this sin, you yourself may be forgiven through faith in Christ. By turning away from our sins (repentance) and turning back to God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not only forgiven and made right with God, but we are capable of being restored to our original mandate from the beginning: to be fruitful, to multiply, and to take dominion over the earth. Because of this glorious Good News, or Gospel, Mankind can be restored to his created purpose. Mankind can be restored to glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. We can enjoy Him in our lives now by fulfilling our created purpose to worship God and Jesus Christ, by obeying Him, and fulfilling our creation/dominion mandate. This is our created purpose as redeemed sinners made saints through the blood of Jesus Christ!
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein (Ps. 24:1). God made it all, and He made it very good. Mankind was created in the image of God in order to multiply and take dominion of the earth and govern it in righteousness. Mankind willingly chose to rebel against God and brought about all of the sin and misery in our world. Man in sin is now incapable of loving God and loving neighbor and is so morally backwards in his rebellion against God’s created order that instead of taking dominion through marrying and having children, man prefers all sorts of sexual alternatives and is willing to even murder his own children instead of submitting to God’s Law and ordinance. Abortion is the natural result of Mankind’s rebellion against God. But God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that anyone who would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life (John. 3:16).
Jesus Christ, God the Son, became a human being and lived a perfect life for us, and then died a gruesome death on the cross taking the punishment that we deserve for our sin. He took the wrath of God that we deserve, so that through faith in Him we could receive from God the love and mercy that we do not deserve. And we know this because Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said He would, and He now rules and reigns in heaven over the earth (1 Cor. 15:3-4, Dan. 7:13-14). Anyone who turns from their sins and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation will be saved, and they will be reconciled to God, and they will be reestablished to their created purpose in filling the earth and taking dominion of it in Jesus’ Name.
