This is kind of a big passage and in some ways it isn't exactly relevant to us. What I mean by that is Paul here is writing to an actually group of living people, during his time period of course, and so as he talks about the gospel and how it has been made not just for the Jews but also for the Gentiles, there is a personal feel to these chapters. Nonetheless, scripture is God-breathed, unchanging and I think there is always something we can learn, even if it is a letter to a particular church or group of people. This passage, in my opinion, tells us a few things, first, that selection is a very real thing and second, that Gentiles now have the opportunity to find forgiveness and true life in Christ.
Selection:
I think something that a lot of Christians don't like and a lot of people don't like about Christianity is selection. Christians would like to sweep it under the rug while unbelievers use it as ammunition. The idea that God chooses some people and not others, meaning that some people have pretty much no hope to get to heaven because they have been selected not to is a hard thing to understand. But it is a truth and Paul doesn't hide it in chapter 9 of Romans. He cites two stories in the Old Testament; two of many, in fact in many ways, the entire Old Testament preaches selection. "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" is the first example, then Pharaoh in Exodus who's heart was hardened. So if it is evident that selection is real, then why and how could a loving God do that? Well, I don't have a great answer, and quite frankly, as humans (the created) I think there are some questions that we won't ever have the answer too. But I can give you this encouragement. Paul in verses 19-21 says: "One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "why did you make me like this?" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" Also, Job 38-41 is another passage. In this passage God literally challenges Job by asking him questions such as "where were you when I laid the earth's foundation" and "Have you ever given orders to the morning?" The thing is, God is God, I think that we can trust that even if we don't understand his ways, he knows what he is doing. To challenge him on selection would be ludicrous. None of us were there at the beginning, none of us know every crevice in the bottom of the ocean or every star and galaxy in the sky. But God does.
Gentiles are now chosen!
Chapters 10 and 11 are essentially a discourse on how gentiles are now able to find forgiveness in Christ. I'll give a short outline/summary of the section. First, God chose Israel, they were his people. But Israel rebelled and followed other Gods. Because of this, God, who loves the nations, expanded his love to anyone who would accept Christ and put faith in him. (Not to say he didn't do this before, but in the Old Testament there are very few cases of non-Israelites who come to God) Essentially, a new "Israel" has been created, one that is not physical, but all those who have spiritually given their life and their hopes to God. Paul uses the picture of grafting to illustrate how gentiles have been grafted into the tree of life or the tree that is God's people.
This then means that the gospel is not just for Israel, it is for anyone! We don't know who God has selected to follow him so we need to share the gospel with anyone and everyone we can! If your not a Christian and you're reading this very speculatively, thinking the idea of selection is unfair, I will say this: no one is stopping you from going to church this week or next. No one is stopping you from giving your life to Christ. You have a choice, you can chose to follow Jesus.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Golden Week pt 1
So the first week of May in Japan is called Golden week because a bunch of holidays fall in the same week. Because of this, i have no school! Im excited to rest as I was super busy the first few weeks of school. This term is definitely kinda bumming me out because it is essentially a countdown to when I leave.
Anyways, over the last weeks I gave a presentation at an event called "English Study" with my friend and we talked about greeting people and some slang words. Yesterday I went to a bbq (no burgers or doggies unfortunately) and had a fun time at a seriously huge park. Tokyo has some huge parks, its pretty crazy being in this huge area and knowing that that area is inside a bunch of huge buildings and stuff. As for this week, I don't have too much for plans yet but I really want to rest, study a little and try to spend some time with friends!
Anyways, over the last weeks I gave a presentation at an event called "English Study" with my friend and we talked about greeting people and some slang words. Yesterday I went to a bbq (no burgers or doggies unfortunately) and had a fun time at a seriously huge park. Tokyo has some huge parks, its pretty crazy being in this huge area and knowing that that area is inside a bunch of huge buildings and stuff. As for this week, I don't have too much for plans yet but I really want to rest, study a little and try to spend some time with friends!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Weekly Meditations: Romans 8; Life in Christ
Chapter 8 in Romans is Paul’s discussion about how to live once you have become a Christian. How do you know if you're a Christian? Well the first 4 verses of the chapter do a pretty good explanation. To paraphrase, if you believe that you can’t gain salvation through works and you deserve eternal death because of your sin, but you believe in Jesus Christ and his perfect sacrifice in his death on the cross for your sins, which saves you from death, then you are a Christian. So now what? How should your life be affected by this? Well there are many answers to these questions but in chapter 8 of Romans, Paul touches on 2 things we receive when we become a Christian, the Holy Spirit and sufferings.
Receiving the Holy Spirit (verses 5-16)
A lot of what Paul says in this section has to do with what I talked about last week. If you are a Christian and thus are living for God, the choices you make and the things you do will reflect that choice. Even if you choose badly, even if you sin, your actions with dealing with that sin will be different, they will be actions of repentance. In this section, Paul pushes heavily the fact that we as Christians literally have the Spirit of God inside us! That is truly mind-blowing. I think Christians, myself included, don't fully understand what this means or act on it. I think we kind of just pass that fact by. "Oh ya, thats cool, I totally believe the Spirit is in me". But if we truly believed, why don't we act on those beliefs. So often we sit back timidly and don't talk about our faith, don't share the gospel with others etc. I think that we need to understand that God has not only given us his Spirit to guide us in our daily lives, but also to help us follow his commands, including the command to share the gospel.
Receiving Suffering (verses 17-39)
" ...indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share his glory" (17)
The fact of the matter is, as Christians we will suffer and we will be persecuted. Jesus himself promised this. I think there are many people who claim to follow Christ, even "teachers" of the word, who teach that being a Christian means you will be healthy, you will have money, you will have a great life on this earth. Really? Our best life should be had now? On this broken, sinful earth? No! Paul in verse 18 says "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us". Our best life comes later! Our best life is heaven, which is an infinity times better than the best things of this earth. We are not called to have a good life on this earth, we are called to be different from the earth, we are called to suffer for the sake of Christ on this earth. If you are thinking to yourself "hmm, I wonder why I haven't been persecuted, maybe God has blessed me in that way". I would ask you, have you put yourself in a position where you would have the chance to be persecuted? Have you spoke openly about your faith, even when it is an unpopular viewpoint in a crowd? It is hard to do this! But take heart, verse 28 reads: "and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him". You see, no matter what junk we go through on this earth, God has our back. Read Romans 8:31-39 if you haven't already. How cool is that? Nothing can separate us from God, no matter what we go through in this life, we will never lose our salvation, we will never lose God's love for us.
I would challenge you this week to let the Spirit of God speak through you and put yourself in situations where you may suffer for Christ. Share Christ with others this week!!!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Weekly Meditations: Romans 6,7; Freedom In Christ
Remember how Paul used the expression "slave of Christ" in chapter 1? In chapters 6 and 7, the idea of freedom is very prevalent. While we were once slaves to sin and the law, we no longer are, if we are slaves of Christ Jesus. We have died to sin and thus have been freed from it, and we have died to the law and have thus been freed from it as well.
Dead to sin, free from sin:
Chapter 6 is all about sin in our life. No before I begin, I think it is important to note that as Christians, we will still sin, and this is a bummer. But take heart, Paul writes great encouragement which we will close with. That said, when a person becomes a Christian, they are baptized sometime soon after. ("Go and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them...." After becoming a follower, you are to be baptized, says Jesus himself) This baptism symbolizes that person going down to the grave with Jesus, and rising up from it, a picture of how their sin goes down to the grave and stays there! That is what the first 14 verses of chapter 6 are all about. In short, "we are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus"(verse 11).
So what then does it mean to be free from sin? Does it mean you will no longer sin? No, unfortunately we will sin while we have earthly bodies, no matter who you are, however, we still have freedom from sin. So what does that mean? I'm convinced that the point Paul is trying to make is that sin does have its deathly grasp on us any longer if we have put our faith in Christ's sacrificial death for our sin. You see, without Christ, our sin would mark us as rebels against God, but Christ's blood has atoned for Christians and thus has freed us from sin's grasp. Similarly, those who don't have Christ have no desire to stop sinning. Many people continue to get drunk, to have premarital sex, to shoplift, lie, cheat, etc (verse 20). Christians are not exempt from sinning like this, but what separates Christians is Christ's blood. Despite their past sins, they are forgiven. Any current or future sins do not hold them down because they stand forgiven in Christ. While I think that our consciences will convict us when we have done something wrong, we need not feel guilty because we know that Christ has freed us from sin and thus we can boldly go to God in humble repentance.
Dead to the law, free from the law:
First off, as Paul states, the law and rules are not an evil thing and they aren't a bad thing. Nonetheless, the thing we must understand about Christianity is that it is not about following rules. The goal of Christianity is not to try and live the best life you can, it is not following every little minute rule in the Old Testament, it is not going to every church service, event and camp either. The point of Christianity is glorifying God, and the gospel of Christianity is putting your faith in what Jesus did on the cross, not what we do in our lives. The thing about the law is this: you can never live up to it and you can never fully follow it. You will slip up at some point. But that is why Jesus went to the cross! That is why Jesus died in our place. Jesus did those things so that we could have eternal life that we don't deserve. So just as we are dead to sin, we are also dead to the law. All of those rules can't be followed fully, but they don't need to because we have Jesus' blood which sanctifies and purifies us! Now then, should we just live life how we want and do whatever we want to do?
No!!! The thing is, as Christians, we will follow rules (such as Jesus' commands) and we will go to church events, but we don't do these things to gain salvation (because we can't gain salvation through works) we do these things because we have been changed by God! I hope this all makes sense, it is a hard thing to explain. Essentially, the law is a good thing (it is of God and created by God) but it is also the thing that shows us our sin. It is a thing that represents following rules to gain salvation. However, Jesus came and died for us, in our place, so now we only have to believe in him and we gain salvation. We also gain a new heart and the Holy Spirit lives inside us, which means that we will still try to follow Jesus' commands and "be good", (but not to gain salvation).
Of course, we are only human and as Paul says: "When I want to do good, evil is right there with me" (7:21). We will continue to sin, but understand that is our human sinful nature. Nonetheless we can confidently know we have been set free by Christ so despite the fact that we still sin, we know that one day we will be completely free from sin, and we know that all of our sin has already been forgiven and paid for on the cross of Jesus Christ. To my non-Christian friend, do you feel guilty after doing something "bad"? Jesus Christ alone is the power that can save you from sin, free you from sin and free you from guilt. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for your sin, for my sin and for everyone's sin, so that all who believe in him can have eternal life, forgiveness of sins and right standing with God.
Dead to sin, free from sin:
Chapter 6 is all about sin in our life. No before I begin, I think it is important to note that as Christians, we will still sin, and this is a bummer. But take heart, Paul writes great encouragement which we will close with. That said, when a person becomes a Christian, they are baptized sometime soon after. ("Go and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them...." After becoming a follower, you are to be baptized, says Jesus himself) This baptism symbolizes that person going down to the grave with Jesus, and rising up from it, a picture of how their sin goes down to the grave and stays there! That is what the first 14 verses of chapter 6 are all about. In short, "we are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus"(verse 11).
So what then does it mean to be free from sin? Does it mean you will no longer sin? No, unfortunately we will sin while we have earthly bodies, no matter who you are, however, we still have freedom from sin. So what does that mean? I'm convinced that the point Paul is trying to make is that sin does have its deathly grasp on us any longer if we have put our faith in Christ's sacrificial death for our sin. You see, without Christ, our sin would mark us as rebels against God, but Christ's blood has atoned for Christians and thus has freed us from sin's grasp. Similarly, those who don't have Christ have no desire to stop sinning. Many people continue to get drunk, to have premarital sex, to shoplift, lie, cheat, etc (verse 20). Christians are not exempt from sinning like this, but what separates Christians is Christ's blood. Despite their past sins, they are forgiven. Any current or future sins do not hold them down because they stand forgiven in Christ. While I think that our consciences will convict us when we have done something wrong, we need not feel guilty because we know that Christ has freed us from sin and thus we can boldly go to God in humble repentance.
Dead to the law, free from the law:
First off, as Paul states, the law and rules are not an evil thing and they aren't a bad thing. Nonetheless, the thing we must understand about Christianity is that it is not about following rules. The goal of Christianity is not to try and live the best life you can, it is not following every little minute rule in the Old Testament, it is not going to every church service, event and camp either. The point of Christianity is glorifying God, and the gospel of Christianity is putting your faith in what Jesus did on the cross, not what we do in our lives. The thing about the law is this: you can never live up to it and you can never fully follow it. You will slip up at some point. But that is why Jesus went to the cross! That is why Jesus died in our place. Jesus did those things so that we could have eternal life that we don't deserve. So just as we are dead to sin, we are also dead to the law. All of those rules can't be followed fully, but they don't need to because we have Jesus' blood which sanctifies and purifies us! Now then, should we just live life how we want and do whatever we want to do?
No!!! The thing is, as Christians, we will follow rules (such as Jesus' commands) and we will go to church events, but we don't do these things to gain salvation (because we can't gain salvation through works) we do these things because we have been changed by God! I hope this all makes sense, it is a hard thing to explain. Essentially, the law is a good thing (it is of God and created by God) but it is also the thing that shows us our sin. It is a thing that represents following rules to gain salvation. However, Jesus came and died for us, in our place, so now we only have to believe in him and we gain salvation. We also gain a new heart and the Holy Spirit lives inside us, which means that we will still try to follow Jesus' commands and "be good", (but not to gain salvation).
Of course, we are only human and as Paul says: "When I want to do good, evil is right there with me" (7:21). We will continue to sin, but understand that is our human sinful nature. Nonetheless we can confidently know we have been set free by Christ so despite the fact that we still sin, we know that one day we will be completely free from sin, and we know that all of our sin has already been forgiven and paid for on the cross of Jesus Christ. To my non-Christian friend, do you feel guilty after doing something "bad"? Jesus Christ alone is the power that can save you from sin, free you from sin and free you from guilt. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for your sin, for my sin and for everyone's sin, so that all who believe in him can have eternal life, forgiveness of sins and right standing with God.
Monday, April 9, 2012
School 2.0
Well, my break is over. I realize I haven't posted for a while. Honestly I didn't do much so I didn't post much. The highlights of my last couple weeks were going to the Mariners/Athletics game at the Tokyo Dome and going to a small amusement park with Teruki and his parents.
School just started so I'm back in action. I'm in the early stage of the term where my classes are new material and new people and its kind of exciting and fun. After a couple weeks it will get back to the dreariness I'm sure.
Its warming up here, today was like 65-70 degrees i believe. I'm not excited for the humidity nor the summer rain but hopefully there will be some nice days like today, sunny and clear.
Tomorrow i'm going to a baseball game. No other plans really. Happy Easter!
School just started so I'm back in action. I'm in the early stage of the term where my classes are new material and new people and its kind of exciting and fun. After a couple weeks it will get back to the dreariness I'm sure.
Its warming up here, today was like 65-70 degrees i believe. I'm not excited for the humidity nor the summer rain but hopefully there will be some nice days like today, sunny and clear.
Tomorrow i'm going to a baseball game. No other plans really. Happy Easter!
Weekly Meditations: Romans 4,5; Faith in Christ
If you are reading along in Romans with me, you may have noticed how Paul is arguing two big things (among others). First, that Christ died for sins, as a sacrifice, in our place. Second, that faith in Christ doing this is the only way to receive eternal life and rightness with God. In these next two chapters, we see Paul continue with these two facts, focusing on the aspect of "faith in Christ".
In chapter 4, Paul gives us a great argument on why faith in Christ, not works or anything else, grants eternal life and rightness with God. You see, Abraham was counted as right before God because he believed in God. Paul continues on to say how the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham was circumcision. Circumcision (odd as it may be to us now) was a physical mark that showed that Israelites were set apart, they were God's people. But Abraham, Paul says, was counted as right before God before he was circumcised. This is proof that faith in God is what matters, not who you are, what you have done or any other thing. Now just as Abraham was counted as righteous before God, those who believe in Jesus' death and resurrection are also counted as righteous before God.
Abraham was alive before Jesus, so was Jacob and Joseph and David and the prophets. Does this mean there is no salvation for them? No! The faith that we see in many of the Old Testament's people made them count as righteousness before God, because of their faith. In the same way, a sinful, evil person like all of us, can believe in Christ and stand as righteous and forgiven before God.
In chapter 5, Paul continues to tell us that because of this faith we have, we can be assured and hopeful that God surely gives us eternal life. Our hope should be fully in this life, not in a savings account or a 401k, but rather in Jesus Christ and his death in place of our sins.
Lastly, Paul contrasts the two "families" we are a part of. There is the physical family of Adam, from who all people have descended. Then, there is the spiritual family of Christ, through whom all people can be saved. Everyone on earth is faced with a choice. You can stay in your physical family, the family of Adam, which leads to death in your transgressions and sins, or, you can put your faith in Jesus Christ and in the fact that he died on the cross for your sins to free you from them. With this faith, we can join the spiritual family of Christ, where we are seen as sinless before God because Jesus has paid the price for our sin.
The choice is yours.
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter, celebrating the wonderful truth that Jesus did not stay in the grave, but is alive!
In chapter 4, Paul gives us a great argument on why faith in Christ, not works or anything else, grants eternal life and rightness with God. You see, Abraham was counted as right before God because he believed in God. Paul continues on to say how the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham was circumcision. Circumcision (odd as it may be to us now) was a physical mark that showed that Israelites were set apart, they were God's people. But Abraham, Paul says, was counted as right before God before he was circumcised. This is proof that faith in God is what matters, not who you are, what you have done or any other thing. Now just as Abraham was counted as righteous before God, those who believe in Jesus' death and resurrection are also counted as righteous before God.
Abraham was alive before Jesus, so was Jacob and Joseph and David and the prophets. Does this mean there is no salvation for them? No! The faith that we see in many of the Old Testament's people made them count as righteousness before God, because of their faith. In the same way, a sinful, evil person like all of us, can believe in Christ and stand as righteous and forgiven before God.
In chapter 5, Paul continues to tell us that because of this faith we have, we can be assured and hopeful that God surely gives us eternal life. Our hope should be fully in this life, not in a savings account or a 401k, but rather in Jesus Christ and his death in place of our sins.
Lastly, Paul contrasts the two "families" we are a part of. There is the physical family of Adam, from who all people have descended. Then, there is the spiritual family of Christ, through whom all people can be saved. Everyone on earth is faced with a choice. You can stay in your physical family, the family of Adam, which leads to death in your transgressions and sins, or, you can put your faith in Jesus Christ and in the fact that he died on the cross for your sins to free you from them. With this faith, we can join the spiritual family of Christ, where we are seen as sinless before God because Jesus has paid the price for our sin.
The choice is yours.
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter, celebrating the wonderful truth that Jesus did not stay in the grave, but is alive!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Weekly Meditations: Romans 3; The Sacrifice of Christ
I think that chapter 3 reads very similarly to the passage I looked at last week in that it explains the bad news that mankind is sinful and needs a savior from that sin. If you didn't read last week's message, you may want to take a look at that as in chapter 3 of Romans, I will be looking at another side of the gospel.
You may have heard the "God, man, Christ, response" outline of what the gospel is (Greg Gilbert's book What is the Gospel? does a great job of explaining it) and I think that this passage is riddled with those themes. In verses 1-8, Paul writes about how God is fair and just and because of this, must judge the world. Verses 9-20 look at how mankind is sinful, no matter who you are. Verses 21-31 then finish the chapter by explaining that Jesus died for sins and that faith in that act give you eternal life. That is the good news! Last week, like I said, we focused on the bad news of mankind's sinfulness. This passage continues to speak about that, most notably in verse 23 (For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God). But today, I want to focus on Jesus and his role in the good news.
Lets backtrack for a second. We have sin as human beings and God is perfect. Therefore, God must judge the sin because he is the creator of everything. He is perfect and therefore imperfect things cannot survive in his presence. Thus, sinful mankind stands before God, deserving a punishment of death and eternal suffering. But wait; God in his love made a way for us to be made right in his eyes. Now I think most people could say "through Jesus", but lets really get into exactly what Jesus did. Verse 25 is key in this passage, it reads: For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. (NLT). God literally placed Jesus on the cross, In Our Place. Instead of us getting the ultimate death penalty, Jesus took it for us. We were standing in the path of an oncoming train and Jesus pushed us out of the way and took the impact. He took the bullet for us. Lately a lot of evangelical pastors are trying to teach otherwise (I would encourage you to read the book of sermons by Michael Lawrence and Mark Dever titled It is Well which thoroughly explains how Christ was a sacrifice for sin and died in our place.). The Bible however is quite clear here in Romans, and in several other parts of the Bible, that Christ was a sacrifice. Much like the Israelites sacrificed animals to take the place of their sin, Christ (the lamb of God) was sacrificed for us.
That is the message I want to get across this week. With the recent misconception that Christ wasn't a sacrifice for sinners, or that Christ's death is mean or bad and couldn't be of God, I think it is important to see this passage right here in Romans 3, that clearly states that Christ was a sacrifice for us, and that is the good news of the gospel. If the gospel was only "Jesus Christ died, and simultaneously, unrelated, mankind gets eternal life" that isn't really good news, I mean for mankind it is but Jesus died for no reason. NO!!!! that is not the gospel. The gospel, the good news, is that mankind was dead, mankind was under God's just wrath and punishment, but Jesus paid the price for us, he died in our place, he saved us from it, by sacrificing himself. That is why at the base level of our humanity, when someone takes a bullet in a movie, when someone gives up themselves for others in a movie or on TV, we feel good about right? Think of the movie Armageddon where Bruce Willis takes the place of Ben Affleck and dies, in his place. It is sad sure, but it is heroic, we feel good after we see it. The death of Christ is this and much much more. Sure it is graphic, violent even but it is also Jesus giving up his life for you and me, and it is good news and happy news because now, we no longer face God's punishment, Jesus paid it all.
You may have heard the "God, man, Christ, response" outline of what the gospel is (Greg Gilbert's book What is the Gospel? does a great job of explaining it) and I think that this passage is riddled with those themes. In verses 1-8, Paul writes about how God is fair and just and because of this, must judge the world. Verses 9-20 look at how mankind is sinful, no matter who you are. Verses 21-31 then finish the chapter by explaining that Jesus died for sins and that faith in that act give you eternal life. That is the good news! Last week, like I said, we focused on the bad news of mankind's sinfulness. This passage continues to speak about that, most notably in verse 23 (For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God). But today, I want to focus on Jesus and his role in the good news.
Lets backtrack for a second. We have sin as human beings and God is perfect. Therefore, God must judge the sin because he is the creator of everything. He is perfect and therefore imperfect things cannot survive in his presence. Thus, sinful mankind stands before God, deserving a punishment of death and eternal suffering. But wait; God in his love made a way for us to be made right in his eyes. Now I think most people could say "through Jesus", but lets really get into exactly what Jesus did. Verse 25 is key in this passage, it reads: For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. (NLT). God literally placed Jesus on the cross, In Our Place. Instead of us getting the ultimate death penalty, Jesus took it for us. We were standing in the path of an oncoming train and Jesus pushed us out of the way and took the impact. He took the bullet for us. Lately a lot of evangelical pastors are trying to teach otherwise (I would encourage you to read the book of sermons by Michael Lawrence and Mark Dever titled It is Well which thoroughly explains how Christ was a sacrifice for sin and died in our place.). The Bible however is quite clear here in Romans, and in several other parts of the Bible, that Christ was a sacrifice. Much like the Israelites sacrificed animals to take the place of their sin, Christ (the lamb of God) was sacrificed for us.
That is the message I want to get across this week. With the recent misconception that Christ wasn't a sacrifice for sinners, or that Christ's death is mean or bad and couldn't be of God, I think it is important to see this passage right here in Romans 3, that clearly states that Christ was a sacrifice for us, and that is the good news of the gospel. If the gospel was only "Jesus Christ died, and simultaneously, unrelated, mankind gets eternal life" that isn't really good news, I mean for mankind it is but Jesus died for no reason. NO!!!! that is not the gospel. The gospel, the good news, is that mankind was dead, mankind was under God's just wrath and punishment, but Jesus paid the price for us, he died in our place, he saved us from it, by sacrificing himself. That is why at the base level of our humanity, when someone takes a bullet in a movie, when someone gives up themselves for others in a movie or on TV, we feel good about right? Think of the movie Armageddon where Bruce Willis takes the place of Ben Affleck and dies, in his place. It is sad sure, but it is heroic, we feel good after we see it. The death of Christ is this and much much more. Sure it is graphic, violent even but it is also Jesus giving up his life for you and me, and it is good news and happy news because now, we no longer face God's punishment, Jesus paid it all.
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