The Beauty of the Gospel

“The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” [Gen 18:13-14 ESV]

‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. … “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” [Jer 32:17, 27 ESV]

‘Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”‘ [Mar 10:27 ESV]

Have you ever really stopped to think about the impossibility of mankind being able to save themselves? We have had roughly 6,000 years of biblical history unfolding to date, and we have not and will not ever develop the perfect person or society. Why? While man claims that we can evolve into something better given enough time, Jesus prophesied that in the last days the world and mankind would devolve and get worse:

“As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” [Mat 24:3-14 ESV]

Paul also reiterates this same idea in his letter to Timothy:

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” [2Ti 3:1-5 ESV]

Beloved, either the Bible is inspired by God or it is not. Either Jesus is a true prophet, or he is not. There is no middle ground here. Either mankind, in their own strength, is impossibly lost in their sins, or they are not. A holy God can only speak truth:

‘Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD…The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”‘ [Jer 17:5, 9 ESV]

“For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” [Rom 3:9-18 ESV]

“Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.” [Psa 143:2 ESV]

The picture painted looks pretty bleak for us. Impossible. That is, apart from Christ, apart what the Lord has provided for us so graciously and beautifully. I know I have been writing a lot of negative things here, but we need to be humbled like a little child. One thing about children is that, even if they deny it, they know deep down when they’ve been disobedient. The other thing about young children raised in a stable household is that they trust their parents to care for them and provide for them. We need to adopt a similar attitude toward our Heavenly Father: we need to admit our sin, and then turn to Jesus, the One who made us, became human like us, died for us, and gives us eternal life through faith. I wanted to start with the bad news first, because the good news is SO good!

Now, I have been pondering the idea of impossibilities this past month. For example, I heard an astounding statistic the other week: if you uncoil the strands of DNA from one cell in your body and placed them end to end, it would be six feet long–an incredible number for something so small. Just think–a cell’s nucleus is .0002 inches across, which is the approximate width of a piece of hair cut into tenths lengthwise. Inside that incredibly small nucleus are 46 individual molecules of DNA. Not only that, but if you placed all the DNA in your body end to end, it would stretch out to be 67 billion miles long–to put it into some sort of concrete picture, it would equal 150,000 round trips to the moon. Also, if you just had a pinhead volume of DNA, and if the information it contains could be written in paperback books, you would need a pile 500 times higher than the distance from the earth to the moon. This is amazing! Please tell me how something so intricate, so impossible, could be random chance. There is most assuredly a Master Architect behind all creation!

I read another statistic a month or so ago regarding the Bible’s prophecies about the Messiah. There have been over 300 prophesies fulfilled so far with 100 percent accuracy. A statistician calculated that if we took only eight of those prophecies, the chance of one man fulfilling them all would be 10^17. He illustrated it this way: it would be like taking 10^17 (10 with 17 zeros after it) silver dollars, spreading them two feet deep over the entire state of Texas, marking one and mixing them all up thoroughly, then sending a blindfolded man from someplace on the planet to go find that ONE marked coin. Now imagine what it would be like for one man to fulfill over 300 prophecies by random chance. Impossible! The scientific evidence for the truth and accuracy of scripture and the inferred intelligence behind it supports the Bible’s claim to be God-breathed and inerrant.

So, if the Bible is true, we would expect, at least hope for, a solution to our problem. If we are helpless to help ourselves, we must trust the Lord of all creation, our Heavenly Father, to provide for our lack. As referenced in the scriptures at the beginning of this blog, our God is a God of the impossible! What seems hard and out of our reach is, in His mighty hands, always doable. It reminds me of a time back when I was a baby Christian. A sister in Christ relayed a little story of how God had heard one of her prayers. She said she often had a honey-do list for her husband consisting of tasks and projects around the house that were beyond her ability. She’d ask him to fix something, supposing it to be a very difficult thing to do, but her hubby would just roll his eyes and smile. She said she had just prayed to the Lord about a troubling problem, and she had this image pop into her head of her husband rolling his eyes, as if to say, “I can do THAT!” What seems hard or impossible to us is always possible with God:

“But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” [Mar 10:24-27 ESV]

Jesus uses the hyperbole of a camel here, an animal that weighs on average 1,000 pounds, trying to fit through the tiny eye of a needle to illustrate the impossibility of a person, especially a rich person, to enter the Kingdom of God by their own efforts. But not so with God–he makes everything possible! Think for a moment of all the times in the Old Testament when the Israelites were out-sized, out-numbered, or out-gunned–like when they were “trapped” between Pharoah’s army and the Red Sea–and the Lord was able to save them from their enemies:

“And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” [Exo 14:13-14 ESV]

It is interesting that all the people had to do was stand firm and be silent. The Lord worked their salvation for them, He fought for them. It reminds me of when the king of Syria surrounded the city of Dothan because the prophet Elisha was there:

“When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” [2Ki 6:15-17 ESV]

There are so many times in scripture where the Lord chooses the weakest, the least, and the fewest to accomplish His saving work. The Lord wants to make it abundantly clear that we are not to boast in our own strength or merits, but give all glory to Him, which is proper:

“The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.'” [Jdg 7:2 ESV]

“Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” [Jer 9:23-24 ESV]

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” [Eph 2:8-9 ESV]

And here we get to the real beauty of the gospel. Because we are unable to live perfect lives in the eyes of God, Jesus, the Son of God, left His heavenly glory to be born a helpless baby. Can you imagine? The Lord whose glory is so great man cannot see it and live…stooped down to us:

“I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.” [Hos 11:4 ESV]

Jesus became fully human, lived the perfect life by fulfilling the entire Law of Moses, and presented Himself as a willing sacrifice–He bore our sins, He died our death, He suffered our judgement–so that anyone who would put their faith in His work on the cross for us would be saved:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” [Jhn 5:24 ESV]

Jesus is our model. He came to serve us. He gave the example when He cast off His outer garment, took a towel, and washed His disciple’s feet [Jhn 13:3-17]. Note in these verses that Jesus already knows that His Father has given all things into His hand! Yet, even given all authority and power, Jesus humbly served. Jesus said it Himself:

“It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [Mat 20:26-28 ESV]

The Lord delights in humility:

“For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.” [Psa 149:4 ESV]

“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” [Luk 18:9-14 ESV]

I want to urge anyone who may be trusting in themselves to somehow gain eternal life that it is futile. You cannot meditate yourself into some state of eternal bliss. You can not say enough rosaries, go on enough pilgrimages, do enough penance, nor pray to enough saints–it is clear from scripture that the power of God displayed through miracles is not worked on the merit of the person, but only through faith in Christ. If this is true for miracles, how much more so for the greatest miracle, eternal life! In the book of Acts, Peter and John healed a lame man and corrected the astounded crowd that gathered:

“And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? … And his name–by faith in his name–has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.” [Act 3:12, 16 ESV]

Beloved, this was the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John, leaders of the early church. Even they knew that salvation is in no other name, especially not their own. Salvation is impossible on the merit of any man–only the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. [Acts 4:12] With man it is truly impossible, but not so with God–all things are possible with Him. Salvation is an utter gift, and the Giver is Jesus Christ.

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” [2Co 1:20 ESV]

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” [Rev 5:12-14 ESV]

Can you see the beauty in the gospel? It reveals so much of the Lord’s heart: His faithfulness to His promises, His deep care for His creation, His most sublime love–a love willing to leave the glories of Heaven and lay down HIs life for us–His amazing humility, His wrath and justice toward and for sin, His tender mercy offered to the entire world, His desire for us to be reconciled, His willingness to have us share in this work and joy…beloved, such beauty should be proclaimed! Amen.