The Good News of Jesus Christ

The Mission of Jesus Christ

Nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus was born in a small town in Judah. When He reached His early thirties, He began to go about teaching people about God and preaching that they must repent and believe the gospel. [48] Jesus demonstrated His authority by performing many miracles. An early follower of Jesus summarized His ministry in this way: "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." [49]

Jesus was a man, but He was more than just a man. Jesus is the Son of God in the flesh. As we learned earlier, the Son of God — the Second Person of the Trinity — is the eternal God. Jesus is therefore the God-man: "For in Him [Jesus] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form...." [50] Like the Biblical teaching of the Trinity, the teaching that Jesus is both fully God and fully man is beyond our full comprehension. [51]

Why did the Son of God come down from heaven to become a man? He came to teach us about God and to show us how we ought to live. But these were not the only reasons He became a man. The Son of God became a man in order to live a perfect life on behalf of sinners and to die in the place of sinners — He came to rescue sinners from their sins:

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem [or set free] those who were under the Law.... [52]

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; [53]

Jesus loved God with all of His heart and strength, and He sincerely loved people and did much good for them. He never entertained a disobedient thought much less a disobedient word or deed. He fulfilled the Law as He always pleased God the Father. [54] Jesus earned by His obedience a robe of righteousness, as it were, for sinners to wear, sinners who don't deserve it.

Jesus also died in the place of sinners as He was crucified on a Roman cross. As we taught earlier, our father Adam's sin and our own sins have earned us spiritual death. [55] Jesus took upon Himself the sins of many when He suffered on the cross. God literally punished Jesus as if He were a sinner! None of us can comprehend all that Jesus meant when He cried out while upon the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" [56] Jesus died to wipe away the blackness of sin from the hearts of people.

The Bible summarizes what Jesus accomplished on behalf of many sinners in these words: "[God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." [57]

Jesus died for sinners, but He didn't remain dead. His victory over sin and death — and the evidence that God had accepted His sacrifice — was openly declared by His resurrection from the dead. [58] Jesus appeared to many of His followers after His resurrection, and they spread the news of it everywhere. [59] The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. [60]

Do you wish to exchange your soiled robe for the "robe of righteousness" that Jesus earned? Do you want God to forgive you of all of your sins? Do you long to live with God forever? The good news of Jesus for you is captured in this often quoted passage from the Gospel of John:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. [61]

God saves those who believe in His Son. He will not save people who refuse to believe in Jesus. What does it mean to believe on Jesus Christ? What must you do in order to be saved?

< Previous  |  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  |  Next >

Footnotes

[48] Mark 1:14-15 - Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

[49] Acts 10:38

[50] Colossians 2:9

[51] A more technical definition of what we mean by asserting that Jesus is both God and man is found in the Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, chapter 8, and paragraph 2:

The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He has made, did, when the fullness of time was complete, take upon Him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities of it, yet without sin; being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her: and the power of the Most High overshadowing her; and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David according to the Scriptures; so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion; which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.

[52] Galatians 4:4-5

[53] I Peter 3:18

[54] John 8:29 - [Jesus speaking] "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.

[55] Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death. . . .

[56] Matthew 27:46

[57] 2 Corinthians 5:21

[58] Romans 4:25 - He [Jesus] who was delivered up [in death] because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.

[59] 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 - Now I [Paul the apostle] make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

Acts 10:38-42 - [Peter the apostle speaking] You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him. "And we are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And they also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. "God raised Him up on the third day, and granted that He should become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us, who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. "And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.

[60] 1 Corinthians 15:13-17 - But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

[61] John 3:16-17

< Previous  |  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  |  Next >