“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 Corinthians 15:3-4)
by Pastor Patrick Cho
The most central idea to all of Christianity is that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again after three days to save sinners. Still, it saddens me (though it no longer surprises me) that we frequently meet professing Christians who grew up in the church never hearing the gospel in its entirety, and some who are confused about the most basic ideas about it. A number of years ago, when I was still the college pastor at Lighthouse, I announced to the collegians that we would take an entire year to examine the doctrine of salvation. We broke down the gospel and studied it weekly with different emphases in mind.
When I first announced this to the collegians, some rolled their eyes at me as if to say we could spend our year better by looking at a wider range of topics or the “meatier” portions of Scripture. By the year’s end, however, most agreed it was a truly helpful study that revealed how little they knew about the gospel. By God’s grace, many realized through that study how shallow their understanding of the cross really was, and some even told me later that God used that study to rescue them from their sins and lead them to Christ.
We have learned over the years not to assume that someone who professes to be a Christian really understands the gospel. Even if a person has grown up in the church, we want to make sure they know what the Bible says about God, their sin, the cross, and the response of faith. We don’t do this simply to get people to question their salvation. We do this because we’ve found that oftentimes their behavior gives them reason to question the genuineness of their faith (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5) or at least they have some need to fine tune their knowledge of the gospel and what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
Any true and lasting hope a person has in this world must be found in Christ. There are many things that people turn to when they are in trouble. Some turn to their friends to find comfort, encouragement, or counsel. Others call upon their family members to lend support or help. There are many things that people turn to for refuge and escape when they are going through difficult times – exercise, sleep, food, alcohol, etc.
But the Bible tells us that our refuge should be Christ. Nothing else can deliver in an ultimate sense. Regardless of how difficult our circumstances or situation, there is no greater problem for us than our sinful souls. Our sin nature is a deeper problem than any failing marriage, unemployment, or natural disaster. The reason for this is that sin and its consequences are at the root of every problem we face. If we don’t deal with our sin problem, we are simply addressing symptoms and not the root cause of our problems.
Every person deserves to be condemned by God because of our sin. We have offended a perfect, holy, and infinite God, so the Bible teaches that the punishment for sin is an eternity in hell. “Why not simply change and stop sinning?” someone might reason. The problem is that we don’t have what it takes in ourselves to make things right. This is because our sin affects the totality of our being. Every word, every action, every thought is tainted by our sin. If we do “good” things, we do them with wrong motives (cf. Heb. 11:6; 1 Cor. 10:31). So even if we wanted to do something about our sin, it’s our sin that stands in the way of our ability to do anything about it. Ultimately, we spend our lives living for things that are less than God and each day is lived in opposition to who He is and what He desires of us.
Our sin renders us guilty and God is a perfect judge who doesn’t allow sin to go unpunished. The penalty incurred because of sin must be paid. When Jesus came into the world, He lived a perfect life. He never had a single evil thought or motive. He never spoke an evil word or committed an evil action. His life was completely unstained by sin. At the end of His earthly career, though, Jesus shed His blood and died on a cross. The Bible teaches that He did this as our substitute – “for us” or “on our behalf” (Rom. 5:8). But God took Him who knew no sin and made Him sin (2 Cor. 5:21). This doesn’t mean that Jesus became an immoral person or that He became wicked. It means that when He died on the cross, He stood in the place of sinful people. He died in our place so that we would not have to bear the punishment for sin. The justice of God demanded that sin needed to be paid for, so Jesus paid it all for us.
The one who trusts in Jesus as their Lord and Savior can be forgiven of their sins and have this salvation granted to them. The Bible talks about your need to repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:14-15). By God’s grace, you need to turn from your sin and turn in faith to Jesus, trusting in the work He did on the cross. You have to confess that you are a sinner who has offended a holy God and that you cannot do anything about your sin. You have to trust that Jesus died on the cross in your place and made it possible for you to be right with God.
By placing your faith in Jesus, the Bible says that God will rescue you from judgment and transform your life. He will change you from the inside out. The Bible says that He will give you a spiritual heart transplant (Ezek. 36:26), He will raise you from spiritual death to life (Eph. 2:1-9), and He will heal you of your spiritual blindness and give you sight (John 8:12; cf. Acts 26:18). Everything is different for the person who lives for Jesus – there is a new outlook on life with a new ultimate purpose. You don’t just try to be the best person you can be, but you try to live your life in the ways of God for His glory and honor.
All of this is made possible because of what Jesus did on the cross serving as our substitute. He died in our place and bore the punishment for our sin so that we could have life. Even though He never sinned, God treated Him as the sinner so that He could treat us as sinless. This truly is amazing grace! It is a gift that is completely and utterly undeserved, but one that was completely and utterly needed. God rescued us from our sin because He knew we would be hopeless on our own. So praise God for the salvation He offers us in Christ!