The true gospel
is the good news of the Person & work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
other words, it is concerning who Christ is and what He did to save His
elect only. The gospel includes the how and why, which can only be seen by faith.
It
is a message that declares how the eternal Son of God came down, took
on a body of sinless flesh (John 1:14) as He was born of a virgin (Mat
1:23). He was both God & man in one Person.
He
was born under the Law to keep and fulfill it (Mat 5:18, Gal 4:4). He
did that, not for Himself, but for all those He represented because they
could not keep it themselves. The word of God calls these people the
elect or His sheep, among several other names.
His
obedient life also included the part of dying. He took on the sin of His
people as both a Substitute and Representative of those people. The
Bible said He was "made to be sin" (II Cor 5:21) and the way that was
done is by God imputing (legally reckoned or charged to the account of)
sin to Christ. That means all the sin of all those people God chose was
"laid on Him" (Isaiah 53:6). This sin was legally transferred to His
account and He then owned it in such a way to be guilty of it all.
God
the Father poured out His wrath and hatred toward sin on His Son and
had pleasure (Isaiah 53:10) in doing so, in that, He was completely
satisfied in Christ as a Sacrifice that met all the demands of His
strict Law and inflexible justice. Christ finished the work of paying
the penalty of the Law and then said " It is finished" (John 19:30). He
secured salvation for all God’s chosen people that would even be born.
His resurrection is evidence of the acceptance of His sacrifice to the
Father.
The combined work of His obedience to the
Law &His obedience unto death on the cross was considered
establishing righteousness. This is what one of the Old Testament
prophets prophesied as "bringing in an everlasting righteousness"
(Daniel 9:24) as Christ died effectually and exclusively for those
chosen of God before the world began (Eph 1:4).
This
righteousness is what God imputes to His people in the context of
giving the life to believe in Christ. This puts them in a state called
"Justification" and as a result they are eternally secure, in Christ.
This is the gospel (Rom 1:16-17).
All this takes place in such a way to show God as both a God of justice and a Savior. This is how grace reigns through righteousness (Rom 5:21)
All this takes place in such a way to show God as both a God of justice and a Savior. This is how grace reigns through righteousness (Rom 5:21)
