Before there can be good news, there has to be bad news. Peter writes that “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17). A day is coming when we will stand before our Maker and answer for what we have done. That is not a comfortable place to start, but it is an honest one, and it is the reason the rest of this matters at all.
Which raises a question worth answering before the evening is over: what actually is the gospel? Many people use the word to mean the whole Bible, or all the commands of God, or the New Testament generally. And then a second question follows: have you obeyed it? There are only three possible answers — yes, no, or I don’t know. Every one of us sits in one of those three.
The Problem We Cannot Fix
Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4), and all unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17). None of us can claim a clean record. The trouble is that a wage is owed, and the wage of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Anyone who has ever worked a job understands a wage — you did the labor, so you have earned the pay.
And sin cannot be undone. You can regret it, apologize for it, and wish it away, and it is still done, like a struck match that has already burned. Isaiah is blunt about the result: the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, “but your iniquities have separated between you and your God” (Isaiah 59:1-2). The distance is not God’s doing. It is ours. John saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, and they were judged out of the things written in the books (Revelation 20:12). Your life is being recorded right now, and it is a true record.
The Debt Someone Else Paid
Here is where the news turns. “We are ambassadors for Christ… be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). God took His own Son and let Him carry the penalty. Everything in those books you would never want read aloud — Jesus stepped forward and said He would pay for it.
You cannot pay it yourself. You cannot change enough, be sorry enough, or promise hard enough. That is the whole point. And consider who He did it for: think of the worst version of you that has ever existed, the lowest and most ashamed version. God loved that version of you, and loved you enough to give His only Son. No matter how badly a life has been lived, He gives a fresh start, and there is no better feeling than forgiveness.
The Gospel Is Three Specific Things
Paul defines it precisely: “I declare unto you the gospel… by which also ye are saved… how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Not the whole Bible. Not a general set of commands. Three specific events — and Romans 6 shows how a person obeys each one.
- The death. “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3).
- The burial. “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.”
- The resurrection. “That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
Not admired from a distance — obeyed. That is exactly what happened on the road to Gaza. A man from Ethiopia was reading Isaiah 53 and could not make sense of it. Philip began at that same Scripture and preached Jesus to him. They came to some water, and the man asked, “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” (Acts 8:26-39). He believed, he was baptized, and he went on his way rejoicing.
A Call to Respond
Nothing about that has changed. Peter told a crowd who had a hand in the death of Jesus to “repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38) — and even they could be forgiven. As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27), and if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17).
None of us knows how long we have. If you know you need to obey the gospel, the worst thing you can do is drive home, lie down tonight, and think, I had the chance and I let it go. You do have a chance. Take it, and let us help you.