What Else But The Gospel?
What Else But The Gospel?
What else but the Gospel
in these turbulent times
can hold our hopes and dreams
in the midst of chaos and of strife?
What else but the Gospel
proclaimed on every page
through the Bible can open
up our hearts and minds and strength?
What else but the Gospel
recalls us to the Garden and
our relationship with God
based on obedience and trust?
What else but the Gospel
demonstrates with the Law
how in ourselves there can be
no holiness without sacrifice?
What else but the Gospel
gifts us with the Prophets
pointing forward to the One
who would fulfill God’s Promise?
What else but the Gospel
brings us the Living One
our Messiah to fulfill every
promise faithful to the End?
What else but the Gospel
lived and walked among us
illustrating God’s perfect Love
as he fed and taught and healed?
What else but the Gospel
lay down His perfect life
our lamb to bear our sin
and heal our broken hearts?
What else but the Gospel
rose triumphant from the
grave victorious over sin
and pain and tears and death?
What else but the Gospel
in Holy Spirit power
renews our battered
hearts and makes us new again?
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Indeed, what else but the Gospel? What else but the Good News?
Jesus said it best. Just read His words in John 14:1-7:
”Let not your hearts be troubled.
Believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many rooms.
If it were not so,
I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
I will come again
and take you to myself,
that where I am
you may be also.
And you know the way to where
I am going.”
Thomas said to him,
”Lord, we do not know where you are going.”
How can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him,
“I am the way,
and the truth,
and the life.
No one comes to the Father
except through me.
If you had known me,
you would have known my Father also.
From now on you do know him
and have seen him.”
When asked by Thomas to show him and the other disciples the way to where He was going, He clearly identified Himself, not only as the Way to God, but also as the truth about God, and also as the life in God. He went on to explain to Thomas and the other disciples that it was only in Him, Jesus,that they could come to God. Then He said, to know Jesus was to know the Father. And finally He explained, to His disciples, and so to ourselves, that we all could come to know and see God in Jesus. In truth Jesus was pointing to Himself as the Incarnation of God upon the Earth, come among the people on the Earth to provide the Way to God, the Truth of God, and the Life in God. This is the heart of the Gospel: God loved the world so much that Jesus came among us, so that if we place our trust in Him, we experience the wonders of eternal life—that is, life in God now and forever.
God gave the Prophet Isaiah an incredibly vivid
picture of Jesus and His suffering on our account.
We read this in Isaiah 52:13-53:12:
“Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
so shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.
Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
It is no wonder so many Bible scholars refer to Isaiah as a fifth Gospel, or as the Old Testament Gospel. This prophet and poet beautifully explores the role of the suffering servant as the Lamb of God. It is no wonder John the Baptist so labels Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Isaiah identifies this servant as the one who bears our grief and our sorrows. In Isaiah’s words, this One seems to be stricken and afflicted by God. But, he explains, this One is pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. As we know from the Old Testament sacrificial system, the sacrificial lamb, had to be perfect and without blemish. So, Jesus was sacrificed not for any sin He had committed—He had no sin. It was for us He was slain on the Cross. This is at the heart of the Gospel. Isaiah explains—everyone of us has failed to obey God’s Law, so Jesus paid it all for us all, once and for all.
Then, in Psalm 22 David provides a heart wrenching description
of Jesus and His suffering on the Cross for our sin.
In fact, Jesus, is recorded is having quoted this
devastating cry:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
‘He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!’
Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.”
In this unforgettable Psalm David opens his horrific depiction of suffering as the suffering servant cries out to God with the plea, “Why have you forsaken me?” Here again is the heart of the Gospel: Because every one of us has forsaken God’s Way, we need a Savior. That Savior is Jesus upon the Cross. It must be Jesus because only He has remained sinless throughout His LIfe. Only He can pay the price for our forgiveness. That price is heavy. There is intense physical pain. There is horrible mental anguish. There is intolerable humiliation. But most of all there is the experience of being separated from the perfect Love of God for the first time in all of eternity. This is the harshest punishment of all—the one that brings to our Savior’s lips that haunting call; “Why have you forsaken me?” Only He can know the depth of this spiritual agony. Only He can know the suffering of having lived forever in perfect harmony with God, only to experience the loss of that precious reality, that peace, that joy, that love shared together as God, the Father, the Son, and the Sprit. It is a suffering much greater than we can fully comprehend. It is a suffering so great it caused the earth and the heavens, both to be shaken to their core. Herein is the dramatic Love of God acted out on the Cross of our Lord Jesus. Herein we discover the depths of the Gospel.
In perfect Love Christ died for our sins.
In perfect Love Christ was buried.
In perfect Love Christ rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures.
Truly, truly, fully, forever we are blessed.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
The stone rejected by the builders has become the capstone. This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvellous in our sight.
Thank God for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is our breath, our confidence, yea our very life.
Thank you Sir.
Happy belated Easter celebrations to you and your beautiful family.