What is the gospel? Good news

Read 2 Corinthians 5:20–21 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Introduction

Continuing from last week,

does anyone remember what gospel means? (ask)

Gospel means good news!

And the good news is so great,

in Paul’s day it would be used when a messenger returns to a city to declare that a city was saved from annihilation from a conquering army.

In today’s world we need that kind of good news more than ever don’t we?

Just this week in one of our students’ high school a transgender person committed suicide for not feeling understood.

That person could definitely needed to hear some good news.

But what is the good news?

I can just tell you good news,

but if I don’t tell you what it is,

it doesn’t make sense!

So now that you understand the bad news from last week’s message,

today, we will be going to depth,

on the Good News.

So that from fully understanding what the Good News is,

you will be able to share the gospel with others.

1. The obligation of the gospel (v.20)

We see this in v.20,

‘Now then (or therefore’)

Stop there.

Whenever we see there word therefore,

we stop and see what that word is there for.

And we do that by looking at the previous verse, 19.

It says in v.19,

‘that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has commited to us the word of reconciliation.’

What Paul is saying in this verse is that,

God in Christ, is reconciling the world to Himself.

What does reconcile mean? (ask)

It means to restore a relationship. (picture)

God does this by not imputing their trespasses,

in other words not counting people’s sin against them.

Remembering how bad the news is for everyone,

that we all deserve God’s wrath for our sin,

the good news is that God is not counting the sins of people who believe in Him,

which reconciles,

or restores our relationship with Him.

But it doesn’t end there,

because God has also given us this mission as well.

‘and has commited to us the word of reconciliation’.

God has given every Christian a ministry to share the word of reconciliation.

He has given every Christian a mission, an obligation,

which means a duty,

to share your faith,

so that others can have their broken relationship with God restored too.

Not just you.

God wants you to share it with others as well.

That’s why, in v.20, Paul says we are ambassadors for Christ.

An ambassador is someone who has been given a great mission.

That mission is to represent the sender.

And to exercise the authority of the sender.

For example,

if you were an American ambassador in Mexico,

You are fulling a mission given to you by the United States Government,

to represent the US,

and to exercise authority on behalf of the US.

And as ambassadors for Christ,

you are to fulfill the mission He has given you,

to share your faith with others,

because you represent Him,

and your words have the authority of God behind it,

when you share the king’s message of good news.

That message is in the final phrase of the verse,

‘we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God’.

When you share your faith students,

you are doing it for King Jesus.

So you don’t need to be ashamed or afraid to share.

Because if people reject it,

they are rejecting the King,

not you.

Because you are representing Christ,

and you are sharing His message.

His message of non-Christians to come and have a restored relationship with Him.

This is something that people have tried to find an answer to:

‘how can I be made right with God?’

Many religions, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism,

try to do this by doing good works and various rituals.

In Catholicism it’s, doing the sacraments, going to a confession booth, take the Mass.

In Islam, it’s avoiding pork and praying 5 times a day.

But God has come and said,

enough of this,

‘This is how you can have a restored relationship with me.’

So how exactly can we have a restored relationship with God?

What makes Christianity so different compared to all the other religions?

After all, many people,

think that all religions are the same.

That they all are about doing good works and being good people,

in order to go to heaven.

But that’s not, how God reconciles believers to Him.

The answer is in the final verse.

2. The gospel (v.21)

This is what we see in v.21,

‘for He made Him who knew no sin’

First we understand the gospel,

when we understand that Jesus the Son of God was sinless.

He knew no sin.

Many people like to fantasize,

that Jesus had some sort of sin.

But Paul makes it clear, that Jesus was sinless.

When Jesus lived a life on this earth, He lived it without sinning even once.

This doesn’t mean he never faced temptation.

He was tempted like we were, as it says in Hebrews 4:15,

Hebrews 4:15 (ESV)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

But whenever He was faced with the temptation of greed, or the temptation to be proud like when Satan prodded Jesus to jump off the temple building and be caught by angels,

He never sinned.

Not only was Jesus sinless, He was also perfectly righteous.

Jesus obeyed all the laws in the OT, perfectly.

It’s not enough to simply not sin, because there were laws that Jesus had to follow.

He always ‘remembered the Sabbath day, and kept it holy’.

There was not a single time, when He failed to keep the fourth commandment.

Because He was perfectly righteous.

He never failed to help someone in need.

He never was afraid to say the right things when it was called for.

He always acted in perfect righteousness.

That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 5:48

Matthew 5:48 (ESV)

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus was not a hypocrite when He said this.

He could say this, because He himself is perfect.

And this reminds us of the bad news.

That in order to go to heaven, you must be perfect.

But we’ve all failed, this requirement.

And therefore everyone deserves God’s wrath.

But the good news for those who believe,

is that ‘God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us’.

In essence, what happens when Jesus died on the cross,

was that He was becoming our substitute.

You all know what a substitute is.

A substitute is someone who takes the place of another. (picture)

An example is a substitute teacher who takes the place of your teacher, when your teacher is not available.

This past week, I was sick, so I had Mr. Adam be my substitute to teach WNL.

So Jesus as our substitute,

takes the place on the cross that we deserve.

As we learned last week, the bad news is that everyone deserves God’s wrath.

Because all have sinned, and the wages of sin is death.

So what that means, is that every single one of us, should be hanging on the cross.

We all deserve to die.

But Jesus, takes the place on the cross of those who believe in Him.

Our substitute of the punishment that we deserved.

And this was no ordinary punishment.

This was not some slap on the wrist.

This was a punishment of extreme pain. (picture)

You see the word excruciating, which describes something as extremely painful,

is derived from the word crucifix.

Which is the cross that Jesus died on.

In the world that Paul lived in, that was the most painful form of capital punishment.

It was reserved for only the worst criminals.

Murderers and thieves.

It was so painful, that usually the person would be nailed to the cross, and hang there for days.

Once the body becomes exhausted,

it becomes unable to push up to breathe for air.

And thus the person would suffocate and die.

It is an awful way to die.

God makes a statement, about how serious sin is to Him.

Because He could have chosen any other way to die.

Some quick and painless way.

Today we have lethal injections, to where you can just die painlessly while you’re asleep.

Why couldn’t God choose to come, when mankind created a painless form of execution?

But He chose this brutal and extreme form of punishment,

to show how serious sin must be dealt with.

The worst forms of punishments such as crucifixion were reserved for the worst criminals,

because it sent a message,

to others to not commit the same crime.

God sends a message,

to the whole world on how much He hates sin.

But there is something even worse than the extreme pain Jesus took for sinners on the cross.

He for a brief moment,

experienced separation from God.

Matthew 27:46 (ESV)

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

If you want to know pure dread,

pure hopelessness.

be abandoned by God.

When I was a child.

I remember being in a department store.

And I was enjoying being there, being with my parents.

When suddenly, I lost them.

And I felt this sudden panic and fear,

because I knew if I was on my own,

I have no chance of living.

Maybe some of you, have also experienced the first time of being separated from your parents.

That will give you a little clue, on what Jesus experienced on the cross.

He was in fellowship with God the Father and the Spirit for eternity.

And so the one moment Jesus was cut off, He felt it.

And cried out.

Why was Jesus cut off?

It’s because Jesus, as Paul said, ‘became sin’.

He didn’t literally become sin.

But He becomes our substitute for our sin.

We deserve not only the most painful form of death, we also deserve to have complete hopelessness and a cut off relationship from God for eternity.

That is God’s wrath.

This is the gospel, students.

That Jesus becomes the substitute of the punishment we deserve for our sin.

Instead of us, receiving punishment,

God’s wrath,

He takes it for us.

Students, this is called penal substitution. (write this down)

Penal means punishment.

In other words, substitution for the punishment we deserve.

But what happens if we sin in the future?

Does Jesus have to die for us again on the cross?

That’s what Catholics believe.

In Catholic mass, they are resacrificing Jesus every day to cover for the sins that you make every day.

But that’s not what the Bible says.

Hebrews 10:14 (ESV)

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

As it says in Hebrews, only one offering, is sufficient to save sinners.

So how does one offering take care of sins in the future?

The answer, is that Jesus Christ dies on the cross for every sin that you commited,

past, present and future.

Ok, so I know now that all of my sins have been taken by Jesus on the cross if I believe.

But there is still one more problem students.

And that’s the fact that Jesus said,

you must be perfect in order to go to heaven.

Not just sinless,

but also perfectly righteous,

So how can God accept you into heaven,

when you’re not perfectly righteous?

The answer is in the final phrase.

‘that we might become the righteousness of God in Him’.

Paul is saying that the problem of not having perfect righteousness is solved by Jesus Christ.

Jesus became sin,

and we become God’s righteousness.

How incredible is that?

You can go to heaven, because Jesus takes your sin on the cross,

and also makes you perfectly righteous.

But how is this possible?

What Jesus does, is that on the cross, He not only takes our sin,

but He also transfers His righteousness to us.

And the language being used here, is a banking account. (picture)

Now some of you might not have a banking account.

So I’ll try to explain it this way.

Let’s say you owe your friend $100.

I don’t know why you would owe your friend $100 at this age,

maybe you made a bet on the Super Bowl tonight.

Say you bet on the Chiefs.

So you owe them $100.

But then your parent gives you $100 so you can pay him back.

So you pay him back, how much money do you have now? (ask)

Right zero.

It’s nice that you got $100,

but because you owed your friend $100, you still have zero.

You’re still broke. (picture)

When Jesus takes your sin to the cross,

He pays for your sins, so now that you no longer owe God an eternity in hell.

Just like how your parents pay your friend $100, you no longer owe him.

But you’re sill broke.

You still can’t enter heaven having a bankrupt righteousness.

But now,

Let’s say after paying back your friend, your parents give you another $100.

Now you actually have $100 in your wallet.

Because you already paid off your friend.

Now you’re no longer broke!

So what Jesus does is not only pay the debt you owe to God on the cross,

He also gives you, transfers you His righteousness.

So that in your spiritual wallet, you don’t have nothing.

In your spiritual wallet, you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Worth an infinite trillion dollars.

You can finally enter God’s heaven,

because Jesus took away your sin,

and gives you His perfect righteousness.

This is why Jesus is the only way, students.

Every other religion fails to deal with the two problems of going to heaven.

The first problem: punishment for sin that everyone deserves.

World religions don’t even try to address that problem.

They ignore, that sin must be punished.

The second problem, that you must be perfectly righteous to enter heaven.

All world religions teach some sort of system of rituals and good works to go to heaven.

We mentioned some earlier, like fasting, or doing a certain ritual.

But while you try to build up some of your own righteousness,

it’s not perfect.

When you fail to be righteous once, you already failed to be perfect.

That’s why doing good works or being a good person will not save you.

God wants perfection.

This is the gospel, students.

That Jesus Christ takes away your sin,

and gives you his righteousness.

We call this double imputation.

Double imputation simply means, you transfer your sin to Jesus,

and Jesus transfers His perfect righteousness to you.

Here’s a picture for example.

Just like the example I gave earlier of owing your friend money, and your parents giving you money.

Share these two words penal substitution, and double imputation,

with your parents.

And they might not even know what that means!

Ok, so now I fully understand the gospel.

How can I make sure that all of this good news applies to me?

Good question!

First understand, that God offers this to everyone as a free gift.

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And so how do you accept a free gift?

Do you have to pay for it?

Do you have to earn it with some deed?

No.

You just take it!

Romans 3:28 (ESV)

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Paul explains that you are made right with God, by faith apart from works of the law.

Works of the law are good works or good deeds.

Paul is saying faith apart from good works.

Meaning faith, and faith alone.

Students, if you want to accept the free gift, simply put your faith, which is your trust in Jesus.

That He died on the cross, rose again, took away your sin on the cross,

and gave you His righteousness so that your relationship with Him can be restored.

And that’s it.

That’s all you have to do.

You don’t have to earn it, or maintain your right standing with God.

Because you have Jesus’ righteousness.

Just put your faith in God, and keep trusting in Him.

Next week, you will learn about practical ways to share your faith.

Conclusion

If you have not yet placed your faith in Christ today.

I urge you to be reconciled to God, by placing your faith in Him today.

So that you don’t face His wrath, but accept His loving embrace in His presence for eternity.

Let’s pray.