THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:  that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of them are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, and to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born."

The gospel is not something that wise men thought about and conceived through eons of time. It is the good news of Jesus. And the witness of the gospel is essential. Hundreds of people saw Him alive, followers, enemies, family, and strangers. To this day people say Jesus has forgiven me. He has embraced me with the gospel of His love and grace. He is alive! I have experienced Him in my life too.

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THE HOPE OF THE GOSPEL

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures."

Have you ever had a doctor tell you, you are going to die? I have. And I cannot fully explain the sensation. But whether there are enough evidences of the imminence of your death to alert your doctor or not, you are going to die.

Death is indeed a dark prospect. I suspect most of you have walked away from the graveside of a loved one, and sensed its empty sadness clinging to you.

That is one of the reasons the death and even the burial of Jesus is part of the gospel. He went through that ordeal with us and for us. And against all nature, and as far as we knew, all possibility, He rose from the dead, giving great credence to the promise of our resurrection. We will indeed shout, "Death, where is your sting!" Because of the gospel death will not have final victory over us.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF THE GOSPEL

In the week that we set aside to celebrate the cross and the resurrection of Jesus we remind one another of importance of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul reminds the believers in Corinth, and a thousand generations who would follow, of the gospel that transforms lives. Verses one through three read,

"Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."

The gospel is not just the starting point of the Christian Life. It is crucial to everything we are and do. We can rejoice all of our lives that Jesus died for our sins. Our eternal hope is in the gospel. Paul reminded the believers that this is what he preached to them. He reminds us that this is what we received. The good news fulfills all the Law and the Prophets. This makes sense of everything in our lives. Upon this truth we stand!

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GOSPEL WAGES

Possibly even more than Romans 3:23, the passage we last dealt with in this blog, Romans 6:23 sounds like anything but good news. That is partly because we have been bombarded all of our lives with the nonsense of self-esteem. You are important! You are wonderful! You are flawless! You are a winner! You can be anything you want to be!

But as helpful as that thinking may be, it strikes many of us as unreal, a little like the Easter Bunny. We were on the ball team where everyone got a meaningless trophy when we didn't win a game. Or we told a friend she had a beautiful hat, when we were just too shocked to speak the truth.

But in His love God speaks reality to our hearts. Romans 6:23 reads,

“For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Let me point out two crucial things this verse teaches.

1. This verse brings us to the Desperate Need of the Gospel.

The world promises wages in its counterfeit currency. The true wages of living our lives as if we didn’t need God are lostness and death without Him.

So you have cancer. You go to two doctors. One of them smiles, gives you pain pills and a fishing poll. The other doctor says we are going to operate on you to remove the tumor from your body. I have been there. The hard words are the good news?

2. This verse also teaches the Wonderful Gift of the Gospel.

The gospel is not something you earn. It is the gift of God's love.

Many years ago I served in a church that was unhappy with me. God gave my wife and I great comfort in Revelation 3:9. He assured us that the people would come to know that He loved us. At first I wanted to say, "No God. I want them to know that I was right." But after His word began to wash over us, we decided we needed His love in our lives more than we needed to be successful or impressive.

Every wonderful thing in life comes from His love and the gift of the gospel. It is eteranlly good news!

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