The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news but not just good news. It includes both bad news and good news. And in order to embrace the good news so as to be saved people must first accept the truth and reality of the bad news. The bad news isn’t complicated. In fact its very simple. We are more than people who have made a few mistakes or done some bad things. The truth is, we are bad people who have done and do bad things. The fact is—we were never good or pure and thus our sinful state and our sins are our identity. We are sinners through and through—in thought, word, and deed. That’s the bad news we have to come to grips with in order to really hear and embrace the good news Jesus wants us to embrace and enjoy.
The indescribably good....no the incredibly great....no the incredibly amazing news of the gospel is that God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to assume our identities as sinners and then take our identities to the cross where He died in our place, paid the eternal penalty for our sins and our sinful identities, satisfied the wrath of His Father against our sins and us, destroyed any record of our past identities, and then gave us His identity.
Thus, from the moment of belief, from the moment of conversion, from the moment of salvation believers are no longer defined by their sin because it no longer exists. Our sin, in whole and in part, was removed from us, paid for, destroyed, and forever forgotten by God at the cross. It has no jurisdiction in your life. It has no bearing in regard to how God sees and treats you. It is not your identity and never will be again. Your identity as a believer is Christ. Thus, you are no longer defined by your sin but by your new life in Christ.
The correct response to this incredibly great and amazing news is to believe it, embrace it, exult in it, enjoy it, and share it. The worst thing you and I can do is to forget about it and let Satan and your own flesh deceive you into thinking your sin is your identity and that which defines your life. That shadow cast upon your soul will rob your joy faster than anything I know.
Don’t let it linger long. Fight it by preaching the incredibly great and amazing news of the gospel to yourself.....Christ is not only your Lord and Savior, He is also your identity. His obedience to the Law, His righteousness, His devotion, His love, His purity, His passion for His Father’s glory, His works, His death, His burial, His resurrection—its all yours! As Paul put it in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
The indescribably good....no the incredibly great....no the incredibly amazing news of the gospel is that God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to assume our identities as sinners and then take our identities to the cross where He died in our place, paid the eternal penalty for our sins and our sinful identities, satisfied the wrath of His Father against our sins and us, destroyed any record of our past identities, and then gave us His identity.
Thus, from the moment of belief, from the moment of conversion, from the moment of salvation believers are no longer defined by their sin because it no longer exists. Our sin, in whole and in part, was removed from us, paid for, destroyed, and forever forgotten by God at the cross. It has no jurisdiction in your life. It has no bearing in regard to how God sees and treats you. It is not your identity and never will be again. Your identity as a believer is Christ. Thus, you are no longer defined by your sin but by your new life in Christ.
The correct response to this incredibly great and amazing news is to believe it, embrace it, exult in it, enjoy it, and share it. The worst thing you and I can do is to forget about it and let Satan and your own flesh deceive you into thinking your sin is your identity and that which defines your life. That shadow cast upon your soul will rob your joy faster than anything I know.
Don’t let it linger long. Fight it by preaching the incredibly great and amazing news of the gospel to yourself.....Christ is not only your Lord and Savior, He is also your identity. His obedience to the Law, His righteousness, His devotion, His love, His purity, His passion for His Father’s glory, His works, His death, His burial, His resurrection—its all yours! As Paul put it in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
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