The Gospel

We believe we have a message from God that is to be preached to every person in the world.  That message is not something we dreamed up ourselves, rather it is the message God has given us in his revealed word, the Bible. Our message to the world is a message of good news, but it does not start as good news. It starts with a proclamation of the state of man before God, and man’s need to repent and be forgiven of sin (Luke 24:47). The Lord Jesus Christ commissioned His disciples to go into all the world and preach repentance of sin for the remission or forgiveness of sin.

You will notice that our message to the world starts with the person of Jesus Christ. We make no apology and openly confess ourselves to be followers of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

You may well ask, “Who was Jesus Christ, that we should still follow him and obey his commands in this the 21st Century?”. The Bible clearly reveals that Jesus Christ was God incarnate, God revealed in the flesh. In the gospels of the New Testament which gives an account of the birth of Jesus Christ, we are told that the Lord Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that He was the Son of God, that He was Immanuel – meaning God with us (Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:26). The scriptures make it clear that Jesus was both God and man.

He’s named “Jesus” – the Greek word for the Hebrew name Joshua means “God saves”. Our Lord’s very name “Jesus” tells us the purpose for His coming into this world “that he might save his people from their sin” (Matthew 1:21).
We believe it is our responsibility, to bear witness to the world that mankind is in a fallen state of sin; that we are all sinners by birth and by choice and need to be saved from sin. We demonstrate we are sinners because each of us has by our own choice and/or our own desires, sinned against God and broken His holy law.

The bad news gets worse! Not only are we sinners, but we are willful sinners who love our sin rather than God, and more than God. Our human nature has been corrupted by sin in its entirety, not only our affections and emotions and our minds, but also our wills. We cannot live even one day without sinning against God, and we do not have the ability in ourselves to stop sinning and live a holy sinless life that is pleasing to God.

Can God overlook our sin, or by-pass our sin, or just forgive us our sins because He is good and God is love?  The answer is absolutely – NO! God is an infinite being, who is sinless, perfect in holiness and righteousness and justice. He cannot change. He cannot become imperfect or in any way accept sin or any sinner that has not been cleansed and forgiven of sin. The bad news about the human race, about you and me as sinners, is that we are hopelessly lost and under the just punishment of God against us for our sin.

The punishment of God against sin is death. Death in relationship to God is not the annihilation of the soul, an unconscious nothingness, but rather death is conscience separation from God. In this world, we are now separated from God by our sin and are spiritually dead toward God. In eternity there will be an eternal conscious separation from God, which will be a living torment in hell. The bad news is very bad, and man’s state in sin is desperate. In faithfulness to God we must tell you the bad news and call you to repentance because, though there is no hope for man in man or in yourself, there is hope for man, for you; and that hope is in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

The good news starts with Jesus Christ. In Luke 2:10-11, the angel in announcing the birth of the Lord Jesus to the shepherd said to them, “Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” The Lord Jesus came into the world as a Saviour. He himself said in Matthew 9:13, “I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance”. In Matthew 11:19 the Lord Jesus identifies himself as a friend of publicans and sinners; and in Luke 19:10 the Lord Jesus said that he is come to “seek and to save the lost”.

What did the Lord Jesus Christ do as Saviour to save sinners?  About this matter the Word of God is very clear. Let me again quote to you our Lord’s own words.
In Matthew 20:28 our Lord says that he came not to be ministered to (or served), but to minister (serve) and to give his life a ransom for many. The Lord’s words, “that he came to give his life a ransom” means his life was a payment to set others free.  In Titus 2:14 we read: “The Lord Jesus gave himself for us, that he might REDEEM us from all iniquity (sin)”. In Ephesians 5:2 we read: “The Lord Jesus gave himself for us, an OFFERING and a SACRIFICE to God”. In Galatians 1:4 we read: “The Lord Jesus gave HIMSELF for our sins”. In Romans 5:8 we read: “God commends his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ DIED FOR US”.  When we ask, “What did the Lord Jesus do to save sinners?” The answer is clearly given – he died to pay the penalty of death for our sins. 1 Peter 2:24 says He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. 

Even further, the good news is that not only did the Lord Jesus pay the penalty for our sin, but since he was perfectly holy and sinless, the righteous merit of his life that is well-pleasing to God is IMPUTED (that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith ) to the sinner in whose place he died.  And that sinner is not only forgiven of sin, but he is credited with the perfect righteousness of Christ and therefore made completely acceptable in the sight of God, as though he had never sinned. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 we read “For he (that is God the Father) made him (that is the Lord Jesus Christ) to be sin for us, he who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  You cannot be made more righteous that the righteousness of God. That is what the Lord Jesus did to save sinners.

How do we know that the Lord Jesus’ death for sinners truly pays the penalty for sin and credits them with his righteousness?  The answer is the resurrection from the dead. The Lord died the death of a sinner or criminal against God, but having paid the debt, which is death; death could no longer hold him.  He rose triumphantly over sin and death and Satan. The justice of God was completely and fully satisfied so that no further payment is needed or required to save a sinner. Hebrews 7:25 says “the Lord Jesus is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them”. God has given to sinful man a perfect Saviour who saves by his death and resurrection.

How does this perfect salvation for a sinner become yours as a sinner? Again, the Word of God is very clear. In Romans 10:9-10 we read: “That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus (or Jesus is Lord) and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  The gospel openly calls men to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 1:12 we read: “But as many as receive him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Again in John 3:16 we read: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life”.

The apostle Peter in Acts 4:12 said, “Neither is there Salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”

The good news of Jesus Christ calls sinners to repent of sin and by faith receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, and be saved.  In John 6:37 the Lord Jesus said, “All the Father has given me shall come to me; and him that comes to me, I will in no way cast out”.

So our message to the world, is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a message of hope. It is a message of good news, that declares Jesus Christ as God’s way of salvation and that welcomes sinners who repent of their sins and call in faith upon the name Lord Jesus to save them from their sins.