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The Objective Truth of the Gospel

 


Evangelism must be tethered to the gospel, and the gospel message proclaimed must be doctrinally clear and biblically grounded. Without a gospel message, we cannot win souls. The gospel’s central essence is the person and work of Christ. The gospel is not about me; it is about Him. The gospel is for His Glory! Our ultimate need is to enthrone Him upon our hearts. R. C. Sproul declared, “We need Christ. We need a real Christ. A Christ born of empty speculation or created to squeeze into the philosopher’s pattern simply won’t do. A recycled Christ, a Christ of compromise, can redeem no one. A Christ watered down, stripped of power, debased of glory, reduced to a symbol, or made impotent by scholarly surgery is not Christ but Antichrist.”[1] We must speak clearly to honor Christ as willing ambassadors for Christ’s cause. Therefore, the gospel stands upon these four objective truths: the gospel reveals that God is Holy, it declares that the whole of mankind has fallen under God’s judgment, it demonstrates God’s unmerited grace is poured out on mankind through the cross of Christ, and it restores the repentant to God’s kingdom.

God Is Holy

First, God is Holy! The gospel fully displays God's holiness. Paul argued that “. . . the righteousness of God has been revealed” (Rom 3:21). This means that God’s character and nature are revealed apart from Scripture (general revelation) and then further attested by Scripture (special revelation). God’s just nature is revealed in the necessity of punishing sin for violating God’s holy standard. God imposed this penalty on Christ as our substitution. Moreover, Jesus Christ voluntarily took upon himself the punishment due for human sin, acting as a substitute so that sinners could be forgiven, God’s wrath against sin’s violation of God’s holy standard could be satisfied, and sinners could be reconciled to God and restored to righteousness. The core idea is that divine forgiveness must satisfy divine justice; our transgression of God's holy standard, our sin, deserves penalty, and Christ bore that penalty in our stead. The sin of mankind incurs a just sentence, death, but through God’s mercy and grace, Jesus suffered this penalty. He became our substitution, bearing what we deserve. This fulfills what the prophet Isaiah wrote:

“Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth” (Is 53:4–7).

Christ, who bore our punishment, paves the way for God to justify without compromising His righteousness.  Because Jesus is God the Son, he is not a third party being punished; God takes the penalty upon himself for those united to Christ.

Mankind Is Fallen

Second, Paul attested, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Mankind has a universal problem—sin. Moreover, mankind’s spiritual state is dire in that sin results in death. In a perpetually divided culture, we must recognize that the core issue is our sin. Although we can see the effects of that sin in the societal injustice that surrounds us, our primary problem is that mankind has sinned against a holy God. We are entitled only to a well-deserved judgment of condemnation. Jonathan Edwards asserted, “Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable.”[2] More could be said around this doctrine of hell, but for brevity of focus, let us look to the remaining objective truths.

God’s Unmerited Grace

Third, God poured out His grace through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. The core of the gospel freely justifies sinners before a holy God so they might be restored. God’s righteousness is fully displayed through Christ’s work on the cross. Paul further clarified:

“They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat, by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:24–26).

The redemptive plan was set forth for the Glory of the Son to demonstrate God’s compassion and mercy toward us, because our sin had irrevocably separated us from a relationship with God.  Jesus died when we should have . . . mercy. So that we could have a restored relationship with God . . . grace, God demonstrated His just nature and His ability to justify the unrighteous. 

God’s Kingdom Reign

Fourth, the gospel grants admission to the Kingdom of God. Paul continued his argument, saying, “For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law (Rom 3:28). Entrance into the Kingdom of God occurs through justification. We are justified by faith in Christ through His power and work. Christ’s reign in the Kingdom is not a mere defensive strategy God employed because He was losing control. Rather, in His wisdom and providence, He demonstrated His authority, already His, through His initiative, motivated by His compassionate nature. Therefore, entrance into the Kingdom of God must come through Christ’s work. A distinction exists between justification and sanctification in the cross's redemptive work. Justification stands as the castle gate. We must pay for admittance into the castle—repentance and belief in Christ. Once inside, we must show fealty to the king. Sanctification stands as that fealty. We love him because he first loved us, not out of compulsion or compunction but from gratitude of heart. We obey his commands because we love him.

Conclusion

Upon this foundation, let me make a bold declaration: If Jesus Christ is not your Lord, then He is not your Savior. Christ’s Lordship compels His servants to work for His kingdom. Fealty to Christ demands obedience. As our Savior and Lord, Christ commands us to carry the message of redemption to the lost. L. R. Scarborough wrote, “Christ calls from Calvary for us to carry the saving efficacy of His cross to a lost world about us.”[3] Therefore, the gospel stands as the objective truth about mankind’s spiritual state.

 


[1] R.C. Sproul, Following Christ (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 3.

[2] Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” The Works of President Edwards (Worcester: Isaiah Thomas, 1809), 7:490.

[3] L. R. Scarborough, With Christ After the Lost, revised and expanded. ed. E. D. Head (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1952), 3.

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