Of First Importance

Reflecting on three components of the gospel

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Photo by Rose Galloway Green on Unsplash

When we speak of the gospel, there are three components to focus on. Many times we only focus on Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection. And, of course, that’s needed, but sometimes we talk about it at the expense of something else: His life.

Christ’s life

The life of Jesus was just as important as the death of Jesus. We needed someone not only to die for our sins—which we will get to—but for someone to live a perfectly righteous life on our behalf. Jesus only dying for our sins would’ve made us morally neutral. We didn’t need mere neutrality, but a perfect righteousness. Jesus provided that to us in His life.

Jesus never sinned (Heb 4:15). Think of all the ways you fail on a daily basis. We all do. We lie, lust, have pride, get impatience, treat others poorly, and so many other things. Those aren’t just mere mistakes, friends, but sin. It’s good and right and biblical to call it that.

And Jesus never did any of those things.

Jesus never sinned in His righteous anger.

Jesus never lusted.

Jesus never got impatient.

Jesus never backstabbed anyone or gossiped. Where we disobeyed, Jesus obeyed.

Christ’s death

The death of Jesus is crucial to understanding the gospel. When we sugarcoat what his death was, we lose the weight of the gospel and the hope of glory. Jesus’s death on the cross wasn’t merely death, friends. No, Jesus also was taking on the full brunt of God the Father’s wrath.

The Bible tells us that when Jesus died on the cross, He was paying the penalty for our sin—God’s holy and righteous wrath. Look no further than 2 Corinthians 5:21,

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Or let’s look at Isaiah 53:4-6,

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted… But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities… The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all… Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief

The words of Jesus as He died were a declaration that He finished the work that He set out to do – “It is finished” in John 19:30. The sacrifice has been made; the atonement was complete. Jesus died, but He didn’t stay dead.

Christ’s resurrection

Many theologians have spoken about how Christ’s death was the payment for our sins and His resurrection was the receipt. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we would be of all people most to be pitied. If Christ was not raised, we are still in our sins.

But, of course, Christ did rise from the grave; he did resurrect. He did defeat sin, death, and Hell in his finished work through his life, death, and resurrection.

Friends, this is what it’s all about: the gospel. The gospel, really, is simply Jesus Christ and His work. This is what our faith hinges on; there is where our hope resides. Our hope is not in ourselves; it’s not in any good deeds we can do or any community service we should perform (although we should do good deeds). Our hope is in Christ and Christ alone.

The gospel has the power to save any type of person. All one must do is repent of his or her sin and believe upon Jesus in the gospel and His finished work. God changes people through that. They become new creations in Christ. And that’s all praise to God.