JDL - Direction Twenty-One - The message - Law (what we do) and Gospel (what God does) - Part Two

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 (ESV))

We talked about the Law, and now we need to move on and talk about the Gospel. The Law is important because it shows us our sins. If we did not know we sinned, then we would not know we need a Savior. If we did not know we need a Savior, then we would be lost forever.

Again, the Law accuses; the Law shows our sins; the Law does nothing for us that would move us or motivate us to anything except despair, or worse, self-righteousness.

Thanks be to God that Jesus also speaks words of Gospel to us. Just as we learned the S.O.S. of the Law, so there is an S.O.S. of the Gospel. The Gospel Shows our Savior. The purpose of the Gospel is to point us to Jesus. The Law pointed us to ourselves wherein we saw our deficiencies and, in and of ourselves, our lack of hope. The Gospel points us to outside ourselves, even to Jesus who did everything for us.

Very often when we speak about the Gospel, we tend to minimize it to simply being that Jesus died for my sins and rose again. That is most certainly Gospel as is the Gospel in a nut shell, John 3:16; however, that is not the totality of the Gospel. The totality of the Gospel lies in the fact that the “passion” of Christ began with His conception and birth under the Law.

Remember, Jesus came to His own, the children of Israel. He came as the embodiment of the children of Israel. What the whole nation of Israel could not do, Jesus did. He fulfilled all the Law and the Prophets, perfectly. He did everything perfectly, not only for the children of Israel but for us as well. He did everything we are to do perfectly. He suffered every temptation we suffer and even more and greater, and He never sinned. He obeyed all the laws perfectly, something we cannot do. And after living a perfect life, He then became our substitute. He who was without sin, He who knew no sin became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).

He, Jesus, took all our sins upon Himself as well as all the sins of all the people who ever lived, who were living, and who ever will live, and He suffered and died to pay the price, the wage, the cost for those sins. He died the eternal death penalty for all people, and most specifically, for us in our place. And He did it because of His great love for us.

“The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 (ESV)), and this eternal life did not come as a free gift. Oh, forgiveness is ours, free of cost, but our sins did not just vanish in the wind. The price, the cost for sin, for our sins had to be paid. Jesus paid the price for our sins with His life; that is why the gift which He gives and which He can give because He is the one who earned it is eternal life which He freely gives to us.

When Jesus directs our lives, He speaks to us words of Law which remind us of our state of being before He called us out of the darkness of our sin. And He directs us as He speaks words of Gospel, words which motivate us to confess our sins and to begin forgiveness. And those words of forgiveness are most precious because with forgiveness there is always life and salvation. Oh, how wonderful to be directed by Jesus through His wonderful words of forgiveness and salvation. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Think About
What is the price for sin? Can you pay the price for sin?

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your message of salvation, the Good News, the Gospel message that Jesus lived for me, took my sins and died for me. Forgive me when I attempt to take any credit for what You alone have done. Help me to be better able to express what You have done for me through word and action, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.