Most presentations of the Gospel come with a problem-solution or need-met approach. Here at [Re]Connected, we are definitely well aware of our own problems and neediness before God, but in the practice of loving and sharing the Gospel, sometimes it’s appropriate to focus entirely upon the Person of the Gospel, the main character: Jesus Christ.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. -Peter the Apostle (Acts 2:22-24 ESV)

During the final years of King Herod the Great, a mere puppet king of the monstrous empire that was Rome, during it’s Golden Age under Augustus, a cry was heard from a cave in the country-side of a backwater province called Judea, as a child was born to a young teenage girl from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the whole country. All this would have been insignificant except for one vital detail: the infant was far from insignificant. This infant was the Creator-God of the Universe taking on human form – an unheard of wonder…and He did this to reconcile His Creation to Himself.

Thousands of years before, the entire Creation had rebelled against their Creator and had thrust itself into a prison of darkness, sin, and death. All that was going to change through this infant, this Jesus. He grew up as any other child would…aside from some dangers in his early life (Herod was determined to kill him, so the family moved to Egypt for a short time) and impressing the best theologians at the age of 12. When He was about 30 years old, though, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin, John and begin a whirlwind 3 1/2 year ministry that would witness healings, raising the dead, casting out demons, preaching, conflict, reconciliation, prophecy, and a host of other things. He assembled a group of twelve disciples that were especially close to Him.

The story could go on, but let’s move to the crux and goal and point of all that Jesus of Nazareth did is what happened on the eve of Passover in 30 C.E. – His death on the cross. But this was not only the scheming of some crooked politicians who called themselves priests. No, in fact, this was the “definite plan” of God and the agreed-on plan of redemption before the world was created. Jesus of Nazareth came to die, was born to die, and set on His sights the goal of dying for a lost and rebellious Creation, to reconcile it and all its inhabitants – including me and you – to the Creator-God, Who is above all holy, true, and infinite. That’s the fact. We killed him. But that wasn’t the end.

Despite the fact that we ourselves killed the Son of God, this same merciful, just Creator Who wanted to reconcile us to Himself and had satisfied His judgment in the death of the perfect Messiah, Jesus, now sealed and made effective His relationship with us by raising Jesus up from the dead. In fact, Peter tells us pretty specifically why: “because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”

The Apostle Paul echoes these thoughts later in Romans 8:38-39 (ESV):

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Just sentences earlier (Romans 8:31-34 ESV), Paul tells us even more blatantly and emphasizes more joyfully the truth of this Gospel that has come to us in Jesus of Nazareth:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

THAT is the good news of Jesus Christ! We, once far off, lawless, rebellious, fallen, sick, stuck in our sins, have been made righteous and reconciled to God through the bloody death and sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth, God in the flesh. And, more than this, He calls on all men to believe in Him.  When Peter, after saying these things about Jesus, was asked what was necessary to be restored to God, he said the following:

Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. (Acts 2:38-39 ESV)

Repent. Forsake your sins and cling to the cross of Jesus. Be baptized. That is to say, become a part of God’s Church. Do so in the Name of Jesus, because through THIS Name and this Name alone can we be saved. Be forgiven of sin. Christ has paid the penalty and bore the wrath for our rebellion, now God offers to us forgiveness of our sins. Receive the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God will indwell you, sealing your salvation, and guiding and leading you into all the truth of the Gospel, giving you its joy and peace and interceding for you in prayer and placing you in continual, constant, and eternal fellowship with the Creator-God that you were made to know.

Note: If you have made this commitment, or have questions about making this commitment, or would like to be pointed in the direction of a solid local church or pastor, please email David at davidketter [at] gmail [dot] com.