EXCERPTS
The Beauty of the Gospel
by Melinda L.
Many of us know the rote definition of the Gospel, which is the “good news.” However, so often among fellow Christians, and even ourselves possibly, do we regard it just as “good advice.” What is the difference between these two similarly sounding phrases? Good advice is something that is given to you when you visit to the doctor when you’re sick. He gives you the advice to stay in bed, eat healthy, drink a lot of liquids, and perhaps take some medicine. Advice is for the sick. Good news, on the other hand is for the dead. Imagine yourself dead, cold, unmoving, and unresponsive. Suddenly, with nothing short of a miracle, one of the mourners at your coffin-side turns to the others in the room. With a shocked and joyous look on his face he loudly proclaims, “He is alive! He has risen from the dead!” You leap out of your coffin, your once dead body having been raised by a Divine power, and strength, health, and life sprung anew in your being. This is the good news: we that once were dead in our trespasses and sins are now made alive in Him through the work of the Holy Spirit! To quote scripture, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” —Ephesians 2:1.
We are not sick in our sins in need of a doctor. Sin is a deathblow. If you are struck with sin (and we all are according to Romans 3:23) then you are dead. Are the dead in need of a physician? Of course not! A dead person needs a resurrector: a Savior!
Take notice in the above illustration that the dead person did not raise himself from the dead. We who are dead cannot raise ourselves! Only the Lord Himself has the power to take hold of our wretched spirits and say, “Arise, my child. You are mine!” As a dead person we do not, and cannot raise ourselves, or choose to be raised. John 15:16 says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” Christ is the one that does the saving, regenerating, and glorifying in us. Even if we had the ability to make a choice, the Bible says that we cannot make the choice: “As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God; they have all turned aside, they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”—Romans 3:10-11. Our inability to choose Christ ourselves is also spoken of in John 3:19: “And this is the condemnation, that the light is come into the world; and men loved darkness rather than light; because their deeds were evil.” In His incomprehensible way to us, He loves us with an everlasting love, and imparts in us an internal regeneration. There is no other way of salvation, but through Christ. He alone saves us. It is not us reaching out to Christ, but rather Christ reaching out to us, and taking hold of us, and never letting go of His grip for all eternity. If we had any part in our salvation it would turn the whole way of salvation around. If man had to choose Christ in order for salvation to be in affect, then that would make man more powerful than God. Man would have the power to render Christ’s atonement useless, and His death on the cross would not mean salvation in itself. It would only come into use once man chose to accept Christ’s atonement.
Yes, man does choose Christ, but only when Christ has chosen him first. Christ claims His own, and in turn, regenerates their hearts to turn towards Him. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.” --1 John 4:10. In our original, hardened state we did not love God. We were enemies of Him, no matter how “nice” we were, or how many “good” things we did. When Christ regenerates us, our lives are suddenly turned around. Where we were once slaves to sin, we are now slaves to righteousness. Where once we hated the light, we now love the light, and desire the light. This change comes from what the Lord bestows in our hearts.
Salvation has nothing to do with our merits, and is not earned by any good work If we did have to do something to be saved, then we would be co-authors of our salvation with Christ Himself. “For by grace you have been saved, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”—Ephesians 2:8-9. If I chose Christ and prayed a prayer that caused my salvation, then suddenly I have something to boast of! I prayed the prayer and am on my way to heaven, while my neighbor didn’t pray the prayer and is on his way to hell. There is much to boast in that. Glory be to God that the act of salvation has nothing to do with us! By grace plus nothing is the beauty of salvation. I was unregenerate then Christ chose me, Christ loved me, Christ saved me, and Christ even now retains me. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”—1 Peter 2:9-10. This is the beauty of salvation.
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