GOOD NEWS -- THE GOSPEL!

 Does everyone know the good news of Jesus Christ, which is called the Gospel?

Though I have referred to the Gospel previously in this blog, I want to give a condensed timeline of it in this post which will be linked to my home page. To clarify, the word “Gospels” can also refer to the first four books of the Holy Bible New Testament, which describe the life of Jesus.

The links to Bible references in this post are to the BibleGateway website, since they have the approved version of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE). The Bible references are from NABRE unless otherwise noted. For your information, the Vatican Archives have the New American Bible in five languages HERE and the USSCB books to the Bible webpage is HERE. You can probably find Bibles in paper copies almost everywhere. There are many other resources about theology, but the Bible is the best and most available start, and the New Testament Gospels get right into the life of Christ.

The reader may have questions arising from the events that took place concerning Jesus Christ. The mysteries surrounding Him have been debated by persons ever since He appeared on Earth in present-day Israel over 2000 years ago. Sometimes Church leaders had to meet in councils over periods of time to make sure they were understanding God correctly. But first, every person needs to hear about Him. Then I hope you will seek Him by going to a church and speaking with a Christian professional.

The Gospel Timeline:

First, God, Whom we also call the LORD, has always existed (many verses in the Bible express this, an example being Romans 1:19-20). God consists of One Essence and Three Persons. These Persons are the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.

God created the Heavens and the Earth and all the types of living inhabitants of the Earth, and all that He created was good (Genesis 1).

God created humans in His likeness, meaning we have ability to think and reason more than other earthly animals, and we can make choices in what we do. God created us as companions (although He did not have to), and He allows us to choose because He did not want robot-like friends but those who would be capable of these features of thought, reason, and choice. He wanted relationship with us as intellectual creatures. However, with these abilities also came the inevitable link to free will. If humans are to choose, they must be free to choose right or wrong.

In the beginning, God made two humans, Adam and Eve, and they lived perfectly for a while, but then they both made a choice to disobey a command God had given them (Genesis 3). This was an act against God, which is known as sin, and because of the bad choice they made, all humans came under that burden of sin: “Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

Later, God gave laws to the Jewish people, including the Ten Commandments, described in the Old Testament of the Bible (starting at Exodus 19, through Exodus 24). He told them if they kept these laws, they would flourish, but if they didn’t, they would suffer severe consequences (Deuteronomy 29). Unfortunately, time and again they failed to follow the rules.

So even though humans were made good, we can and do make some bad choices. Because of this, we are incapable of living a perfect life with a perfect God in Heaven, which is truly a forever home. Included in God’s perfection is justice, and as we do with criminals in our surroundings, He applies justice as deserved. Unfortunately, all humans (except for Christ) sin and deserve judgment.

That is why Jesus Christ came to Earth. He took on human nature in all but sin, also keeping divine nature (one Person, two natures). He lived a perfect life and pleased God the Father. As God and Son, He could live a perfect life in Heaven forever. But He came down to save us from the punishment we deserve. Jesus Himself said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16).

In God’s love for us, Jesus took on punishment in our place by dying on a cross. God the Father accepted this act as a sacrifice in atonement for our sins (Romans 3:21-26, NIV). But not only did He die, but He rose from the dead and eventually ascended into Heaven (Matthew 28). He showed us that He is the hope for life with God after death.

Jesus Christ, as already quoted above in John 3:16, tells us that we are to believe in Him in order to benefit from His redemptive (saving) act. We are to believe He is God (a Person of the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit), that He died for our sins and then rose from the dead.

This is called the New Covenant. Since humans failed with the old one, God has supplied the new one. On our part, God requires us to believe in Him. It is the least we can do, to give credence for Who Jesus is and credit for what He has done for us.