The Gospel of God – Part 33The Gospel of GodThe Gospel of God – Part 35

The Gospel of God – Part 34

We need to stand back now and return to the subject of sin and man’s alienation from God for which the gospel is God’s provision.

Do you remember these columns we wrote about previously in Part 30?

Sin and its consequences.God’s provision in Christ.
Being under the judgement of God.Justification and forgiveness.
Being separated from God.Reconciliation.
Being spiritually dead.Regeneration.
Being enslaved.Redemption.
Being unclean.Sanctification.
Being powerless.The Holy Spirit.
Being in the Old Covenant.The New Covenant.

We will now consider the manner in which God has provided for man’s full restoration and recovery, using the words above.

The left-hand column lists many of the key ways in which sin has had its terrible consequences. This is not an exhaustive list but it does cover the more serious ones.

The right-hand column lists words that are the corresponding Biblical ones, so one can see how full, wonderful and complete has been God’s provision in the gospel.

One of our friends, Ron Bailey, has said many times that Bible words don’t have definitions, they have histories.

We will need to examine the histories around these Bible – gospel – words.

Sin and its consequences.God’s provision in Christ.
Being under the judgement of God.Justification and forgiveness.

We have seen God’s judgement of Adam and Eve when we were considering their place in the Biblical narrative. We also saw the awful condition of men’s hearts at the time of Noah when God destroyed them all in the flood.

Man is still under the judgement of God. This is clearly written in the book of Romans, which is Paul’s great statement of the gospel.

“We know that the judgement of God is according to truth…” Romans 1:2.

“You are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God”. 2:5.

“In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ”. 2:16.

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God”. 3:19.

This is an aspect of the gospel that is unpopular to the modern man’s mind. One seldom hears these days of God’s judgement. But without the knowledge of sin and judgement there can be little understanding of the grace and mercy of God in His provision in the gospel.

In using the words in the right-hand column it is not my intention to suggest that each word represents a different experience that we must know and enter into. Rather the variety of words used illustrate to us differing aspects of what God has done for us in Christ. This richness in the Biblical record increases our understanding and appreciation of Him and His work.

The different words may have a “family” of ideas related to them as they are drawn from different fields of life.

So, for example, there might be words that come from biological or family concepts; words with a legal emphasis that would be heard in the courtroom; another set of words might have had a religious or ceremonial application.

Now we will consider each of them in turn.


 
The Gospel of God – Part 33The Gospel of GodThe Gospel of God – Part 35