Truth and History

In contrast to the false gospels being preached today, the Gospel is true, not legend or myth. Jesus Christ was an actual figure in human history, as much as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Some religious leaders say Christ was a myth or a legend; he wasn't. He was born to a virgin, Mary, in the small town of Bethlehem, 2,000 years ago. He lived about 33 years, was put to death by the government, and rose from the dead three days later. When he was whipped and crucified, his blood ran on the ground. Christ is no myth.

Second, the Gospel concerns the past: It is history. The Gospel is the good news about what Christ did for his people 2,000 years ago. He died for the sins of his people, so that they would not have to die. Christ was buried, and on the third day he walked out of his tomb alive.

All these events are wholly outside of our experience. Just as all men are condemned by the disobedience of our first father Adam, a sin wholly outside of us, so are all of God's people saved by the obedience of the second and innocent Adam, Christ, an obedience that is wholly outside of us.

The Bible teaches that salvation has been achieved by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ -- by acts wholly outside of us. The Gospel is not a subjective experience but objective truth.

The Gospel is truth, not fiction. The Gospel is history, not personal experience. The Gospel is what Christ did for his people, not what they must do for him. Sinners can do nothing to merit or earn their salvation. They cannot even prepare themselves for salvation, for they are dead in sin.

The Certainty of Salvation

The Gospel is good news because it is the news that salvation is absolutely certain for God's people. It is not merely possible or probable.

Christ, in dying for his people, took the punishment they deserve for their sins and actually achieved their salvation. He did not merely open up a door to Heaven that they might enter when and if they please. He did not merely build a bridge across the gap between sinful men and a perfectly holy God so that people might come to God if they wished. He crossed the gap to take his people back to Heaven with him. When he said, "It is finished," he meant it. The death of Christ actually accomplished the complete salvation of his people. They can do nothing to deserve salvation, and they can contribute nothing toward their salvation.

The nineteenth-century hymn writer said it well:

Not what my hands have done, can save my guilty soul.
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God.
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin.
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to thee
Can rid me of this dark unrest and set my spirit free.

I praise the God of grace; I trust his truth and might.
He calls me his; I call him mine, my God, my joy, my light.
'Tis he who saveth me, and freely pardon gives.
I love because he first loved me; I live because he lives.

Nothing we can do -- no prayers, no good works, no sorrow -- can save us from the punishment we deserve for our sins. Nothing that happens to us or in us can save us. Our salvation from sin and everlasting punishment in Hell comes from Christ alone. It is not the Holy Spirit's work in us that saves us, but Christ's work for us, when he lived a perfect life and died an innocent death 2,000 years ago in Israel.

Of his people and their salvation Christ said: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand."1 Christ gives his people eternal life by giving them faith: "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved."2 He makes them believe the Gospel: "Christ died for our sins." "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."3