Square One

My mind is drawn to a phrase from the old hymn, "I Love to Tell the Story." It goes, "I love to tell the story; for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it, like the rest." The story Katherine Hankey, the hymn writer, loved to tell was the gospel story. The power of the gospel rests not only in its ability to bring life to the unbeliever, but also in its ability to sustain life in the believer.

When we speak of the gospel we are speaking of the good news of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that humanity was created to fellowship with God and to reflect his glory throughout the creation. However, something went terribly wrong. Our original parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God's command and ate of the fruit they were commanded not to eat. Sin and death became a natural part of human existence. Now all mankind possesses a sin nature. Paul informs us, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). He informs, "The wages of sin is death . . ." (Rom. 6:23). Thus, man is lost in sin, separated from God, destined to die physically and after this face judgment.

Thus, the bad news is that there is no righteous, no not one (see Rom. 3:10-10-20). All of humanity is broken and in desperate need of rescue. The good news (gospel) is that God had a plan all along. Let us return to Paul's words, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23, ESV). Christ's sinless life, offered as a righteous substitionary sacrifice, atones for sin for those who believe. Christ took the penalty for sin, that is death, for his people. As the Scriptures state, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13-14).

Therefore, those who turn from their sin and turn to Christ, through trust in his work on the cross and his resurrection, will be rescued from the wrath of God. The good news of Christ teaches us that our standing has changed. Once we were the objects of God's wrath, because of our sin. Now we are the objects of his delight, because we are in Christ, by grace through faith. Once our nature was at war with God. Now we have been given a new nature and are becoming the righteousness of God. Once we were far off, but now we have been brought near.

Now, through Christ, we have the ability to live in a way that pleases God. Now, our whole lives can reflect the glory of God as we humbly submit to his will. So the gospel becomes the starting point for everything else we do and believe. When we truly grasp the gospel in all its richness it radically alters everything in our life. Yet, we never move beyond the gospel, we only move farther into the gospel. As Katherine Hankey put it we are still "hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest."

When we say we want to hear a different story, we are expressing that we don't truly understand the message. When the story no longer captures our affections, we are confessing that our hearts are darker than we could possible imagine. When we say the story has lost its power, then we are demonstrating something about ourselves, not the gospel. The gospel brings life that abides, life that changes, life that looks like Jesus. Do you still love to tell the story?