The One Thing

If Christianity could be summarized in one message, what would it be? If you were not too familiar with the Christian faith, it would be the one answer to the question of what this faith essentially is. Can it be really be whittled down into such a simple form? The original apostles of Christ believed it could. They believed there was one central message. This one message was called by different names, but the most prominent was the gospel.

The gospel message, which means good news, was considered to be divinely given by God, foretold by the prophets of old, announced and fulfilled by Christ, and brought to the world as the mission of his followers. To the early church, it was the message of life, the message of truth, the message of the cross, the message of grace and the message of hope. It was the message that was life-transforming and that came with the power of God's Spirit. Listen to how the apostle Paul spoke of it:

"I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."
-Act 20:24

The message of the gospel was so sacred, valuable and precious that Paul counted his life as meaningless unless it could be dedicated to sharing this good news. Take note that it is called the good news. The power of the message is just that...it is good. That good message has changed me. My life was forever changed when I grasped it. Like Paul, I have a desire to see others understand that message. I just wish my convictions were a 10th as strong as his!

I know there are many who are opposed, indifferent or turned off to the Christian faith. I believe such individuals probably don't understand or grasp that at its core, it is offering something good--very, very good! If you are such a person, then you are the reason I want to explain the gospel. I want you to find what I have.

The message of the gospel is proclaimed in different ways throughout the Bible. For me, I think the following passage expresses it very succinctly:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
-2 Corinthians 5:17-21

There is a lot packed into this passage. In brief, the gospel is the message of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. This means that Christ is the path through which a person receives the gift of the fullness of God's love, favor and acceptance. The meaning of reconciliation is that God no longer counts ones sins against him. He looks upon the reconciled one as a dear beloved child rather than a condemned, guilty sinner. And the soul looks upon God as a loving, heavenly Father rather than an angry judge. This is what it is talking about when it says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

What happened to our guilt then? The gospel is not saying that we did something so great so as to make up for our guilt. It is saying that Christ took our guilt upon himself and when he was crucified, God counted that as the punishment of our sins and shortcommings, past, present and future. That took away our guilt, leaving us innoncent and righteous.

When the gospel says that we have become righteous, it is not saying that we have become such great people that God can not help but overlook any present sins and shortcommings. It is saying that God has counted us as righteous because we are associated with His Son, Jesus by faith. God chooses to see us as if we really were pure and blameless, even though we are not really. The new creation is the person God sees through Christ. The old creation is who we really are but whom God no longer sees us as. That is why it is called the gospel of grace!