Our Emphasis – The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is our intention, in both what we say and do as Red Sea, to focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As the Bible states, and so we believe, the Gospel message of what Jesus has accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection is "of first importance". “
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
As the Bible states, and so we believe, the Gospel is “the power of God”. The power to reconcile us to God through the forgiveness of our sins. The power to draw near to God in freedom and confidence. The power to overcome the bondage of our own sin and the destructive forces in our lives. The power to build new lives that flourish and are joyful, even in the midst of difficulty and suffering. The power to be united in close community, regardless of our ethnicity, race, sex, economic situation, education level, family background, and personal experiences. The power to boldly partner with God in engaging the culture around us with the message of His redeeming love.
A Summary of the Gospel
The gospel is the “good news” about who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. It is the announcement of the events that God had planned since before His creation of mankind.
Although mankind was created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, the Bible says that mankind has a problem and that problem is called “sin”. We have a sin nature, which is to say that we are motivated and ruled by pride and rebellion against God. Sin shows itself in any attitude or action that violates God's perfect standard. Every one of us, without exception, has the problem of sin.
There’s more.
The Bible also teaches us that there is a consequence to sin. First, it separates us from a Holy God. Because God is perfect in every way, He cannot have any sin near Him at all. Second, the Bible tells us that the just punishment for our sin by a Holy God is death, spiritual and physical death. Third, sin messes our lives up real bad. Shame, violence, hostility, anger, depression, sickness, theft, and countless other expressions of our pride and rebellion torment both society and our own personal lives.
It gets worse.
The Bible also tells us that there is nothing that we ourselves can do to solve the problem of sin. Zip, zilch, nada, nothing. We are completely incapable of achieving God’s perfect standards, even though in our pride and rebellion we try to convince ourselves that we can. Not only are we incapable of obeying but we are already condemned. All it takes is one sin to deserve a Holy God’s just punishment of death. And there is no just way of getting out of it without the death penalty being satisfied. As sinners, we are eternally stuck in an abyss of poop.
That’s the “bad news”.
Now here’s the “good news”. Even before any of this mess happened, God had a rescue plan for the problem of sin and to provide a way for people to get into a right relationship with Him. God did not, and does not, wait for us to get our own act together. God demonstrates His redeeming love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us. That is the good news.
God orchestrated the events of history so as to provide the only possible means that mankind could be freed from the penalty and bondage of sin. Jesus, who is God, became a man, so as to perfectly identify with sinful mankind. However, Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life here on earth. But Jesus did more. A whole lot more.
Jesus was crucified (nailed to a cross of wood until dead). He was innocent but He died as a substitutionary sacrifice to pay the penalty for sin. In so doing Jesus satisfied the demands of God’s holy justice and absorbed God’s holy wrath (punishment). Jesus lived the life we should have lived and He died the death we justly deserved.
But death did not keep Him down. Jesus physically arose from the dead. He was resurrected by the power of God. In so doing, He gained victory over the power of death and defeated the forces of evil in the world. In Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, the barrier of our sin is removed so that we can be reconciled to God; the power of the bondage of sin is broken; and the healing power of God can be active in our lives now.
In His love and grace, God offers the gift of salvation to everyone who turns from their sin in repentance and faith. The acts of repentance and faith do not earn us anything, they are the means by which we acknowledge God’s saving provision in Jesus Christ and express our trust in Christ’s substitutionary work on our behalf.
Don’t take our word for it – read for yourself.
Below is a list of a few passages that you can turn to in any Bible to read about the Gospel of Christ.