What Is the Gospel? Part 3

We have begun our presentation of the gospel with God. And rightly so. But now we must move to the other side of the gospel coin. Sinful man or the bad news. The bad news must be understood before the good news of the gospel can be trusted and appreciated.

Man is desperately and woefully sinful

We do not need the gospel if mankind isn’t wicked. That is the bad news- humanity is desperately corrupt, cannot save itself, is at enmity with God, lost, and hell bound. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12).

The Bible is clear: man is unrighteous, worthless, fallen, without godly wisdom and knowledge, and not good. This flies in the face of our modern sensibilities. This is the exact opposite of what we are taught or led to believe about man. The world’s message is that we are basically good, must have self-worth, and are to trust our inner light/wisdom. Who or what are we going to believe? The almighty sovereign majestic God or an insignificant glob of dirt? What is our authority? God’s inerrant, infallible, inspired, sufficient word or sinful man’s deluded, misguided, debauched, perverted, non-authoritative philosophies and humanistic dribble?

Scripture portrays humankind as rebels. Man is rebellious against God and his rule. The first chapter in the book of Romans illustrates this. The attitude of rebellion is apparent in many of the descriptions used for sinful man. Unrighteous men “suppress the truth” (vs. 18). They know that God exists but do not “honor him as God or give thanks to him” (vs. 21). Instead of worshiping the true God, “they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (vs. 22-23). “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (vs. 25). Their rebellion went so far as to even commit homosexual acts (vs. 26-27).

The rebellious nature of humanity is further seen in Paul’s catalogue of sins in verses 29-32. It reads:

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Another characteristic of sin is seen in that man is the consummate lawbreaker. “For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Rom. 6:19). “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (1 Jn. 3:4). “Who gave himself [Jesus] for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Tit. 2:14).

What transpired in the garden of Eden shows that man is a lawbreaker. Adam, the federal head, broke the commandment of God. He was instructed by God himself to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). God’s law was transgressed; relegated to an un-authoritative suggestion instead of the very word of God. Man became a law unto himself. He thought that he had the right to make his own decisions and therefore not obey his Creator. Lawless. Rebellious. Hence, godless.

Lawless men crucified Jesus. “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23). Lawlessness describes the life prior to conversion. Peter wrote, “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry” (1 Pet. 4:3). “The mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thess. 2:7). Sinners break God’s laws; it is that simple and plain to see. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (Jms. 2:10).

Disobedience characterizes sin. “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 5:6). Unbelievers, before salvation, are said to have been “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Jesus is said to be coming back “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 2:8).

It was by disobedience that mankind fell. “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). Before salvation we “were at one time disobedient to God” (Rom. 11:30). The unbeliever professes “to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work” (Tit. 1:16). Peter, using strong language, reveals that unbelievers stumble over the rock of offense [Jesus] “because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do” (1 Pet. 2:8).