What is the Gospel - A Message About Sin

Recap: The Gospel Starts with God

Last week, we introduced the question, "What is the gospel?" by establishing that the gospel is ultimately a message about God. Everything in Christianity hinges on understanding the gospel correctly. It doesn't depend on the sincerity or amount of your faith, but on the object of your faith—the content of what you believe.

God is the Creator, Lord, and Sustainer of everything. By virtue of that, He has the right to determine how we live, what we think, and how we act. We owe Him everything; He gives us every breath. God has spoken, decreed what is right and wrong, and established His law for all His creatures to follow.

The law requires perfect righteousness, but sin entered and hindered our ability to obey it perfectly. Even in a sinless state, humanity rebelled. God requires righteousness through Jesus Christ, who kept the law perfectly, not through our own efforts.

The Bible reveals God's instructions on righteousness and unrighteousness. Seeing the 613 commands in the Torah alone should not lead to despair—that's the point, pointing to our need. The gospel makes no sense without understanding God as the moral Lawgiver. Without Him, there is no basis for right and wrong; it would be chaos. You can't condemn murder, abortion, or any evil without God's decree.

The Bad News: Sin Makes the Gospel Necessary

The gospel requires the bad news of sin. Sin is not doing what God commands and doing what He forbids—a breaking of His commandments. This is seen in Genesis 3, where God said not to eat from one tree, but humanity disobeyed.

Jesus didn't just die as a positive example; He died punitively for sin. His death makes no sense without sin's reality. Christ died to forgive sins and restore us to a right relationship with God.

Sin is evident in our world. Everyone senses a moral distinction between good and evil, but only the Bible provides the true standard, with Jesus as its perfect example.

Romans 1:18-25
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

God's wrath is revealed against ungodliness (carelessness or irreverence toward God, like mockery) and unrighteousness (horizontal injustice toward others, like manipulation or unfairness). Who determines justice? Only God, the Creator.

This leads to worthless thinking—pointless logic that produces doubt and uncertainty, idolatry (exchanging God for creatures), and specific sins.

The Works of the Flesh: Obvious Evidences of Sin

Sin is missing the mark. Galatians 5:19-21 lists obvious "works of the flesh"—synonymous with sin. These are blatant; no deep study needed.

Galatians 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Continuing in these—practicing them without restraint, remorse, or love for them—bars one from heaven, proving no true salvation. It's not losing salvation but revealing its absence.

Sexual Sins

Sexual immorality (porneia) includes any act incorporating sexuality outside biblical marriage—arousal, using body parts sexually. Not just "going all the way," but "going too far." In relationships, keep sexuality dormant; be public and accountable.

Impurity is moral corruption beyond sex, lacking boundaries—financial exploitation, anything unjust.

Sensuality is enslavement to senses—pleasing eyes, ears, taste (e.g., gluttony); a license to sin if it feels good.

Idolatry and Sorcery

Idolatry replaces God with anything—people, relationships, jobs, money, substances for joy or comfort. It's imagination treasuring creation over Creator.

Sorcery (pharmakeia) is narcotics for recreational enjoyment or enhancing worship (e.g., self-worship), not medicinal use.

Relational Sins

Enmity: hostility toward God or others. Strife: acting on it. Jealousy: intense (often negative) zeal over possessions/relationships. Fits of anger: uncontrolled outbursts.

Rivalries (selfish ambition: "me first"), dissensions (constant opposition), divisions (factions/cliques supporting selfishness).

Envy: intense desire for what others have, unlike protective jealousy.

Excesses

Drunkenness: any loss of control (e.g., eye control from one drink); compare to being filled with the Spirit, not wine. Orgies/carousing: excessive eating/drinking leading to moral debauchery.

These sins rob joy; Christ died to free us from them, not to indulge under "freedom in Christ." We are free from sin to live as God intends.