If you are wired at all like us, you will have a very hard time “Living Fully Alive” without settling eternity in your heart! Understanding God, the Bible, humanity, and the gospel seemed to be vitally important in our lives as we began this journey and it is now what fuels our passion. We actually discovered that the gospel is actually “good news” and is better than we thought. (Don’t panic – we are not doing an alter call here or trying to get you saved or re-saved; we are simply trying to share with you what we have discovered.)
Growing up, we both learned that God initially loved us, but because of sin and our “flesh” (humanness), we would spend the rest of our lives trying to perfect, change, prove, earn, and strive to keep that love flowing. We were taught to look through the lens of “positional righteousness.” We were told that our spirits were made righteous when we accepted Christ into our hearts but the rest of us was on a life long soul cleansing journey that determined how connected we would be to God. What this looked like in our lives was “The better I behave, the more time I spend doing holy things, the more I become perfect in every way determines how much of God I have in my life and where I will end up for eternity.” Just like the first original sin in the garden, we were trying to be Christ-like through our own efforts; trying to obtain the free gift of grace through works is a sure fire way to wind up on the hamster wheel of hopelessness. But we have great news for you – that is not the gospel! Jesus is the totality of the gospel. Let us explain:
Salvation created our identity and nothing is greater than what Jesus did for us on the cross. He secured our righteousness, holiness, relationship with the Father, and our eternity when He stepped into our place and gave His life for us. Because of Jesus we now stand securely in God’s pleasure. We have actually been crucified with Christ, we are now dead to sin, and we are a living breathing new creation that was resurrected when He was resurrected. It’s all a gift, an unmerited one, given to us through Christ’s perfect sacrifice. Nothing we did gave us righteousness and salvation and nothing we do can take it away. Now, not only are we saved and made righteous, but the fullness of God dwells within us. What we could not do, work through the law to obtain righteousness, holiness, God’s pleasure, and a secure eternity with the Godhead, Jesus did for all humanity when He became flesh, took on the sin of the world, gave His life on the cross, and was resurrected into glory.
That’s it! It’s really that simple! Jesus is enough! He finished His work and what He did was enough for every human being that ever has been and ever will be on this planet.
Here is another description of the Gospel from one of the writers that we love, John Crowder,
“Jesus vicariously stepped into our humanity, united us with His Father, and now enables us to participate in the Trinitarian (God, Son, & Holy Spirit) life by the Spirit. Most people see relationship with God as ultimately depending on their human effort (“their” decision, “their” faith, “their” repentance). However important these things are, they are not the substance of salvation. The substance of salvation rests solely in Jesus’ relationship with the Father. The truth is that we have been woven into the Trinitarian life through Jesus’ union with the Father by the Spirit. Salvation rests solely in His decision, His faithfulness, and His vicarious repentance and baptism into our death. The Spirit now enables us to participate in His completed work, not re-accomplish it. The good news was never about our human response to God. It was always about Jesus responding to the Father on our behalf. Jesus is not a “potential savior” if you make the right response. This kind of focus denies Christ’s substitutionary work on our behalf and ignores the entire purpose of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ. Jesus is also not an “example” of what we must do (in our acts of faith and repentance) to reconnect with God. He is our Substitute who accomplished all things pertaining to salvation on our behalf. We have been brought into this union where Jesus not only embodied the God-humanward action of God toward man, but he also embodied the human-Godward action of us toward God. God never expected us to fulfill our side of the covenant relationship. He embodies our full human response to the Father. Jesus vicariously took on our humanity and offered our human response back to the Father.”
God actually planned the whole thing this way! Scripture testifies to God’s foreknowledge – before creation – that He knew human beings would be sinful and would be in need of redemption and reconciliation, and He actually already had the perfect plan and outcome. It was always the eternal plan of God to unite Himself to humanity and to lavish on us His mercy and goodness!
Romans 11:32 – For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
Colossians 1:15-22 – In him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in him, and through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Eph. 1:10 – His purpose was to make all history work out towards one culminating moment, when He could bring every movement in the whole universe, spiritual as well as material, to a head in Christ.
“In the incarnation, He fully embraced the human condition. God and man both find their ultimate fulfillment in the gospel.” – John Crowder
So now you may be wondering, how then did we all ended up with such mixed up thoughts, views, and theology regarding the gospel? If we take a trip back through history, we can shed light on the origins of these beliefs.
For the most part, what the Western world believes about God has been built upon Calvinism and Arminianism (or a mixture of the two!) Although both contain truth, they are also mingled with human logic which distorts the simple gospel. Although we are no experts, we have studied and seen how adopting these beliefs can greatly affect our view of God, our worldview, and our ability to “Live Fully Alive.” We have also found that the gospel cannot be contained by human logic and this is often where we tend to get confused in our belief systems. Again let us explain:
Calvinism, which originated in the 1500’s, held the beliefs that: 1. The effects of the fall upon man was “total” depravity to every part of his personhood (thinking, emotions, will, etc.) 2. God is totally sovereign and salvation is completely determined by Him. 3. Christ died and atoned for the sins of the “elect” only. 4. Only the “elect” receive grace and faith from the Holy Spirit to respond to God’s call for salvation. 5. Christ assures the “elect” that he will not loose them and they will be glorified on the last day.
The gospel does say that our salvation is not up to us, even our faith is a gift from God. (Yay, Calvinists!) But human logic then leads us to the assumption that since all men are obviously not acting like they are saved, then there must be an “elect” group of people whom God chose. Therefore He must have destined some to go to heaven and some to go to hell. So God then is painted as a distant cruel judge that chooses one human being over another to be with Him in paradise. God, therefore becomes man’s worst enemy which leads to a life lived out of fear and hopelessness.
Next we will discuss Arminianism, which originated in the 1500’s as well, and holds these beliefs: 1. Humanity is “partially” depraved and tainted by sin, but not to the extent that they cannot seek and choose God. 2. God only “chooses” those whom He knows will choose to believe; No one is predetermined for heaven or hell. 3. Jesus died for everyone, even those who will not believe; His death was for all of humanity and anyone can be saved by believing in him. 4. God’s call to be saved can be resisted and/or rejected 5. Christians can lose their salvation if they reject the Holy Spirit’s influence in their lives; the maintenance of salvation is required for a Christian to retain it.
The gospel does say that Jesus died for all of humanity. (Yay, Arminians!) But how they logically try to explain why all men don’t appear to be saved is by saying grace is resistible and we must use our free will in order to partake in His salvation. Ultimately that means that our willpower, our ability to muster up enough faith, and/or our choice is what saves us not Christ’s gift of grace. He alone is not enough. And of course, if you have to do something to receive your salvation you must also do something to maintain it. This sends people on the hamster wheel of striving to please God, trying to earn favor, wondering if they are enough, and always in the pursuit of sanctification. As you can see, this also promotes a lifestyle of performance and fear since you are solely responsible for it all. In this, there is no security in your salvation since it is up to you to grasp ahold of it and keep it.
Again, in both of these theologies, we see the common thread as this: they are searching for the answer to why the world looks the way it does if Jesus really finished the work set before Him. The problem with mingling human logic with the gospel is that you are left with a belief that makes sense, sounds appealing, and leaves out the mystery and unexplainable things of God. Logical answers do not line up with the character of God perfectly displayed in Jesus. The gospel is perceived as foolishness to the world and to human logic. If what you believe is not bringing life to you, reminding you that you are chosen and loved by God, reinforcing that you have peace with God through Christ, proclaiming Jesus’ victory over sin and death, and painting the picture of a loving God that died on behalf of all humanity – then there is a good chance that human logic has confused the beauty of the gospel.
It’s time that we adopt a Christ-centered gospel. The truth is that all humanity was included in the saving act of Jesus because He died as humanity. You see, all of us already believe that we universally died in Adam, but most of us don’t believe that we were universally made alive in the Last Adam, Jesus. (1Cor 15:22) Romans 5:18 says “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation to all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.”
So to address the big question, what about the unbelievers and the obvious sin and death that we see in the world? We don’t have all the answers but we do know that even the unbelievers are included in Christ in a hidden way. Colossians 1:16-17 says “For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” In Christ all things are held together and He reconciled all things to himself on the cross. We have a hope that all will recognize that they are included in Christ and partake of their glorious inheritance. We believe that God’s mercy will prevail and His goodness will ultimately be irresistible to every person. We trust Him because He is faithful to do all that He said He would do.
Here is a beautiful summary of God’s plan and purpose for all mankind taken from John Crowder’s book Chosen for Paradise.
“God’s predestined intention for you was to lavish upon you the eternal wealth of His goodness. You were created as an object of love…God is mercy. True justice was His demand that you be restored to your rightful place as an heir of your Father’s kingdom. Jesus was absorbing the sinfulness of mankind and all it’s inherent ramifications – destroying our disease in His own broken servant body on the cross. This He did on behalf of humanity… In the incarnation, God bound the entire created order to Himself. We are all enveloped in Him, as is all creation – whether we realize it by faith or not. The scripture hints at the possibility that all might come to know Christ, but the mystery remains open ended. Leave room for mystery. We are saved by trusting Jesus, not figuring Him out…Humanity cannot create or manufacture union with God. We can only discover it. One thing is for certain, we are no longer outsiders. Jesus Christ went to the altar and accepted you into His life…Hidden even within the collapse of mankind’s utter failure was a latent plan to redeem us from that very fall, revealed at the appointed time in the person of Jesus… Our Father of infinite freedom allowed His creation to explore to the hilt the delusional idea that there is any existence whatsoever apart from Mr. Existence Himself. He allowed us to run into the bushes in a delusional attempt to escape His Presence – to pretend there was a place He didn’t exist. But separation never existed from His perspective – in our blindness, the illusion of separation only existed from our end. How much more can we relish the work of Christ – the Chosen One elected to wake us from that Adamic fallacy who became the sacrificial ram in those bushes to cleanse us of a guilty conscience? Forever we shall cherish that He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. All of creation resounds with this glorious good news, that we have been included in the life of God…The intent and purpose and scope of the Gospel is that God and man are forever meshed in unending unity.”
We know that this is a lot to take in all at once, so don’t try to! If you felt your spirit come alive as you read these words, then just rest in that! There is peace and life here, resting in what Jesus accomplished on your behalf. Our only activation for you this week is to meditate on Him and what He has done for you. Rest in His faithfulness to pull this whole thing off as He intended to! In the following weeks will will walk you through how this changes everything you do in your life, how you see yourself and others, and how you can now Live Fully Alive since you have peace with God!
2 Cor. 5:19 – God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
John 15:16 – “You did not choose me, but I chose you….”
Prayer: Father God, we are overwhelmed by your goodness and your grace. Let the beauty of your love and mercy flow over every part of our mind, body, and spirit. Continue to fill us with your revelation and wash us in your peace!
