The Gospel of Jesus Christ (2) Sin and Death

​“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rm 1:1-4)
 
Review
Last Sunday, we started to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word ‘gospel’ is derived from the Anglo-Saxon term “god-spel” which basically means good news. This word was a rendering of the Greek word ‘euangelion’.
 
But, even though the word ‘gospel’ is most widely used by Christians nowadays, the Greek word ‘euangelion’ wasn’t originally a religious word. I said this word was a political term that was used in relation to an empire or emperor.
 
It was mostly used in three cases—when an emperor was born, was crowned as the ruler, or gained a victory in a war. That was what people thought of as ‘good news’ at that time.
 
But, the apostle Paul used the word to refer to someone else. Paul said that he was set apart for the good news that God called him to preach and further explained what the good news really is in the first paragraph of Romans. Paul talked about some essential factors of the good news, but he concluded that the gospel is Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
We can say a lot of things about the gospel, but it cannot be the gospel if the name of Jesus Christ is missing because the real good news God wants to give all people is Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus is the name that God wants all people to know because only in His name do we find true salvation, forgiveness of our sins, and everlasting life. No good news we may possibly have on earth can even compare to the good news we have in Jesus.
 
That’s what I want us to focus on as we explore the meaning of the gospel more deeply.
 
The Purpose of Jesus’ Coming
So, let’s continue to talk about the gospel. Paul said that the good news that God wants all people to know about is the name of Jesus Christ. Then, we may ask, why is the name Jesus good news to us?
 
To answer this, we need to first think about the purpose of Jesus coming to the world. Jesus revealed this in Mark chapter 2.
 
One of the characteristics that distinguished Jesus from other religious leaders at that time was that He chose to spend time with sinners and tax collectors.
 
One day, when Jesus was having dinner, many tax collectors and sinners came to Him and ate with Him. Seeing this, some religious leaders such as the Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked His disciples,
 
“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Mk 2:16)
 
On hearing this, Jesus answered,
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mk 2:17)
 
In this short verse, we find the reason for Jesus’ coming to the world. He came to call sinners, not the righteous, and heal the sick, not the healthy. Jesus came to the world to solve the problem of sin and rescue us from its terrible and eternal consequence—death.
 
But the problem is that there are so many people who don’t realize their spiritual sickness even though they are going to die because of it.
 
If someone knows that they have a serious illness and that they are dying from it, they would naturally go to see a doctor for treatment. But those who think they are fine even though they are sick, don’t feel the need to go to a doctor.
 
That’s what happened to me. In 2018, I went to Canada with my wife to join a mission-oriented program called Discipleship Training School. Before I left Korea, my mother strongly urged me to get a physical checkup, including a gastroscope.
 
I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t feel any pain in my stomach. I thought my stomach was just fine. But I did it because she really wanted me to do so.
 
I had an endoscopy, and after the procedure, the doctor called me to inform me of the results. I was really shocked when I saw the pictures of my stomach. I didn’t know how to interpret the pictures, but even at a glance, the condition of my stomach seemed serious. It looked like dry, cracked ground. The doctor said that I had a stomach ulcer and that I needed treatment right away.
 
I was really surprised because I hadn’t felt any pain in my stomach and thought I was fine. And because I thought I was fine, I didn’t feel the need to go to see a doctor. If not for my mother’s advice to get a check-up, the situation would’ve become more serious. I felt thankful but at the same time I became really worried about it.
 
And I think that’s how many people live spiritually. We have a great doctor here—Jesus Christ. He is so good and capable that there’s no illness He can’t cure. Furthermore, this doctor is so merciful that He doesn’t charge anything. Rather, He Himself pays the fee for His patients.
 
But no matter how good, capable, powerful, and merciful He is, people don’t want to come to Him. That’s because they don’t realize that they’re sick. All people are sick spiritually because there’s no one in the world who’s not under the authority of sin.
 
Paul said,
“As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Rm 3:10-12)
 
But still, even though the spiritual sickness is serious because it leads to death, people still don’t come to the healer simply because they don’t know that they are sick. Because they think they’re fine, they don’t think they need a doctor.
 
So, the first thing that must happen in order for us to truly understand the meaning of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to realize our exact spiritual condition. But we can’t know whether or not we’re fine on our own. We need an expert who can precisely diagnose our spiritual status.
 
The Bible says that all people on earth are spiritually sick because of their sin, whether they realize it or not. Furthermore, the Scriptures say that the consequence of sin is eternal death. That’s what God says through His word. And there is no expert who can diagnose our exact spiritual situation better than God.
 
Then, this must be the starting point. We must all acknowledge and accept the fact that we’re all sinners and that we’re all heading to eternal death because of that. We’re not righteous. We’re not healthy. We truly need a doctor who can cure us.
 
To face this is not easy, but it’s worth it, because only then can we truly seek Jesus Christ, who came to the world as our perfect Doctor who can cure all our diseases, both physically and spiritually.
 
What Is Sin?
Then, the question we may ask next is, ‘what is sin?’ The first thing we need to know about this is that the meaning of sin in the Bible is somewhat different from what the world thinks sin is.
 
We often think of sin in relation to the law. If we do something against the law, it’s sin. That’s correct.
 
But the difference is that the law of the world is only interested in people’s actions, not their thoughts, intentions, or motivations. But the Bible says that God is actually more interested in what’s happening in our hearts more than what we do outwardly.
 
Proverbs 16:2 says, “All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord” (Pr 16:2)
 
And 1 Samuel 16:7 also says, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7)
 
According to the law of the world, it’s not sin to hate someone from one’s heart until we actually act out of the hatred. But, according to God’s law, hating someone in our hearts is actually a serious sin and is considered equal to murder.
 
Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Mt 5:21-22)
 
So, even though we have a tendency to only consider certain actions ‘sin,’ we need to know that the meaning of sin is much deeper than that. That’s because God’s more interested in the root of sin—our hearts—than its fruits—what we actually do.
 
Then, how can we define sin? I think we can find some insight from the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 3 describes how sin entered the world along with its consequence.
 
In Genesis chapter 1, God created the world for six days and on the 6th day he created mankind in his image. God said in Genesis 1:26,
 
“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Gen 1:26)
 
Here, we find one of God’s purposes in creating human beings in His image. It’s to let them rule over the whole world that He created.
 
So, the first human, Adam, ruled over everything that God had made. In other words, he acted as if he was the king of the garden. But even though he acted like a king, he wasn’t a true king. God was the true king. Adam was only a representative God set to rule over His kingdom.
 
That’s what Adam had to be reminded of in order to truly carry out the mission given to him. I think that’s why God commanded him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam,
 
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Gn 2:16-17)
 
Here, we see both the command and the consequence that would happen when Adam failed to keep it. The command was really simple. It’s not to eat the fruit. It’s not hard at all. But the result of failing to obey the command was death.
 
But, we shouldn’t think of death as God’s punishment of Adam’s disobedience. God didn’t say, “I will kill you if you eat from the tree.” Rather, God simply stated what would happen if he ate from it, which means that death is a consequence of sin, not a punishment from God.
 
So, the consequence of sin is death. As Paul said, “the wages of sin is death” (Rm 6:23). Sin brings us to death not because sin itself has the power to kill us but because sin severed the most important relationship we need in order to live—our relationship with God.
 
The Bible says that only God is eternal. Paul said, “[God] alone is immortal” (1 Tm 6:16). So, only God has eternity. Every other being is finite no matter how alive it looks now. Then, the only way to have life without death is to be attached to God, who has life. As Paul said, “For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 16:28)
 
We can’t have eternity apart from God. No matter how good a life we live on earth now, what’s waiting for us at the end is only eternal death if we’re not attached to God. It’s just like how branches that are cut off from their trees become dry and lose their vitality.
 
So, even though it was a very simple command, it was important for him not to eat from the tree because its consequence would be terrible.
 
Then the next question is, “Why did God put this dangerous tree in the middle of the garden?”
 
I think God did this because He wanted to give Adam free will. God didn’t want Adam to just follow his rule without having any other options because what God really wanted was to have a personal relationship with human beings. God didn’t make Adam like a robot. God made human beings in His image who can freely think and choose for themselves.
 
That’s what I think the tree meant to Adam. He was the king of the world God had created. He could do anything he wanted. But there was just one thing he wasn’t supposed to do. He needed to not eat from the tree. And, by not eating from the tree, Adam was reminded that God was the true King of what he was ruling over and of himself.
 
However, Adam eventually ate from the tree. The action was simple. It was just one bite of a fruit. But this simple action resulted in a very serious consequence because of the motivation behind it. It was actually rebellion against God.
 
We see this from how Satan deceived Eve. One day, the serpent came to her and said,
 
“You will not certainly die… When you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God...” (Gen 3:4-5)
 
Here, we find the motivation Eve and Adam had when they ate from the tree. They didn’t eat it just because it looked delicious. There were all kinds of trees that bore different kinds of fruit in the garden. But still, they ate from the forbidden tree out of a desire to make themselves like God.
 
And I think that’s the best definition of sin. It’s to drive out God from His position as our King and Lord and place ourselves as the kings of our lives. So, sin is truly rebellion against God. Like 1 Samuel 8:7 says, “they have rejected me as their king”.
 
And Paul puts it this way. “They did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God” (Rom 1:28)
 
Because the nature of sin is to reject God as our King and Lord, sin naturally resulted in the severance in our relationship with God, which also leads to death. As the prophet Isaiah said,
 
“Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you” (Is 59:2)
 
That’s how death came to all people on earth through sin. Paul said in Romans,
 
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned…” (Rm 5:12)
 
That’s our situation according to the Bible. There’s no one in the world without sin. And thus, there’s no one who’s not heading to eternal death.
 
But the good news is that God sent His one and only Son to the world to solve the problem of sin. Jesus came to the world as our perfect Doctor and Healer who could freely wash away all our sins out of His love and sacrifice.
 
That’s the Jesus we must rely on. That’s the Jesus we must fix our eyes on. Jesus came to the world to seek sinners, not the righteous, and the sick, not the healthy. Even though He really wants to, He can’t cleanse us from our sins or heal our diseases if we don’t allow Him to.
 
But, if we go to Him with our hearts wide open to Him, and with deep recognition of our sins, Jesus Christ, who is merciful and abounding in love, will welcome us, cleanse us from all our sins, and reconcile us with God.
 
That’s what I really hope to see happen in all our lives today. Now, let’s read one more verse together and wrap up with prayer.
 
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn 1:8-9)
 
Let’s pray.
 
[Closing Prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us this opportunity to think about who Jesus is and what He means to us through Your word.
 
We were dead in our sins, following the ways of the world and our own evil, deceitful desires of the flesh without even knowing that we were sinners. Yet You came down from heaven to save us.
 
We thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to the world as our perfect Doctor who’s more than able to heal us from all our physical and spiritual diseases even though we don’t deserve it.
 
Now Lord, we want to know the meaning of the gospel of Jesus Christ more deeply. And in order to do so, we need to know how sinful we are by nature. Open our minds and hearts and speak to us through Your word of truth so that we may know what we should know and so that we may return to You with all our hearts, confessing our sins and our deep desperation to be reconciled with You.
 
I pray all these things in the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1. What do you think is the biblical meaning of sin? What do you think most prevents people from recognizing their sins? Have you ever gone to God with a desperate heart like a patient dying from a serious illness?
 
2. Have you experienced Jesus’ cleansing and healing power? When? How would you describe it?