The Gospel in Twenty Questions (3 page)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and
only Son … God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to
save the world through him. (John 3:16–17)

Jesus reveals a loving God who
cares deeply for us and will not let us slip quietly into the night of our sin.
Our forefather Adam rejected God in the Garden, but our heavenly Father did not
reject us. We built a wall, but he made a door. We ran and hid, but he came and
found us.

God
sent Jesus because he wants
us to know
how much he loves us. He’s not interested in condemning us or treating us as
our sins deserve. His desire is to rescue every last one of us, from the best
of us to the worst of us. His Father-heart beats for more children. It beats
for you and for your family. It beats for your neighbors and those kids at the
breakfast club. It even beats for their dead-beat dads and their negligent
mothers. The Father’s heart of love beats for the whole world.

“Paul,
that sounds like you’re preaching unconditional love.” Is there any other kind?
For too long religion has prostituted the love of God by telling us we must do
stuff before our Father will love us. This is the greatest crime ever inflicted
on the human race. It has left us orphaned, messed up, and in the pigpen of
dead works. Manmade religion says God is angry and must be appeased. But Jesus
shows us that God’s face is shining on us with love and grace.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only
Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth … For the law was given
through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:14b, 17)

If the law came through Moses
and grace came through Jesus Christ, then God the Father must be a grace-giver,
not a law-giver. And since the Son came full of grace and truth, the Father
must be full of grace and truth too. And he is. He sits on a throne of grace,
not a throne of law.

Some imagine that
God gives us law while Jesus gives us grace. God hammers us with holy judgments
while Jesus gives us cuddles. This is nuts. It’ll lead you to cling to the Son
but run from the Father.

The good news
declares that Jesus is the embodiment of the Father’s grace. Jesus is
fantastically gracious, but he is no more gracious than God himself. They are
the dynamic duo of graciousness. There is no attempt to manipulate you into
cooperation. There is just grace upon grace radiating from the throne of grace.

Life
is full of cares and worries, but Jesus said, “Do not worry, for your heavenly Father
knows your needs” (see Matthew 6:31
–
32). And Jesus wasn’t talking about great
spiritual needs, but ordinary, everyday needs like food and clothing. The bad
news of the orphaned life says, “You are on your own and nobody cares.” But the
good news Jesus proclaimed says, “You are not alone and your heavenly Father
cares about even the smallest details of your life.”

Perhaps
you have come to this book with some questions. Who am I? Why am I here? Is God
angry with me? Good fathers love it when their kids ask questions, but you will
never get good answers unless you see God as your good Father.

Who
am I?
You are your
Father’s dearly loved child.

Why
am I here?
Because your
Father loved you into existence. You are his dream come true.

Is
God mad at me?
Nope. He
rejoices over you with singing.

Can
he forgive me for the things I’ve done?
He already did.

Does
he love me for who I am?
He
thinks you’re great! You’re a one-of-a-kind special and he delights in you.

Will
he disown me if I sin?
Never. Would you disown your own children?

What
does he expect from me?
He expects you to settle in his love and flourish in his grace.

Life
is more than eating and drinking and paying bills. The abundant life that comes
through Jesus is nothing less than the adventure of exploring the limitless
love of a great God. It’s riding atop the shoulders of the One who made all
things.

Whether
you are in the pigpen of dead works or the special care ward for broken people,
you need to know that your heavenly Father loves you like crazy. He reaches
down with love in his eyes and healing in his hands and asks, “Who’s your
Daddy?
I’m
your Daddy, you’re my child, and I love you.”

This is the
good news an orphaned world most needs to hear.

In the movie
Taken
, Liam
Neeson plays a man called Bryan whose daughter has been abducted by a human
trafficking ring. The outlook is not good. The daughter is bound for slavery
and her father is far away. But Bryan speaks to the trafficker on the phone and
delivers one of the best movie quotes of recent times:

If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of
it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will
look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
[6]

This line resonates because it
speaks to the grizzly-bear heart of every father. “You touch my kids, and I
will come for you.” This is what dads do. We protect our children from wicked
men like that slaver. And if our children do get taken, we come for them with
everything we have.

This is
exactly how it is with our heavenly Father. In Genesis chapter 2 God gave us
life and liberty, but in Genesis chapter 3 we allowed ourselves to be taken in
by the lies of a slaver and lost it all. The consequences were terrible and
we’re still paying the price. But in the dark hour of our Fall, our loving
Father declared war on our abductor. He looked the serpent in the eye and spoke
of One who would come and visit Neeson-like vengeance on his head.

And on the
cross, God delivered on his promise.

Since the Fall, mankind has
viewed God through a cracked lens. We have projected our brokenness onto a God
we do not know and created a deity in our fallen likeness. This manmade god
embodies our deepest fears and insecurities. He is the law incarnate who counts
our sins and grows angrier by the moment. He is a judge to be feared rather
than loved. And apparently he is a father who tortures and kills his own son to
satisfy some legal need for blood.

Look at
Christ’s death on the cross and you may wonder, “Why did this happen?” The
religion of cracked men will answer: “We were born criminals. We entered this
world stained with sin and bad to the bone. The moment you took your first
breath you were offensive to God, and before you knew right from wrong you were
condemned to die. God is just in condemning you because your sin is so great.
But he is also kind because he killed his own son in your place. Someone had to
be punished to appease his wrath, and better Jesus than you. If you repent for
being born, declare your love for this murderous God, you can claim your ticket
to heaven where you will spend eternity in his presence.”

Is it any
wonder so few are attracted to the bad news of dead religion? Who in their
right mind would be drawn to such a cruel and sadistic punisher? Thankfully,
God is nothing like this.

The gospel of
Jesus is infinitely better than the religion of cracked men, for it reveals a
God who loves you like a Father. God never changes. He has always loved you and
he always will. He loved you when you were a baby and he will love you when
you’re old. He loves you when you’re good and he loves you when you’re bad.
Your behavior cannot diminish his love for you. This is the true message of the
cross.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Why did Jesus come
and die? Because God loves us and doesn’t want to lose us.
The cross is not about satisfying some legal need for blood. Nor is it about
appeasing an angry deity. The cross is divine retribution against those things
that harm God’s beloved children. It’s your heavenly Father applying the hammer
of hard justice to the head of the slaver. The cross is your way out of prison
and your ticket to life and liberty.

A few weeks ago we packed up
the car and headed out for a family picnic. But I took a wrong turn and we
ended up at the wrong place. It was entirely my mistake, but it affected
everyone in the car. My wife and children had done nothing wrong, but because
of my error they found themselves where they did not want to be. My choice had
consequences for the whole family.

That’s how it
is with us and our forefather Adam. He took a wrong turn and we all ended up where
we don’t want to be. Instead of picnicking beside the sweet shores of our
Father’s love, we found ourselves caught up in Satan’s rebellion. We would’ve
been safe if we had trusted our Father, but we didn’t and here we are. Adam and
Eve became the first prisoners of an ancient war and every one of their
children and their children’s children was born inside a POW camp.

The religion
of cracked men says we were born criminals, but the Bible says we were born
prisoners to sin.
“You were slaves to sin,” said
Paul. “You were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.” Paul is not saying
we are captive to some bad habits. His word for sin is a noun, not a verb. Sin
is a slaver, a monster, a villain.
[7]

It’s not that
we were born bad—it’s that we were born on a sinking ship. God didn’t put us
there; Adam did (see Romans 5:12). By heeding the serpent Adam condemned
himself and his children to death. God tried to warn Adam, but Adam didn’t
listen. He distrusted God, relied on his own judgment, and drove the ship of
humanity straight into the iceberg. With the bulkheads ruptured, sin began
flooding the lower decks and death became inevitable. It was one man’s decision
but we would all pay the price.

Religion says
our greatest need is to be forgiven for the crime of being
born. But our real need is to get off Adam’s sinking ship.
Religion says you need to be good. But Jesus says you need to be
free
(John 8:32).

Why do we
need to be set free? Because apart from God we are not free. We may think we
are free, but our freedom is an illusion. It’s the restricted liberty of a
slave or prisoner.

The movie
The
Matrix
illustrates this deception brilliantly. In the world of the Matrix
the human race is plugged into a virtual reality system that consumes people.
Similarly, we are part of a system that deceives and devours. The Bible calls
it the “present evil age” and “the dominion of darkness,” but in the movie, the
character Morpheus calls it a prison:

The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us … It is
the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth …
That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born
into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.
[8]

Life without God is an inferior
reality. It’s a life of fear and futility. It’s a short trip on a sinking boat.
It is not what we were made for.

The natural
man may think, “Life isn’t so bad,” but that’s because he doesn’t know what
he’s missing out on. The enslaved life is all he knows. The New Testament
writers knew better. Like Morpheus, they had been unplugged from the Matrix and
saw life as it truly is. They understood that natural
man
is alienated from the life of God, enslaved to all kinds of passions and
pleasures, and bound by his fear of death.
[9]

God
made man free but sin enslaved us. Our greatest and most immediate need is to
be set free from sin and all its cursed effects
—
sickness, disease,
oppression, poverty, and injustice.

What
is freedom? The world defines freedom like this: “If it feels good, do it.” But
live this way and your appetites, and those who feed them, will control you.
You won’t be free at all.

Religion
defines freedom like this: “Do good and avoid bad.” But that way leads to
pretending. Live like this and you will end up wretched and religious like the
Pharisees. They were the biggest do-gooders of their day, yet Jesus said they
were slaves to sin. They thought they were God’s right-hand men, but they
weren’t even real people. They were cartoon characters living little lives and
hiding behind masks of religious activity. They were just as bound as the
“sinners” they despised. When Jesus confronted them with the reality of their
captivity, they didn’t believe him. They said, “We are Abraham’s descendants
and have never been slaves of anyone” (John 8:33). Yet Jesus insisted they
needed to be set free.

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John
8:36)

Know Jesus and you will be free
indeed
. Not fake free. Not merely free to choose which prison bunk you
sleep on, but totally free of the slaver called sin.

What does
real freedom look like? Jesus shows us, for he lived a truly free life. Jesus
lived free from fear, anxiety, sickness and all the other symptoms of sin. He
knew what it was to receive love and give love in return. He walked every day
in the sunshine of his Father’s favor and remained untouched by the corrupting
pressures of this present age. His reality was supernatural and he brought
heaven to earth everywhere he went. This is the life he offers you. This is the
glorious freedom of the children of God.