The Gospel Matters Most
When a patient comes into the Emergency Room with any issues, the main goal for the Emergency Room staff is to assess what is the most important issue that the patient needs to have addressed first. If there are breathing issues or heart issues, those would take precedence over a splinter in the hand or small cut on the arm. The ability to determine what is the most pressing concern is vital.
When it comes to how we approach and deal with God, we also need to be able to assess the most important aspect of connecting to God. Though God has done so much and has revealed Himself in so many marvelous ways, it is the Gospel of Jesus that matters most. “Gospel” literally means “good news.” So, we find the “good news” of what God has done in Jesus Christ.
Romans 1:16 says this: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (NIV). Paul says that He is willing to take a stand on the “gospel,” that is the “good news” of Jesus.
What is that good news? In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Paul describes the gospel this way: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (NIV).
Two quick things to note. First, in verse 1, Paul says that he was reminding them “of the gospel I preached to you.” So, Paul said this is what the gospel is: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Second, in verse 3 Paul said that this gospel was of “first importance.” This is the most important thing Paul is telling people about. It is the gospel, the good news of Jesus, that matters most of all the things that Paul communicates.
Why does the gospel matter at all? Returning to the Romans 1:16 verse, Paul speaks of the results of the gospel. In the good news of Jesus, we find “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”
Through what Jesus has accomplished in His death, burial, and resurrection, we can be saved, rescued, redeemed, forgiven, reconciled to God, and made new. It is through the gospel that the salvation comes into our life. Jesus made that possible. Salvation is not earned through what we DO. It is made available for us to receive through what Jesus Christ has already DONE.
Some questions: Are you depending on what you DO or what Jesus has DONE for your salvation? Have you embraced the gospel of Jesus in a personal way where you have placed your faith in what Jesus has done? This Easter season, will you embrace the gospel, the good news of Jesus? It is the gospel that matters most.