What the Gospel means to me...

Gospel literally translated means “good news” or “glad tidings”.  At 5 I believed that good news and asked Jesus into my heart while I bowed my head at my little desk.  Many times over the next years, I would doubt that good news, and used my juvenile power of persuasion to beg forgiveness and ask Jesus to come back into my heart.  I knew what the good news was – that God had sent his son Jesus to earth, to take on the form of a man and live the life of a man; to be put to death as a man as atonement for all the world’s sin, and to rise from the grave three days later, completing the debt and returning to the right hand of God until he comes again.  I knew that, and yet somehow I believed that my childish sins were so grave that I alone needed to continue to ask for salvation – time and time again.  As I matured, though, the gospel changed shape and became something I clung to… something I grabbed hold of, white knuckled and fierce… moments when it would seem like I was Dorothy in the tornado, my life swirling around me in a black cloud.  The Gospel was there… the truth of who God was (is), who his son was (is) and what that meant for my life.  The truth remains, whether I doubt it or not.  The truth remains, whether I trust it or not.  The truth remains, whether I deserve it or not.  For God so.loved Joy… that He gave his only son, that if Joy believes in him, she should not perish, but have eternal life… God did not send his son for Joy to condemn Joy, but in order that Joy might be saved through him.  This is the truth of the Gospel for me.  I am not condemned.  My sins – past, present and future, were nailed to a cross on a hill, with a man who was God who took them willingly, and died in my place.  It’s that simple and that profound.  I did nothing to deserve this… I will never earn it and yet my life profits from it every single day.  I don’t know if I will ever live my life fully embracing this Gospel I love… this story of the Christ I love… I think it’s one of those things that you rediscover over and over.  It’s that awe-inspiring, jaw dropping, “I don’t deserve this, but I can’t NOT take it” gift from a God who loves me… and a Christ who embraced the darkest parts of me to allow me to embrace His light in my life.  This is the Gospel.  This is my good news.