THE GOSPEL | wogbc

God is Creator: He made all things that exist – seen and unseen.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

"God is to be praised as Creator, by reason of the marvelous order, variety, and beauty of his works. Psalms such as Psalm 104 model this praise. God is to be trusted as the sovereign LORD, with an eternal plan covering all events and destinies without exception, and with power to redeem, re-create and renew; such trust becomes rational when we remember that it is the almighty Creator that we are trusting. Realizing our moment-by-moment dependence on God the Creator for our very existence makes it appropriate to live lives of devotion, commitment, gratitude, and loyalty toward him, and scandalous not to. Godliness starts here, with God the sovereign Creator as the first focus of our thoughts." - J.I. Packer

God is Good: He is pure and righteous. There is no evil in God.

Give thanks to the LORD; for he is good: for his steadfast love endures forever. (Psalm 136:1)
You are good, and do good; teach me your statutes. (Psalm 119:68)
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness: evil may not dwell with you. (Psalm 5:4)

God is Holy: God is not like us. He is perfect and entirely independent of what He has created.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
This God, his way is perfect, the word of the LORD proves true…(Psalm 18:30)
Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! (Isaiah 6:3)

"When we say that God is holy we mean that, along with the immeasurableness of his greatness, his character is unimpeachable. He cannot be charged with any wrong. He has an infinite love for what is infinitely valuable and an infinite hate for what opposes the infinitely valuable. His delight in praiseworthy things is unbounded, and his abhorrence of what is blameworthy is perfect. As Habakkuk 1:13 says: "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrong." - John Piper

We Are Not: Have you ever lied, cheated, stolen, lusted? You have broken God’s law. We are all guilty sinners in the sight of God.

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. (Mark 7:21-23)
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
As it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. (Romans 3:10-11)
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. (James 2:10)

That’s A Problem: A good and holy God will not tolerate any transgression of His law

he has fixed a day, on which he will judge the world in righteousness… (Acts 17:31)
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:12)
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)

The Way of Forgiveness: God did not spare His own Son. Christ has purchased a full pardon reconciling us to God.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:8)
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (Philippians 3:9)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15)