(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels. See all the posts here.)
Last time we talked about the Gospel we learned that it is a story that begins with God. The first part of the Gospel taught us that God is the royal, holy, perfect King over all the universe who deserves all of the glory. Part 1 of the Gospel teaches us about God and part 2 teaches us about ourselves. So, the first two parts of the Gospel simply teach us about who God is and who we are. As John Calvin said, "Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. " The Gospel teaches us three main truths about ourselves.
1. We were created to reflect the image and glory of God. In Genesis 1 when God created humans He set them apart as distinct from the rest of creation by making them in His own image. "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them." (Gen 1:26-27) There is a lot of speculation about what it means to be made in the image of God. Does it mean that we are conscience of our existence, rational, emotional, or relational? Those may be part of it, but at the center of the idea of being in God's image is displaying His glory. In the context of the ancient near east there were many different gods and many temples to those different gods. At the heart of each temple was an image or idol of that god. That image was meant to be a display of the glory of that god and was intended to point people to worship that god. In the same way, humans were made in the image of the true God to reflect His image and glory so that people who be always turned to worship God. But, the second truth the Gospel teaches us about ourselves shows that things did not always work out this way.
2. We rebel against the royal God by trying to exalt our own image and glory. But humans proved to be not very good at reflecting the image and glory of God. In Genesis 3 the first rebellion against God happened. Adam and Eve decided that instead of reflecting God's glory they would try to be like God and make decisions for themselves (Gen 3:5). Instead of glorifying the royal King, they tried to make themselves gods. This rebellion is sin. Whenever we sin we are making ourselves little gods over our own lives instead of submitting to the true King.
But the Gospel tells us that this rebellion was more than just an act Adam and Eve committed in the garden. It is a disease that has infected all of humanity. Paul says that "sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned." (Rom 5:12) And also that "there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God." (Rom 1:10-11) This rebellion is something that every human has participated in. We have all tried to usurp God and make it all about us when it should be all about Him. And there is nothing we can do about this. We are sick and we cannot heal ourselves. Down to our very core, to the deepest parts of us, we are in constant rebellion against God. And this presents a huge problem, which is truth number three.
3. Our rebellion makes it impossible to be in relationship with the royal God. This rebellion we have all joined has many negative consequences: sickness, poverty, natural disasters, anger, violence, greed and the like. But the worst result is the separation it creates between us and God. God is royal and we are rebels. God is holy and we are sinners. God is good and we are evil. Because of these essential differences no relationship is possible. This is part of the ultimate goodness of God, that He cannot put up with what is not good. This should break our hearts, that this rebellion has made it impossible for us to be with God and should drive us to repent.
(But, it does not stop there. This is part 2 but there is a part 3 coming. As Paul says, "Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom 7:24-25))
