"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is. 55:9)

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[Author’s Note: God doesn’t think like us, and His ways make no sense to the natural mind of man. The human Gospel of works makes perfect sense to us, but it is detestable in the sight of God. The true Gospel is radical, offensive, and counterintuitive, which is why it is poorly understood. If you think you understand it, PLEASE read on.]

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The Gospel of Jesus Christ stands for the following:

Proposition No. 1

Good people go to hell
Bad people go to heaven

Don’t believe me? A simple reading of the Gospels reveals that this is exactly what Christ preached.

Why did the bad people, “the sinners and tax collectors”, flock to Christ? Because they realized that He was offering the free gift of God’s forgiveness. If God’s acceptance was based on personal performance, or earning, they realized they couldn’t “compete.” They were moral failures, they knew it, and their prospects for eternity were bleak and hopeless.

But if God’s acceptance was based on personal repentance, and righteousness was a gift rather than a reward, then there was real hope. Many sinners could then “compete” because there were those among them who were honest about themselves and the state of their hearts! Repentance was a very small step for them.

As for the "good people", the pillars of society, the religious leaders, they spurned Christ, persecuted Him, and ultimately killed Him.

Why? Because the basis for their relating to God was earning, not repentance - justice, not mercy. They didn't know what they were asking for!

They were the spiritual progeny of Cain (Mt. 23:38), and so their sin (if any, in their mind) was more than compensated for by their glorious resumès. They expected God, now and in the hereafter, to acknowledge and compliment them for their performance, for their ability to do "good."

That is why Christ's miracles drove them to jealousy, and, as Cain with Abel, ultimately murder.

Christ backed up His statements about God and eternal things with the miraculous, even raising people from the dead, which proved to all of Israel that God favored Him, as He had favored Abel, and not the priests and other religious types. He exposed the outwardly righteous as frauds, because their legitimacy in the community was on the basis of God’s perceived favor towards them as a result of their deeds - their "offerings". (Mt. 19:23-25)

Christ demonstrated with His miracles, which they could not duplicate, that they were not the favored of God, and that instead, God was with Him, and therefore also with His friends, the sinners willing to repent.

Can you imagine the uproar and the turmoil?

Consider:

9And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:

10"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

11"The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

12'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'

13"But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'

14"I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

What does this story tell us, other than that the sinner was deemed justified or “acquitted” before God, but the Pharisee, who was more outwardly righteous than you or I will ever be, was not.

Christ had many words for the pride of Israeli society:

“He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.’” (Luke 16:15)

What is highly valued among men is worldly success, and religiosity, and magnificent churches, and elaborate vestments, and incomprehensible liturgies, and long entourages into and out of our modern temples. But God’s view of all of it is entirely different.

In sum, Christ's only condemnation while on this earth was reserved for the righteous, not the sinners. The righteous cannot be saved. (Mt. 9:13)

There is a particularly rough exchange between Christ and society's best in John 8:

38"I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father."

39They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father " Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham.

40"But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.

41"You are doing the deeds of your father " They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God."

42Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.

43"Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.

44"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father ⁽He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

This exchange had been prefaced by the following zinger from Christ:

21Then He said again to them, "I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come."

The Pharisees prided themselves on having no sins, and, besides, any issues they might have had in personal conduct were minor and, they firmly believed, outweighed by their impeccable track records. Therefore, what Christ said was incredibly offensive and nothing less than outrageous.

It still is today.

Unfortunately for them and us it is true. The death and sacrifice of Christ, according to the good people of this world, is wasted on them. They don’t need it, they think.

Therefore, they will be condemned at the Final Judgment. (John 3:19-21)

And so I repeat: the Gospel of Jesus Christ says that bad people go to heaven and good people go to Hell.

Proposition No. 2

God gave us the Law so that people would sin more.

“Wait”, you say, ”didn’t God give us the Law so that we would try to comply with it and stop sinning?”

Answer: No.

God gave the Law so that people would sin more:

20The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. (Rom. 5:20)

God knows that there is no ability within the heart of man to keep His Law. The Law brings out rebellion and lawlessness. “The sting of death [is] sin; and the strength of sin [is] the law.” (1 Cor. 15:56)

Just put six little kids in a room and stick a box in a corner. Then tell them not to look in the box while you are gone. What do you think will happen? Now that you have set forth the Law and then left, will they comply, or does the urge to violate your command rise up within them at the giving of the command?

To reiterate: “The strength of sin is the Law.”

In turn, the Law, and our failure to keep it, was God's elaborate preparation for the Messiah – to put the Jews in the frame of mind to accept the Messiah. It was to bring sin into full flower, that it be seen by mankind and all the denizens of the universe for what it is, utterly sinful (Rom. 7:13), and that we be seen for what we are, utterly incapable of righteousness. (Rom. 3:10)

The Law was intended to expose our efforts at compliance as futile and to thereby prompt despair over what we see of ourselves and thus drive us to Christ, because it is only Christ, once resident within us, who is able then to fulfill that very same law through us. (Rom. 8:4.)

As Paul says, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is only for those “who work not”! (Rom. 4:5) It is a gift (Rom. 5:15-17; Rom. 6:23). Those who work at it will all inevitably come up short. The task of our working hard enough to make ourselves acceptable to God is like swimming from California to Hawaii. Michael Phelps will swim farther than anyone else, but all will eventually drown, including him.

In other words, we no longer focus on the Law as a bar or a goal to aim for. The Law is for the unrighteous (1 Tim. 1:9), not for us who have now been gifted with righteousness in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30). We now “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” (Heb. 12:2)

We then fulfill the Law without thinking of the Law, as it is Christ who now fulfills it in us. It is like breathing; you don’t think about it, but while you are living, you automatically do it. Since, now, “to live is Christ” (Ph. 1:21), all of the demands of the Law are met by Him in us and we don’t even think about it, we think about Him.

Either the inheritance of God depends on a promise or on compliance with the Law. (Gal. 3:18)The giving of the Law could never void the promise to Abraham, that His seed, Christ and His progeny, would inherit the world. (Gal. 3:16-29)

And so I repeat: the Gospel of Jesus Christ says that God gave us the Law so that people would sin more.

Proposition No. 3

We are not saved by the death of Jesus on the cross.

If Christ had died on the Christ for our sins, and He had not been resurrected, we would not be welcomed in heaven. We still have a big problem: our sin nature, the sin engine which very reliably turns out sinful actions every day. It makes us completely unfit for heaven.

Our sins can be forgiven one day, and we will have a whole host of new ones the next. So forgiveness alone does not solve our whole problem.

If you die of cancer, God then healing you of your cancer does not bring you back to life. You are dead. What you need is a cure for your cancer AND you need Life.

Here is another analogy. You want to get into the Country Club. The membership fee is $100. But you are $100 in debt. What you need is to get out of debt, and then you need another $100 for the membership fee.

Christ’s death reconciled us to God and got us out of debt to Him. That is the $100 to balance our account. But Christ then changes out our old nature for His righteous nature – that is the $100 membership fee for heaven. Because now the sin engine is dead and we are now righteous and therefore fit for heaven, where righteousness dwells.

10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

There is first the reconciliation, and then there is the saving. A belief in His death for purposes of reconciliation, therefore, is not saving faith, regardless of what one hears on TV or at last week's revival.

It is only in receiving His Life that we are saved, because it is only His Life that is acceptable to the Father.

True, God’s wrath against our rebellious acts, and the whole horrible history of man’s actions on earth has been satisfied by the death and punishment of Christ in our stead; but, again, that doesn’t save us, because our sin nature within us, which gave rise to all of our horrible actions, is still there.

What saves us, and opens the doorways of heaven to us, is the new birth (John 3:3-8), which is His getting rid of our sin nature within us (Col. 2:10-13) which, if not killed off, will keep generating horrible actions. It is replaced by God with Christ’s nature (2 Cor. 5:21) - His Life (Col. 1:27)

We are now made acceptable to Him, innately, because our nature is now one of righteousness (2 Pet. 1:4). This is a gift, and is only received upon true repentance/belief in He whom God has sent.

We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 6:2-11)

It is God Himself who joins us to Christ, such that we are now ONE SPIRIT with Him. (1 Cor. 6:17)

Think about that. If you are united to Christ such that you are one spirit, His Life is your Life and your life is His Life. (Col. 1:27) Since you are now one spirit and one Life, you have the same origin, purpose, and destiny, forever.

You are one – yet you are two, because your personality is not absorbed into Him. Christ in you may look substantially different than Christ in me. Christ cannot be captured or revealed in one person. He uses the church and all the myriad personalities of His people, to manifest Himself and His Glory to the universe.

And so I repeat: the Gospel of Jesus Christ says that we are not saved by the death of Jesus on the cross. We are reconciled by His death but saved by His Life.

Proposition No. 4

You are cursed if you seek to follow the law of God

As we saw above, the Law is no longer applicable to the righteous. Why try to follow it? In doing so, you are seeking to be justified by the Law, and if a person could be justified by compliance with the Law, Christ’s sacrificial death was truly wasted.

"I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly." (Gal. 2:21)

Therefore, you cannot become righteous by following the Law, even if you could comply with it!

Moreover, one actually does nullify God's promise, His gift of Christ, His grace and mercy, if after all that he still seeks to justify himself before God by trying to follow the Law.

Not only does one nullify God's provision for his sin, he curses himself by trying to follow the Law.

10For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM." (Gal. 3:10)

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)

In other words, if you have ever broken the Law, any of it (e.g., "Thou shall not covet”), then that proves that you are not righteous and your inner constitution is that of a lawbreaker. And your remaining efforts to comply with the Law are futile as you are already under the curse imposed upon all lawbreakers.

We either try to approach God via the Law or via Christ - like Cain or like Abel, like the Elder Son or like the Prodigal Son. One approach leads to eternal death and the other to eternal life.

Paul makes this abundantly clear:

1It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

2Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

3And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.

4You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. (Gal. 5:1-4)

Working to comply with the Law is based on the assumption that I can rectify or atone for my prior sins by my future performance. It therefore severs me from Christ and His performance. It completely crowds out Christ who seeks to work through us.

Instead of working, we are to rest in Him, with our eyes firmly affixed on Him, so that He can then fulfill the law of God in us. (Rom. 8:4)

Any other approach or outlook puts the focus on our performance and ourselves. It is hopeless, as we compare ourselves to others, and we either end up either depressed, or prideful and judgmental.

And so I repeat: the Gospel of Jesus Christ says that you are cursed if you seek to follow the law of God. Christ is whom we follow now.

Proposition No. 5

Jesus did not come to start the Christian religion

Religion is everything a person does in and of himself to try to make himself acceptable before God. Religion is work and therefore, as we saw above, it is Christ-less. Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil (1 John 3:8), the main one being religion, and to substitute for it a relationship with Himself.

The Devil’s only hope was to turn Christ’s message from a promise and a gift into a reward which we might earn by our efforts, a religion with which we would try to comply “in the flesh” (i.e., our own power). And, as stated above, he has been largely successful because it makes such good sense to us.

Unfortunately for the many who are still under the Law and trapped in religion, it is a lie.

And so I repeat: the Gospel of Jesus Christ says that Jesus did not come to start the Christian religion. He came to destroy religion and to substitute for it a relationship with Himself.

THE END