Stockton Baptist Church
Body
THE CURE. The word 'gospel' today is used variously. We have a genre of music called 'Gospel music.' And we commonly say that something is 'the gospel truth.' As many people know, in the Bible, the word gospel means 'good news.' In ancient times, the 'gospel' was brought back from the battlefield to let everyone know the enemy was defeated. In the spiritual realm, there is also an enemy that needs to be defeated. In talking with a rather elderly man recently, he asked me, 'Why is the world the way it is today?' I paused for a bit as I contemplated the Biblical answer. My response was essentially, 'The world is what it is because of one little word with three letters: s-i-n.' Sin is the cancer within that has only one cure—one medicine. Sin is the 'why' behind all the crime, alcoholism, drug usage, racial tensions, dysfunction within families, tensions between nations, etc. Sin is the 'bad news' that makes the 'good news' necessary. So what, Biblically, is the good news? While the four Gospels portray the good news, God used the Apostle Paul to define it. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul wrote, 'I declare to you the gospel...that Christ died for our sins...that He was buried...that He rose again the third day...and that He was seen' (vv.1,3-5). The good news that alone can right the wrongs in our lives and the world is the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the good news is a Person and what that Person did to provide the cure for the cancer within. No wonder Paul wrote to believers in Rome, saying, 'I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes' (Rom. 1:16). It was the good news of what Jesus had done for him that caused Saul's heart to repent of his pride, self-sufficiency, and hatred of Christians. Jesus transformed Saul into Paul, from persecutor to preacher. The good news is that the cure is still available today. But it only cures those who take it.
