One Question That Finally Made the Gospel Click

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

The Gospel: Good in Nature, News in Power

There is a reason it is not called “Good History.” History is a record of the past, but news is a report on the present.

Real news is fresh. It is information so urgent that it changes your circumstances the moment you hear it.

If the Gospel feels like an old story, you have missed the “news” of it. It is not meant to be a memory of what happened back then.

Instead, it is a live announcement of what is happening today. That makes it just as newsworthy this morning as it was two thousand years ago.

The Question That Made It Click

Before we dive in, we must acknowledge that only God can give us true understanding.

I remember watching a video where a specific question was asked to reveal what people truly believe about salvation:

“If you believe Jesus died for your sins today, but then you sin three more times and suddenly die, where would you go?”

For a long time, my answer would have been “Hell.” I believed that if I hadn’t at least confessed or said sorry for those specific sins, I was no longer covered. I was treating repentance like a checklist and confession like a safety net.

But here is the problem: If my salvation depends on me saying “sorry” for every single mistake before my heart stops beating, then I am not actually trusting in Jesus. I am trusting in my own memory and my own ability to stay “confessed up.” After all, if I save myself, I don’t need a Savior.

For all these years, I thought I understood the work of the cross, but I now realize I had no idea what God truly saved me from.

When Jesus died on that cross 2,000 years ago, He did not just die for my past sins. He paid for them all. That is why He said, “It is finished,” because the debt has been fully paid. Just as it says in Colossians 2:14:

“He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”

Why it is “News”

If the Gospel is truly News, it means the verdict has already been handed down. On the cross, Jesus didn’t just pay for the sins you have already confessed. He paid for every sin you would ever commit.

We often confuse the process of repentance with the payment for sin.

• The Process: Repentance is a lifelong journey of turning away from sin and toward God. It takes time to bear fruit. Saying “sorry” or confessing is only the beginning of that heart change.

• The Payment: Jesus’ death is the only thing that pays the debt.

  
  

Our biggest fight is not trying to be a better person. Deep down, most of us already desire to be better than we are.

Our biggest fight is to actually believe the Gospel. This is why Isaiah 53, in describing God’s plan to save us, begins with the question: “Who has believed our report?”

The Sin That Blinds

The devil’s primary goal is to make you miss your Savior. He does this by tempting you toward sin, but the most dangerous sin is often the one we don’t notice: pride.

This is why 2 Corinthians 4:4 warns that:

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

This blindness often looks like “goodness.” The devil does not mind your religious duties as long as you trust in them rather than in Christ.

We see this clearly in Luke 18:9–14, where Jesus speaks to “those who trusted in their own righteousness”.

He tells the story of a Pharisee and a tax collector who went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee stood and thanked God that he was not like other men, boasting that he fasted and paid tithes. He had plenty of good deeds, but his sin was trusting in those deeds.

In contrast, the tax collector stood at a distance, unable to even look up to heaven, and simply cried out, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”

Jesus tells us that it was the tax collector, not the religious man, who went home justified.

The Pharisee was doing “good things,” but he was using them as a shield against his need for a Savior.

The Gospel is only News to those who realize they cannot save themselves.

© Mikiyas Astatke