“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20
The gospel is the good news that God sent Jesus to undo what Adam undid; Romans 5:18-19 says “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 “Jesus died and rose again for sinners, just as God promised! Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you- unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance wight he scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised again on the third day according to the scriptures.”
It is the good news that we can once more be truly human. No longer are we, like Adam, evicted from God’s presence and under his wrath. The garden—the kingdom—has been regained with a plus. It is the good news that we are sons of the second Adam and have been remade—not just considered to be remade, but new creatures. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” We have been actually remade—not fully … yet—but actually, truly. We’ve been re-born, made new, in a word, regenerated.
We, the sons of the second Adam, or Jesus, have been raised with him to new life. His resurrection guarantees our own; Ephesians 2:5-6 tells us that “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.” We are new creatures. All things become new in Christ- His person, His Life, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, His seating, His interceding, His coming, His reigning. And, yes, it means we’ve got something we must share now with our unbelieving neighbors before its too late. However, for far too long we’ve missed what the gospel means for us now. We’ve missed why the gospel is good news for Christians today. We have missed the changes it can make in our lives right now.
In one of my sermons I shared the story of Albert McMakin who was a twenty-four-year-old farmer who had recently come to faith in Christ. He was so full of enthusiasm that he filled his truck with people and took them to a meetings to hear about Jesus. There was a good-looking farmer’s son whom he was especially keen to get to a meeting, but this young man was hard to persuade – he was too busy falling in and out of love with different girls, and did not seem to be attracted to Christianity. Eventually, Albert McMakin managed to persuade him to come by asking him to drive Albert’s truckload of guys. Since driving was always a treat, his friend relented. When they arrived, Albert’s guest decided to go in and was ‘spellbound’ and began to have thoughts he had never known before. He went back again and again until one night he went forward and gave his life to Jesus Christ. That man, the driver of the truck, was Billy Graham. The year was 1934. We have all heard of Billy Graham, but few of us have heard of Albert McMakin. We cannot all be like Billy Graham, but we can all be like Albert McMakin – we can all bring our friends to Jesus.
We don’t need to be afraid to share. We are new creatures, we are regenerated, we are reborn and our old fears are passed away.