Are you hearing the gospel?

If you haven’t heard a good toe-stepping, sin-revealing, soul-convicting message lately, then you may not be hearing from the Word of God. I’m not talking about angry hellfire and brimstone screaming from the pulpit, but if you can walk out of a church service week after week thinking about how good you are, or if you can read the Bible and conclude that you just need to try a little harder or do a little more, then you’re not hearing the gospel.

The revelation of a God who is holy and majestic and righteous and just ought to leave us humbled and broken that we are such sinful creatures. When Isaiah saw the vision of God’s glory it left him saying, “Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).

Truth is, we’re all unclean, born with a sinful nature inherited from Adam. It’s not just that we do sinful things, say unkind things, or think bad thoughts, which is all true enough; sin is in our blood like green on grass.

And contrary to popular opinion, there’s nothing we can do to be “good enough” to earn a trip to heaven. Like asking Hulk Hogan (in his prime) to uproot a giant sequoia tree with his bare hands, we are utterly and wholly incapable of attaining a right standing before God on our own. No amount of religious deeds, no perfect church attendance, no dollar amount of an offering can atone for our sin.

It gets worse (before it gets better). The Bible says that because of our sin we deserve to die, to face God’s righteous wrath and just sentence of eternal condemnation in hell. It ought to be a sobering and woeful thought!

But the good news is that God has made a way for us to be saved! “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved…through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:4-9).

This God who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and sky and all that is within it, this sovereign, glorious, holy and all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present Lord offers the gift of forgiveness and mercy and grace to all who come to Him through faith in His Son, Christ Jesus.

Friend, if you’re feeling conviction of sin and know that you need forgiveness, call out to Him now in repentance and faith. Receive Him as Savior and follow Him as the Lord of your life, and you’ll know the joy of this new, abundant, and eternal life that Jesus alone can give.

Are you hearing it yet?