The Impact Of The Gospel (Part 6 of 6)

The Impact Of The Gospel (Part 6 of 6)

After spending the past few days looking at the need for us to turn away from our pasts and return to God, let’s look at the impact that the Gospel has in our lives. Let’s ask this question, “Why does the Gospel matter?”

It’s an interesting question because your answer will tell a lot about who you are. The best way to answer that question is to take a peek into history and look at an event that took place about 500 years ago.

You see, there was a time in history when the message of the Gospel had been lost. Years of abuse and corruption had turned the church into an powerful institution where the message of the Gospel was neglected and forgotten.

Then, one day, a German monk was reading in the book of Romans, struggling to understand how to be righteous, and he read these words:

Romans 1:17

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.’”

Luther had struggled with the idea of righteousness for a long time but it finally broke through to him in a moment of clarity. Salvation is not earned, it is a gift of God. He said that it was as if the gates of paradise had opened and he walked though! Luther recalled:

"At last meditating day and night, by the mercy of God, I ... began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith … Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open."

So, what does the Gospel matter? Without the Gospel there is no righteousness, no power of God, no mercy, no grace, no salvation.

The Gospel opens up the gates of Heaven to those of us who live in the world. Let’s walk through that gate, together.