“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

God’s love is amazing! “God demonstrates his love for us in this: that while we were sinners Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8). God doesn’t wait until we have our stuff together. God doesn’t wait for us to live right. God loves us in our mess, in our sin, in our junk. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us to demonstrate how much he loves us. God’s love is amazing!

God’s love is not only amazing, it is even more amazing-er! Not only does God love sinners, he loves repeat sinners. It’s not like we stop sinning the moment we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. We keep sinning. Often the same sin over and over and over and over and over and over and over…you get the point.

We keep sinning! And yet, God still loves us. He doesn’t stand with his arms crossed with a frown looking at struggling sinners. In fact, God is so proud that we are struggling with sin instead of accepting sin. He’s our biggest cheerleader in our struggle to battle sin! God’s love is so amazing-er!

But, wait. There’s more. Not only is God’s love amazing-er, God’s love is the absolute amazing-est. You see, the most startling thing about God’s love is that God loves us at the cost of his very self. To prove God’s love for us, he sacrificed the second person of the Trinity so that we might share in his resurrection glory.

God does not need us. It’s just that God’s absolutely crazy about us. God could not imagine spending an eternity without us in it. So God made a way for us to be with him in eternity. The cost for making a way was his very own self: the second person of the Trinity.

Wow!!! God’s love is the absolute AMAZING-EST!!!

That, my friends, is the gospel. That is good news. That is GREAT NEWS!!!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16)

Alistair Begg writes, “God is the hero of the story and the theme of the book. So the first question we ask of every passage ought to be this: what does this tell me about God.”

The Bible is the story of God. Therefore, the first question we ask of particular passages ought to be “What does this tell me about God?” Only after we have answered that question is it appropriate and right to ask, “Given what this passage tells me about God, what shall I do?”

Where many people go wrong is that they start with the wrong question. Too often, we start with, “What does this text mean for me?” That’s the wrong place to start.

Of course, we ought to get to “What does this text mean for me” and apply what the Bible teaches us. But the application comes from what the Bible teaches us about God.

The lens which we are to read the Bible is through John 3:16. The totality of the Bible is the story of God who loves, pursues, and forgives sinners through his Son, Jesus Christ. Every passage, every story, every promise, every truth in the Bible is the story of how God loves, pursues, and forgives sinners through his Son, Jesus Christ.

So, start every day with the truth of God’s word. Read about what the particular texts, stories, and promises tell us about God’s love for sinners. Then apply what God reveals about his love, pursuit, and forgiveness of sinners by asking, “Given what the Bible tells me about God, what is God asking me to do?”

Got it?

“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Timothy 2:3-6).

Leonard Ravenhill wrote, “If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, he would never have been crucified.”

There is nothing wrong with building a Godly family, God-honoring marriage. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a better husband, wife, or parents. We should all strive to manage our money and time better.

There is nothing wrong with any of these things.

But this is not the message of the gospel. What got Jesus killed was the declaration that he is holy, that he is God. What got him killed was the message that we – high priests, rabbis, and the everyday Joe – are sinners in need of a Savior. That because he is a holy and just God, every sinner will be judged and punished by God’s holy wrath.

Until we get that gospel message straight, nothing else matters.

The gospel is this: that while we were sinners God sent his Son to die for us, that not one should perish. That everyone who believes in the Son of God and receives him as Lord and Savior will not perish but have everlasting life.

It is because of the gospel that disciples aspire to honor God through our marriage, families, and financial stewardship.

“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Timothy 2:3-6).

What pleases God our Savior? The knowledge of the truth.

What is the knowledge of the truth? That there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

Thanks be to God!