’Tis Mercy All, Immense and Free
The message of the gospel is the most awe-inspiring, pay-attention-to-this, viral news story ever released upon the planet.
“Christ died for the ungodly.” — Romans 5:6
Throughout human history, it has been expected that someone convicted of high treason against a king would suffer the consequences for their rebellion.
When we apply this principle theologically, we begin to understand that sin is nothing less than treason. Willful rebellion of the most sinister nature. Moral defiance.
It defies all reason and human comprehension to expect a king to suffer a traitor’s death sentence.
And yet that is exactly the message of the gospel.
We read of this unexpected mercy of God in passages such as Romans 5:6, where Paul writes this stunning statement: “Christ died for the ungodly.”
The ungodly?
The message of the gospel is the most awe-inspiring, pay-attention-to-this, viral news story ever released upon the planet.
That God would justify the ungodly through the self-sacrifice of crucifixion is a miracle of miracles, utterly defying human expectations. What other religion is centered on such radical grace? There isn’t one. Every other religious system known to mankind functions on a “do this to be saved from your predicament" paradigm.
It's what provoked C.S. Lewis to respond with one word to the question, "What is so unique about Christianity?" Apart from the bodily resurrection of Christ, that one-word distinction is grace.
In the Christian message, we are not told to do but to believe.
The focus of belief is not generic or sentimental. It's specific, substantive, and historical.
As God in the flesh, He fulfilled the moral law I transgressed. In his obedience of loving God and neighbor perfectly, Jesus earned a meritorious record of righteousness that is credited to those who are willing to trade their unrighteousness for his gift-righteousness. Now, instead of filthy rags, in the eyes of the Father we are clothed in the moral perfection of Jesus. Not earned or deserved but received as grace.
As God in the flesh, He suffered the penalty my treasonous sin deserved. As a demonstration of other-worldly love, the cross was a propitiation for sin, fulfilling justice for every criminal charge of the law for which I should have been condemned to death. The result: I'm not only free of all charges but reconciled to God as Father without fear as a fully forgiven, perfectly accepted, beloved son.
As God in the flesh, He rose from the dead to confirm the promises of grace in the gospel. He is the sin-bearer and righteousness provider for anyone who trusts him as Savior and Lord. Because he rose, we, too, will rise to eternal life.
This is the heart of the message we believe—the reconciling grace of God promised, fulfilled, and confirmed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Remember, Christ died for the ungodly.
Let that sink in a bit, then look to Jesus and live as you behold the wonder and beauty of the gospel, and sing with Charles Wesley the well-known hymn he wrote in 1738,
And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
He left His Father’s throne above—
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For, O my God, it found out me!
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’ eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
In believing and singing, we'll find ourselves with a strange and glorious desire to do. Not because we have to, but because we want to. As recipients of the justifying grace of Jesus, the sanctifying grace of the Spirit begins to take over my heart, enabling me to fight the flesh and walk in the ways of my Hero-King—to the praise of His glorious grace.
Indeed, 'tis mercy all, immense and free.