The Gospel: The Hope of Easter

Luke 10:25-28

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”  So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

A lawyer asked Jesus the question that is at the heart of Christianity. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered his question with another question, directing the lawyer to the OT law. Jesus answered similarly in Luke 18:18-23 when He was asked this same question by a rich young ruler.

The lawyer responded correctly by summarizing the Law of Moses. “Do this and you will live” replied Jesus, quoting from Leviticus 18:5.

This seems to be a simple enough answer. Just follow all these rules and you will have everlasting life. Unfortunately, perfect obedience to God’s law is impossible.

Romans 3:10-11, 23
As it is written:
“ There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,


Every person is guilty of breaking God's Law, and no one has kept His commandments. After all, it takes is to break one point of the law, and we are condemned by the whole law (James 2:10).


How did humanity fall to this state of hopelessness? How did mankind become so wretched?

Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
The original sin of Adam and Eve spread like a virus, infecting all of mankind. Sin is the natural state of man, and death is the natural result. Humanity is in bondage to its own iniquity (John 8:34), and the consequences of sin is death (Romans 6:23).


Ephesians 2:1-3
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Mankind is enslaved to the desires of the flesh, following the ways of the world and the ways of Satan. By nature, man is predisposed toward anger and wrath, and opposed to love and mercy. Therefore, mankind is guilty before God, condemned because of disobedience. The consequences of our sin is death, the eternal death in Hell. (Romans 6:23, Revelations 20:11-15, Mathew 25:41)


But there is good news. Though we cannot meet God’s requirements of righteousness, there is no One who does. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life. He wholly followed God’s law, and met every requirement of righteousness. (Hebrews 4:15, 2 Corinthians 5:21). And it is through Christ, who knew no sin, that we become the righteousness of God in Him.
Romans 5:8-9
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
We have access to God because Jesus bore the punishment for our sin. Because of His sacrifice, we can be counted as “not guilty,” and we have the offer of salvation from the wrath of God that we justly deserve.

Ephesians 2:4-10
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Salvation comes from God. Out of His great mercy and love He sent His son Jesus to die as a propitiation (sacrifice) for our sin. We are powerless to earn salvation. It is only through trusting and believing in Jesus Christ that we can be saved. Salvation is a free gift through God’s grace alone. We are incapable, and we must rely on the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the Cross. We must submit to Christ as our Lord and Savior. We must answer Jesus’ call to “Follow me.”


And the final outcome of salvation in Christ is the hope of Easter, the hope of resurrection.

For even when we were dead in sin, God mad us alive together with Christ. He resurrected our dead, enslaved, sinful body. He breathed life into us through His Spirit. He separated (sanctified) us from sin and from this world.
Romans 6:4-5
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified wit Him, that the body of sin might be down away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

This is a two-fold resurrection. We are resurrected in this life, so that we may no longer be slaves to sin and that we may walk in the righteousness and good works. And our physical bodies will also be resurrected at the final judgment. Our weak, corrupted bodies, this very flesh that so often ensnares us will be resurrected to a perfect condition for all eternity, without pain or suffering or sorrow. We will be resurrected to live with Christ and to glorify God in paradise for all eternity.