The gospel

I read a sermon early this morning from a famous pastor in our country. Overall he had a lot of good things to say, but I notice that when spoken words are written down I suddenly see the ideas clearly described. In this message, as I read forty minutes worth of words, I came to this statement,

"The gospel is the story where Jesus is the hero. It's all about Him, what He has done. It has nothing to do with us at all, nothing."

It's often true that when we continue to speak we say things we shouldn't and in these three short sentences I so wish he had stopped after the first two. He spoke well at the beginning, but finished with an error. In fact, the work of salvation, the glory for all that was done goes to Christ. That is true. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, he is the glory of the church, but it's not true that it has nothing to do with us at all. In fact, if it weren't true that we were helpless to save ourselves Jesus would never have come, would have never been needed.

The gospel is the love story of God's amazing rescue plan of the human race. It has EVERYTHING to do with us! We are the reason he came. The gospel is God's wonderful good news for a lost race unable to rescue itself, it's the cruise ship arriving to rescue a race stranded in sin. All the glory and praise for salvation and grace go to Jesus, but the gospel has everything to do with us.....we are the objects of his love demonstrated at the cross. We are part of the gospel story. I'm the reason he came!