Believer, You Need the Gospel: Understanding the Foundations of Your Faith
- Joe Venturo
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
Part 2: The Sinfulness of Mankind
Why review the Gospel? If you have been a believer for a while, you may feel tired of hearing the fundamentals of your faith over and over again. However, I think there are three good reasons for reviewing the Gospel. First, it gives you an opportunity to examine your own heart to see whether you truly believe the Gospel. Many people say they are Christians and angrily refuse to receive Gospel tracts or other Christian materials because they think they don’t need them. But even believers need the Gospel because they recognize their sin and their inability to reverse its effects! They are excited to review the Gospel because they are so passionate about what Jesus has done for them.
Reviewing the Gospel also helps you to understand it well enough to explain it to others. The better you know the Good News, the easier it will be to avoid inadvertently leaving out aspects of it during Gospel conversations.
Last, and most importantly, reviewing the Gospel grounds your faith in solid biblical teaching. While the Gospel is simple enough for even a child to understand, it is also so deep and wonderful that Christ-loving people spend their entire lives studying it. That is the main goal of this Bible study—to help you understand the Gospel in a way that deepens your spiritual walk and transforms the course of your life.
My last series covered the holiness of God—a topic that is foundational to the Gospel because it shows us how righteous we must be to fellowship with Him. Now, I am wrapping up a series on the sinfulness of mankind—an uncomfortable but crucial topic that paves the way for an understanding of Christ’s sacrifice by showing that you, as an individual, can never measure up to God’s standard, and, in fact, are miserably inept to do anything about it.
It's important to come to a point where you fully grasp how sinful people really are before God. Only when you see the need can you appreciate the cure, and when you appreciate the cure, you will become urgent about giving it to other needy souls.
"While the Gospel is simple enough for even a child to understand, it is also so deep and wonderful that Christ-loving people spend their entire lives studying it."
A Wretch like Me
Most people don’t really understand how vile and helpless they are before a holy God. Yet the more you understand your own sinfulness, the better you love God (Luke 7:47). That’s why, in our first devotional, I had you study and meditate carefully on Romans 3:9-18, which describes sinners before they are regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
This passage declares that no one is righteous. Instead, people live in constant rebellion against God. Meditating carefully on this passage will help you both to see your own vileness and to combat the false idea that humans are born basically good (see also Romans 5:12).
Those who are confronted with the way their sin contrasts with the holiness of God will say with Peter, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). They will have the repentant attitude of David as found in Psalm 51.
"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord"
The Law—a Mirror to the Heart
So how do we comprehend our own depravity? We must look into God’s Law. The Law is a mirror to our hearts, showing us God’s standard of righteousness and how we measure up.
We have spent a lot of time discussing the function of the Law. It reflects God’s own holiness and exposes our sin. According to Paul in Romans 3:20, “through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
Think through the Ten Commandments, which are a good representation of God’s Law. How many have you broken? The Bible says that breaking even one commandment makes you guilty of all of them (James 2:10). All of us are guilty!
As believers, our Gospel conversations should involve pointed questions about the Ten Commandments in order to stop people’s mouths and make them accountable to God (Romans 3:19). The Law is the objective standard by which we measure our own hearts and help others to measure theirs. It should always precede a presentation of the Good News of the Savior, Who died to free us from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13).
"The Law is a mirror to our hearts, showing us God's standard of righteousness and how we measure up."
By Grace, not by Works
Most people, however, have a natural tendency to downplay the seriousness of their sin or make excuses for it (Proverbs 20:6). Some people are well aware of their own vileness, but they deal with the problem by trying harder to be good. Both groups of people believe that, if they do enough good deeds, eventually their good will outweigh their bad and God will pass over their crimes.
The Bible is clear that only God’s gracious favor saves us, giving us faith to trust the Savior (Ephesians 2:8-9). Good works cannot save us—in fact, even our righteous deeds are like polluted garments to God (Isaiah 64:6).
We have already discussed some clues that will tip you off to works-based thinking. Your job as a believer is to expose and avoid these excuses and mindsets.
Warning Every Man
But what’s the big deal? Why should anyone be concerned about sin? The reason is because God, the just holy Judge, punishes sinners for breaking His Law. His punishment is eternal death in Hell (Romans 6:23; Revelation 20:15).
Hell is a real, literal place, and Christians should not be afraid to warn unbelievers of it. We may be tempted to water down the concept of Hell by calling it a symbolic reference to separation from God. Yet, if you think about it, the world recognizes that everyone is in that state now! Everyone is separated from God because of their sin.
In addition, the Bible describes Hell as a literal location of physical, conscious torment. To downplay scriptural portrayals of Hell is to teach an idea contrary to biblical doctrine! It is also extremely unloving because it causes people to grow indifferent to their plight. True love recognizes the danger and warns people of it.
"True love recognizes the danger and warns people of it."
Conclusion
The better you understand how sinful you are, and how utterly helpless you are to do anything about it, the better you will understand the Gospel, and the better equipped you will be to share it with others. Meditating day and night on God’s Law help us to see our sin in its true light (see Psalms 1:2). When we recognize our guilt, the proper response is to fall on God’s mercy offered through Christ, Who died to save us from God’s wrath.
When you share the Gospel with people, are you afraid to discuss sin?
Remember that the Gospel doesn’t make sense unless people recognize the bad news—that their crimes against the Law of God subject them to the eternal fury of the Lord.
Follow this series as a daily devotional:
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Photos by Jenny Venturo