What Christ Did for You
“'The right time has come,' [Jesus] said, 'and the Kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins and believe the Good News!'” (Mark 1:15, as rendered by the Good News Translation)
What does Jesus, God the Son, mean here?
Just this: God spent centuries getting the world ready for the coming of Jesus. Jesus, by the power of God, was born outside the long line of sinners that stretches back to Adam and Eve and includes you and me, became a human being. He led a sinless life and then offered Himself on the cross, where by His death, He took the condemnation you and I deserve. The power of sin, both our inborn desire to be God and the individual sins we commit from that desire, a power that holds us prisoner from conception, has been broken by Jesus.
After Jesus died for us, God the Father raised Him from the dead, tearing heaven open for all who, by God's power, turn away from sin (which is what is meant by the word "repent") and believe (or trust) the Good News.
"Good news" is a phrase that translates the word from the Greek in which all of the New Testament writers composed their books and letters: εὐαγγέλιον. Literally, it's the "good message" or in the Old English, "God-Spell," Gospel.
"Turn from sin and death," Jesus is telling us, "and trust the Good News that I came to die and rise to do for you what you cannot do for yourself: SET YOU FREE FROM GUILT, SIN, AND DEATH TO LIVE IN AN UNASHAMED, UNBROKEN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD FOR ALL ETERNITY.
Jesus endured temptation, suffering, and death in order to give this Gospel to you. As He was on the cross, He knew that He had achieved His goal. And so with His dying breath, He declared, "It is finished!" More literally, Jesus said, "It is completion."
Everything necessary for you to be freed from bondage to sin and death has been done by Jesus. There's nothing you can do or must do to be saved for eternal life with God. In Jesus, all your sins are forgiven and by His Word, given to you in the Scriptures, in preaching and teaching, in the witness of believers, in the water of Holy Baptism, and in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, YOU HAVE LIFE WITH GOD THAT CAN NEVER BE TAKEN FROM YOU.
Daily turn from sin and turn to Jesus.
You can trust that Jesus and His Gospel are for you.
