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The Gospel as Our Foundation


The Foundation of Our Faith is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Paul wrote to his young son in the Lord - Timothy and reminded him of this too:




2 Timothy 2:19
 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

"God's firm foundation stands...."  Musing on Spurgeon's words, I rewrote this:

The foundation upon which our faith rests is this, that "in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them." (2 cor. 5:19).  
The great fact on which genuine faith relies is that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," (John 1:14) and that "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God"; (1 Peter 3:18)  "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree"; (1 Peter 2:24) "Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5) 

In one word, the great pillar of the Christian's hope is substitution.

The vicarious sacrifice of Christ for the guilty, Christ being made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Christ offering up a true and proper expiatory and substitutionary sacrifice in the room, place, and stead of as many as the Father gave Him, who are known to God by name and are recognized in their own hearts by their trusting in Jesus—this is the cardinal fact of the Gospel. 

If this foundation were removed, what could we do? But it stands firm as the throne of God. We know it; we rest on it; we rejoice in it; and our delight is to hold it, to meditate upon it, and to proclaim it, while we desire to be stirred and moved by gratitude for it in every part of our life and conversation.

In these days a direct attack is made upon the doctrine of the Atonement.  Modernists with their relativist and pluralist agenda cannot bear the idea of God’s Substitutionary Atonement. They despise the notion of Jesus as the Lamb of God bearing the sin of all human-kind. But we, who know by experience the preciousness of this truth, will proclaim it confidently and unceasingly and with humility regardless of what they scoff at.  We will neither dilute it nor change it, nor distort it in any shape or fashion. It shall still be Christ, a positive substitute, bearing human guilt and suffering in the place of men. We cannot, dare not give it up, for it is our life, and despite every controversy we affirm that "God's firm foundation stands."

Romans 1:16
 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.


Peace 

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