A One Word Gospel

If you had to summarize the entirety of the Bible – God’s love, Jesus’ sacrifice and redemption of all, the hope of eternity – the whole bit, could you do it in one sentence? 

Perhaps John 3:16 is a great one-sentence summary: 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

How about in only three words? We might come up with words like Grace, Love, and Mercy. Or Hope, Forgiveness, and Heaven. Or Sin, the Cross, and Salvation.

But what if you had to summarize the entire gospel message of God’s love, Jesus’ sacrifice and the hope of heaven in ONE WORD? What would your one word be?

This is where I was floored. The speaker I was listening to offered up one word I did not expect.

With.

That’s right, with. Let me walk you through it. You will see how awesome this is!

Let’s start in the beginning, which is NOT in Genesis but in John chapter 1: verses 1- 3 tell us:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was WITH God, and the Word was God. He was WITH God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made…

Who or what do you think the Word is that was WITH God before the creation of the Earth? Biblical commentaries and even the study notes in our Bibles confirm that in these verses we see JESUS as fully God – the eternal God who has always existed, the Creator and Sustainer of all things and the Source of eternal life.

In Genesis when God created the heavens and the earth, we need to remember that Jesus was there WITH God "in the beginning", although not yet in his human form. We see this alluded to again when God created Adam on the 6th day,, saying “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” [Genesis 1:26, my emphasis].

So, bearing that in mind, let’s trace WITH from the beginning of scripture to see if this one word is fitting. We are only hitting highlights…

In the Garden of Eden, God was WITH Adam and Eve, walking and talking among them.

God was WITH Noah after He promised to protect Noah and his family during the terrible flood that washed away every living thing outside of the ark.

God was WITH Abraham when he made the everlasting promise to give him descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and a land where they could settle.

God told Moses, “I will be WITH you” when he was to lead the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt.

God was WITH the Israelites in the dessert as He provided manna, quail and water from the rock to sustain them.

The Lord was WITH Joshua and the Israelites as they overtook the land promised to them: 

The Lord himself goes before you and will be WITH you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. [Deuteronomy 31:8]

When Samuel anointed the shepherd boy David King of Israel, the Spirit of the Lord fell on him. From then on, the Lord was WITH David, “a man after God’s own heart”.

Years later the shepherd king pens the words in which we still find comfort today: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are WITH me.” Psalm 23:4

Daniel and his friends experienced the manifest presence of the Lord WITH them as three of them were thrown into a fiery furnace and Daniel into a lion’s den. They each emerged without a single scratch, completely protected by their God.

And in the fullness of time, God took WITH to a whole new level:

After an immaculate conception, the Virgin Mary gave birth to a son named Jesus, also called Immanuel – God WITH us. John 1:14 confirms this: 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

For 33 years – Jesus was Immanuel, God WITH us, as he walked among his people on earth. But before he left, he made a promise: “I am WITH you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

After the crucifixion and Jesus’ ascension into heaven 40 days later – The Holy Spirit was sent on Pentecost and entered the very souls of those who believed. Now the very Spirit of Jesus and God the Father is WITH anyone who believes in Jesus!

And in the last days, God will send Jesus back to earth, this time to claim his eternal throne. This time to defeat death, sin and Satan a final time. And – he’s coming for us who believe in him.

Soak up the promises of Revelation 21:3-4 and Rev 22:3-4

Now the dwelling of God is WITH men and he will live WITH them. They will be his people and God himself will be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. // No longer will there be any curse…They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.

So – do you see WITH throughout the story of the gospel?

Here is an acrostic to help us remember the core message of WITH:

Where 

I am, 

There 

He is

What is WITH supposed to mean to us, anyways? I think it represents intimacy. Relationship. WITH illustrates God’s desire for intimacy and connection with us. And, hopefully, our desire to be WITH God, too.

Togetherness naturally breeds intimacy.

This is Holy week – remember on Friday, "Good Friday", what was really happening when Christ humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on a cross.

Christ had chosen to fully confine his deity to flesh and blood, taking the blows for our sin – yesterday, today and tomorrow. When he died, it was OUR spiritual death he endured.

He underwent the separation from the Heavenly Father that our sin should bring US. We see it when he cried out from the cross in those last moments, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. Because God is Holy, sin cannot exist in his presence.

And so Jesus was separated from the Father the first time in FOREVER. For US.

Ok, a quick side trip into the Temple in Jerusalem before we tie all of this together…

In the Temple in Jerusalem, there was a massive outer courtyard where all the people could congregate (one area for men and one for women), present their offerings and sacrifices, hear the lessons from the priests and worship. This was as far as they could go into the temple grounds. This was as close to God as they could get.

Within the courtyard was the Holy Place, the first of two enclosed spaces, where priests would burn incense and place the consecrated bread before God. Only the priests were permitted into the Holy Place.

Beyond that, separated by a thick, heavy curtain, was The Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place housed the Ark of the Covenant, the golden chest which held the stone tablets given to Moses, among some other sacred items. The very presence of God hovered above the Ark.

This place was so sacred that the priests themselves only entered it once per year, and never without sacrificial blood, which the priest offered for himself and the people. No one else was allowed into The Most Holy Place. Ever.

What does The Most Holy Place have to do with Christ on the cross and intimacy WITH God? Stay with me here while we tie this together. In three of the four gospels, we find a similar account.

Picture the climactic moment of Jesus' death:

"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split." (Matthew 27:50-51)

Can you imagine the priests in the temple when they looked up after the shaking of the ground beneath their feet and noticed the curtain ripped in two, revealing The Most Holy Place for all eyes to see? I wonder if a holy fear came over them? Now, any ol' body could go in!

Exactly. Any ol' body could go in. Glory to God!

Hebrews reveals to us the amazing truth of what happened that Good Friday when the curtain was torn:

"Since we have confidence to enter The Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body....". (Hebrews 10:19-20)

Stop. Do you see it? Jesus not only made a way, through the sacrifice of his body, but He IS the Way. "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) It is through him, our High Priest, that we are able to pass through the curtain and come into the very presence of God the Father. Wow!

What is the promise of hope that the torn curtain of Jesus' body offered us? God tells us himself - he doesn't want us to miss it:

He will make himself known to us, he will put his laws in our hearts, we will share intimacy with him, and he will forgive our sins and remember our sins no more. (paraphrased: Jeremiah 31:33-34; Hebrews 8:10-13)

How's that to make a Friday 'good'?

WITH. It’s what God has desired from the beginning of time. It’s what he will pursue until the end of time. And the amazing gift of being WITH God the Father, in an intimate, everyday relationship is all because of Jesus and that curtain being torn.

Is God uprooting you so you will learn the reality of WITH? Will you choose to leave the outer courts and boldly pass through the curtain opened for you, and into the very presence of God?

As you face the challenges of everyday life, never forget:

He is WITH you always. Where I am, There He is. Even to the very end of time.

What were they waiting for?

The day following Christ's crucifixion was divinely appointed to be a Sabbath day. In ancient Israel this meant a complete cessation of all work and most activities. This also meant that on this fateful Saturday morning, the women who had been following Jesus felt the tug of responsibility competing with their faithful observance of the Sabbath. What their hearts really yearned to do was do the last form of service they could for their Master-- prepare his broken body tenderly and carefully for burial. The night before, a rich man and follower of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, took Jesus' body to his own tomb for burial, where he was hastily anointed before sundown. But the body still required more formal burial preparations.

Imagine the frustration of wanting and needing to attend to something important, only to be forced to do absolutely nothing all day. What filled their hours that fateful Sabbath?

On top of that gnawing urge to "do" was an undercurrent of utter grief. The Lord they loved and served was dead. The One they called Messiah, the One they believed would save them, had died, just like any mere mortal. The miracles, the impassioned teachings... were they all for nothing now? All they had believed in seemed lost. How, now, would salvation come? 

What were they waiting for, now?

We today have the privilege of knowing how all of this turns out. But those ladies then did not know that the next morning their Lord would rise again and conquer death forever. I imagine, mingled with their grief, were doubts aplenty. Had Jesus really been the Messiah they all thought Him to be? If so, how could he have died?

What were they waiting for?

I wonder if some of us are in that same confusing grief-and-doubted-filled darkness that those women experienced that Sabbath. Life just doesn't make sense any more. We see no way out. Hope has been lost. Our hearts are completely broken. There simply is no light at the end of this tunnel. What, we wonder, is God doing?

And as we wait today for the Lord to rise tomorrow, what are we waiting for? What fills our hours as we pass this dark time? Will we hope beyond all hope that a miracle could still come?

When the coming of Jesus the Messiah was foretold, he was called Immanuel, "God with us". We should remember that he never stopped being "God with us", even in his death, and later (after his resurrection) when he ascended into heaven. For immediately upon his resurrection, he promised his disciples, and all who would follow, "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20). When the Holy Spirit fell on believers 40 days later at Pentecost, this sealed the promise. And it seals us who believe today.

For me, I wait for the triumphant stomp over death that will come in the morning. The stomp that caused an earthquake and rolled the stone back from the tomb. And what came forth? God with us! Amen!