The Gospel That Is More Than Enough—but Do We Know What the Good News Is?
By Karen Rowe
The Gospel we need to know. The Gospel that we need. The Gospel that’s more than enough!
Yes! The virgin birth matters!
But let’s slow down and understand why this news is so good.
When people say, “No, our problem is this. Our problem is that,” we say:
No, no, no. Our problem goes all the way back to the beginning.
God created the world.
God created man.
He put man in the garden to keep the garden,
and He gave that man a command.
And God held that man to perfect, perpetual obedience
to that command.
And God promised him life if he kept it,
and death if he didn’t
—and he didn’t keep it.
He ate, and because that one man ate:
Sin entered the world.
And death through sin.
And everyone born from that man through ordinary generation inherited that man’s sin nature.
And because of that sin nature:
Sins proceed from it.
And our world is broken because of that sin.
And we stand guilty before our Holy and Righteous God.
And we know that He is Holy.
And we know that He is Righteous.
And we crave Justice.
But the problem is that if God gives us justice, we ALL die.
And so, God, in HIS goodness and in HIS mercy, sent forth HIS Son.
WHO was NOT born of ordinary generation,
but was born of a virgin.
Conceived by the Holy Spirit
—the holy Son of God.
Luke 1:35 connects His conception with His holiness;
Hebrews 4:15 affirms His sinlessness.
YES, the virgin Birth Matters!
WHY?
Because if He’s born of an ordinary generation, He’s born in sin.
But because He’s NOT born of an ordinary generation
He's NOT born IN sin,
He’s clean of sin.
His record is clean.
And He keeps His record clean, and He obeys God’s Law.
And because He’s fully God and fully man,
He obeys the law of God ON OUR BEHALF in HIS active obedience.
And then,
in HIS passive obedience,
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.
WE ALL, like sheep, have gone astray.
Each of us has turned to his own way.
But God laid UPON Him the INIQUITY of us all!!!
And Christ died for sin once for all, the Just for the unjust.
And God imputes our sinfulness to Him,
and He nails our sinfulness to the tree.
And Christ dies and rises again on the 3rd day FOR OUR Justification.
And there’s another imputation.
The Righteousness of Christ is actually imputed to us!
So that God can be both just and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus Christ.
So that all those who come to Christ may enter in.
So all those who place their faith in Christ might be saved.
But NOT ONLY saved, BUT sanctified.
Because He’s the firstborn of many brethren.
We’re justified,
and we’re adopted into the family of God.
And we are sanctified,
and as His children we begin to bear the family resemblance.
And we’re further sanctified throughout this life.
By the very same Gospel that saves us!!!
UNTIL one day,
when all is said and done:
We’re not just saved from the Penalty of sin.
We’re not just saved from the Power of sin.
But one day we’re glorified and saved from the very presence of sin!!!
That’s the Gospel.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life!
That’s the Gospel that we need!
And that’s the Gospel that’s more than enough!
Further Scripture Clarification
God’s command to Adam — Genesis 2:16–17
God explicitly warned Adam that disobedience would bring death. My wording about life if he obeyed is a theological summary of Adam’s life with God and access to the tree of life, rather than a direct quotation of a promise stated in these verses.
See also Genesis 2:9 and Genesis 3:22–24.
Jesus bore our sins; He remained without sin — 2 Corinthians 5:21
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
—2 Corinthians 5:21, KJV
When I say that our sinfulness is imputed to Christ, I mean that He bears our guilt and judgment—not that He becomes sinful in His character. He is the sinless Savior who willingly bore our sins.
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
—1 Peter 2:24, KJV
His conception by the Holy Spirit — Luke 1:35
“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
—Luke 1:35, KJV
The virgin birth belongs together with this truth: Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born as the holy Son of God. His sinlessness is not explained merely by the absence of a human father.
Hebrews 4:15 affirms that He was tempted as we are, “yet without sin.”
Continue the Conversation
What if we believed how much God loves us?
This Gospel teaching is part of our Bible study and devotional reflection,
“Rejoicing in the Truth: What If We Believed How Much God Loves Us?”
Join me there as we consider what it means to receive His love, trust Him through difficult things, and let His Word shape our hearts.
→ Read the full Bible study and devotion
Who Is Jesus?
Just an informal writing one night while I was looking at the moon and "thinking ... 'how great is our God!'" Keep exploring who Jesus is, why He came, and what it means to know Him.
What Is Iniquity? — Learning to Examine Our Own Hearts
What does iniquity mean, and how do we recognize it in our thoughts, words, and actions? Explore this short Bible word study as we learn to rejoice in the truth.
— A Bible word study connected to “Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6).
I ask these questions, and I hope my sharing is a help to you as you seek to know more and more about our Creator and Father God and the Son, Jesus Christ, whom God did send on purpose, because of His extraordinary love for you, me and the world.
Still learning, still growing, and rejoicing in the truth with you,
Karen, a fellow learner
Hope in Today Ministries, Inc.
References:
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
—Genesis 2:16–17, KJV
And this leads me to another thought: their disobedience did not take God by surprise. Scripture tells us that Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world, and that God’s grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began
(1 Peter 1:19–20; 2 Timothy 1:9).
God warned Adam that disobedience would bring death.
And before the world began, He already had His saving purpose in Jesus Christ.
The hope of life through Jesus was already in His purpose.