We encourage everyone to watch the longer video from Tim Mackie that further explains the six minute video above. Here is the bottom line: the good news of Jesus Christ is about far more than just “getting to heaven.” Children growing up in church often think of the gospel this way, but part of maturing in the Lord is understanding more clearly what Jesus has done and is doing for us.
I’ve written about this before as the 3D gospel. The grace of Jesus affects our past, present and future. We sometimes think only about the past – in the sense that Jesus’ atonement paid the price for our sins. That is, of course, wonderfully good news and is the central truth of the gospel. “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). The penalty for sin has been paid! But that is not the full extent of the gospel! Yes, your sins have been removed from you “as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12), but the death and resurrection of Jesus also have dramatic implications for your present and future.
In your day to day Christian life, the gospel gives you freedom from the power of sin! “The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2, NIV). The gospel entails both forgiveness and freedom! Jesus’ blood not only covers our sin before a holy God, it also redeems us from our slavery to sin. We have been bought with a price and now belong to a new master – we have become “slaves of God” (Rom. 6:22), united with Christ and increasingly becoming like Him in righteousness and holiness!
And there is a third wonderful dimension to the gospel that applies to our future. The gospel promises us eternal life completely free from the presence of sin! This is what it means to be “glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30) – to finally have realized in us the righteousness Jesus has already given us judicially. Justification is the judicial verdict of God, graciously given to us in advance. Sanctification is the process by which we grow to become more like Jesus in this life. And glorification is the final step when the last remnants of sin will be purged away from us and “When Christ appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2, NIV).
Check out this encouraging message from Pastor Colin Smith – What it will be like in heaven. And here is part 2 of that message. Pastor Colin has a wonderfully clear and memorable way of thinking about the Christian life: good, better, best.
- Our present life in Christ is GOOD. In the Lord we have “every spiritual blessing” (Eph. 1:3). We are forgiven and free from sin, reconciled to God, living in community with other believers, on mission for the Lord. The Christian life is good.
- When the Christian dies, it is BETTER. “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Php. 1:23). To be “away from the body” is to be “home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Jesus’ promise to the thief applies to all believers, “Today, you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
- The new heaven and earth will be the BEST. When Jesus comes back He will defeat all of His enemies and re-make the world so that heaven and earth can once again be harmoniously united (as the Bible Project video so helpfully pictures). It is only at this grand finale of history that believers in heaven and on earth will receive our immortal, eternal bodies.
We need to study and meditate more on the joys of heaven and the infinite wonders that await us in the new heaven and earth. “Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thes. 4:18).