O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). The result is that Jesus has paved a way for sinners to cross over the canyon of sin and have a reconciled relationship with God. “We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). When we trust in the finished work of Jesus, we enjoy a freedom that goes above and beyond anything we could ever hope for or imagine. For instance, we won’t need to spend our lives trying to earn the approval, acceptance, or affection of those around us because Jesus has already earned God’s approval, acceptance, and affection for us. Real slavery is living your life trying to gain favor; real freedom is living your life be-
and not our own success and performance, we’re free to fail and admit we’re wrong. Because of Jesus, we don’t have anything to prove or protect. That’s freedom! Because of Jesus’ finished work, sinners like you and me can have the security, protection, validation, love, mercy, cleansing, new beginning, righteousness, and rescue we are desperately searching for. God’s costly gift, however, requires our humble response of acknowledging our need of him and receiving in faith the salvation God offers. The Bible promises, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
cause you already have favor. Furthermore, because Jesus was strong for you, you’re free to be weak. Because Jesus won for you, you’re free to lose. Since a Christian’s value, worth, and identity is anchored in Jesus’ success and performance
Good News Tracts 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, IL 60187 For helpful Christian literature, please write to the address above or visit our web site at www.goodnewstracts.org. Bible references: ESV.
©2011 Good News Tracts. Taken from Do I Know God?: Finding Certainty in Life’s Most Important Relationship by Tullian Tchividjian, copyright (c) 2007 by William Graham Tullian Tchividjian. Used by permission of WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
up in victory. O death, where is your victory?
You and I were created by God to know him—plain and simple. Every single human being was designed— hard-wired—specifically to be in relationship to God. But something’s wrong, and all of us know it. If we were honest, we would admit that deep down we sense something necessary is missing. We sense a homesickness we can’t explain. We have a void that we try and try to fill with a thousand different things and it only seems to get bigger. The truth is, only when the distance between us and God is bridged can we experience the fullness we seek. What keeps us apart from God and feeling restless? An uncrossable chasm of separation—the Bible calls it sin. According to the Bible, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside… no one does good, not even one…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10-12, 23).
Sin is any act of rebellion against God, and our own sin nature and sinful acts preclude a relationship with a holy God. The sin virus warps how we understand ourselves and God, negatively affects how we treat others, skews what we want, and drastically limits what we can do to change. The fact is, we cannot get over the canyon of sin without help. God must act. And God has acted. On our behalf, he crossed over the canyon to rescue sinners. The word the Bible uses to describe this astonishing gift of mercy and life is salvation. Salvation is what a baby girl playing in the middle of the freeway needs; she doesn’t understand the danger she’s in, and she couldn’t escape it if she did. She needs to be rescued—but she cannot earn nor fabricate her own salvation. Her only hope is to receive it as a gift. Because of our sin, we are all born estranged from God. We live in self-centered rebellion, stubbornly choosing to be “God” for ourselves. And we justly deserve God’s
judgment. Like the baby in the street, what we all need—desperately—is to be saved. But the reality is that we cannot save ourselves. The good news of the gospel is simply this: In the midst of our hopeless and helpless circumstance, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to save sinners like you and me. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus Christ came The fact is, we to earth and lived cannot get over the perfect life we the canyon of couldn’t live (fullfillsin without help. ing God’s law on God must act. our behalf), died a substitutionary death on the cross (breaking the curse of sin and absorbing the punishment we deserved), and was raised from the dead three days later, conquering death and thereby guaranteeing the eventual renewal of all things. “Death is swallowed
and not our own success and performance, we’re free to fail and admit we’re wrong. Because of Jesus, we don’t have anything to prove or protect. That’s freedom! Because of Jesus’ finished work, sinners like you and me can have the security, protection, validation, love, mercy, cleansing, new beginning, righteousness, and rescue we are desperately searching for. God’s costly gift, however, requires our humble response of acknowledging our need of him and receiving in faith the salvation God offers. The Bible promises, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Good News Tracts Do You Know God? Many people claim to know about God. But author and pastor Tullian Tchividjian explains that it’s not enough to just know information about God— each of us needs to have a personal relationship with him. Bible references: ESV. Package contains 25 tracts.
general gospel