What We Believe About the Gospel

There are two crucial Gospel truths that most 21st century Americans are loath to accept. First, as men, women, and children, everyone of us is much much worse than we care to believe we are. In an age of self esteem, too often we lose the biblical perspective that as fallen creatures made in God’s image, we are sinful – desperately so! Profoundly so. In fact, in our sinfulness, the Scripture says that even our righteousness (the best we can do) is like filthy and disgusting rags before the most holy God of the universe to whom we must answer.

The second truth – also indispensable to understanding the Gospel is that the grace of God is much much deeper and richer and available than we have ever dreamed it might be. We believe that God, in Christ, has come down and walked among us, shared our sorrow and carried our grief. For those who trust in Him, there is no more need of “measuring up” and working hard to satisfy God’s righteous demand. It is met in Christ Jesus alone. We must accept our broken and humble state and also accept that God freely dispenses His saving and sanctifying grace without any obligation or help from us.

From first to last salvation in Christ is all of His grace. We agree with Jerry Bridges in his fine book The Gospel for Real Life when he writes, “As we contemplate the glory of the cross, we must see that not only is our deepest need of salvation met, but that it has been done in such a way as to bring the most glory to God Himself. It is at the cross where God’s Law and God’s grace are both glorified. But it is also at the cross where we are most humbled. It is at the cross where we admit to God and to ourselves that there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn or merit salvation. As someone has said so well, ‘We bring nothing to our salvation except the sin that made it necessary’” (p. 98).

Have you realized the depth of your need for Christ and the hopelessness of your attempts to “be good”? Have you come to the end of yourself? If so, we encourage you to trust Christ. Embrace His righteousness on your behalf. Ask God for the grace to repent (turn from your own selfish ways) and the grace to follow Him. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth [an outward action] that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart [an inward God-made change] that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” If you have done that, we at Covenant Presbyterian Church are ready to help you walk in your new life in Christ.