Life's Questions and the Power of the Gospel · Looking Back on the Journey
Study Topic: Are You Happy? · Moved by the Power of the Gospel
Even while thinking we know the gospel, we need to pray like this once again:
"Lord, it seems I still know so little of the gospel.
Please teach me the gospel."
The gospel is not a body of knowledge that we learn once and graduate from.
The more we know it, the more we discover its depth; and the more we behold the life, glory, and power contained within the gospel, the more we humbly realize how little we truly knew the gospel.
Therefore, the first thing needed for us as we approach the gospel is thirst.
Not a mindset of "I already know," but an earnest longing:
"God, I want to know more.
Open the glory of the gospel to me.
I want to bring a soul to life through this gospel."
Even if rain falls, if a vessel is not prepared, it cannot hold water.
Likewise, even if God's Word is set before us, without a longing heart, that Word can hardly be contained deep within our lives.
Therefore, we must first humbly prepare the vessel of our heart.
Questions of Salvation and Happiness
The Greatest Value Is Salvation
If we are to cherish something, we must first know its value.
No matter how precious a treasure is placed in someone's hands, if they do not know what it is, they cannot hold it dear.
The same is true of the gospel.
If we do not know the value of the gospel, we treat it lightly. It is easy to dismiss it thoughtlessly, assuming it is just a story we already know.
Yet when we truly come to know what is contained within the gospel, our attitude changes entirely.
The gospel gives us:
- true forgiveness of sins,
- a renewed identity of our very being,
- the gift of eternal life,
- becoming precious children of God, and
- receiving the kingdom of God as an eternal inheritance.
The greatest and most eternal value the Bible shows us is salvation.
When we realize the value of the gospel deep in our hearts, we finally confess with unspeakable wonder:
"Such staggering grace has been given to me freely!"
Why, Then, Are People Not Happy?
We must face the fundamental question of life:
"Are you truly happy right now?"
People live busily, constantly searching for happiness.
They think that acquiring abundant wealth will make them happy, and that good health, success, and fulfilling desired wishes will grant true satisfaction.
Yet even after gaining all those things, there is a fundamental reason why the deep emptiness in a corner of the heart remains unfilled:
Because the relationship with God has been severed.
The deepest thirst of human beings does not stem from a deficiency in finances or circumstance; it comes from the existential separation of departing from God the Creator who made them.
That is why we must quietly reflect and ask:
Who am I?
Where did I come from, and where am I going?
What should I live for?
What will I face after death?
Without answers to these fundamental questions, chasing only the conditions before our eyes will ultimately cause life to lose its direction.
The Bible testifies that we are beings created in the image of God. We were created to enjoy the truest, most genuinely human peace and joy only when living in a personal relationship of love with God the Creator from the very beginning.
The problem is that human beings departed from God, saying to him, "God, I am the master of my own life."
Sin does not stop at mere infractions of several moral commandments.
At its root lies self-centeredness—departing from God to become the master of one's own life.
Like the prodigal son in Luke 15, who left the father's embrace to live according to his own will in a distant country, such is the condition of humanity.
Yet just as the prodigal son who left his father eventually experienced severe hunger and suffering, humans who departed from God did not gain true freedom; rather, they faced spiritual famine and deficiency.
Because they departed from God, the source of life, emptiness, fear, suffering, and inevitable spiritual death arrived.
This is why filling life with all manner of worldly things cannot quench the thirst deep within the heart. What we have lost is not situational abundance, but an intimate relationship with God.
What Is Salvation?
What, then, is true salvation?
Salvation is the event in which the severed relationship with God is restored once again.
When the prodigal son realized his miserable state, resolved, "I will arise and go to my father," and returned, the father embraced him without any conditions and restored his status as a child.
Salvation is not acquiring unfamiliar knowledge; it is the restoration of the relationship with God broken by sin, returning once more into the Father's embrace.
And God himself has opened this path of restoration.
That only path is Jesus Christ.
Jesus clearly declared in John 14:6 that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him.
The Saving Power of the Cross and Resurrection
The Gospel Is the Power of God for Salvation to Everyone Who Believes
The gospel is not merely pleasant advice or moral instruction.
Nor is it an ordinary comforting story that temporarily soothes a weary person's heart.
In Romans 1:16, the apostle Paul declares that the gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.
Why is the gospel power?
Because the gospel forgives sinners.
Because the gospel brings back to God those who were cut off from him.
Because the gospel transfers those under eternal destruction into true life.
Because the gospel transforms the status of a sinner into a holy child of God.
This wondrous power does not originate from human wisdom or philosophy.
It is the power of God within the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Gospel of the Cross and Resurrection
The fundamental obstacle that prevents humans from coming to God is sin.
Sin separated us from God, and the wages of sin is death.
Yet the penalty and debt of sin that we could never repay on our own, Jesus took upon himself on the cross in our place.
Jesus shed his precious blood on the cross, completely paying the full penalty of our sin.
Not by our merit or qualification, but solely through the blood of Christ shed on the cross, we receive forgiveness of sins freely.
And Jesus broke the power of death and rose again on the third day.
The gospel goes beyond a forensic declaration of sin's forgiveness—it is the event of being united with the risen Lord and receiving new life.
The Word of the Cross Has the Power to Save People
The story of the cross may feel all too familiar to us.
At times, it is easy to pass by casually, thinking, "I already know all of that."
Yet where a soul is transferred from the shadow of sin and death into life, the message of the cross is never mere theory.
It operates as the vivid power of God that exposes stubborn sin, breaks spiritual chains, and opens blinded eyes to see God.
Therefore, when we share the gospel, there is no need to rely on flashy words or sophisticated wisdom to win human favor.
"Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and rose again.
In Jesus there is complete forgiveness of sins and eternal life."
Within this simple and clear truth itself resides the power that brings people to life.
Standing Before the Power of the Gospel
Grace of Standing Again Before the Power of the Gospel
In the gospel is complete forgiveness of sins.
In the gospel is the authority to become a precious child of God.
In the gospel is life that never runs dry.
In the gospel is the way to come boldly before God the Father.
In the gospel is God's boundless power to save dying souls.
At the center of that gospel stand the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we can quietly kneel and pray like this:
"Lord, open the glory of the gospel more brightly to me.
Let me behold the love of the cross and experience the life of the resurrection daily.
Enable me to fully grasp the value of this wondrous salvation."
We received the gospel freely.
That gospel is God's living power that saved us.
And today, God has entrusted that holy gospel of life to your lips and ours.
To understand the gospel more deeply,
to be moved daily by the grace of that gospel,
and, as one in debt to the gospel, to quietly take steps toward a single soul.
That is the gospel journey that we, who have received the grace of salvation, are called to walk together.