The "Good News" of the Gospel

A look through the lens of a Catholic.

God used Angels throughout the Old Testament to show people how to make sacrifices to atone for their sins after Adam and Even were cast out of the Garden of Eden.  This is evident in the telling of Cain and Abel and how God was more pleased with Abel’s meat sacrifice – even God doesn’t like Kale.

They carried this tradition for 2000 years until God did the most generous thing He could that we could understand.  He sent His only Son to be born as a man, live as a man, be tortured as a man, and die a horrifying death on the cross as a man to atone for all the sins of mankind.  Something He didn’t deserve because unlike all of humanity – He was perfect.  He felt the draw to sin, but always abstained.  This is why it’s heresy and blasphemy to insinuate he had any type of affair with anyone.

As in the story of Abraham and Isaac.  Abraham prepared everything and was ready to sacrifice his own son on the altar because he knew that’s what God was asking him to do.  Then at the last moment, God saved him from this horrible act of obedience.  He brought Abraham to the brink to help him understand the sacrifice that God, Himself, was preparing to do.

Back to Jesus.  Even if you were the only person on the Earth to accept this gift from Jesus, He still would have gone through this for you.  He understood that He was then willingly giving up His own life in such a horrible way for all of humanity – and not just gentiles or Catholics or Church members.  – This is why you don’t hear the message hardly ever from a Catholic Priest. 

They (at least the true Roman Catholics in Europe – I can’t speak for American priests) They seriously believe that if you are not a member of the Catholic church you will go to Hell.  If you are married to a Catholic person and aren’t Catholic, they believe you are condemning your Catholic spouse to Hell by living with them in sin.  Because since you clearly didn’t marry in the Catholic church – your marriage is null and void (that’s why they call this separation an annulment) and you are therefore causing the Catholic person to live in sin.

Jesus died for EVERY single person on the planet.  Every. Single. One.  Without exception. God gave us the free will to accept this sacrifice in lieu of all our sins.  All of them! Muslims can be saved – they just have to believe in Jesus and what He did for us.  Catholics can be saved – they just have to believe in Jesus and what He did for us.  You get the pattern here.

And it’s not just that Jesus allowed Himself to be tortured and die horrifically on the cross to atone for our sins, He also suffered death for 3 days (there is some debate on where He went during those 3 days) and then He rose again on the third day.  He wasn’t resurrected by some necromancer.  He, Himself, is resurrected.  This means that He held the power over death and conquered it.  This represents what He has fully done for us.

Because He did this, He has the authority to stand before God with us on judgment day and proclaim that He paid that debt of death for us and defeated us and therefore, we are destined for eternity in Heaven with Him.

He did this, not so that we could continue to “do” anything to receive this ultimate gracious gift.  He did this so that we could receive it – free of cost!  This is called Grace.

Grace is the unmerited favor of God.  It’s His generous, undeserved kindness toward humanity like a Father to His children.  Grace is not something we earn or deserve.  It’s a gift freely given.  This grace is used to forgive, restore, and bless us – even when we do not deserve it.  Grace is the opposite of karma where you get what you deserve.

Catholics generally view salvation as a process involving dogma such as sacraments.  They believe that you are required to (not encouraged to) make a verbal testament of your sins.  Then, they believe the priest holds the power over you to tell you what you can do to atone for your sins.

This takes away from the ultimate price and gift of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by GRACE you have been saved through faith…not by works”.  We cannot undermine what Jesus Christ did for us.  Saying ‘Hail, Mary’s’ is no different than performing a lamb sacrifice to God.

The ‘Good News of the Gospel’ is that we no longer have to do anything to atone for our sins.

I have a deeper understanding of why Catholics believe in confession, though I disagree with the method.  Paul told us that we should be willingly able to confess our sins in front of others – only then are we truly in a state to want forgiveness.  However, he doesn’t say who those other people need to be.  And nowhere is it in the Bible that any other human can or should dictate to us what we need to do to atone for those sins because that is the Good News of the Gospel.  Jesus already atoned for all our sins.

Good works are things that are definitely admired and hoped for out of us.  There is the understanding that when we are truly saved and accept Jesus as our savior – meaning he atoned for all our sins through grace – and believe this fully through faith, we will want to do good things.

God gave us the Holy Spirit after Christ’s ascension to help guide us throughout our daily lives.  The Holy Spirit helps convict us to do the right thing as long as we are open to it and pray for His guidance.

The gospel is not ‘do more, try harder’—it’s ‘it is finished.’

We live for God because we’ve been saved, not to earn salvation.”