And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:21
It
is true that sin brought with it many other maladies, yet, Christ came
primarily to deal with the most fundamental consequence of sin, which is
the separation from God. When the solving of any other consequence of
sin becomes the primary focus of the gospel we preach, then there is a
very basic flaw in our message. It is wonderful to see the sick healed
as we preach Christ and Him crucified, yet, we must not make healing the
objective end of our message, the object of our message must be Christ
and Him crucified to wrought reconciliation between God and man. In the
words of the apostle Peter, Christ suffered to bring us to God.
Before
Christ came, people were experiencing the supernatural intervention of
God in some form, therefore, making them experience the supernatural
cannot be why He came. He came to make possible to man something that
was absolutely impossible without Him, and that is the forgiveness of
sin and reconciliation with God.
Any message
that presents what can be accomplished apart from Christ, cannot be the
true message of the gospel, therefore, cannot save those who believe it.
The message of the apostles was one that did not only present Christ,
it was a message that brought to the people something that they could
not find outside Christ. Such is the message that saves and transforms,
and such should be our message.
Toni
