God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
The Word, circumstances, and other believers – these can all be tools to show us our need and create opportunities to choose the pathway of brokenness. The Spirit of God is the arm that wields each of these instruments to bring us to a point of brokenness. However, we must respond to His initiative.
Here’s the [Gospel] message in four parts:
1. God, who is perfectly holy, just, and good, created us to display His glorious character and rule.
2. We rebelled, choosing to display our own glory and follow our own rule, earning God’s just wrath against such sin.
3. God sent His Son to reestablish God’s rule by living the perfect God-imaging life, dying on the cross to pay the penalty for God’s wrath against sin, and rising in victory over sin and death.
4. We are now called to repent of our sinful self-rule, confess Jesus as Lord, put our trust wholly in His finished work on the cross, and live the obedient and free life He means for us to live.
