The Words of Eternal Life

John 6: 59-71

I’ve often heard the phrase of the gospel being “offensive,” but why is that? The gospel is about God’s plan to redeem the world to its perfect design. To send His son, Jesus, to live a life we must learn from and practice daily. For that one and only son to die on the cross for death, He didn’t deserve but did so willingly so we could be restored to God. The gospel is tragic in that a sinless Messiah died for our trespasses but hopeful that Jesus resurrected and brought new life to us.

The gospel is powerful, hopeful, and redemptive. So, how could it be offensive? That’s because the Gospel brings about a death to self and sin.

The gospel reveals our God-ordained weakness that we cannot know enough or do enough to earn our salvation. Our sin craves things other than God to satisfy us: money, sex, substances, fame, accolades, good reputation, high ego, the list goes on - He teaches how material things cannot bring eternal satisfaction. Having good things doesn’t make you good in God’s sight - you must repent and believe. So when Jesus (in the beginning of this chapter) expresses how He is the only one who can satisfy our needs, they are having difficulty processing it (V59-60).

Notice how the title of this passage of scripture is “The Words of Eternal Life.”... They may not make you feel good, but they are good because they are necessary for us to understand our salvation. Jesus saw us and our sin and chose us - that’s the good news we embrace daily! He even chose the disciples, knowing that some were following Him and others were not. (can we talk about how he called one of them the devil?)

Looking back on when you first decided to follow Jesus, what did you think of the Gospel?

What does the Gospel mean to you now?