The Gospel
The full text from the 'Word of the Cross' animation, with associated biblical references, is available below:
Creation
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)
…And God created mankind in His own image
….in the image of God he created them, male and female He created – us (Genesis 1:27).
What can be known about God is plain to us because God has shown it to us. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived since the creation of the world in the things that had been made…
…So we are without excuse (Romans 1:19-20).
Fall
Although we know God, we do not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but have become futile in our thinking, and our foolish hearts are darkened. Claiming to be wise, we have become fools, and have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man (Romans 1:21-23).
We have committed two evils….
We’ve forsaken God, the fountain of living waters…
And we’ve dug wells for ourselves, broken wells that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).
We all like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way (Isaiah 53:6)….everyone does what is right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25)….none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together we have become worthless (Romans 3:10-12), having no hope….and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12).
We fade like a leaf and our sins, like the wind, take us away.
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6)
…..By works of the law, no one will be justified in God’s sight (Romans 3:20).
Wrath
So the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of humanity, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Romans 1:18).
Because of our stubborn and unrepentant hearts, we are storing up wrath for ourselves on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed (Romans 2:5)….It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the Living God (Hebrews 10:31).
Salvation
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us – even when we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:4) – gave His only Son….. so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the wrath-absorbing sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10).
Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), the radiance of His glory, the exact imprint of His nature who upholds the universe with the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3), He is the Holy and Righteous one, the Author of Life (Acts 3:14-15), the Lord of Glory, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13) The Word become flesh (John 1:14) – God with us. (Matthew 1:23)
….and He was wounded for our rebellion and crushed for our sins [because] the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:5-6)…
God cancelled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
This He set aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14).
And so, God made Him who knew no sin, to become sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Jesus Christ died for our sins….He was buried….And He was raised on the third day, just as the Scriptures said (1 Corinthians 15:3-5).
And after making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3), so that at the name of JESUS, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11)!
Now the righteousness of God has been revealed: the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:21-24).
Receiving Him
Now, these things have been spoken so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name (John 20:31).
For the Lord Himself has said:
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy (Isaiah 55:2)? I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst…All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day (John 6:35-40)