Paul's Gospel

Righteousness- equity, justice, fairness, moral correct, right doing, good, worthy, virtue, decency, honest, innocent, holy, the perfectness and pureness of Jesus Christ.

Faith-ability to believe in Christ's death, as the ground of justification before God, saving faith.

Redemption- to let go free for a ransom. Sin is presented as slavery and sinners as slaves. Deliverance from sin is freedom.

Justification- acquittal for Christ’s sake, to be justified/ excused of sin because of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.

The “Romans road” can be used to explain the Gospel. It is similar to how Paul explains the Gospel in the first 5 chapters of Romans. Let’s take a look at these verses and also so verses beyond the first 5 chapters in Romans. First Paul starts with the problem of the sin nature.” Rom 3:10 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE.” Humans are trapped in a hopeless predicament because of sin nature. By the sin nature, men are not righteous. Rom 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Paul’s solution to the sin nature in the Gospel message is faith in Jesus Christ. Rom 10:9, 10 says “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” This is faith, saving faith. We believe that as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead so we were raised with Jesus.
Jesus’ death and resurrection according to Paul’s Gospel is justification for our sin and sin nature. Christ in his righteousness (perfection) sacrificed for fallen man. Through Christ we are justified. As Rom 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because of our sin we are doomed to die. But through Christ we live. The only way this is possible is through redemption. Jesus justified us, acquitted us because he redeemed us through His death and blood on the cross. As Rom 5:8 says “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God allowed all of this to happen. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

the confession

the confession:
1. admit your sin/action was wrong
2. believe that God's grace is enough to cover your sin
3. confess: say you are sorry specifically of your actions to God
4. If it involves other people ask forgiveness from the people/person you offended
5. Forgive yourself, God has forgiven you
6. Remember that God has "forgotten" the sin, separated it as far as east is from west
7. acknowledge that on your own power sin will overtake you again
8. Ask for the help of the Holy Spirit when temptations come again

True confession involves several elements. The first is the act of confession itself, which recognizes the act as a sin with the acknowledgment of guilt. The second step is the feeling of regret and Repentance on the part of the sinner for having been guilty of the offense. The final element in true confession is the resolve not to repeat the sin. Without the third steps the confession is of no value from a religious viewpoint.

The 6 steps of confession to God.

1. Examine your conscience by inviting God to identify any specific sin(s).

   Periodically use some private worship time to invite God to convict you of anything that needs confession, then spend a few minutes in meditation so he can direct your mind. Don't settle for generalized guilt, expect God to identify very specific sins. Refuse to get sidetracked into subdividing the blame to other people, keep the focus on your own areas of responsibility.

2. Look through the eyes of God at the sin long enough to feel sorrow.

   Sorrow is abhorrence at committing sin--a deep regret for offending the heart of the holy Father. Think of how you feel when you realize that you have betrayed or embarrassed a spouse or close friend. Since God loves us even more than they do, I'm convinced he feels even more sorrow when we betray or embarass him. Look until you can label the specific sin: ``intolerable.''

3. Determine to avoid that sin in the future.

   Sure, we need God's help to resist temptation. We also need our own resolve. The mindset of being conquered and ruled by God is essential to confession.

4. Determine what you can do to help restore the relationship.

   Talk to your pastor about how you can build a healthy relationship with God, or read Celebration of Disciplines by Richard Foster. If your sin caused damage to another person you will also want to think about how you can restore some of their brokenness.

5. Articulate or write down your confession, including each of the steps 1-4.

   Suppose you are at a local store and hit a parked car, denting their fender. Nobody saw you, so you just drove off. You have sinned against the other car owner and against God. Your confession might sound like this: ``Holy Father, I realize that I sinned by ducking responsibility when I damaged the car. I claim to follow you but I failed to take responsibility for bending a bit of metal, while you took responsibility for all my sins even to the point of death. I see how my intolerable behavior embarrasses you. Please forgive me. I promise to take responsibility for such behavior in the future. I will talk with the store owner to see if he can help me find the owner of the car I damaged so that I can take responsibility.''

6. Let go of the guilt, it's over, live in the freedom of God's forgiveness.

   Confession includes sorrow, but ends in joy. Scripture teaches ``redemptive remembering.'' This means we do not sit around remembering our sin, but we remember how God redeemed us from our sin.