The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: The good news of the gospel is a bill we could not pay has been paid. That is the good news of God's divine provision; while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Guest (Male): This is The Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. A bill we could not pay has been paid. In today's message from Dr. Evans, he dives into the heart of the good news of the gospel, revealing in clear and practical ways just what that means for you and me and for those around us. Let's join him as he lays it all out.

Dr. Tony Evans: The word gospel means good news, but it's only good news if you understand the bad news. The bad news is that the human race has a problem. Every person is a sinner before a holy God and unable to save themselves. That's bad news. Romans chapter three, verse ten, says, "There is none righteous, not even one." Men are sinners, the Bible declares, and unable to save themselves. They're unable to fix the problem.

Secondly, the penalty. Every person is under the sentence of death and will be forever separated from God because of their sin. Look at Romans chapter six, verse twenty-three: "For the wages of sin is death." He says sin has a pay scale, and it's called death. Look at chapter five, verse twelve: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned." All men are sinners. Sin has a price; the price tag is death. You're going to die.

Okay, that's the bad news. So let's get to the good news. The word gospel means good news. The good news involves the provision. Through the substitutionary sacrificial death of Christ, God has addressed the sin problem for us. We couldn't address it ourselves because we can't get to perfection. Romans 5:8: "But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It's called substitutionary atonement, the substitutionary sacrifice. In the person of Jesus Christ, God provided a substitute.

What God allows, He doesn't change His standards, but He will allow for substitutions. In a football game, they will substitute players. They'll bring a player into the spot where another player was. If that player gets injured, that player goes to the sideline, and a substitute comes in to take his place. On the cross, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was made an eternal provision for the sins of all men for all time.

It was the provision of Calvary. On the cross, God's demand for the penalty for sin was addressed in the person of Jesus Christ. So then, as through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men, even so, through one act of righteousness, there results justification of life to all men. For as through one man's disobedience, Adam, the many were made sinners, even so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.

Adam messed us up. Jesus died to fix us up. It's all tied to the one. The one who messed us up and passed down condemnation to the whole human race and then the one who died on the cross as the substitute. That simply means Jesus Christ took my place. The judgment due me was taken by Jesus Christ. Sin created a bill we could not pay. God stepped in and picked up the tab for us on the cross, which was why on the cross Jesus said, "It is finished," which means paid in full. The debt that I owed God because of my sin, that bill was picked up by Jesus Christ.

Why Jesus Christ? Because the one who had to pay the tab couldn't have a tab of their own. An imperfect man can't be my sacrifice. He is as messed up as I am. I need a perfect substitute. The problem is, all have sinned, so there is no perfect substitute. In fact, the only one who is perfect is God. So if I'm going to get a Savior, only God can be my Savior, but God can't die unless He becomes a man.

A young lady one day was speeding through a small Georgia town, and she was traveling 70 miles in a 55-mile-an-hour speed zone. The police pulled her over many years ago and wrote her a ticket for 100 dollars. She was out of state. She said, "I don't have 100 dollars." He says, "Follow me." He took her to the courtroom. In the courtroom, the judge says, "You were found guilty of going 70 miles an hour in a 55-mile-an-hour speed zone. You have to pay 100 dollars."

She says, "I'm guilty, but I can't pay it. I don't have 100 dollars." He said, "Well, if you don't pay the ticket, we'll have to lock you up for the weekend." She says, "I can't pay the ticket, but I don't want to go to jail. Have mercy on me." He said, "I can't change the law. The law says you've got to pay 100 dollars or you have to spend the weekend in jail. Those are the rules, and I can't change the rules." She said, "Isn't there something you can do? I can't pay it. I don't want to get locked up. Have mercy on me."

The judge looked down at her, pushed his chair back from the bench, zipped down his robe, and took it off. He went over to the side and picked up his jacket and put it on. He walked down beside the girl, stood beside her, and reached in his wallet. He brought out a 100-dollar bill and put the 100-dollar bill on the bench. He took off his jacket, went over, picked up his robe, zipped up his robe, and went back behind the bench.

"Young lady, you've been found guilty of going 70 miles an hour in a 55-mile-an-hour speed zone, and the law is the law. We can't change it. The law says you must pay 100 dollars or spend the weekend in jail. Ah, but I see somebody else has already paid the price." God saw us speeding down the highway of sin. He zipped down the independent use of His deity and put on the jacket of humanity. He came down on the cross and paid the price that you and I could not pay, but we don't want to get locked up forever. So He picked up the tab for us, rose from the dead, zipped up His glorified body, and ascended up to heaven. He picked up the tab for us.

The good news of the gospel is a bill we could not pay has been paid, and it has been paid by God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Suppose you went home today and you found a letter that says you don't have any more house note; the bill has already been paid. See, that's what I'm talking about. That's good news. The bill has already been paid. Most people you know will believe that Jesus died on the cross. What they don't understand is the full bill has already been paid.

They know that Jesus, they know about Easter, but they don't understand that the bill that they owe God has already been paid. That is the good news of God's divine provision. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So there's a problem: we're sinners; we can't save ourselves. There's a penalty: physical and eternal death. There is a provision: God in Christ has picked up the tab for us.

God offers a free pardon and eternal life instead of eternal death. Eternal life to all who place faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation. The good news gets gooder. The good news is that Christ has picked up the tab. It gets even gooder because because he's picked up the tab, you can get eternal life for free.

Guest (Male): We'll hear more from Dr. Evans on the good news of the gospel in just a moment. First, though, I want to let you know that today's presentation is part of a powerful sermon collection called Having Faith During Fear. This series is packed with the encouragement you need to depend on God's provision and timing, giving you the ability to hold on even when you may feel like giving up. The good news of the gospel is good news indeed, and we'd like you to receive the complete message Dr. Evans delivered today along with the other valuable insights he presented in this series.

You can get all six full-length messages on CD, USB flash drive, or digital download along with an added bonus: Dr. Evans' popular book, Kingdom Encounters: Experiencing More of God When Life Hurts. In it, you'll discover practical biblical insight for navigating life's trials and recognize how God is working even when He may seem distant. We'll send you this book along with all the audio messages in Tony's Having Faith During Fear series in thanks for your donation to the Alternative broadcast ministry.

But this special offer will only be available for a short time, so be sure to contact us right away at tonyevans.org to make your contribution and request. Or you can call 1-800-800-3222, where members of our resource team are ready any time to help with your request. Again, that's tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222. We'll return with more from Dr. Evans right after this.

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And now, more on the good news of the gospel. Here's Dr. Evans.

Dr. Tony Evans: Look at Romans 10, verse nine: "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God has 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." Verse 11: "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed." A man is saved, born again, redeemed by placing faith alone in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins and for the gift of eternal life, because it's all free now. This is all free.

But here's where our greatest problem is. This is the big one. Most people will agree that they're sinners. They'll be a little shaky on whether I can solve it myself, but they can get to that. They'll even accept the fact that, yes, there's a penalty, there's a heaven and a hell. Okay, and most will say, okay, Jesus died for my sins. It's this fourth one that gets tricky. And let me show you the trick word: alone. It's faith in Christ alone that saves. Not faith in Christ and baptism. Not faith in Christ and church membership. Not faith in Christ and living a good life. No, no, no, no. None of those. All of those are things that come as a result of salvation. What saves you is faith alone in Christ alone.

On the cross—you'll find this in 2 Corinthians 5:21—on the cross, God credited the sin of the whole world onto Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't have any sin of His own; that qualified Him to be the Savior. He died on sin credit. God took all of our sins and credited them, put them in Jesus's account, and then punished Him for having them in His account. All of our sin was placed in Jesus's account, and God said, "Because You've got the sin of the whole world in Your account, then I'm going to judge You because of their sin, because their sin is in Your account."

But to the person who places faith alone in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life, a reverse credit occurs. God takes the righteousness of Christ, His perfection, and credits it to our account. I am on my way to heaven by credit. See, to get to heaven, you've got to be perfect. Remember, the glory of God, God's standard. I have a problem; you have a problem. I am not perfect unless you look at my credit. Because in my account on credit is the righteousness of Christ that's been credited to my account, and that's perfect righteousness.

So when I go to heaven, I will stand before God as though I have never sinned. Even though I have, you have, we have more than our share, I will stand before Him as though I've never sinned because when He looks at my credit, it will reflect the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Believing in the Bible is not merely accepting information. It is entrusting yourself to the information that you say you accept. To tell me you believe that pew you're sitting in can hold you up is meaningless until you sit down. It is the act of faith that is faith, not merely the discussion about faith.

You say, "Well, how do I know I've acted in faith?" Simple. You reject anything but Christ to save you. See, you reject anything but Christ. So you no longer look at your achievements as salvific, as able to save you. What God then does is a credit transfer. The reason He can do it, Romans 10 says, is because He's risen from the dead. You can't have a living faith in a dead Savior. The resurrection allows Him to save you because He's alive to do the saving. It is not trusting in myself anymore, but trusting in Christ alone.

Or to put it in the one verse that says it all, John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." But you're not finished yet. You've got one more thing. There must be a transfer of trust. Would you like to trust the Lord Jesus Christ right now as your personal Savior? You call for a decision. If they agree with you after you go through these four points—you may get stuck on a point because they don't understand and all that—but once they agree with these four points, it's calling for a decision.

Would you right now like to trust Jesus Christ as Savior? You may have to go with him to the car because you're in a workplace, or you may have to go to the bathroom, or you may have to go, you know, just to not be distracted, but you call for a decision. They have to make a personal decision. And you call for that decision in a nice, polite, but very clear way. And we've lifted their prayer: "Lord Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross for my sins and rising from the dead to save me. By transferring my total trust to You alone as my Savior, I now receive the forgiveness of my sins and the free gift of eternal life that You offer me."

Let me clear something up: the prayer does not save you. The prayer does not save you. The transfer of the trust saves you. The prayer is simply the way you're expressing the transfer of the trust. It's the transfer. See, if you say the prayer but don't transfer the trust, then you're not saved, even though you've mouthed the right words. You must transfer the trust, but you can express that in a prayer. It concretizes it because you can say it and have something concrete that you're verbalizing to validate the transfer.

Once the transfer is made, which oftentimes is before the person has ever prayed the prayer, because if they understood the first four points and have agreed, often in their heart, they've made the trust transfer and the prayer is only a confirmation. Or it may be done as they pray. But the key is, it's not the prayer, because you can get saved without even having to prayer if there's a transfer of the trust. It is transferring the trust to Christ alone.

This week, not next week, not the week after that, not next month—this week, you find somebody to share the good news with. They won't be hard to find. You've got them in your family, you've got them on your job, you've got them in your neighborhood, you've got them at the gas station, you've got them at the grocery store. It's not hard to find sinners who need salvation, and somebody found you. You have been given the word of reconciliation, and when Christ now sees that you're not ashamed to be associated with Him, you have greater access to Him because now you're a benefit to Him because you're telling the greatest message that has ever been told, and that is about the free gift of salvation.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans wrapping up a message on the good news of the gospel with a call for each of us to share that good news with others. Tony laid out some great principles and insights in today's lesson, but if you want a little more step-by-step direction on how to share with others and what to share with others, you can get that in a short video found at tonyevans.org. Just click the text link at the top of the home page that simply says "Jesus."

In addition to his how-to-share-the-gospel video, Tony has posted some other videos, helpful scriptures, tips, and print resources for both brand new as well as longtime believers. Check it out at tonyevans.org/Jesus and then look for those opportunities to share the good news of Christ with those around you. Today's complete message is available to you on CD, USB flash drive, or digital download as a part of the six-lesson series we've been hearing from Dr. Evans called Having Faith During Fear.

In addition to this powerful audio series, we're bundling Dr. Evans' book, Kingdom Encounters, along with our thanks for anyone who requests them and makes a donation to help us keep sharing the good news on this station and other broadcast outlets around the world. Contact us today at tonyevans.org to get the details and make the arrangements. Or call 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night and let one of our team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222.

If you find these messages from Dr. Evans helpful, you'll appreciate hearing him engage in thoughtful discussions with spirit-filled guest speakers on the Unbound podcast. You can find these conversations on his YouTube channel or wherever you stream your favorite podcasts. On Monday, many people think worry is having doubts about the future, but Dr. Evans points out that for Christians, being worried is actually a bigger problem than whatever it is we're worrying about. Be sure to tune in for some powerful insight on overcoming anxiety.