We saw last week that though we like to think well of ourselves, and we really like to think well of ourselves, every one of us is inherently corrupted by sin and therefore spiritually dead, fundamentally alienated from God, unable to rightly respond to him, and so we are under his righteous judgment. That was the bad news.

We live in death, a kind of spiritual death, and the prognosis is grave, that radical intervention is needed for us. That's the bad news. This morning, we look at the good news more specifically. The dead man walking, he gets new life. He gets the divine pardon. It's issued to him, you see.

Our message this morning is that God's gracious gift of life in Jesus Christ is the only hope that we have. The only hope for dead sinners.

This is the very heart, really, of the gospel. It's the central truth of all Christianity. If you take it all the way and get down to what is absolutely central, absolutely foundational, this is it. It's the reality around which we order our lives. So we encounter this passage with joy because we see the movement of the God of grace, the God.

That is a great physician who brings life. A God who is a judge that brings a pardon. So we'll ask and answer three questions. The questions are what, how, and why. What, how, and why. And these questions will bring us to the very heart of God and the very heart of God's purposes in the world.

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