SheBrews: Preach The Gospel To Yourself

“Preach the gospel to yourself.” If you’ve been hanging around Christian circles for a decent amount of time, chances are that you’ve heard this phrase before. And if you haven’t heard it yet, now you have! It’s a phrase often given as advice for when someone is struggling with something. It was a phrase that a friend of mine told me when I was grieving the loss of my dad and asking what I could do to help my aching heart. I didn’t fully understand then the depths to which it could help me. It was a phrase I was told during counseling sessions for my sexual assault. And, after many sessions of counseling, I realize now that I still didn’t fully understand even then the extent to which the gospel could be a healing balm to a hurting heart.

It wasn’t until I read the book of Hebrews at the beginning of this year that I finally began to understand why it’s so important to preach the gospel to yourself when you’re walking through pain. So, the gospel is where we’re going to start today because it’s the gospel message that is so beautifully woven into the hope found throughout the entire book of Hebrews. Virtually every chapter of this book in some way directly references the gospel. So, while we won’t be focusing on just the book of Hebrews today, I can promise that this first post is necessary as a precursor to everything else we will be discussing.

If you are unfamiliar with the term “the gospel” and find yourself wondering what it is that I’m talking about, the literal translation of the word “gospel” from the Greek language is “good news”. And this good news references the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us.

Let’s take things back in the New Testament to 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 where we find a perfect summary of the gospel:

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

As of first importance…

It was most important then and it is most important now.

You may be asking why. Well, for a couple reasons. The first reason relates to eternity. It means we who have trusted in Christ for forgiveness of our sins and salvation have received the promise of an eternity spent with Him. The second reason relates to our present life here on earth: our Lord and Savior suffered.

And for someone walking through suffering, there’s nothing more comforting than to know that someone understands what it’s like to walk through pain.

Let’s look at what exactly was involved in the sacrifice Jesus Christ made—at the suffering that is so integrally a part of the good news.

Before you continue reading this post, I would like for you to go read Matthew 26:30-27:66. This passage outlines in detail what Jesus endured the night of His crucifixion.

Now that you’ve read that passage, I would like to take a minute and summarize all He experienced, for He experienced different kinds of suffering.

Emotional suffering: He experienced the hurt of being deserted by His friends and followers (26:30-35, 69-75) and the agonizing anticipation of knowing all that would happen in the next few hours(26:37-38). He was publicly humiliated and mocked (26:67; 27:27-31, 35-44).

Physical suffering: He wore a crown of thorns, was beaten, and hung on a cross to die (27:29-30; John 19:1).

A suffering I cannot define with words because I can’t begin to understand the depths of this pain: Jesus experienced spiritual wrath. He experienced being forsaken by God the Father. Thabiti Anyabwile from The Gospel Coalition summarized this well when he said, “This is the deepest, darkest part of Jesus’ suffering…This spiritual forsakenness, spiritual wrath from the Father, occurs deep down in the very godhead itself. We dare not speculate lest we blaspheme. But something was torn in the very fabric of the relationship between Father and Son.”* And so Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” (27:46).

Hebrews 10:5-7 & 10 says, “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but a body have You prepared for Me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God, as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book”’…And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

These verses hit hard after reading about the suffering of Christ. Jesus ministered to many people when He walked this earth as both man and God. But these verses tell us that, from the very start, He knew that He would take on human form ultimately for the purpose of suffering—for the purpose of suffering for us.

And so, my friends, while we will certainly be discussing further the implications of the gospel as it relates to our suffering as it is referenced throughout the book of Hebrews, let me leave you with this for today. If you’re walking through pain, let it be a reminder of two things.

Let it remind you of all that Jesus endured for you and that He considered it good. Scripture is inspired by God. He is the One who first called this the gospel—the good news.

And let it remind you that He understands what it is to suffer—that you are not alone in your pain. He’s walking with you and He understands.

* https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabiti-anyabwile/what-does-it-mean-for-the-father-to-forsake-the-son-part-3/