Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Monday, October 6, 2014

The Christian Gospel


The Christian Gospel
By Matt Wiser
                What is the Gospel?  This might seem like an odd question to some, especially for a Church newsletter.  Surely everyone knows what the Gospel is, don’t they?  It is, after all, the central message of the Christian Faith.
                Sadly, there is a great deal of confusion surrounding even this most basic and critical Christian tenant.  Across much of the visible Church today you will hear phrases such as, “live the Gospel,” or “be the Gospel.”  But as it turns out, these phrases don’t make any sense, in fact, when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is correctly understood these phrases, popular as they may be, are meaningless collections of words. 
                The Gospel is good news, indeed that is what the word means.  It is a proclamation.  It is not something that can be lived, and it is not something that we can be.  It is a message, it is information, it is a truth claim about something that has been done, not something that we can do.  Let me explain.
                The Gospel begins with our sinfulness.  Why is the Gospel a necessary message?  It is because of sin.  Our own sinfulness must be understood in order for us to understand why the Gospel is good news.  A proclamation of the Gospel to someone who has no awareness of their own sin seems like irrelevant crazy talk.  Think of it this way, it’s the middle of the night, your house is on fire, and you don’t know it.  Some helpful, good hearted passerby sees that your house is on fire and runs up and starts pounding on your front door.  You get out of bed and answer the door, and immediately the person begins raving frantically that they are there to rescue you and that you must get out of the house right away.  Are you not going to think that this person is a lunatic?  Will you not be more likely to slam and lock the door and call the police rather than follow them?  But what if instead the first words they say are, “your house is on fire!” and then they tell you to leave it?  Now you know the problem, and you can see why a rescue was necessary in the first place.
                It is true of all of us that we are sinners.  The Bible says this in Romans 3:10-18, “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”  “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.’” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”” And Isaiah 53:6a says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;”  And lest we be tempted to think that this is only true for some other people, but not for us, let us look at Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” 
                And what does sinfulness and unrighteousness earn for us?  The wrath of God, but don’t take my word for it.  Romans 1:18 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”  Moreover Romans 2:5 tells us, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.”
                If we were to end there, the news is devastating.  In fact it is meant to be.  This is far more serious than a knock on the door to tell you that the house is on fire.  This is the truth of God that demolishes all of our perceived self-righteousness.  We have been informed of the sinful condition of all of mankind, there is not a single one of us that escapes this condemnation.
                But praise be to God, the story doesn’t end there.  Enter the Gospel.  To put it as concisely as I know how, the Gospel is this:  Jesus Christ, God the Son, entered humanity, took on flesh, lived a perfectly sinless life, fulfilling all righteousness, all the demands of the law, and died upon a Roman cross, bearing our sins, and enduring the just wrath of God against those sins so that, for those who are in Him, there is no punishment left to be poured out upon us.  (Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”) 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  So, on account of Christ, and His completed work, when God looks at me He does not see the wretched sinner that I truly am.  Instead, my guilt, my shame, the wicked and evil thoughts, whatever they be, were placed upon Christ, and He was punished for them all, and treated as if He, and not I, were guilty of each and every one of them.  I deserve eternal damnation for these sins, but Christ, upon the cross, bore the weight of that eternal hell in my behalf.  Now, I am treated by God as if I had lived Christ’s own perfectly sinless life, having fulfilled all righteousness, every demand of the law.  All who reach out to Him with the empty hand of Faith will find Him to be a perfect Savior.
                Having seen our condemned state in Ephesians 2:1-3 (quoted above), we see the wonderful truth of the Gospel, beginning in verse 4 and following, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
                And finally, Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.   All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”