“The Definitive Gospel”
“The Greek term “gospel” (ev-angelion) is the definitive Christian message which distinguishes IT from all other religions of the world. An ‘ev-angel’ was news of a great historical event which “changed the listeners’ condition and required a response from the listener.” The Good News of the gospel is news of what God in Christ has done to reach us. It is NOT advice or counsel about what we must do to reach God. "The gospel is the joyous proclamation of God's redemptive activity in Christ Jesus on behalf of man enslaved by sin." (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology edited by Walter Elwell) ONLY the Gospel will convert and change individuals from the inside out, and only the Gospel will eventually bring about a new world and a new creation.
Every single person born on earth has been born in sin and has fallen short of God’s glorious standard BUT…Romans 5:8 states HIS GOOD NEWS CLEARLY: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
1. “The gospel is the good news of gracious acceptance”
1. “The gospel is the good news of gracious acceptance of sinners into God’s Kingdom, ONLY by FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. Jesus lived the life we should live. He also paid the penalty we owe for the rebellious life of sin that we do live. He did this in our place (Isaiah 53:4-10). We are not reconciled to God through our efforts and record, as in all other religions, but through his efforts and record. Christians who trust in Christ for their acceptance with God, rather than in their own moral character, commitment, or performance, are…simultaneously sinful yet accepted. We are more flawed and sinful than we ever dared believe, yet we are more loved and accepted than we ever dared hope at the same time.”
Jesus, Himself, ushered in the message of the Gospel. In Matthew 4:23: Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.
Matthew 24:14 "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
The GOSPEL is entirely GRACE-SALVATION. We cannot think for a moment: ‘I earned it in any way. If we think that way, there is no joy, no amazement, no tears, no heartfelt gratitude. I am not… transformed from the inside. “The gospel is, therefore, radically different from religion. RELIGION operates on the principle: ‘I obey, therefore I am accepted’. The GOSPEL operates on the principle: “I am accepted through Christ, THEREFORE I OBEY…”
In Matt. 11:27, Jesus says: 27 "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father ; and no one knows the Son except the Father ; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.”
Jesus alone is the one to whom Isaiah referred to in Isaiah 53:4-10: “4 Surely our griefs HE Himself bore, And our sorrows HE carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, HE was crushed for our iniquities ; The chastening for our well-being fell upon HIM, And by HIS scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the INIQUITY of us all To fall on HIM. 7 HE was oppressed and HE was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So HE did not open HIS mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment HE was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the LORD was pleased to crush HIM, putting HIM to grief; If HE would render Himself as a guilt offering, HE will see His offspring, he will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”
All of your little seemingly white lies. All of your gross lies. All of your jealous thoughts. All of your complaints and self-centeredness. All of your SELF-WORSHIP and SELF-GLORY! Your idol worship of so-called personal time and property! Any self-righteous thoughts, GREAT or small! All of your blasphemies against God. All of your evil thoughts toward others-those murders of the heart! ALL OF YOUR MISUSE of God’s Grace and Gifts toward you: ALL OF THESE were PLACED UPON the LORD JESUS CHRIST…your iniquities, your sins were placed upon Him.
And so we come to the Cross in repentance, begging God for the Forgiveness that can be found ONLY in Christ. Romans 10:9-10 says: “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 ; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” We come to the Lord’s Table and declare that the PRICE for my SINS WAS PAID IN FULL, PURCHASED by the Broken body and Shed Blood of Christ alone, so that God the Father could declare you NOT GUILTY! FORGIVEN on the ACCOUNT OF JESUS.
2. “The gospel is the good news of changed lives.”
Did Jesus remain in the grave after He shed His own blood for your sins? We KNOW the historical account in the Gospels. HE AROSE! MANY SAW HIM! Can you identify with His Resurrection? Colossians 3:1-3 says: 1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (His disciples also witnessed His ascension.) 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” 2. “The gospel is the good news of changed lives.” “The Father accepts us in Christ and treats us as if we had done all that Jesus has done. But this is also means Christ’s life comes into us by the Spirit and shapes us into a new kind of person. The gospel is not just a truth about us that we affirm with our minds, it is also a reality we must experience in our hearts and souls.”
In 2 Cor 8:9, Paul says: “You (NOW EXPERIENTIALLY) KNOW the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, (HE GAVE UP HIS STATUS IN HEAVEN) so that YOU through his poverty might become rich.” We no longer live in the OLD because we have a NEW HEART. The Old HEART has been crucified with Christ, THE NEW HAS COME.
Faith in the atoning work and WORD of the Gospel restructures our motivations, our identify, our view of the world, not only our view of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, but also an EXTRAVAGANT APPRECIATION for the GRACE OF God TO SAVE US and give us new hearts. Behavioral compliance to rules WITHOUT heart-change will only be momentary, superficial and fleeting, but the GOSPEL will change your heart today and forever. When the GOSPEL changes your heart, it’s not like those new year’s resolutions that disappear on week two of the new year (maybe even DAY 2).
The GOSPEL CONTINUES to change and empower (Colossians 1:22-23): He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach -23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” The “IF INDEED” is the PROOF that God has done this LIFE-CHANGING WORK IN YOU. You HAVE confessed your sin, you HAVE repented, you HAVE been given a new heart, and so you will not be moved away from the hope of the gospel which was proclaimed, and you have TRULY HEARD IT.
The Gospel STEAFASTLY and FIRMLY gives us NEW DESIRES, victory over spiritual deadness and over the POWERS of darkness and SIN because (Philippians 2:13) “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” We can’t POSSIBLY be complacent about the PRODIGAL LOVE OF God us. We are ambassadors of the Gospel, not only in WORD but also in deed: Our changed hearts and lives proclaim it LOUDLY. THE GOSPEL is HEARD throughout the WORLD.
3. The gospel is the good news of the new world coming.
God created the world, but the world and humanity fell into sin and decay. God sent HIMSELF in the form of Jesus his Son to redeem those who would trust in Him, but also with the promise of a new world and a new humanity, which is PARTLY HERE now, but there is OH so much more to come. The gospel INCLUDES the good news of the new world which is coming.
When Jesus RETURNS as JUDGE, He will also renew the whole world and give NEW bodies to all who have TRUSTED IN HIM. The new world and new individuals will be forever IMMUNE from death, decay, injustice, and suffering. All sin and effects for sin will be FOREVER removed by CHRIST ALONE.
“The gospel then is not just about individual happiness and fulfillment. It is not just a wonderful plan for ‘your life’ but a wonderful plan for the world. It is about the coming of God’s kingdom to renew everything. Gospel-centered churches do not only urge individuals to be converted, but also to seek peace and justice in our cities and in our world,” as a taste of what is to come… When we understand that we are saved by SHEER GRACE through Christ, we stop seeking salvation through worldly things.” We live Gospel-centered Lives IN THE WORLD with CHRIST in us, who IS OUR HOPE OF GLORY.
All of the above are important Biblical perspectives on the gospel which work together to bring God the Glory that He deserves. The first stresses the doctrinal content of the gospel. The gospel is the news that Jesus Christ died and rose for our salvation in history. The second stresses the personal individual impact of the gospel that it is a transforming grace that changes our hearts, our inmost motives, which results in a change of outward behavior. The third stresses the social impact of the gospel. The gospel brings a new ‘order’ in which believers no longer are controlled by material goods or worldly status and have solidarity with others across customary social barriers.
The gospel of the Christ ALONE, by faith and Grace Alone, taught in God’s word alone is the power and dynamic for all heart-change, life-change, and social-change. “Change won’t happen through ‘trying harder’ but only through encountering the radical grace of God.” The Gospel of God’s Grace in Christ is definitive because HE ALONE provides the victorious and final solution to sin and its effects, both in this life, and the life to come. Has the GOSPEL changed your life? (Ephesians 3:16-) I PRAY THAT God WOULD GRANT EACH OF YOU, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
(all quotes from Tim Keller, REDEEMER VISION PAPER #1, THE GOSPEL: KEY TO CHANGE)
OUTLINE
1. The gospel is the good news of gracious acceptance.
2. The gospel is the good news of changed lives.
3. The gospel is the good news of the new world coming.
G.O.S.P.E.L.
God created man to be with Him and Honor Him Alone. (Genesis 1-2)
Our sins separated us from God. (Genesis 3)
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds, only by the Son. (Genesis 4 – Malachi 4)
Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)
Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life. (John)
Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. (Acts – Revelation)
The Gospel of God’s Grace in Christ is definitive because it ALONE provides the victorious and final solution to sin and its effects, both in this life, and the life to come.
