What Is the Gospel?

Intrigued by the title of a sermon link that a friend posted online, I listened to this message by Voddie Baucham a couple of nights ago while I washed dishes and ironed. It was so thought-provoking I had to listen to it again tonight with my full concentration and take notes so as to absorb the depth of what was being communicated.

Have you ever stopped and thought about this question: "What is the Gospel?"

At first it's easy to try to give it a simplistic, pat answer.

"The Gospel is good news."

"The Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus."

But the more you ponder its depths, the more difficult it is to create a definition, because this word speaks of a concept that speaks of a plan from eternity past that is the entire summation of the Word of God, the plan of God, the heart of God. How do you take something that big, that beautiful, that breathtaking, and cram it into a simple little definition?

Tomorrow night, it's my turn to facilitate the Friday night Bible study discussion with a group of young people from my church. I've been pondering various ideas for what to study, and after listening to this sermon again tonight, I think I'll pick this topic!

Because, as Dr. Baucham points out, "You don’t put the Gospel down to go deal with other issues and then come back to the Gospel. You pick the Gospel up and look at everything through the prism of the Gospel. It is the Gospel that orients my thinking on every other issue so that I can approach it rightly. "

So, if this statement is true...what is the Gospel?

I know you think you know what the Gospel is. I thought I did too. Then, I listened to this sermon and I am stirred to think again. To think more deeply. It's not that my thinking has been changed so much as challenged to look at the concept from a different angle.

The Gospel is simple. But it is also so very complex that we will spend the rest of our lives trying to put it into human terms. And while there is one theological detail in the sermon I happen to have a different perspective on, it is very much worth listening to.

Another great resource I plan to use for our study tomorrow evening is found on the Statement of Faith of the Ellerslie website; written, I would assume, by Eric and Leslie Ludy. Please, when you have five spare minutes, take the time to read it below. It is profound, life-changing, worthy of our meditation and a wonderful companion to the sermon I've been writing about.

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Romans 1:16

The Cross

We believe that the Cross is the pivot point in history, representing a correction of the great problem of humanity. It’s more than two pieces of wood and an innocent man hanging needlessly upon them – it is Majesty on High delivering a death blow to the entire army of Hell, the greatest act of heroic love this universe has ever witnessed, the Champion of Heaven absorbing the full punishment of sin and fulfilling perfect justice, and a seemingly helpless Lamb conquering the powers of sin and death and paving the way for a Kingdom take-over of human lives. The Cross represents a brilliance born in the heart and mind of the Almighty, being the perfect enunciation of His nature of Love, Holiness, Justice, Wrath, and Grace, perfectly fulfilling every demand of Messianic authenticity, while at the same time shaming and humiliating the confounded demonic and earthly rebels that unwittingly helped to carry it out. The Cross is both the greatest tragedy and yet the most dramatic victory. It was triumph wrenched from the jaws of apparent defeat, the Son forsaken by the Holy Father allowed to drink to the dregs the wine of God’s wrath and yet simultaneously it’s His affectionate proposal of life and love to His beloved Bride - the ultimate gift of love and redemption. It is Life purchased, Salvation gained, the Host of Hell defeated, and access opened to the long shrouded mystery of godliness. The Cross represents the inauguration of a new covenant, the establishing of a new order – a heavenly invitation to every man, woman, and child to partake of the Body and Blood of God, to receive the very Living Reality of God’s Life within – to exchange their life for God’s Life – to no longer live to themselves but for Christ to live in them.

The Cross is the centerpiece of the Gospel. It’s not for the covering of sin, it’s the heavenly solution for the removal of sin’s presence. It’s more than the forgiveness of transgressions, it’s the channel through which men and women can access the very Life of Jesus Christ, living, moving, and having His being within them, in order to represent God’s very nature, character, purity, and holiness to this world about. The Cross is the device that God has used to take the filthy rebels of humanity and make them pure and holy vessels of His presence.

What is the Gospel?

We believe that the Gospel (or Good News of God) is represented in Scripture with six distinct elements of Messianic triumph and intent.

1)The Sentence of Death Removed

Man is imprisoned in his sin – unable to escape the control of sin, the earthly effects of sin, and the eternal penalty of sin. However, the Good News of God is that the triumvirate of sin’s effect has been canceled through the work of the Messiah, Jesus Christ – the wrath of God has been absorbed by the stricken Son of God – divine justice has been served, sin has been condemned in the flesh. Thusly, the guilty rebels of earth (you and me), if we would only accept this act of divine intervention with faith, have the privilege of legal justification before the bar of Heaven. We can be forgiven of our rebellion, self-will, and lifelong resistance to His rule and reign. Such justification and forgiveness, when accepted through faith, creates a way into the very Presence and Eternal Life of God. The guilty conscience of man can be swept clean and filled with unspeakable joy, and the condemnation of Hell that hangs justly over the souls of every human can be wholly removed and replaced with hope of life ever after with God.

2)The Prison Door to Sin is Unlocked

Man is controlled by sin. And as a result, the pure and holy things he may esteem with his mind and wish to emulate with his life, he is unable to perform and act out. He finds within his being, a barrier to purity, holiness, and righteousness. However, the work of the Cross, the triumph of our Messiah, has done more than merely remove the sentence of Death from the children of God - in fact, for those who believe, it has removed the barrier to purity, holiness, and righteousness IN a believer. That which has always hindered men from living out the commands of God has been removed. The prison door has been unlocked, and now, the people of faith, have the privilege of walking in the light as our God is in the light, and bearing fruit that evidences a regeneration of the human soul.

3)The invitation to live in His Presence

Though man was a rebel prior to coming to the Cross, and though man was saturated with the dark stain of sin when first approaching the throne of Grace, amazingly, Jesus Christ’s work has created the one and only avenue through which sinful man can enter into the presence of the Divine. Not just be forgiven, and not just be freed from the dark oppression of the soul, but actually permitted the privilege of living where the King lives, sharing in the rights and allowances of His Kingdom, the privileges and protections of His Spirit Law, being counted among His people, named amongst His company.

4)The adoption as sons and daughters

Amazingly, the blood of Christ goes even further than even these three astounding realities. It doesn’t leave us mere citizens of a Kingdom, washed clean and set on our feet with dignity, it also makes a way for us to be adopted into His very family and to be called amongst His sons and daughters. Beyond mere forgiveness of sins, freedom from sin, and allowance into His Presence, this is the monumental privilege of sharing in the authority of His Name, the pleasures of His person, and the riches of His personal wealth. We are offered a place not just in His salvation plan, but on His very lap, invited to know Him and become a heart-friend of the Most High God – actually free to call Him Abba, Papa, Father. And thusly, we are privileged to actually share in His inheritance - all of it!

5)The commission to represent the King’s nature and herald the King’s Word to this lost world

We are also chosen to now represent Him to this lost world, to carry His burdens, to stand for His Truth, to preach His message, and to live as He Himself lived. As the One who has called us is holy, so we are to be holy in every thing we do, in order to demonstrate to this world the stunning virtue and excellence of our Champion, Jesus Christ. We are called to be His Body – His very hands and feet to valiantly undergird the weak, His mouthpiece to shout His Gospel, His ears to hear the cries of the needy, and His feet to go into all the world, seeking and saving that which is lost. We are called to follow Him, to do as He did, and to die in similitude to His dying. We are called to absolute purity of heart, mind, and life. We are called to model God’s perfection. And whereas, such a calling is wholly impossible for us to fulfill and carry out, God doesn’t back down in Scripture in clarifying this amazing intent. And this is why the sixth piece to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (see below) is so important – because without it, none of the above features can even be realized beyond a miniscule level.

6)The privilege of becoming the dwelling place of God

The Cross was about far more than forgiveness. It was about more than men being set free, invited into the Kingdom of their King, being adopted as His very children, and being commissioned to represent His Truth to this world. Shockingly, the Cross also purchased the way for us to find the fullness of Life. The Cross created an avenue through which the awesome, all-powerful, consuming fiery Life of God can actually enter into the bodies of believing men and women and make the entirety of this Gospel (as mentioned above) a living, breathing reality. God desires to live inside us, to speak through us, love through us, feel through us, hear through us – live, move, and have His being in and through us. Just as Jesus did nothing but what His Father in Heaven was doing (He only spoke that which His Father spoke and only did that which His Father did), so we are to be baptized with the very living presence of God within, enabling us to do precisely the same thing (speaking only that which Jesus is speaking and do only that which Jesus is doing). Our life is not our own, it’s been bought with a price. And when we yield to this indwelling Life of God, suddenly it is no longer just a human attempt at imitating the magnificence and perfection of God, but it is the magnificence and perfection of God at work within us demonstrating His Life to this onlooking world.

~ Copied and pasted from the Statement of Belief at Ellerslie.com