Category Archives: Salvation

The First Word of the Gospel?

Posted by Dan C. on

There is a subject that isn’t broached much these days from the pulpits of many or our evangelical ‘seeker friendly’ churches. Whoops! Did I say ‘pulpit’? I meant ‘stage’. We got rid of pulpits along with the church steeple, crosses, all organs and most pianos. But I digress. Back to the subject at hand.

You know, I can’t remember the last time I heard a sermon message about repentance. I guess it’s too closely connected to that other uncomfortable topic, ‘sin’, which in turn could remind you of that dreaded “J” word (that would be ‘judgment’).

The question I have about all this is this – If the gospel message is about Christ dying for our sin and his subsequent resurrection, how can we call a message ‘the gospel’ if sin and repentance aren’t even touched upon? Granted, while Paul did not use the word ‘repent’ in his summary of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, it is implicit in Christ’s death for sin. Sin MUST be dealt with and the only thing to do with sin is repent (turn from it and turn to God)! We also have some pretty good examples in the New Testament that demonstrate a fairly high priority on the subject of repentance to the gospel.

In those days John the Baptist came into the wilderness of Judea proclaiming, “Repent,  for the kingdom of heaven is near.”  Matthew 3:1-2 (The beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry)

From that time Jesus began to preach this message:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Matthew 4:17 (The beginning of Jesus’ ministry)

So they went out and preached that all should repent. Mark 6:12 (The twelve disciples, sent out by Jesus)

Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:28 (Peter preaching in Jerusalem after Pentecost)

“Therefore, King Agrippa,  I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God,  performing deeds consistent with repentance. Acts 26:19-20 (Paul before King Agrippa)

It appears that rather than omit the topics of sin and repentance from our gospel message that they should be of the highest priority!

I would submit to you that if we think we are sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and we omit the issue if sin and the need for repentance, we are deceiving our listeners. If our intention is to lead the listener to a decision for Christ without dealing with sin, but to bring it up at a later time, we might be con artists guilty of a spiritual ‘bait and switch’.

Born on ‘Death Row’

Posted by Dan C. on

You are probably already asking, “What does he mean by that one?”

Well, for this old soldier, that’s what this thing called ‘sin’ is all about, and by the way, the focus of the first point of the two part gospel message (See this earlier post). If I consider it my duty and Great Privilege (See this earlier post), I had better have a good explanation when I tell folks that ‘Christ died for our sins’. A correct ‘view’ of sin is as essential to delivering the gospel message as is the ‘fact’ of sin. Sadly, and to our shame (us evangelicals), we sometimes forget to mention sin when we share the gospel, and often when we do dare approach the subject, we treat it poorly.

Listening to today’s popular gospel, one might think that ‘sin’ is just about the annoying little things we ‘do’ and Jesus died so we could make it to heaven anyway because after all, we are born ‘good’ and of such great worth/value to God that he can’t even imagine heaven without us. Or, sin only means being ‘separated from God’, or ‘missing the mark’ – both true statements. If ‘sin’ is not just those things, what is it?

Listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say on the subject to believers in the city of Ephesus:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” Ephesians 2:1-2

Now hear what Jesus said to a religious leader named Nicodemus:

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:18

Apart from Christ we are spiritually dead and already condemned. Would it be fair to say that those two concepts aren’t brought up much (if at all) in today’s ‘seeker friendly’), discover YOUR special purpose, have YOUR best life NOW ‘evangelical’ environment?

How did we end up this way – spiritually dead and already condemned?  We know the story – the first couple (the only two people who ever walked the earth with complete ‘free will’), in an act of willful disobedience, broke the only rule God gave them and sin entered to pollute God’s perfect creation. The effect on the human race was devastating. Everyone born since then (Christ excluded) has inherited what we call a ‘sin nature’ (also known as ‘original sin’) and under a death sentence. If that’s not bad news (REALLY BAD NEWS), nothing is!. And if that’s the bad news, what’s the GOOD news?

The good news (REALLY GOOD NEWS) is that we can get out from under the ‘death sentence’ – receive a FULL PARDON! When we deserved to die (the wages of sin is death – Rom 3:23) and spend an eternity in Hell, someone died IN OUR PLACE. That someone was Jesus, sent to the Cross by his own Father to die in our stead!

“God made him (Jesus Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (Emphasis mine.)

When we realize our lost and dead condition, admit that we cannot help ourselves, and believe in our heart that Jesus paid for OUR sin with His death, we can receive a ‘full pardon’.

That means a whole lot more than Jesus just dying for the ‘bad stuff I do’, or there being this gulf between me and God called ‘sin’. Jesus suffered the death I deserved! There’s a huge difference between the two concepts. Do you see it? Can you see how our definition of ‘sin’ impacts the gospel message itself?

Does God save people if they only hear the ‘love’ message? I’m sure He does, but it might be ‘in spite of’ a poorly delivered message! By all means talk about love, abundant living, God’s blessings for the one who believes, but as secondary to dealing with the ‘sin’ issue. That’s the difference between a ‘man-centered’ and a ‘God-centered’ gospel – and a message this important deserves to be delivered in its entirety.

We’ll talk about why there’s absolutely no need to dilute the message in a later post.

Rules of Engagement – The Truth of the Gospel

Posted by Dan C. on

Most professing Christians would agree that we are to share the good news of Christ (the gospel), using words, deeds or both. Most are also in agreement that the sharing of the gospel applies to individuals as well as the corporate church. Furthermore, ‘good deeds’ in the Name of Christ speak for themselves. When it comes to ‘words’ however, there is a lot of opinion out there regarding the correct approach and even the words we should/should not use approaching the subject with non-believers. We would all probably agree with the need to share the CORE of the gospel. Is it possible to define it?

We have heard it all. It’s about ‘having your best life now’, discovering God’s custom-made plan/purpose for your life, experiencing health/wealth & prosperity (abundant living), etc., and all because God loves us so much he can’t wait to make it all happen for us. These are things for which Christ died. One Sunday morning I heard that Christ died for my ‘dreams’. I have heard that God loves us so much He can’t even imagine His heaven without us. We package the presentation into neat little set of a few laws or canned verses designed to elicit certain responses followed by a self-evident decision. One set of study materials, with which I am very familiar, stated that the very core of Christianity, the reason Christ died on the cross was God’s passionate desire for a relationship with us. ‘Relationship’ with God through Christ is certainly inherent in God’s reconciling work – the very work that is passed to all believers, but is it the very center, the CORE of the gospel message?

This post isn’t about ‘pinging’ on all the promoters/proponents of all the ‘stuff’ we have heard, whether I mentioned it above or even if you have ‘filled in a blank’. I think it would do us well to define what the gospel IS, for two specific purposes: 1) to make sure we have the necessary ‘basic ingredients’ in our message and 2) so that we maintain the proper balance in our presentation of the gospel message. The higher goal is to be able to faithfully deliver His message to the praise of His glorious grace!

For a concise definition of the gospel we need look no further than the Apostle Paul and what he had to say on the matter. Although we could start with John 3:16, the odds on favorite, but I thought it wise to consult someone whose life work after meeting his Savior was exactly that – spreading the gospel and ‘growing’ the church. I chose Paul because although he possessed the equivalent of was several post-graduate degrees, he kept it simple. So let’s turn to Paul for a concise definition of the gospel:

“Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 15:6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time…” – 1 Corinthians 15:1-5

This is not the first time Paul presented this message to the church at Corinth and before he re-delivers it he tells them that is ‘of first importance’, not second, third, or something to bring up a few months after a more ‘relevant’, ‘comfortable’, or non-threatening’ message to get folks through the church doors. What is of first importance are two last events that happened to Christ before His ascension to sit at the right hand of the Father.

  • Christ died for our sins (according to the Scriptures), and was buried (validation – they didn’t bury dead folks).
  • He was raised on the third day (according to the Scriptures) and was seen by 500+ people (validation – too many for a conspiracy).

Each event was according to previously declared scripture and validated after the event’s occurrence.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am NOT saying we shouldn’t include God’s awesome love, the promise of abundant life,or His plan for our lives. We just need to keep central what IS central and discuss all the rest using God’s definition and according to His terms, not ours.

If we want examples of evangelistic encounters we can start with the book of Acts. There are about nineteen of them and guess what? ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life’ isn’t one of them. Should that tell us something?