Category Archives: The Gospel

What is Evangelism?

Posted by Dan C. on

“As Christian ‘evangelists’, we can no more persuade someone to receive/accept/believe in Christ, than we can coax a dead man to dance.”

That’s a paraphrase of something Mark Dever said in an evangelism conference. Evangelism is not our personal testimony, social action, Christian apologetics, or the results/fruit of evangelistic efforts.

Evangelism is to spread the good news of the gospel that Christ died for our sins, was resurrected according to the scriptures, and because of Christ’s death and resurrection, forgiveness and salvation are offered to the sinner.

That means that when share that gospel to those around us, wherever we happen to be at any given moment of our lives, we must include, before we share the earthly benefits of trusting in and following Jesus, we share the true condition of anyone living apart from Christ (dead in sin and facing judgment), offer God’s answer to that terrible and eternal predicament, and pray , trusting God with the results.

What are the requirements to be an evangelist? Simply three:

  • A deep love for obedience,
  • a deep love for the lost, and
  • a deep love for God.

Who should to be an evangelist? Every one of us who would name the Name above all names, Jesus Christ – our Savior and Lord!

Test Question: Are you an evangelist? If not, why not? Want to talk about it?

To the Praise of His Glorious Grace – D. A. Carson

Posted by Dan C. on

To the Praise of His Glorious Grace

What astonishing mercy and power:
In accord with his pleasure and will
He created each planet, each flower,
Every galaxy, microbe, and hill.
He suspended the planet in space
To the praise of his glorious grace.

With despicable self-love and rage,
We rebelled and fell under the curse.
Yet God did not rip out the page
And destroy all who love the perverse.
No, he chose us to make a new race,
To the praise of his glorious grace.

Providentially ruling all things
To conform to the end he designed,
He mysteriously governs, and brings
His eternal wise plans into time.
He works out every step, every trace,
To the praise of his glorious grace.

Long before the creation began,
He foreknew those he’d ransom in Christ;
Long before time’s cold hour-glass ran,
He ordained the supreme sacrifice.
In the cross he removed our disgrace,
To the praise of his glorious grace.

We were blessed in the heavenly realms
Long before being included in Christ.
Since we heard the good news, overwhelmed,
We reach forward to seize Paradise.
We shall see him ourselves, face to face,
To the praise of his glorious grace.

The Gospel According to Calvary

Posted by Dan C. on

One of the most amazing ‘pictures’ of the of the Gospel message in scripture is found in the last book of the Bible:

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
 and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

Revelation 5:6-9

With the currency of His own blood, the coin of the Heavenly Realm, Christ purchased men for God. Other translations use terms like ransomed, redeemed, or bought. Regardless of the specific term, what happened at Calvary was as firm a transaction as walking into a store, placing money on the counter and walking out with whatever you intended to buy. Only in terms of fallen men, the Father sent his Son to earth to ‘buy back for himself’ (Christ purchased men for God), out of the mass of fallen humanity, men and women from every ‘people group’ on the planet

The Apostle Paul, everywhere he went and to every audience, spoke a simple message of Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). Paul also very specifically defined the core of the gospel message – that Christ died for our sins (1 Cor 15:1-4).

The passage in Revelation and Paul’s gospel provide slightly different perspectives of the same message.  In Revelation we have the ‘big picture’. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, as well as in the entire body of his preaching, we have the gospel message that is to be the center of the ‘good news’ we are to declare to all men.

WHY does anyone choose Christ. . .

Posted by Dan C. on

. . .and why is it important as long as we choose?

These days, if you even ask the first part of that, you might be told that it’s not important or that you are just being divisive. The only thing that matters is that a ‘decision’ was made. Some of those who do not think it’s an important question might accuse you of being divisive and maybe even being ‘lost’ and not saved at all! You’re just all into theology and book learning, and since you didn’t provide a testimony with the ‘theology’, about how you went downtown to feed the homeless, you’re just not saved!

My friend, I am here to tell you this morning, as God is my witness, that the answer to that question is of critical importance, and has eternal consequences! It’s the difference between eternal life in the presence of God and an eternity in the everlasting torments of hell!

IF you came to Christ for any other reason than because you realized your desperate straights apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ, that you are a spiritually dead and lost sinner; and realized that God sent His beloved son to die in your place – to suffer the just wrath due your sin; and based upon that realization, you believed in Christ, it is entirely possible that you believed in vain and are as destined for hell this morning  as before you walked an aisle, signed a decision card, or said a special prayer!

Many, if not most invitations to Christ that are offered these days from the stages of alleged ‘churches’ these days are all about having lives ‘fixed in’ one way or another, and never bring up the sin issue, the central and perhaps only issue of biblical evangelism! .

To omit the single most important issue of the gospel message, is to have NO gospel message! To leave out the issue of sin is to be a fraud and a charlatan – a spiritual ‘snake oil’ salesman. To save the sin issue for later (after they like you a lot) and invite people to Christ to have their lives ‘fixed’, is a spiritual ‘bait and switch’ con game.

So this old man is going to continue to ask the question. Eternal lives are at stake!

I am saved because GOD SAVED ME! He gave life to a dead man and opened his ears to hear the gospel and his eyes to see Christ. And when he saw Christ, he desired Him so strongly that there was no way he would not end up at the foot of the Cross. It was ALL God.

Friend, examine your heart this morning. WHY did you choose Christ? IF it was for some other reason, any other reason than for the forgiveness of your sin, you have cause to be concerned about your eternal destiny. Search your soul, search scripture, asking God why He sent His Son to die or you.

This is my plea.

 

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life and death

Justification – The Center of Religion

Posted by Dan C. on

It can reasonably be said that ‘justification’ before a ‘god’, or ‘higher being’ of some sort is the center of most, if not all ‘religion’. All we have to do is take a trip through what we know of the history of the human race to conclude, quite logically, that humans are born with a ‘religious bent’, and by nature will attribute to some sort of higher being their creation, and feel the need to satisfy/appease that supreme being. What satisfies the god of any religion, how humans are found righteous  before their god in essence defines their religion and the conduct of their very lives.  This principle applies even to persons who claim no god, because in truth, for those persons, they are their own gods and the conduct of their lives revolves around satisfying themselves – becoming ‘self-actualized’, to borrow a term from Maslow.

Professing atheists aside, we turn our attention to ‘religions’ containing god(s) outside of oneself. Of these, all of them except one are identical in their view of what satisfies their god(s) – what ‘justifies’ their adherents – what makes a person ‘worthy’ of attaining whatever ‘afterlife’ they espouse. Every religion on the face of the earth, except for Christianity, involves human effort, works of human hands, in order for adherents/followers to eventually find eternal happiness.

In fact, the Christian religion, is not a ‘religion’,  if religion is defined as man’s effort to please God! Christianity, as given to us in Holy Scripture is defined by, and revolves around the person for whom it is named, the man Christ Jesus. True Christianity is about what God accomplished in the sinless life and death of His own Son, not about what we humans do, or think we can do ourselves to please God. As we come from the womb, we can do absolutely nothing! (See Psalm 14 and Romans 11, for starters).  For the Christian then, what does it mean to be found righteous, to be considered ‘just’ before a Holy God? Here’s the definition you will find in any good dictionary of biblical terms

Justification — a forensic term, opposed to condemnation. As regards its nature, it is the judicial act of God, by which he pardons all the sins of those who believe in Christ, and accounts, accepts, and treats them as righteous in the eye of the law, i.e., as conformed to all its demands. In addition to the pardon (q.v.) of sin, justification declares that all the claims of the law are satisfied in respect of the justified. It is the act of a judge and not of a sovereign. The law is not relaxed or set aside, but is declared to be fulfilled in the strictest sense; and so the person justified is declared to be entitled to all the advantages and rewards arising from perfect obedience to the law (Rom. 5:1–10).

It proceeds on the imputing or crediting to the believer by God himself of the perfect righteousness, active and passive, of his Representative and Surety, Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:3–9). Justification is not the forgiveness of a man without righteousness, but a declaration that he possesses a righteousness which perfectly and for ever satisfies the law, namely, Christ’s righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 4:6–8).

The sole condition on which this righteousness is imputed or credited to the believer is faith in or on the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is called a “condition,” not because it possesses any merit, but only because it is the instrument, the only instrument by which the soul appropriates or apprehends Christ and his righteousness (Rom. 1:17; 3:25, 26; 4:20, 22; Phil. 3:8–11; Gal. 2:16).

The act of faith which thus secures our justification secures also at the same time our sanctification (q.v.); and thus the doctrine of justification by faith does not lead to licentiousness (Rom. 6:2–7). Good works, while not the ground, are the certain consequence of justification (6:14; 7:6).

Easton, M.G.: Easton’s Bible Dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996, c1897

A person is declared justified before God’s court of judgment, once and for all, at the moment faith is placed in Christ as having satisfied the requirement of God’s law, nothing short of sinless perfection will do. No man can, or ever will achieve that state, due to inherent sin. We are by nature sinful, and that nature follows us to the grave, after which comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

In other words, even if a person lives a life without committing an ‘act’ of sin, even if that person has a ‘new nature’ in Christ, a taint of sin remains even at the moment of death, and eternal condemnation is still that person’s ‘just’ reward. It is only because of having placed saving faith in the finished work of Christ as having fulfilled the Law of God, that any person receives eternal salvation. And so that we would not boast in having place ‘our’ faith in Christ, the Apostle Paul tells us that even the faith necessary to save a soul is a gift from our Sovereign God! (Eph. 2:8-9)

To bring this full circle, what does this tell us of religion? Any and all religion that has in its teaching or doctrine, that humans effort can in any way make a person righteous (justify a person) before its god is false.

Any form of ‘Christianity’ that adds works to faith for justification before God is either at worst, entirely false, or at best, apostate Christianity.

That’s not one man’s opinion or personal interpretation of scripture, it’s Bible.

Your Changed Life is Not the Gospel Message

Posted by Dan C. on

It is a ‘given’ that a relationship with God, through the crucified and risen Christ will drastically change one’s life.

It is also a ‘given’ that a life changed life is an important part of what we share with non-believers when pointing them to the Savior.

A changed life, in and of itself, is however not the core message that we must share with those we would lead to Christ. The Apostle Paul declared:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” – Rom 1:16

Paul also declared:

“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,” – 1 Cor 15:1-4

No matter where Paul traveled and preached, he always centered on this core message. The only thing in question is exactly when the core message was delivered during an evangelistic encounter.

Often, we believers make a ‘changed life’ the centerpiece of our ‘gospel sharing’, followed by an invitation to Christ based on personal benefits to be obtained in this life, rather than Paul’s core message of the death and resurrection of Christ for our sin – the message that actually contains ‘the power of God for salvation!

Been there, done that!

Food for thought. . .

What is the Gospel Sermons – #1

Posted by Dan C. on

It seems that these days you can ask any amount of Christians/Christ followers/believers “What is the Gospel?” and get a lot of different answers, I thought I would post sermons/teachings that focus specifically on that question. Here is the first, by D. A. Carson. Click the link below to listen with Quicktime. Right Click and select “Save As” to download the file to you computer.

What is the Gospel?

NOTE: You might end up just listening the first time and listening to it while taking notes the second time. I did.

 

Gospel Definitions – R.C. Sproul

Posted by Dan C. on

“There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.

The Gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another.

The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.

The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension.

How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.”

The Great Western Heresy

Posted by Dan C. on

“The crisis of this moment has several parts, and . . ., they’re all related. The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. “

Sounds like something that would come from a religious group outside of Christianity. For the source of that quote read this article.

Truth, Lies and Horseback Riding

Posted by Dan C. on

You are probably thinking that’s a rather silly title for a blog post. Maybe, maybe not. If it stimulated your curiosity to the point you are actually reading this, it accomplished the desired goal of the author. Therefore, it makes at least a little bit of sense. Agreed? No on to the point. . .

Months ago, maybe even years ago in some cases, while studying various aspects of Christianity in light of scripture (a favorite pastime of mine), I began to see beliefs in Christendom that had little or no scriptural support, and that some of those questionable beliefs had achieved the status of ‘doctrine’, and to disagree with them was labeled minimally as growth hindering misunderstanding of scripture, and blasphemy deserving of Hell at the other end of the ‘error spectrum’.  I had then, and then still have now, a soul deep conviction that God wrote the Book and therefore what was taught as truth, but didn’t agree with the context of scripture, was wrong or false in some measure and in some cases, was an outright lie.

The unavoidable question brought to this inquiring mind was, “How did these falsehoods and lies end up so widely believed by professing Christians? The answer arrived at after a considerable amount of studying scripture, researching a range of historical resources, and comparing them both to widely held beliefs of professing believers was. and IS, precisely this:

The ‘accepted’ lie always rides in on the back of truth. Without an element of scriptural truth upon which to hitch a ride, the lie never survives.

A prime example from the early church would be the Pelagian heresy that denied any adverse effect of Adam’s sin on the rest of mankind that was birthed after the Fall. That lie didn’t get very far and was condemned as heresy. the ‘Semi-Pelagianism that followed acknowledged that Adam’s sin affected of us, but man is still able in and of himself to cooperate with God in the salvation of his soul . That was also condemned as heresy (at the Council of Orange), but is in fact alive and well in both major camps of Christianity. No segment of Christianity has ever admitted to being Semi-Pelagian, although a synergistic Gospel is by nature, exactly that.

There you have one man’s explanation of the connection between truth, lies, and horseback riding. The initial lie, without an element of truth, failed. The second lie, while admitting ‘some’ truth, made a modified version of the first lie perfectly acceptable, and even pleasing to human sensibilities.

There have been other examples of lies riding in on the back of truth, some with a longer history of ‘acceptance’ than others. The two most damaging to both the cause of Christ and the souls of men are 1) that Christ established a single religious organization as the only true church with an ‘infallible’ human as head of that church and 2) that God ‘accepts’ us unconditionally, WITH our sin.

Both have a segment of truth. Christ did declare he would establish His church on earth. God does LOVE unconditionally – it’s His nature and one of His divine attributes.

The church that Christ established is made up of those persons for whom he died, from every tongue and tribe and nation – those whom He purchased with his own blood. We weren’t put on layaway!

If God could ‘accept’ us into His Kingdom WITH our sin, His Son died in vain. The first point of the Gospel is that Christ DIED for our sin!