The key
To understanding the gospel is to
know
why it’s good news
To do that, we must start with the bad news.
The Old Testament Law was given to Israel during the
time of Moses
(Deuteronomy 5:1).
The Law can be thought of as a measuring stick, and sin is
anything that falls
short of “perfect” according to that standard.
The righteous requirement of the Law is so stringent
that no human being could possibly follow it perfectly, in
letter or in spirit.
Despite our “goodness” or “badness” relative to each other,
we are all in the same spiritual boat--
we have sinned, and the punishment for sin is death, i.e.
separation from God, the source of life
(Romans 3:23).
In order for us to go to heaven, God’s dwelling place and the
realm of life and light,
sin must be somehow
removed or paid for.
The Law established the fact that cleansing from sin can only happen
through the bloody sacrifice of an innocent life
(Hebrews 9:22).
The gospel involves Jesus’ death on the cross as the sin offering
to fulfill
the Law’s righteous requirement
(Romans 8:3–4; Hebrews 10:5–10).
Under the Law, animal sacrifices were offered year after year as a reminder of sin and a symbol of the coming sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 10:3–4).
When Christ offered Himself at Calvary, that
symbol became a reality
for all who would believe (Hebrews 10:11–18).
The work of atonement is finished now, and that’s
good news.
The gospel also involves Jesus’ resurrection on the third day. “He was
delivered over to death for our sins
and was raised to life for our justification”
(Romans 4:25).
The fact that Jesus conquered sin and death (sin’s penalty) is good news, indeed.
The fact that He offers to share that victory with us is
the greatest news of all (John 14:19).
The elements of the gospel are clearly stated in 1 Corinthians 15:3–6, a key passage concerning the good news of God: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living.”
Notice, first, that Paul “received” the
gospel and then
“passed it on”;
this is a divine message, not a
man-made invention.
Second, the gospel
is “of
first importance.”
Everywhere the apostles went, they
preached the
crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
Third, the message of the gospel is accompanied by proofs: Christ died for our sins (proved by His burial), and He rose again the third day (proved by the eyewitnesses). Fourth, all this was done “according to the Scriptures”;
the theme of the whole Bible is the
salvation of mankind
through Christ.
The Bible is the gospel.
“I am not ashamed of
the gospel,
because it is the
power of God that brings salvation
to everyone who believes:
first
to the Jew, then to the Gentile”
(Romans 1:16).
The gospel is a bold message,
and we are not ashamed of
proclaiming it.
It is a powerful message, because it is
God’s good news.
It is a
saving message,
the only thing that can
truly
reform the human heart.
It is a universal message, for Jews and Gentiles both.
And the gospel is received by faith;
salvation is the gift of God
(Ephesians 2:8–9).
The gospel is the good news that God loves the world enough to give His only Son to die for our sin (John 3:16). The gospel is good news because our salvation and eternal life and
home in heaven are guaranteed through Christ
(John 14:1–4).
He has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never
perish, spoil or fade.
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you”
(1 Peter 1:3–4).
The gospel is good news when we understand that we do not
(and cannot) earn our salvation;
the work of redemption and justification is complete,
having been finished on the cross (John 19:30).
Jesus is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2).
The gospel is the good news that we, who were once enemies of God,
have been reconciled by the blood of Christ
and adopted into the family of God
(Romans 5:10; John 1:12).
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we
should be called children of God!
And that is what we are!”
(1 John 3:1).
The gospel is the good news that “there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus”
(Romans 8:1).
To reject the gospel is to embrace the bad news.
Condemnation before God is the
result of a
lack of faith in the Son of God,
God’s only provision for salvation.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but to
save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17–18).
God has given a doomed world good news:
the
Gospel of Jesus Christ!
According to Galatians 1,
those who teach the false gospel of grace-plus-works are “anathema”;
that is, they are condemned by God.
Other New Testament passages
speak against teaching a false gospel.
For example,
Jude wanted to write his epistle about the common salvation he shared with his readers, yet he found it necessary
to change topics:
“Dear friends,
although I was very eager to
write to you about the
salvation we share,
I felt compelled to write and urge
you to contend for the faith that was once for all
entrusted to God’s holy people”
(Jude 1:3).
In the next verse, he refers to those
with another gospel as
“ungodly people, who pervert the
grace of our God.”
This is perhaps the best way to describe such teaching.
A person can misunderstand the
issue of salvation by
grace versus works and still
truly
believe in Christ.
However, there are also ungodly people who do not know the Lord
and who
preach a false gospel. These ungodly individuals are
called cursed,
as they
-knowingly-
pervert the true message of Jesus.
Salvation is provided in Christ
alone by grace alone through faith alone
(Ephesians 2:8–9).
No person is perfect, and no human action can make a person right before a sinless, holy God. No one can earn or merit salvation, no matter how “religious” he or she is or how meritorious the work seems to be.
There are many genuine Christians
who have a
misunderstanding
of the
gospel of grace
This was true even in Paul’s time.
Some of those who expected Gentile believers (non-Jewish Christians)
to follow Jewish legal customs
were true believers (Acts 15).
They were Christians, but they misunderstood the
free gift of the gospel to some extent.
At the Jerusalem Council, the church’s early leaders
encouraged
Gentile Christians in the grace of God and noted
only a few important guidelines for them to follow
to promote peace within the church.
The apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, delves into the
lofty heights and unfathomable depths
of the gospel unlike any other New Testament writer.
Even Peter, the Apostle to the Jews, was moved by
the “weightiness” of Paul’s writings
(2 Peter 3:15–18).
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle,
set apart
for the gospel of God,
which he promised beforehand through his
prophets in the
holy Scriptures, concerning his Son,
who was descended from David according to the flesh
and was declared to be the
Son of God
in power according to the Spirit of holiness
by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
through whom we have
received
grace and apostleship
to bring about the
obedience of faith for the sake of his name
among all the nations, including
you who are called to belong to
Jesus Christ.
(Romans 1:1–6, ESV)
• the message he preached is the gospel of God (verse 1)
• the good news Paul preached, the gospel of God, was foretold by the holy prophets long before Paul lived (verse 2)
• the gospel message focuses on Christ Jesus, a descendant of King David according to the Scriptures (verse 3)
• though born of a woman and, thus, being fully man, Jesus was also fully God and divine in nature; His Sonship was indisputably established by the Holy Spirit through His bodily resurrection (verse 4)
• Paul’s authority as an apostle, being called to preach the gospel of God, was granted to him by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (verse 5)
• those called of God, having heard and believed the gospel of God, now belong to the Lord Jesus (verse 6)
The gospel focuses on the Lord Jesus
(Romans 1:9)
and His
sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection
(1 Corinthians 15:1–4).
Paul unashamedly devoted himself
to
broadcasting this thrilling message,
for the gospel reveals the power of God--
a mighty force capable of transforming
sinners into saints
(Romans 1:16).
Knowing we are
incapable
of saving ourselves,
we trust the gospel,
which reveals the righteousness of God,
who saves all who simply believe
(Romans 1:17).
Paul encourages Timothy
to be diligent to present himself as a
workman
approved by God
who would not need to be ashamed because he was
rightly dividing or accurately handling the
Word of truth
(2 Timothy 2:15).
First, Paul’s instruction makes it clear
that the study of the Bible is work. It takes effort. It takes diligence.
We need to be committed to doing
-that work-
if we desire to be equipped
for what God -intends- us to do in life.
Second, Paul helps us to focus on the idea that
this work
in the Word is not about the
approval of other people.
Rather, it is
God who is assessing how we
handle His Word,
and so we are studying His Word for Him.
Also, we understand that, if we are diligent, we will not need to be ashamed because we will have
been faithful with the remarkable stewardship
of His Word.
Sometimes we may take for granted that we have
His completed Word—the Bible.
We may be unaware of
how many people suffered and died
to provide us the freedom and opportunity
to own our own Bibles and
read them in our own language.
How sad
would it be if we took this—one of the
very greatest of freedoms—and were
not diligent
to make the most of it?
Paul’s final comment in 2 Timothy 2:15 is helpful because it tells us what success looks like in the study of the Word: to be “rightly dividing” the Word of truth (NKJV).
The Greek word translated as
"rightly dividing”
is orthotomounta--ortho means
“right or proper,” and tomounta means
“to cut.”
Literally, success
in handling the Word is to
cut it
properly or correctly.
This is farming imagery, as a farmer who is plowing a field would
seek to cut straight
furrows in
order to plant rows of seed.
When plowing, a farmer would look at a point on the other side of the field and focus on that point to ensure the line cut in the dirt was straight.
This is what the good student of the Word is doing, as well:
remaining focused on the goal or outcome and being diligent
to handle
the Word of God properly.
To rightly divide the Word of
truth
is to “cut it straight.”
Ultimately, in studying the Word, we are trying to
understand
what the Author has said and not allow
our own opinions or views to cloud
the meaning of what
He has written.
When we are diligent to “cut straight”--
to rightly divide the Word of truth--
we can understand what He has communicated in
His Word
and be well-equipped
for what He would have us to do and how
He would have us to think.