Understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Inspired by The Gospel Centered Life by World Harvest Mission [now Serge])

Even though I had been a Christian for three decades, when I went through this study material a few years ago something really clicked for me. I received a better understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how I (and each of us as human beings) relate to God in the context of the Gospel.

This blog is a bit of a summary of the first three lessons in this study by World Harvest Mission ( now Serge) intermingled with some of my own and others thoughts – for further study I would suggest purchasing this work and going through it yourself by yourself or with a group.  As always Scripture is the only foundation and key to understanding the Gospel.

First and foremost it is necessary to understand that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news. In fact, that is literally what gospel means in the Greek language – good news.

You have probably seen "John 3:16" on a sign at sporting events or on TV. So why is that particular Bible verse so popular? Basically because it sums the Gospel up in a very concise and meaningful way. Many call it "the Gospel in a nutshell".

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Vine defines the Gospel this way:  “In the New Testament it denotes the "good tidings" of the Kingdom of God and of salvation through Christ, to be received by faith, on the basis of His expiatory (reconciling) death, His burial, resurrection, and ascension, e.g., Act 15:7; Acts 20:24; 1 Peter 4:17.”

But for something to be good, it must be contrasted with what is bad. And so the Gospel is purely good news but is set against the backdrop of a broken world and individual human sin and rebellion against God. Let’s look at a few  verses in the Bible to understand this:

The backdrop of bad news

“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron;
With the point of a diamond it is engraved
On the tablet of their heart…” Jeremiah 17:1

The good news

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26

The backdrop of bad news

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 or as the New Living Translation puts it “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

The good news

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23

As C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, said, “It is the change from being confident about our own efforts to the state in which we despair of doing anything for ourselves and leave it to God.” 

It was a deeper understanding of this principle – that is my utter inability to earn God’s love and forgiveness - that led to an even deeper feeling of freedom for me and appreciation of God. Of course I continue to lose sight of this and must seek this understanding every day.

The Gospel Grid from the Gospel Centered Life,  World Harvest Mission (Serge) 

And that is where the Gospel Grid chart comes in. It takes this principles and helps us visualize it. Beginning at the moment of our very first understanding and belief in the Gospel we begin a journey into knowing more and more of God and the Cross.

As the writers of the Gospel Centered Life study put it:  “Many Christians live with a truncated view of the gospel. We see the gospel as the “door,” the way in, the entrance point into God’s kingdom. But the gospel is so much more! It is not just the door, but the path we are to walk every day of the Christian life. It is not just the means of our salvation, but the means of our transformation. It is not simply deliverance from sin’s penalty, but release from sin’s power. The gospel is what makes us right with God (justification) and it is also what frees us to delight in God (sanctification). The gospel changes everything!”

As the chart indicates, the cross becomes more and more prominent (and understood) in our life as we do two things:

1)     Grow in the awareness of God’s holiness and purity

2)     Grow in the awareness of our flesh and sinfulness

At first this chart stirred up some old negative feelings of legalism in me. I thought to myself “Oh great, I need to take out the flagellum and whip my back in order to please God and subdue my flesh.” However, the Gospel teaches exactly the opposite – we can do nothing in our own efforts. God gives salvation freely and He gives freely the grace for us to grow more holy.

In understanding the difference between a negative legalistic view of God and of our selves (see Galatians) and a positive graceful view of God and of ourselves, I think it is important to look at Romans chapter 7.

Verses 14-19, 23-25

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.

If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.

For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice…

…For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

But I see another law in my members(*of the human body or flesh) , warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

We see the here the inherent struggle of the Christian and, in general, that of the entire human race. The Human Condition as the philosophers call it.

But Paul, the author of Romans, sees the difference between the hopeless sinful flesh part of us and the beautiful image of God part of us.Its not a stretch to say that this basic principle is also indicative of all humanity.  

As one saintly old preacher put it, “ We are unworthy but we are not worthless.”

The only answer that Paul finds to this constant bitter struggle? The only thing that will deliver him? God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!

And so just as it is when we first become Christians ( “Saved” “Born Again” etc.) , so it is as we live each day of the Christian life victorious  – by 1) understanding and acknowledging our utter inability to satisfy God’s holiness or to earn our personal salvation and then by 2) placing all our faith, and hope in Jesus Christ and His Gospel. It’s not that we don’t seek or try – its that we understand that all our seeking and trying is useless if we do not have the grace of God and the Holy Spirit empowering them.

Finding ( A Poem)

Finding

She woke up in a dry and barren land

Filled with pain

And glimpses of glory

She heard his footsteps and saw prints of his hands

And she felt and thought

That there must be a story

  

So she followed the steps and the prints and the words

Through nature and reason and faith and swords

And then she found him

And she knew him

And she loved him

The Doom and Gloom Gospel: The Other False Gospel We Must Avoid

I must start by making one point very clear: I am thoroughly and adamantly against the teachings of the “Prosperity Gospel” ( aka The Health and Wealth Gospel). This is a message that tells us God is akin to a big vending machine and that if only we would change our thought patterns and have more faith He will begin raining down bigger houses and fancier cars etc.  It is the idea that we are the centre and God exists to serve us. This “gospel” is not to be found in the New Testament and is theologically void – it is a false gospel.

Having said that, there is another type of false gospel I am against and, more importantly, that the Bible refutes. That is “The Doom and Gloom Gospel”. This message and pattern of thinking is characterized by fear, guilt, legalism, self-loathing and a general feeling of walking around in chains. It is something I’ve struggled with most of my life.

The thinking of the Doom and Gloom Gospel is fatalistic and I fear that many who have experienced it, in a knee jerk reaction, go running to the opposite extreme of the Prosperity Gospel.

Here are some Bible verses that define and teach against this unhealthy doom and gloom gospel:

1 John 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

2 Timothy  1:7  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Galatians 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage

Romans 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:3-32  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

And when I spoke of self-loathing above what I mean is that, although we may hate our flesh ( Romans 7) , we are not to hate our very being. Although we are commanded to die to self, we are not to hate ourselves – for that would be in direct contradiction to God, who loved us so dearly that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the message, the “good news”, that we must seek. It is the only gospel that will deal with the harsh realities of life and still fill us with hope and joy and peace for present and eternity. This Gospel is set against the backdrop of our sinful, broken natures and world. It is the story of Jesus the Messiah, Son of God incarnate, who died as a substitutionary death for each of us, was buried and rose again on the third day as was attested by many witnesses and evidences ( 1 Corinthians 15: 3-8) As the oft referenced John 3:16 so simply and eloquently puts it:

John 3:16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Let us flee from the fallacies of both the Prosperity and the Doom and Gloom gospels and cling to the one true Gospel of Jesus Christ as clearly laid out in Scripture. Only here can we reconcile the martyrs of Mosul, the poor and persecuted around the globe and our own deep heart aches with the essential human needs for a lasting love and hope and joy.