"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..." - Romans 1:16
As God is leading me deeper into Scripture, I have been confronted with how unclear our thinking is about the gospel. I suppose this is partially due to many people in the Western world that have grown up in households that attend church. As Matt Chandler lays out in "The Explicit Gospel," the gospel is often assumed rather than made explicit. This is a tragedy, given that it is the means by which God uses to save souls.
This isn't the only reason that the gospel is not cherished. In fact, in many churches it is proclaimed and people reject the good news. As the Puritans used to say, "The same sun that melts ice, hardens clay." By this they meant that God (the sun) demonstrates his kindness (the sun's rays) towards people, and some hearts are melted by it (ice) and some hearts are hardened by it (clay). This phrase has blown my mind for a few years. Especially when you consider the militant atheist groups that essentially claim by their words and actions, "There is no God, and I hate him." I've often wondered why many atheists are so angry if they truly believe that God doesn't exist. If someone tells me that a unicorn exists, I don't get angry - I laugh. I guess this would be a demonstration of Romans 1:19-23 where Paul says, "For what can be made known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." In a very real sense, atheists see the works of God in creation and know that he exists, but they hate him.
It is also astonishing how unclear pastors are about the gospel. I want to be clear. There are many great churches that hold fast to the truth of the gospel and proclaim it as the only means that people are saved. However, it is unfortunate that there are also many that do not stick closely to the gospel. Perhaps it can be attributed to not liking it or maybe not fully understanding it. On a similar note, many people have been burned by the church and reject the gospel on that basis, when the true gospel is saying to put your hope in Jesus precisely because every person is corrupt to our core. The hope should not be placed in any person other than Jesus. Whatever the case may be, the gospel is the most important news to comprehend in the entire universe.
There are two aspects to the gospel - the small picture and the big picture. The small picture is that God created all things good, man sinned (i.e. became sinners and continued to sin), Jesus came to pay the penalty that we deserved, and what our response is to his wonderful work. The big picture is based on the fact that all things exist for God's glory, and he is reconciling the whole universe (i.e. obviously this won't be completed until Jesus returns). In "The Explicit Gospel," Matt Chandler covers many of the different errors that we can venture into by focusing on one aspect of the gospel with the exclusion of the other aspect.
So my plea is first to those who are not Christians. Every person has a depraved heart. I don't have to convince you of this by experience, because you watch the news and see the horrendous acts that humans commit. However, sin goes deeper than that. Murder and adultery are sins, because they are unloving to people and treason to God. But, sin goes even deeper than that. The Bible lists pride, arrogance, lust, hate, gossip, and gluttony as sins too. These motivations can even be behind what appear to be noble actions. So, first, I apologize to you for legalistic Christians who have made man-made rules (such as: can't drink alcohol), and they have become more passionate about these than the rules that the Bible does list (such as: do not gossip). God is not a killjoy. Instead, he knows what truly makes a person's heart happy since he created it. The Law in the Bible is created because God loves us. He intends for the Law to point out our sin and our inability to fulfill it, which drives us to Jesus' perfect fulfillment of it and the gospel. That is why we need Jesus. He was never prideful once, never arrogant, never hateful, and he never lusted. Based on verifiable history and Scripture we know he existed. Based on Scripture we know that even his immediate family testified that he never sinned once. Then he was killed by us, resurrected, and he was seen by hundreds of witnesses. How should you respond? In repentance, or turning, from our sins to find happiness in Jesus. Repentance is literally turning our mind towards God and away from sin. Then, after we are changed by the gospel, we are able to live in gospel-freedom. We respond to God in joyful obedience instead of trying to achieve our own salvation with our works.
My second plea is to Christians. First, we never grow past the gospel. The gospel is not a ticket to get into a concert. No, it is what we cling to every day. It saves us and by the power of the Holy Spirit, it sanctifies us. Everything should be gospel-centered. Unfortunately, many of our churches are moving in a man-centered direction where they are centered either around the people in the seats or the people on the stage. I think Paul would say that one of the reasons for this is that our "itching ears" long to be scratched with anything other than the truth of the Bible (2 Timothy 4:3). Secondly, we should measure our beliefs against Scripture, and Scripture should win. For example, the Bible says that God causes wine to gladden the heart of man (Psalm 104:14, 15; There are also many Scriptures about using it wisely). In addition, there are many other secondary issues other than just alcohol that we need to evaluate. It is a scary thing to add man-made rules to Scripture. In fact, the Bible ends with a warning not to add to Scripture (Rev. 22:18, 19). Lastly, since we have been transformed by the power of God, we long to draw near to Jesus regularly and fight against being ashamed of the gospel (Rom. 1:16). The temptation is strong to be ashamed of the gospel. The world is violently opposed to it. However, the worst that man can do to us is kill us, which would simply send us to eternal bliss with our Savior. So lets share this good news!
