Day 50: What is THE Gospel?
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not want any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
The love, mercy, and grace of Father God revealed to us requires a response from us. Just as Adam (and Eve) had the power of contrary choice—the ability to say “no” to God’s truth, goodness, and beauty—so also do we. It is our ability to say “no” to God that makes our “yes” so meaningful. When we say “yes” to the Father’s offer of new life in Christ, we are saying “no” to our old way of life that was ruled by sin, death, and condemnation.
God has initiated toward us in all that He has done for us in Christ. He has given us all we need in Christ through the work of the Spirit to have a living relationship with Him. Now, God desires to seek and save those who are lost and dead and alienated from Him.
WORDwork:
Colossians 1:3-6
We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 1:4 since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. 1:5 Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the Message of Truth, the Gospel 1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. {NET}
In verses 4 and 5 above, which comes “first”—faith, hope or love?
How do we hear about the “hope laid up in heaven” for us?
What is the Gospel doing throughout the world?
What does the Gospel allow us to understand (see the end of v. 6)?
The Gospel gives birth to Hope, Faith, and Love
The term “Gospel” simply means “good news.” There is a lot we could say about this, for now simply know that the Gospel is the story, the Message of all that God the Father has done, is doing and will do for us in Christ through the work of His Spirit. As Paul says above, when the Gospel comes to us, it first brings us hope. This hope is tied to all that we have stored up for us in Heaven where Christ is. Notice that faith and love arise or flow from hope. Hope is both the first thing that Father-God “births” in us and is therefore also our first response to the Gospel. When we realize that apart from God we were enslaved to sin, death, and shame we should be aware that we are in real trouble—not just “here and now” trouble but forever, eternal trouble. The Good News is that Father offers us goodness, life, and peace through Jesus and this message should give us hope.
Hope cannot stand alone. For Hope to develop fully, it must be accompanied by faith. Faith is placing our confidence in the source of our hope. Faith is being convinced that the one who is giving us our answers to life is trustworthy and worthy of following. This is a good place to give a basic definition for faith:
KEY Definition:
Faith is placing our ultimate confidence (trust) in God The Father, Son, and Spirit as they oversee and direct our lives. Faith brings assurance to our hope. Faith is the evidence that Father-God is working in Christ through the Holy Spirit in and through us. Faith makes room in our thoughts, desires, and emotions for the ultimate virtue of love.
The Gospel is the Message of Truth.
Notice also that Paul calls the Gospel The Message of Truth. The Gospel gives us the truth about life. It tells us what is really real. Once we know this truth, we can get in line with reality. The Gospel speaks about God’s works in the past with a view to what He will do in the future so that we can know our meaning and purpose in the present. This message of the Gospel is now the instrument that God is using to save fallen and rebellious humanity.
The Gospel Reveals the Grace of God in Truth.
Finally, notice in Colossians 1:6 that the Gospel gives us the truth that we need to understand the grace of God. We have not defined grace yet, so let’s do it now:
KEY Definition:
Grace is Father-God’s undeserved and unearned favor given to us freely in Christ that gives us access to His unlimited power in the Spirit.
Technically, God did not have to save any of us. But because of His Great love for us He does. Now He desires to call his rebellious creation to Himself, redeem us and transform us into people who truly share His goodness and glory.
The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation.
Romans 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
The Gospel is the message that has God’s power to bring about salvation. We cannot save ourselves; we have neither the power nor the wisdom. As we know by know, Father-God has provided our salvation through the work of Jesus. But notice that this salvation comes to those who believe—those who place their trust and confidence in God through Christ. The Gospel gives birth to hope, but hope is pursued in faith. We will say more about this as we go.
The Gospel is the Message that is Saving us.
1 Corinthians 15:1-2
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, 15:2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. {NET}
The Gospel is the message that saves us and is saving us. When the Gospel is preached, proclaimed, it calls for a response. Notice Paul says that the Corinthians had “received” the Gospel. These people had not just “believed” it the Gospel as a set of facts and information; they had welcomed the Good News as the door to the Way of New Life. They were now “standing” in the Gospel realizing that the Gospel is the Message by which they were being saved. We have not defined salvation yet, and this is a good place to do so:
KEY Definition:
Salvation is the process in which God the Father calls us to Himself in Christ and then transforms us to be like Christ through the work of the Spirit.
Salvation has a definite starting point (Justification—being set right with God by faith in Christ) and ending point (Glorification—being completely conformed to the likeness of Christ). In between these two points there is the process of being continually made more and more like Christ (Sanctification). The Gospel begins this process and sustains it until we see Jesus face to face.
The Gospel defines our past, present, and future in light of God’s work for us. The Gospel takes the smaller story of our lives and draws it up into the Master Story of God’s redeeming work in Creation.
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
