The first definition of the gospel I taught my kids was: Jesus died for our sins. When looking at those five words with adult eyes, you realize that short statement begs more questions. So what is the gospel?
This is where historical theology (i.e. what Christians in different ages believed about the Bible) can be helpful. Throughout the history of the church, additional questions have been asked to try to gain a better understanding of what exactly the gospel is. Some of those questions have been: 1. Who made us, and to whom are we accountable? 2. What is our problem? 3. What is God’s solution to our problem? 4. How can I be included in his solution? Throughout the centuries, the four answers given to these four questions have been: 1. We are created by and accountable to God. 2. Our problem is our sin against him. 3. God’s solution is salvation through Jesus Christ. 4. We come to be included in that salvation by repentance and faith. This is as concise and accurate a definition of the gospel as any I've seen. And this understanding of gospel doctrine affects our lives. If we live by gospel doctrine, it does change us. How so? 1. We have been created by and are accountable to God. What are the implications for our lives of the fact that God created us and we are accountable to him?
If I am a contingent being under the authority of God existing for his purposes alone, I should be supremely interested in what he thinks and wants. This aspect to gospel doctrine should cause us to hunger and thirst for God’s Word so that we can learn and discover what he thinks and wants. And we should want to see our lives lived in harmony with it; to think God’s thoughts after him. 2. Our problem is our sin against him. Part of gospel doctrine is that we are sinners. We are deeply messed up people. We have rebelled against and disobeyed God. How does this aspect to gospel doctrine change us?
3. God’s solution is salvation through Jesus Christ. Part of gospel doctrine is that God saves us on his initiative alone through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This changes our view of God and in so doing changes us. Consider these beautiful elements to this aspect of gospel doctrine:
4. We come to be included in that salvation by faith and repentance. Part of gospel doctrine is that we get credit for the life Jesus lived and the death he died simply by repenting of our sin and putting our trust in him alone for our salvation. How does this change us?
Part of the problem in Christianity today is that we have given up or just become lazy in attempting to portray the full glory of the gospel. We are settling for two dimensional snippets of it. Does the gospel take your breath away? Have you ever been overwhelmed by the enormity of it? There is one general way the gospel changes us and it’s this: awe. The desires of our hearts, the words of our mouths, the behaviors of our bodies, are driven by a longing for awe. The most fundamental way our hearts become awe-filled is through the 3 dimensional glory of the gospel. Isn’t it awe-inspiring to consider that though we have rebelled against and defied the God who made us, he still out of his love, mercy, and grace sent his Son into the world to the life we should have lived and die the death we should have died so that we can be saved by his radical grace. That is the 3-dimensional glory of the gospel. This is why ABC will be a church that gives people multiple exposures to the happy news of the gospel from one end of the Bible to the other. We will be a church that seeks to convey the gospel in all of its 3 dimensional glory in order that we may respond to the enormity of it with breath-taking awe.
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