What is the Gospel?

Growing up I was not much of a reader.  I did not enjoy sitting down to read a book, even on rainy days.  Maybe it was because I probably needed glasses at a young age and didn’t get them until I was 30.  Maybe it was because I enjoyed riding my bike through the mud.  It might be that I had so much energy the idea of sitting still couldn’t apply to me.  Regardless of the reason, I never grew to love books.  Even now, unlike so many of you, I do not enjoy to read.  It is not something I do to relax or do for enjoyment.  But I do read a ton.  I am always reading something.  Currently I have on my “to read” shelf over 20 books.  I should note that all of the books I read are biblical or leadership non-fiction.   Sometimes I will read only one book at a time, but that is not normal.  Typically, I have 2 or 3 books that I am going through.  Right now I have 4 books that I am reading (not including commentaries that I use for bible study).   

As I read through a book, I will highlight things that stand out to me.  I highlight everything from great biblical insights to practical leadership techniques.  For this week’s Warehouse, I would like to share one of those highlights.  This comes from Greg Gilbert’s:  What Is the Gos·pel?

Relationship is an important category in the Bible.  Human beings were made to live in fellowship with God.  What we must remember, however, is that it was a specific kind of relationship in which they were to live—not the relationship between two equals, where law, judgment, and punishment are out of view, but the relationship between a King and his subjects.

Many Christians talk about sin as if it were merely a relational tiff between God and man, and what is needed is for us simply to apologize and accept God’s forgiveness.  That image of sin as lovers’ quarrel, though, distorts the relationship in which we stand to God.  It communicates that there is no broken law, no violated justice, no righteous wrath, no holy judgment—and therefore, ultimately, no need for a substitute to bear that judgment, either.

The Bible’s teaching is that sin is indeed a breaking of relationship with God, but that broken relationship consists in a rejection of his kingly majesty.  It’s not just adultery (though it is that); it is also rebellion.  Not just betrayal, but also treason.  If we reduce sin to a mere breaking of relationship, rather than understanding it as the traitorous rebellion of a beloved subject against his good and righteous King, we will never understand why the death of God’s Son was required to address it.

The past 3 weeks we have dove into Galatians 3:1-14.  We have examined the “Performance Traps” that the Apostle Paul was combating.  We have discovered that not only did Paul tell us what faith can do, but also what the law could not do.  But we are not finished yet.  I want to encourage you to be at church this Sunday as we examine the role of the Law in a gospel-based life and answer the question of: After faith, what’s next?  If you want to prepare for this Sunday, read Gal 3:15-29.

 

May the following verses be an encouragement to you this week and remind you of who we are -          In-Christ:

2 Cor. 5:21 – “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

1 Peter 1:18-19 – “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. “

1 Peter 2:24 - “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Ephesians 1:13 – “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,”

Ephesians 2:13 – “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”

Titus 3:3-7 – “At one point we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.  We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having hope of eternal life.