Ravi briefly describes his encounter with one of the founding members of the Hamas political group/terrorist organization.

In broad terms, one could summarize every religion under the sun (except one) as God being at the summit of the mountain, with man languishing at the bottom. Yet by means of following the tenets of the faith man seeks to climb the mountain to one day meet God, face to face.

Of course, the requirements differ from one religion to the next, but each action man takes, allows him to ascend further and further up the mountain.

The one exception to all this in our world is the Christian gospel, where God, on top of the mountain, by His own love initiative comes down to the valley below (in the Incarnation) and finds only dead corpses there, breathes the breath of life into many of these God hating rebels, giving them new hearts that would see and bask in His beauty, and He carries each one of them on His shoulders, safely up to the top of the mountain, that they may enjoy His vast riches for ever.

There are more details to be sure, not the least of which is the sinless life of the Son of God and His substitutionary death for sinners on the cross, as well as His triumphal resurrection. These gospel facts are center stage in the history of redemption. However, the basic analogy holds true.

The religions of the world tell their advocates that if they will adhere strictly to the tenets, they can climb the mountain of God. Christianity says, we could never make it up there, nor would we even wish to do so, for by nature, we hate the God on top of the mountain. Therefore, God came down, and by His own power, opened up our eyes and brought life out of death and raised us up to be with Him.

Here then we see the two basic types of religion in our world today; the religion of ascension (man climbing up) vs. the Gospel of descension (God climbed down); a religion of do, do, do vs. the Gospel of done, done, done!

Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The bad news is far worse than you think, which is what makes the good news more amazing than you could ever have imagined.

The book of Romans is the most comprehensive statement of the Gospel in the pages of Scripture. It starts with these words, “Paul, a servant (lit. slave) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” (Rom. 1:1)

Each word is significant, but one that is normally overlooked is the little word “of” in the phrase “the gospel of God.” Here, the word does not mean “about” as in the gospel about God. The word “of” here speaks of possession. The gospel of God is the gospel belonging to God, or God’s gospel.

This little word “of” then has tremendous implications. It speaks of the fact that God is not only the author of the gospel, but that He owns exclusive rights to it. The gospel is His Gospel, and we as proclaimers of that gospel have no right to alter it, modify it, or shave off its rough edges in an effort to make it more palatable.

According to almost all commentators on the book of Romans, in chapter 1:16, 17, Paul outlines the theme of the book when he writes, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith.'”

The book of Romans is the presentation of the gospel. The word “gospel” means good news. That always needs to be kept in mind. Yet the good news doesn’t make too much sense without an understanding of the bad news.

You might think that the Apostle Paul would jump straight into the good news about God’s love for man, and His saving purposes carried out through His Son Jesus Christ. But that is not where Paul goes. Not yet anyway. Starting with the very next verse, Romans 1:18, Paul announces the terrible bad news that all mankind needs to understand. Continue reading →

321 from Jeremy Poyner on Vimeo.

Imagine the scenario. You have been out most of the day and come home, and using the hand held remote, turn on the television. Its 5:59 p.m. and you turn to a well known national TV channel because you want to catch up on the news of the day.

After viewing a commercial for a skin care product, its time for the news program to air. After the short burst of introductory music, the broadcast announcer says, “Now, here with today’s news is Brian Green…”

Though the TV studio background is a very familiar setting, an unfamiliar face greets you with a smile saying, “Hello, my name is Brian Green, and today, I feel good! Yes, I feel REALLY GOOD! Life is just great right now.”

He continues, “I’ve managed to turn a few things around financially, I’ve lost 12 lbs in weight over the last few weeks and my relationships are so much healthier too. This new job as a news broadcaster, I have to say, is the best career move I’ve ever made. I wish you could have seen me a few weeks ago. My life did not have the same sense of purpose as it does today. I was fairly miserable most of the time. But I tell you, now, there’s definite, noticable spring in my step and I just want you to know, ‘Today is a great day!’ Over to you, Andrea Mckenzie with today’s weather…”

Andrea says, “Yes, thanks Brian, I want to tell folk that the weather today really makes me feel so happy inside. I used to live a long way from here and when I woke up this morning and opened the window curtains I saw the sun shining and I just knew I had made the right decision to move here. It brings such a smile to my face! I always felt there was a piece missing in the jigsaw that is my life and the weather here fills a void in my heart. On days like today, I have absolutely no regrets about moving here…”

By now, I hope you are feeling the utter sense of the ridiculous in the above scenario. Unless you have tuned in to a comedy channel by mistake, you are never likely to witness such a thing on your television screen. But let us ask ourselves why?

The reason is rather obvious isn’t it? It is because the news is objective not subjective. News is the recounting of events outside of ourselves. When we watch the news we hear such things as “today at the JFK airport in New York, a Boeing 747 had to make an emergency landing after one of its engines failed in mid flight…a spokesperson for Boeing said that no one was in immediate danger and no injuries were reported. The plane landed as a precaution…” and so it goes on.

The word Gospel comes from the Greek word euangellion and means Good announcement or good news.

The good news of the Gospel has two aspects to it. Firstly, it concerns what the Lord Jesus Christ achieved by His life, death, burial and resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15: 1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…

The second vital component of the good news concerns how Christ’s atoning work of redemption is actually appropriated by sinners. This is the good news of grace.

Galatians 1: 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Based on the sure foundation of Scripture alone, we are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone.

When a large stone is thrown into a lake it produces ripples in the water that reach to the edge of the lake, so the Gospel, when believed, affects people’s lives in all sorts of ways. If no ripples emerge, we can be sure that no stone hit the water. However, we must never confuse the message of the Gospel (the large stone) with the affects of the gospel (the ripples in the water).

As important and as interesting as it may be to hear news of a changed life, or of how a God shaped void in the human heart has been filled; of finding meaning and purpose to life – these things, as wonderful as they may be, are not the Gospel. They are wonderful affects of the Gospel but not the Gospel itself.

The Good News is the message of Christ and Him crucified, His Person and work – what He achieved in His life, death and resurrection for us sinners. It is an announcement of something accomplished outside of us, in real time, in human history. It reveals the fact that as our God appointed Substitute, He absorbed the wrath of God in our place, so that all who believe in Him, will in no way perish, but instead have everlasting life.

The Gospel is News. When was the last time you shared it?

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…” – Romans 1:16

Dr. R. C. Sproul’s addresses the graduates and faculty of Westminster Seminary:

You cannot live news, as Voddie Baucham makes clear.