Job 9:32,33; 19:25,26
The Redemption Plan
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Category Archives: The Gospel
The Gospel of the Kingdom
Romans 3
The Vocabulary of Salvation
How to Preach the Gospel to Yourself
The Gospel
The “Good News” According to Rome
What follows is a revealing of the contrast between Reformed writings and the Roman Catholic decrees of Trent concerning the gospel.
How Must we be Saved?
Decrees of Trent
(Chapter V)
The Synod furthermore declares, that in adults, the beginning of the said Justification is to be derived from the prevenient grace of God, through Jesus Christ, that is to say, from His vocation, whereby, without any merits existing on their parts, they are called; that so they, who by sins were alienated from God, may be disposed through His quickening and assisting grace, to convert themselves to their own justification, by freely assenting to and co-operating with that said grace: in such sort that, while God touches the heart of man by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, neither is man himself utterly without doing anything while he receives that inspiration, forasmuch as he is also able to reject it; yet is he not able, by his own free will, without the grace of God, to move himself unto justice in His sight.
Heidelberg Catechism
(Q 60) How are you righteous before God?
Only by true faith in Jesus Christ: that is, although my conscience accuses me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone to all evil; yet God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.
Westminster Shorter Catechism
(Q 85): What doth God require of us that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin?
To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, with the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption.
What is Faith?
Decrees of Trent
(Canon IX)
If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.
Heidelberg Catechism
(Q 21): What is true faith?
True faith is not only a sure knowledge whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word, but also a hearty trust, which the Holy Spirit works in me by the Gospel, that not only others, but to me also, forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits.
Westminster Shorter Catechism
(Q 86): What is faith in Jesus Christ?
Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.
What are Justification & Sanctification?
Decrees of Trent
(Chapter X)
Having, therefore, been thus justified, and made the friends and domestics of God, advancing from virtue to virtue, they are renewed, as the Apostle says, day by day; that is, by mortifying the members of their own flesh, and by presenting them as instruments of justice unto sanctification, they, through the observance of the commandments of God and of the Church, faith co-operating with good works, increase in that justice which they have received through the grace of Christ, and are still further justified, as it is written; He that is just, let him be justified still; and again, Be not afraid to be justified even to death; and also, Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. And this increase of justification holy Church begs, when she prays, “Give unto us, O Lord, increase of faith, hope, and charity.”
Heidelberg Catechism
(Q 33): What is justification?
Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
Westminster Shorter Catechism
(Q 35): What is sanctification?
Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
The Gospel – Pure and Simple
Obsessed with the Gospel
Article by Jordan Standridge (original source at this link)
How can you stop someone who is obsessed with the Gospel?
If you tell him or her to stop, they only grow in their zeal. (Acts 4:19-20)
If you take away their home, it’s ok because they have a greater home in Heaven. (John 14:2)
If you take away their freedom, then they write letters, books, and share the Gospel with their fellow prisoners. (Acts 16:25-30)
If you take away their life, it is gain for them. (Phil. 1:21)
You simply cannot stop someone who is obsessed with the Gospel.
As I study Philippians, it is quite obvious that Paul is obsessed with the Gospel. Despite being in chains and with the possibility of losing his head, he is encouraged and even ecstatic by how the Gospel has gone forth.
Like a missionary sending his supporters a letter, letting his supporters know how their money is contributing to the spread of the Gospel, Paul writes the Philippians to let them know. And, of course, the Philippian church would have been worried for Paul. Their missionary was in prison. Unable to move about, freely spreading the Gospel form house to house and town to town. Instead, he was stuck in a Roman cell waiting to hear what would happen to him.
If a missionary you supported was put in jail, would you be tempted to feel like you are wasting your money? I think the Philippians would have been tempted to feel this way, and at the very least would have been tempted to question the Lord about why He would keep the great apostle Paul in chains for so long. But they should have known better. The Philippians, of all people, should have known that Paul in prison meant that the Gospel would spread. The jailor himself, who almost committed suicide on the night Paul and Silas worshipped God after being beaten, would have most likely still been a part of the Philippian church. He knew first hand that Paul in prison meant that people were going to get saved.
And that’s exactly what was happening. Paul reassures them, saying, “Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel” (Phil 1:12). Paul is so obsessed with the Gospel that he thinks prison has been a blessing! The Gospel is advancing!
There are two reasons for this.
The first is the praetorian guards
“…so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else…” (Phil 1:13).
These guards were Caesar’s soldiers. They would take six-hour shifts in being chained to Paul. Four men a day for weeks would take turns being chained next to the evangelist. What do you think they talked about? The weather? Paul would have certainly told them his incredible story. He would have told them about Jesus and would have begged them to repent of their sin and turn to Christ. They, in turn, would have gone home, and, typically, like with any man, the wife would ask them how their day was, and they would say, “it was fine,” and that would be the end of their conversation. But not on a day after talking with Paul. They would have told their families about this incredible man with his incredible story, and the Gospel would spread throughout Rome at an uncontrollable rate.
Who are you chained to? Some of us have spent far more than six hours with someone and have yet to share the Gospel with them. Perhaps you should set up a six-hour rule of sorts that if you spend a considerable amount of time with someone that they will hear the gospel.
Second, the Roman Believers
“…and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” (Phil 1:14).
This, in my opinion, is one of the most shocking verses in the Bible. Christians in Rome would visit Paul, and upon seeing him and his faith, would walk away more likely to share the Gospel! Not less likely! Despite the fact that they could go to jail for sharing their faith, or even lose their life, they walk away from a man who is in jail for sharing the gospel and leave more likely to do that very thing! That is the power of being around someone who is obsessed with the Gospel.
Do you have this kind of impact on believers around you? Do people walk away from talking to you, more likely to follow Christ or less likely? Are you an encourager or a discourager? Frankly many Christians through their gossip and complaining attitude can really sour fellow believers.
Paul, despite facing terrible circumstances, is able to rejoice. It must be said that some of the believers who are encouraged to preach Christ are doing it for selfish reasons. He goes on to say, “Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife…” (Phil 1:15), and yet, despite what would be so discouraging to have people speaking against him, Paul says famously in Philippians 1:18, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.”
That is a man obsessed with the Gospel. You put him in jail? He rejoices that the gospel is spreading. (Phil 1:12) You tell him that preachers are using him and maligning him? He rejoices that at least they are preaching the Gospel! (Phil 1:18) You threaten his life? Well, for him to die is gain (Phil 1:21O). You simply cannot steal this man’s joy!
Many things attempt to steal our attention away. Whether it is our jobs, our homes, our cell phones, or our families, it is so easy to become obsessed with the world. Paul was tempted like us; he was just a man, but he was a man who was obsessed with the Gospel. The reason why he loved the Gospel so much was because the Gospel is about Jesus Christ. For Paul, life was worth living because Jesus was His Lord, and for Paul death was worth dying because it meant being with His Lord. He was obsessed with Jesus, and couldn’t help but talk about Him and couldn’t wait to be with Him.
How about you? What are you obsessed with? Be obsessed with the Gospel–it is the only thing worth living for and the only thing worth dying for.
Is The Gospel Enough?
Article by Tom Ascol, written in 2012 (original source here)
I thank God for all the talk about the gospel among evangelical churches today. Granted, some of it can degenerate into trite jingoism and anomalous platitudes, but still, at least the necessity and centrality of the evangel is once again being recognized by believers who purportedly take their identity from it and who agree that evangelism is our great work. Considering where American evangelicalism was 30 years ago, this is a huge improvement.
This does not mean that Thabiti Anybwile’s “mild rant” against all the modern talk about the gospel is completely unwarranted. Bunyan warned about the kind of groupies who only love religion when it walks in “silver slippers” and gospel-centrality certainly seems to be enjoying that kind of status in our day. When it becomes chic to talk about the gospel then watch out because much gospel-talk will contain more talk than gospel. So I tip my hat to Thabiti’s point.
But I do not think we are in any danger of obsessing over the gospel. In fact, I fear that our case is quite the opposite. Particularly, I am afraid that we have yet to begin to plumb the depths of the gospel’s sufficiency. The gospel is most certainly an exclusive message. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Peter reiterated that point when he said, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The gospel is a very narrowly defined message. It is all about Jesus–who he is, what he has done and why that matters. It is the only message that saves those who believe.
But the gospel has implications that are infinitely broad. It applies to everything. That is why Paul can say what he does in 1 Corinthians. When he first went to Corinth he “decided to know nothing among [the Corinthians] except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (2:2). He preached an exclusive message: the gospel. Yet, as his letter indicates, he recognized that the gospel applies to everything. Dissension, jealousy, immaturity, injustice, slavery, sexuality, marriage, singleness, the future, the past–all of these subjects and more are addressed by Paul in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ. In that sense, no matter what the problem is, the answer is always the gospel.
One of the greatest challenges that a church faces as devotes itself to “the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers” (Acts 2:42) is keeping the gospel as the sole foundation for unity. Over time, as associations and relationships grow within a body it is inevitable that church members will discover that they have other things beside the gospel in common with some of their fellow members. This is neither good nor bad. It is simply a reality.
The temptation that this inevitability presents, however, is making those other things more important than the main thing that we share in common, that is, the gospel. It usually happens subtly and even unconsciously. Families that homeschool their children can naturally gravitate to other homeschoolers. Sports enthusiasts can do the same. Young married couples naturally enjoy spending time with others close to their age and stage of life, as do young people, single adults and senior adults. The relationships forged along such affinities are not necessarily bad and can even be very beneficial. There is nothing wrong with closer relationships developing along those kinds of lines.
Where such relationships can become problematic is at the point that they begin to take on more importance than the gospel. When your affinities start to trump the gospel in your decision making you can be sure that Christ has been supplanted as the basis for your fellowship.
Here are some indications that this may be happening in your church.
When statements like this are being heard:
“I just don’t feel at home in that church because there aren’t enough _________ (fill in the blank however you want to: homeschoolers; Republicans; young people; old people; single people; married people; Cubans; business people; bikers; surfers; professionals; blondes; left-handers, etc. etc. You get the point).
When those who are in any of the above (or other) affinity groups find it impossible to relate to believers who are not.
If you find yourself thinking that you don’t really have anything in common with an older (or younger) member or single (or married) member or an adoptive (or childless) family, it’s time to back up and reexamine what the basis of your fellowship really is.
If we are living out the conviction that the gospel really is enough then we will not require anyone to be in our “age and stage” of life in order to enjoy genuine fellowship with them. Age, race, marital status, occupation, hobbies, etc. will all be recognized and appreciated but they will not be allowed to be attached to the gospel as a necessary basis for fellowship.
As that happens then the manifold wisdom of God will be put clearly on display before a watching world. God will be glorified. His gospel will be adorned. And His church will be strengthened.