The Gospel Part 1 - Royal

(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels.  See all the posts here.)

The gospel begins with God.  This is appropriate, since it is a story that is about God.  Too often, in our self-centeredness, we begin the story with ourselves.  We want the story to be about us so we begin with us.  But the truth is that if we do not understand who God is then we will never understand the gospel.  If we do not understand who God is then we will not understand why Jesus had to die, how great is the privilege of relationship with Him, and whose renown we are compelled to spread.  The gospel must begin with God.

God begins the story.  He ends the story.  He is the center and the crux of the story.  He is the story.  God is the gospel.  It is a story about how He has shown Himself to us and drawn us to Himself.  Without seeking to know God we will never know the true gospel.

Too often we have sacrificed a lofty idea of God on the altar of ease and relevance.  Because when the gospel does not begin with God we do not have to think deeply about His character nor do we have to measure up to His divine standard.  But, an easy gospel will never be relevant, because it will never be true (think of all the time Jesus talks about the cost of following Him).  And a gospel that primarily seeks relevance will never transform us, because it will look too much like us to change us.  What we must understand is that a noble picture of the Triune Godhead is of infinite worth. 

So we begin the story of the Gospel with the simple statement that God is Royal.  He is Lord.  He is King.  His is mighty and sovereign over all things. In the beginning He was.  He is infinite and eternal, timeless and everlasting, faithful and true.  He loves justice and hates sin.  He has mercy on His people and judges wickedness.  He is greater than we could ever imagine and more glorious than we could ever describe.

There are over 100 billion trillion stars in the universe, and He made each one.  He calls them each by name and it is because of His great power and might strength that not one of them is missing.  The universe is about 40 billion light-years across and He can measure that with the breadth of His sovereign hand.  Every single living creature depends on His for life and substance.  When he open His hand they are feed and life prospers, but when He closes His hand there is death.  He controls ever mountain, volcano, river, ocean, continent, and cloud.

And He is holy.  He is righteous and pure, perfect and true.  Everything about His is wonderful, good, and deserving of praise.  Simply because of who He is He deserves all the glory, the honor, and the praise that is in all the universe.  And all of this is but a glimpse of the God who begins the gospel.