What is the Gospel?

(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.)

Most Christians know that the Gospel is at the center of the Christian life and faith.  After all, Jesus came to preach the Gospel ("good news" - Lk 4:18), Paul's life centered around preaching the Gospel (Col 1:23),  and the Gospel saves us (1 Cor 15:2).  But while many may know that the Gospel is important, many do not know what the Gospel is.  And way too often we may know one part of it but not the other, or focus so much on one part we forget about another.  But, as A.W. Tozer said, "it might be demonstrated that almost every heresy that has afflicted the church through the years has arisen from believing about God things that are not true, or from overemphasizing certain true things so as to obscure other things equally true."  We must know the Gospel, the whole Gospel.  And we must know what is not the Gospel, so that we do not make nonessentials essentials and divide the Church even more.

So, for the next few blog posts we will dive into the Gospel and try to discover what the true, complete Gospel is.  We will see the Gospel with five parts as follows:

Royal (Eph 1:19-23; Col 1:15-20):  The Gospel is a story that begins with God (Gen 1:1).  He is the royal king who rules and reigns over the whole universe and deserves all the glory in all the universe (Job 38).  He is majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, and working wonders (Ex 14:11).  He is righteous and holy, perfect and pure, and hates sin with all of His infinite being.  Everything in all creation is obedient to Him, every bird, wave, and mountain.

Rebel (Eph 2:1-3; Col 1:21):  Except for us.  We have rebelled against this holy God and sinned.  Instead of giving God the glory He deserves, we tried to exult ourselves (Rom 1:21).  Instead of being obedient to the Creator, we insisted on creating our own way.

Reconcile (Eph 2:4-5; Col 1:22a):  Even though we rebelled against this royal God, He loved us so much that He wanted to be with us.  So, out of His mercy, God became a man, lived among us, and died to take the punishment for our rebellion.  In doing so, Jesus reconciled (made peace) between God and us and destroyed the sin barrier that prevented us from being with God.

Relationship (Eph 2:6; Col 1:22b-23a):  Now, since Jesus has reconciled us to God, we get the unbelievable gift of being in relationship with the King of the Universe (Matt 27:51).  The Gospel is not primarily about us getting to go to heaven, or being loved, or given purpose, but it is primarily about us getting God (Phil 3:7).  We love and are grateful for these gifts because they lead us deeper into relationship with Jesus.

Renown (Eph 2:7; Col 1:23b):  But, this relationship is not primarily for us (Eze 36:22-23).  God has a purpose for this relationship, that we would go and spread His renown in all the earth (Isa 26:8).  In all things we are to make disciples of Jesus (Matt 28:19) and glorify God in all we do (1 Cor 10:31).

May this Gospel transform us, our churches, our neighborhoods, and the world for His renown!