WHEN THE GOSPEL BECOMES BAD NEWS
- Posted by Julee Huy
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“Church of Jesus, let us please be men and women who understand the difference between moralism and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s be careful to preach the dos and don’ts of Scripture in the shadow of the cross’s ‘Done!’” – Matt Chandler, The Explicit Gospel
Simple Definition
The simplest way to understand the gospel is to understand it as “good news”. That by definition means that the gospel is not good advice, good religion, nor good regulations. It is news that something has happened and like all news that is worthy of being reported, should in fact be reported. It should be reported to as many people that will hear it and as often as people will hear it. This news / proclamation nature of the gospel is what distinguishes the message of the Christian faith from every other religion in the world. While Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism and Mormonism and every other “ism” may give a starving man great advice on how to farm a land, Christianity alone lays out a banquet spread and invites him to feast. The death and resurrection of Christ provides all that is ever needed to reconcile a woeful sinner to a holy God. Through the gospel God invites people to believe this truth and be saved.
Renewed Interest
One of the great movements within the church today is the renewed focus on the gospel and it’s implication for Christian living. With networks like The Gospel Coalition and conferences like Together For the Gospel and books with titles like Gospel Mystery, Gospel Wakefulness, Gospel Justice, Gospel Freedom, Gospel Call, Gospel Deeps, being “gospel-centered” is in high demand. The good of all this is that Christians are being taught not only to believe in the gospel in order to be saved, but to believe in the gospel in order to LIVE saved. Slowly the gospel is being released from the bondage of “evangelism” in the church. The message of the cross and resurrection of Jesus is being seen as the vital message for the full scope of salvation – justification, sanctification, and glorification.
All this is to be rejoiced over and yet I find there are subtle dangers that may be creeping in.
Dangerous Ground
I hear it more and more all the time. It’s a formula that goes like this, “Because A-B-C happened in the gospel, we should do X-Y-Z.” An example of that might be: “In the gospel, God reconciled me His enemy to Himself; therefore, I should be willing to reconcile anyone to myself.” Here’s another: “In the gospel, Jesus abandoned the joys of heaven to save me; therefore, I should be willing to abandon the joys of this world to save others.”
The danger in the statements above is that the gospel has ceased to be news in nature and instead has become law in nature. What has meant to free me has now entangled me. There is no proclamation to believe, just a new narrative to replicate. When the gospel is used in this way, the gospel simply replaces the mosaic law as my task master.
Be Empowered, Not In Bondage
The power of the gospel is not that it lays out an example of Christ-like living, but that it empowers Christ-like living.
Take for example the issue of loving my enemy. In the gospel I discover that Jesus has taken the curse of sin upon Himself to satisfy the wrath of God. The more I embrace this truth by faith, the more I am free from the desire for vengeance and the more I am free to pursue reconciliation with those that hurt me.
Likewise, consider the cost of reaching the lost. Rather than looking at the sacrifice of Jesus as a heavy burden to replicate, the gospel is a daily invitation to believe that Jesus has won for me an eternal inheritance that will forever satisfy the joy of my heart. If I believe this, if I embrace this truth for the good news that it is, what I find is a freedom in my heart from the grips of this world. And when this happens, radical risk-taking, even death-defying missional living, like Jesus, is then possible.
As we focus on the gospel, let us believe the gospel for what it is: Good News!
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