“For I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Rom1:16
For many of us the word
gospel has come to mean anything that is preached on the pulpit. However that
is so far away from the truth. Paul tells us here that the gospel of Christ is
the power of God unto salvation. This is a very rich statement in every way.
1) Gospel. (Euaggelion)
The word gospel simply
means good news or a good message. Thayer defines it simply as glad tidings of
the kingdom of God…
This might seem like a
simple thing but it has profound ramifications to us if it be true indeed. The gospel
is Good News.
First it has got to be
good. It can’t be bad or condemning or judgmental. If what is being preached to
you isn’t good, it’s not the gospel! It must be good. Isaiah calls it good
tidings of good.
“How beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that
saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” Isa52:7
Secondly it has got to be
news. The dictionary defines news as ‘a report of recent occurrences;
information of something that has lately taken place or something before
unknown…’
That means that it is in
the past. It has already happened. It has already occurred. It has taken place
already. It is done. It is finished. It is accomplished.
It is not a prophecy of
what is going to happen, that wouldn’t be news technically, or a warning. The
gospel is news. Good news.
When a preacher stands on
a pulpit, their message should first of all be good and it should be news. It
must be about a finished work. That is what the gospel is; glad tidings of good
things.
2) Of Jesus Christ
The gospel is all about
Jesus. It is the good news concerning Jesus Christ and what He has done,
accomplished and finished on the Cross. It is the good news of Christ and His
kingdom which has already come.
The gospel is not about
you. It does not proclaim your works and your efforts. The gospel proclaims the
work of God in Christ. Today we love to stand on the pulpits and tell the
people what they should be doing for God. We give them formulas, steps and
methods to get God to do things for them or to please God. We are at the center
of the messages we preach. None of that is gospel. The Gospel is the good
news of Jesus Christ. He is at the center of it all.
Christianity isn’t about
us living our lives for Jesus. Christianity is about Jesus living His life in
us. It is about Him!
Galatians2
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Until your faith is built
on what happened at the Cross (the death, burial, resurrection and
glorification of Jesus) it will be incredibly ineffective.
The reason we are unstable,
unsure, ineffective, weak, up and down etc. in our faith is because we are not
rooted and established in the Cross.
Everything pertaining to
salvation and God is ours on the basis of what Jesus accomplished at the Cross.
The key to effective faith
is deriving everything we believe and preach from what happened at the Cross.
We have to get to where whatever we believe and preach is based on what God
accomplished at the Cross.
1Corinthians1
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to
preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
made of no effect.
When we place our faith
and trust in anything but the work of Jesus we make the Cross of no effect to
us. In other words we make it impossible for ourselves to experience any of the
benefits and results that Jesus accomplished for us through His death, burial,
resurrection and glorification.
Most of us do not trust
in what Jesus did for us. We trust in what we are doing for Him. Our faith and
trust is in our living holy, prayer and fasting, tithing and giving, serving in
church etc.
Our faith and trust
should only be in the Cross and nothing else.
Most of us believe that
we have to do something before God can answer our prayers, bless us, heal us,
help us etc.
Our faith isn’t in Jesus
and what He has done. It is in us also doing something. We subconsciously
believe that we need to help Jesus, we need to earn it, we need to pay the
price, we need to suffer for us sins and so forth.
Many of us feel that we
need to add something to what Jesus did. In our hearts we don’t really believe
that Jesus’ work on the Cross was sufficient. We don’t believe that His
sacrifice was more than adequate. We feel that we also have to sacrifice
something, or suffer something or pay some price.
We don’t believe that
Jesus is enough. We have to get to where our faith is in what Jesus did for us
and not in what we are doing for Him.
1Corinthians2
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come
with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.
The only message that we
should concern ourselves with preaching and believing is the message of the
Cross. This is the only message that is worthwhile. It is the only message that
we need to hear and believe. Paul determined that He would know and preach
nothing but the Cross of Jesus.
Preaching the Cross isn’t
just talking about the crucifixion. Neither is it talking about getting born
again and going to heaven. Preaching the Cross involves everything that
happened when Jesus was crucified, died, was buried, resurrected, ascended to
heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father glorified.
9 But as it is written: " Eye has not seen, nor
ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has
prepared for those who love Him." 10 But God has revealed them to us
through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of
God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man
which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of
God.
God has something for you
that is better than anything you have ever seen, heard or imagined. These
things it is impossible for us to perceive naturally by our carnal senses. They
are spiritual things.
And they are comprehended
by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit reveals them to us as He reveals to us
the Cross and the work of Jesus.
Whatever you desire and
want from God has been provided for you at the Cross and until you go to the
Cross and see and understand it you will not be able to receive it and
appropriate it in your life.
You have to understand
and experience the reality that you were in Jesus when He was crucified on the
Cross, in Him when He died, in Him when He was buried, in Him when He rose from
the dead, in Him when He ascended into heaven and in Him when He was glorified
and sat down at the right hand of the Father.
3) It is the power of
God unto salvation
1Corinthians1
18 For the message of the
cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved
it is the power of God.
This
verse tells us that the message of the Cross is the power of God. And yet
Romans1:16 told us that the gospel is the power of God. If you put these two
together you realize that the message of the Cross is the gospel and the gospel
is the message of the Cross. To preach the Cross is to preach the gospel. To
preach the gospel is to preach the Cross.
“When I came to you,
brothers and sisters, I did not come with superior eloquence or wisdom as I
proclaimed the testimony of God. For I decided to be concerned about nothing
among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in
weakness and in fear and with much trembling. My conversation and my preaching
were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the
Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but
on the power of God.” 1Cor2:1-5NET
The gospel is power. It
is not rhetoric, it is not just talk, and it is not clever arguments and wise
sayings. Today most preachers are experts at sounding clever, making wise
quotes, telling very captivating stories and telling very funny jokes. Many
preachers have become inspirational and motivational speakers. We should not be
deceived. Talk is cheap. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
The word for power here
is the word dunamis. It’s the word from which we get the English words dynamo,
dynamic, dynamism etc. it means the following; force, ability, abundance,
might, strength, violence. Thayer defines it as inherent power, power residing
in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts
forth etc.
In a nutshell Paul is
saying that the gospel is the ability, the dynamism, the working, the strength,
the might of God that leads to or produces salvation is us. It is not a one
time release of power like dynamite. It is a steady continuous flow and release
of power. This is how a dynamo works. This is what the gospel does in us. It
constantly, steadily and consistently releases power in us as we hear it and
believe it. It is constantly producing salvation in us.
The way that God has
ordained for us to partake and enjoy the salvation that He worked in Christ on
the Cross is the gospel.
Through hearing and believing the gospel of Christ, God is able to produce His
salvation in every area of our life.
The gospel is the power
of God that releases the effects of salvation in our lives. The problem today
is that the truths of the gospel are not commonly preached or understood in
many churches. This is the reason that so many Christians are not walking in
all the benefits of their salvation. They don't have the power of the gospel
working in them.
The law and its works are
not the power of God unto salvation. The law and its works never produce
salvation. Fasting, praying, giving, tithing, philanthropy, attending church
and any other works of the law will never produce salvation in us. Only hearing
and believing the gospel will produce salvation in us. Only the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation.
4) Salvation (sōtēria,
sōzō)
For many of us salvation
means going to heaven. However the scripture doesn’t teach that. Salvation
refers to everything that Jesus accomplished through His death, burial,
resurrection and glorification.
In fact the Greek word
used for salvation here is the word sōtēria and it means rescue or
safety (physically or morally), deliver, health, salvation, save, saving.
Thayer defines it as deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation, deliverance
from the molestation of enemies.
Another common word used
throughout the New Testament to convey the same meaning is the Greek word
sōzō which is translated as saved in Rom10:9
“That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Rom10:9
This word means to make
safe, to save, that is, deliver or protect, heal, preserve, to do well, be
(make) whole etc.
Salvation is much more
than just being born again. It refers to every benefit to which the believer is
entitled through Jesus. It refers to every work and good thing that Jesus has
obtained for us on the Cross.
Very few words if any are
as pregnant with meaning as the word salvation. Salvation is a word that
encompasses all that we have come to in Christ. All that He has done, and all
of its effects on and in us. Salvation is everything that God has done to you
and in you through the finished work of Christ’s death, burial, and
resurrection.
Salvation is an
all-encompassing word that includes EVERYTHING that Christ has brought you to
through his death burial and resurrection. It is everything that God has done
for you, to you, and in you through the death, burial, and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus.
Illustration.
Imagine that I give you a
super computer with 1 million Gig hard drive, 10 Gig of RAM, wireless
everything, an incredible software package, amazing graphic and sound
capabilities, a gigantic flat screen, etc. And you say thanks and only use it
to play Ms. Pac-Man. Or solitaire.
Salvation is like that
super computer. It is such an incredible package with incredible potential and
yet you can’t experience and enjoy any of that super potential because all you
know to do is play solitaire.
Salvation is exceedingly
abundantly more than what you could ask or even imagine.
It is so much more to us
than being forgiven, or going to heaven, or getting out from hell.
God accomplished a lot
through the death of Jesus, He accomplished a lot through His burial, he
accomplished a lot through His resurrection and He accomplished a lot through
His glorification. It is your role to find out what God has done in Christ.
And all that has been
finished and is NOW in Christ. It is accomplished. It is done. It is not
something He is going to do. It is something He has already done. It is in the
past. It is news.
The Gospel is GOOD NEWS
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