Your Changed Life is Not the Gospel Message
It is a ‘given’ that a relationship with God, through the crucified and risen Christ will drastically change one’s life.
It is also a ‘given’ that a life changed life is an important part of what we share with non-believers when pointing them to the Savior.
A changed life, in and of itself, is however not the core message that we must share with those we would lead to Christ. The Apostle Paul declared:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” – Rom 1:16
Paul also declared:
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” – 1 Cor 15:1-4
No matter where Paul traveled and preached, he always centered on this core message. The only thing in question is exactly when the core message was delivered during an evangelistic encounter.
Often, we believers make a ‘changed life’ the centerpiece of our ‘gospel sharing’, followed by an invitation to Christ based on personal benefits to be obtained in this life, rather than Paul’s core message of the death and resurrection of Christ for our sin – the message that actually contains ‘the power of God for salvation!
Been there, done that!
Food for thought. . .
On the Atonement of Christ
“The doctrine for which we contend is that Christ hath so perfectly satisfied divine justice for all our sins, by one offering of himself, and not only for our guilt but also for both temporal and eternal punishment, that henceforth there are no more propitiatory offerings to be made for sin, and that though, for the promotion of their penitence and sanctification, God often chastises his people, yet no satisfaction is to be made by them either in this or a future state of existence.”
- Francis Turretin, The Atonement of Christ, page 68.
Christian, are YOU ready for this?
Convert from Islam Shot Dead in Somalia
Islamists in Somalia Behead Two Sons of Christian Leader
Police Collusion Suspected in Attack on Church in Egypt
Iraq: 5-Year-Old Christian Boy Kidnapped and Killed
Gunmen Kill Three Christians in Kirkuk, Iraq
“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” – John 15:19
“Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.” – John 16:2-3
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” – Matt 5:10-12
Not only are most of us NOT ready for REAL persecution, we can’t imagine it even happening in the good old U.S.A. Could there, will there come such a day? God knows, I don’t. I’ve wondered on occasion why ‘Christian’ bashing seems to be accepted behavior, while expressing God’s opinion of certain forms of human behavior is called a ‘hate crime’. It’s probably going to get worse, but so what? Consider it all training for when it really gets rough.
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“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. . .” Rom 1:16
The names have been changed to comfort the guilty. . .
Some of us old geezers remember the popular television series “Dragnet”, especially the lead-in phrase that the upcoming story was true, but the names had been changed to protect the innocent. There’s a twist to that theme that is extremely popular in evangelical (I use the term loosely) circles these days. It’s not about changing the names of people, however, but changing the names of essential elements of the Biblical Gospel message for which we are accountable, and that we are charged to faithfully proclaim.
If you haven’t yet figured out what ‘names’ I’m talking about yet, they are repent (in all it’s forms), and sin (and all direct references to it). When Jesus announced that the Kingdom was near, He told his listeners to ‘repent and believe’ (Mark 1:15). When the Apostle Paul found it necessary to remind believers in Corinth of the contents of the Gospel message, he told them that the Gospel IS that Christ died for our sins, and was raised, according to scripture (1 Cor 15:1-4). He also reminded believers in Galatia that different messages than that were ‘another gospel’ (Gal 1:8-9).
We don’t use those terms very much these days. We tell folks Jesus died for their pain, broken heart, in order to have an abundant life, and a number of other reasons, but we don’t lay the cards on the table and tell them that Christ died for their sins. We have all sorts of ways to ‘soften’ the message and ‘short-sheet’ the Holy Spirit.
We don’t tell them they need to repent and believe the Gospel, we tell them they can come to Jesus for spiritual Band-Aids to smooth out the raw ’stuff’ of life. If we did use the ‘R’ word as we ought, we would have to explain why repentance was necessary and that would necessitate using the dreaded ‘S’ word.
People can’t/don’t ‘repent’ from a broken heart, painful experiences, or lives that aren’t as abundant as they would like them to be. Those are all things that can be understood as outside of oneself, and there is no need repent of that which you are not personally accountable. If we are somehow responsible for anything it’s a poor decision, bad judgment call, or personal misstep, but never in any way the result of ’sin’. We don’t like to use that word.
So I have to ask myself – Why don’t we tell it like it is, – define the issue using scriptural terms and definitions? Here’s my short list of why we don’t use the ‘S’ word.
- It makes people feel uncomfortable in our ’seeker friendly’ service.
- People know they are sinners already, so there’s no need.
- If I use the ‘S’ word he/she won’t like me any more.
- If he/she/they like me/our church service they will naturally like Jesus.
- People who feel guilty when they hear the ‘S’ word won’t drop a check in the offering plate or donate to our ministry.
- Talking about ’sin’ would hinder the warm ‘relationship building’ phase of my evangelism technique/method, without which I’ll never have a chance to share Christ.
- Broken hearts, and all the other painful ’stuff’ of life, resulted from the Adam’s sin (the Fall) so we can just talk about those things and see even more ‘decisions’ for Christ than making folks feel bad.
- We can always talk about sin after they have made a decision/prayed the prayer/said the right words and are already saved.
- We can just talk about sin being separated from God because of what Satan did in the Garden. We humans are just victims here.
- We’re ashamed of the Gospel.
As for me, I think the first 9 are the ways we soften/disguise the real reason, #10.
Your comments, additions, deletions, and whatever else you want to throw at me, even the occasional rotten egg or tomato. I can take it!
The Main Thing is STILL the MAIN THING
“Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,” – 1 Cor 15:1-4
From a blog post at Pyromaniacs called The Christian’s Priority and Presence: Things We Agree On:
Among other things, the Christian is the person who boasts only in the Cross; to whom the world has been crucified, and he to the world (Galatians 6:14).
The sole unique possession that every Christian has, that all his neighbors most desperately need, is the Gospel (Romans 1:16). The Gospel is itself not actions nor outreaches nor programs; the Gospel is a message, communicated in words that express propositional truths (Romans 10:14-17). While what we do may at best adorn the Gospel, it must never supplant or eclipse the Gospel (cf. 1 Timothy 2:10; Titus 2:10). The message and aim of the gospel is redemption (Galatians 4:5; Titus 2:14) not merely reform. The gospel itself is the only instrument of redemption; it “is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16).
The life of the believer in Christ begins at, and ought to revolve around the Cross of Christ, His death and resurrection. Too many times we remember that our lives began at the Cross, but in the conduct of our lives, and in the sharing of our lives and testimony with others we seem to go right back to focusing on ourselves. Instead of dying to ’self’ as Jesus and the Apostles taught, we get wrapped up in ourselves in more subtle ways. Sure we talk about Christ, but mostly with terms and in ways that seem to include a lot of personal pronouns, betraying who is REALLY at the center of our lives. I call it the tyranny of self and I suffer from it as much as anyone else.
In our Bible studies, wherever and however they are conducted, we get wrapped up in ‘our’ insights, whether they be in the text or not, even patting ourselves and each other on the back for being so ‘deep’. In our conversations with those who do not yet know Christ, we are apt to spend a lot of time ‘proving our spiritual points’ and omit the very message of the Cross that we are to convey (1 Cor 15:1-4). Or, we present our ‘transformed lives’ as proof of the power of the Gospel, but fail to share the message itself!
Interestingly enough, I don’t see much of the ‘us’ described above, in the pages of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul, with the equivalent of several post-graduate degrees, refused to draw on his own intellectual prowess and preached the simple message of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). When conversing with the intellectuals of his day, he (Paul) unashamedly brought the discourse to the foot of the Cross and the power of the Resurrection (Acts 17).
Should we who profess Christ act otherwise?
Have a blessed weekend,
Dan
The Father’s Bargain
An excerpt from the sermon The Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Redeemer, John Flavel ,1671
“How reasonable it is that believers should embrace the hardest terms of obedience unto Christ, who complied with such hard terms for their salvation: they were hard and difficult terms indeed, on which Christ received you from the Father’s hand: it was, as you have heard, to pour out his soul unto death, or not to enjoy a soul of you. Here you may suppose the Father to say, when driving his bargain with Christ for you:
Father: My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls And thus Christ returns.
Son: O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all your bills, that I may see what they owe you; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shall you require it. I will rather choose to suffer your wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.
Father: But, my Son, if you undertake for them, you must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare you.
Son: Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, (for so indeed it did, 2 Cor. 8:9. “Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor”) yet I am content to undertake it.
Blush, ungrateful believers, O let shame cover your faces; judge in yourselves now, has Christ deserved that you should stand with him for trifles, that you should shrink at a few petty difficulties, and complain, this is hard, and that is harsh? O if you knew the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in this his wonderful condescension for you, you could not do it.”
In Christ Alone – Stuart Townend, Keith Getty
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.- Stuart Townsend, Keith Getty
The song and video are here. The story behind the song is here.
When I first heard this, I thought it was an historic hymn of our faith with more contemporary styling, until I read the story of how it came about. I’ve also found out that it was sung at a denominational Christian convention and the lyrics were modified in that setting. From the second verse, the words “The wrath of God was satisfied-” were changed to “the price of sin was satisfied”. How sad. That’s not unlike when, years ago, words to the hymn Amazing Grace were changed from “Saved a wretch like me” to simply “Saved someone like me”.
Why do I find that incredibly sad, you ask? When clear biblical teaching is tampered with and modified so that it becomes more ‘palatable’ or non-offensive, when we soften the ‘hard’ truth about the nature of the unregenerate and what Christ actually accomplished on the Cross, at a minimum we have cut out the ‘heart of the matter’. Far more seriously, we have tampered with the very sovereignty and glory of God!
Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing – Christ died for OUR SINS
According to Paul, along with Peter, John and the rest of the early disciples, Christ died for OUR SINS. God the Father did not send His own Son to die so we could have our best life now, although our best life is to be found in Christ. He didn’t send His Son to the cross because He couldn’t imagine Heaven without us, although one day we will be with Him in Heaven. Jesus Christ died because of OUR SIN. What does that really mean?
We know the story – God created a perfect world for perfect children. Those children willfully disobeyed the only rule they had been given. Satan tempted, but they disobeyed. the result was that sin entered into god’s perfect creation and corrupted it. The sin of Adam has been passed down to every human being since the fall, except Christ, who was totally God and totally man, lived a life of perfect obedience to His Father and died for OUR SIN.
In today’s non-threatening, ’seeker-friendly evangelicalism, if the subject of sin is approached from the pulpit stage, it is called everything but SIN. When the term SIN is used it normally refers to a great gulf or dark cloud that separates us from God. If it ever means ‘personal’ sins it is restricted to one of the substitute terms we use like ‘mistakes’. If we look closely at scripture however, we find that sin is much more than things we do (or don’t do). When sin entered god’s creation it left humans in such a sad state that:
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” – John 3:18
“For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” – Romans 5:10
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” - Ephesians 2:1-3
“As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.” – Romans 3:10-11
What is Scripture telling us about the condition of all who have not believed in Christ? They are:
- Already condemned
- Enemies of God
- Dead in trespasses in sin
- Objects of God’s wrath
- UNABLE to seek God
That’s quite a different portrait of the ‘natural man’ than the one painted by the modern/postmodern gospel that sends the various messages mentioned in this post, and either omits or gingerly tip-toes lightly over something of “first importance” – that Christ died for OUR SIN.
The ‘Popular’ Gospel
For some time now I’ve been listening for a genuine gospel message, or at least a hint that Jesus died for OUR SIN when I read popular Christian books and magazines, listen to popular pastors and teachers, and even when I listen to contemporary Christian music. The intent in my ‘listening’ is not to intentionally look for false teaching or brand anyone a heretic or apostate, but only to hear how the ‘good news’ is being presented in our American evangelical culture. Here is some of what I’ve heard in the last few months being presented as as the gospel:
“God loves you so much He can’t imagine heaven without you. . .”
“Jesus would rather die than live without you.”
“God hugs us WITH our sin. . .”
“Jesus accepted you a long time ago WITH your sin. . .”
“The core of Christianity is. . .the news of ‘a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.”
“God sent his Son to die for us because he wants a relationship with us.”
“When the gospel is reduced to a legal transaction shifting our guilt to Christ and Christ’s righteousness to us, the gospel focuses too narrowly on a transaction and becomes too impersonal.”
Now compare any of the above statements with the Apostle Paul’s definition of the gospel:
“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” – 1 Corinthians 15:1-5
What’s the difference between the ‘popular’ gospel and the Gospel Paul preached. . .and why does it matter?
Three Classes of People
In his book about the wonderful grace of God, Good News for Bad People, Roy Hession proposes that there are three classes of people:
1. “The bad who do not know they are bad. The great majority of us, whether we are in churches or out of them, do not regard ourselves as bad. Whatever our lifestyle or conduct, we have found some way to justify ourselves. . . . The fact that he may be religious only reinforces his good opinion of himself.”
2. “Bad people who are trying to be good. Sincere as their trying to be good may be, whatever direction their efforts may lie, it is vain for such [people to hope that it is going to improve their relationship with God at all, or that it will greatly change their personal experience.”
3. “The third class is composed of the group in whom the Holy Spirit has done a melting work, the bad humbly confessing to God that they are bad and not pleading any extenuating circumstances. As far as they are concerned, there is only one person at the bar before God and that is themselves. When they take that stand they immediately become candidates for the good news Jesus has for them and for the grace that is greater than all their sin. For them, Jesus is the end of their trying and the beginning of all their finding.”
Much of today’s evangelism, with all of the pop-psychology that is now part and parcel of it’s presentation either ignores the real problem of sin, or speaks of sin as if it’s some non-personal entity that merely separates us from God. Jesus died to remove the gulf or cloud between fallen man and God (expiation) rather than died in our place (propitiation).
I would offer the question – Which is it, expiation, propitiation, or are there elements of both to be found in scripture?
