What would you say is the essence of the gospel?
Today many answers might be given. “The gospel is the good news that God loves you.” “Forgiveness of sins based on faith in Jesus’ atoning death on the cross is the main point of the gospel.” “Jesus died and rose again so that we might have eternal life–This is the gospel!” “The gospel is the news that God loved each of us so much He did everything He could so that we could spend eternity with Him!”
To a greater or lesser degree we all might be tempted to agree with each of the statements above. Yet this might lead us to think of the greatness of the gospel from a dangerously human-centered viewpoint. WE are SO SPECIAL that God did EVERYTHING He could so that WE could escape Hell and BE HAPPY for ever in heaven. Is the gospel God’s way of showing the great value of man? Or is the gospel the means for our self-centered enjoyments and pleasures to continue on without the bother of sin and pain? Or is the gospel really much, much MORE than that?
The Bible speaks of the gospel as being the “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). 2 Cor. 4:3-6 highlights the gracious nature of the gospel in a breathtakingly beautiful way:
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
These verses declare that God sovereignly, in an act comparable to His work on the first day of creation, sheds the light of His gospel into our hearts, overcoming Satan’s work of actively blinding sinner’s eyes to the glorious worth of Christ (cf. 2 Tim. 2:24-26). More teaching concerning the nature of the gospel comes from a recognition of the parallel phrases in vs. 4 and 6. “The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” is compared to “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. Without a communication of knowledge, there is no reception of the gospel. Further, the gospel centers on the glorious worth of God. This glory belongs to the Triune God and is revealed by seeing the face of Christ–the very image of God.
John Piper takes on this theme in his latest book God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself. He argues that the gospel is all about God giving Himself to us for our good and His glory. The gospel trumpets God’s worth not man’s.
Piper says, “The best and final gift of the gospel is that we gain Christ….In place of this, we have turned the love of God and the gospel of Christ into a divine endorsement of our delight in many lesser things, especially the delight in our being made much of. The acid test of biblical God-centeredness–and faithfulness to the gospel–is this: Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because, at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy making much of him forever?” (pg. 11)
He goes on to contend that God’s saving love “is God’s commitment to do everything necessary to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying, namely himself.” (pg. 13) Piper explains further what he means: “None of Christ’s gospel deeds and none of our gospel blessings are good news except as means of seeing and savoring the glory of Christ. Forgiveness is good news because it opens the way to enjoyment of God himself. Justification is good news because it wins access to the presence and pleasures of God himself. Eternal life is good news because it becomes the everlasting enjoyment of Christ.” (from the back cover)
So when we think of the gospel are we thinking of the gift being God Himself?
Piper asks, “If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?” (pg. 15) He then challenges Christian leaders to “preach and teach and lead in such a way that people are prepared to hear that question and answer with a resounding NO“. (pg. 15)
He goes on to wonder “Have we presented the gospel in such a way that the gift of the glory of God in the face of Christ is marginal rather than central and ultimate?” (pg. 15)
All of the thoughts presented here, basically come from Piper’s intoduction. As I read through this book, I plan to periodically post more excerpts and thoughts on this all-important topic. (I will link all subsequent posts to this first post, by the way.) I encourage you all to get and read this book (you can order it by clicking here). And may we come to love and prize Christ more so that we might answer Piper’s question with that resounding NO! I leave you with the concluding paragraphs of Piper’s introduction, and a brief prayer of my own.
When we celebrate the gospel of Christ and the love of God, and when we lift up the gift of salvation, let us do it in such a way that people will see through it to God himself. May those who hear the gospel from our lips know that salvation is the blood-bought gift of seeing and savoring the glory of Christ. May they believe and say, “Christ is all!” Or, to use the words of the psalmist, “May those who love your salvation say evermore, ‘God is great!” (Ps. 70:4). Not mainly, “Salvation is great,” but “God is great!”May the church of Jesus Christ say with increasing intensity, “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup” (Ps. 16:5). “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:1). “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Phil. 1:23).
The world needs nothing more than to see the worth of Christ in the work and words of his God-besotted people. This will come to pass when the church awakens to the truth that the saving love of God is the gift of himself, and that God himself is the gospel. (pg. 16-17)
Lord! Open my eyes, open our eyes to the glories of Christ. May we declare “God is great!” rather than merely saying “Salvation is great!” Lord may You do a glorious work within us that our lives would reflect Your worth. May we prize You above life and above Your blessings. May we risk all to advance the cause of Your great Name! May we declare Your Glory to all our friends and acquaintances. May we spur one another on to love and good works in our fight of faith looking unto our glorious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Fill our eyes and minds with Your Glory as manifested in Jesus. Do this because of Your great love and Jesus’ atoning work on our behalf. We pray in Your name, Amen.
∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7