Fellowship Church of Sidney

The question of the hour is "what is the Gospel?" Not only is knowing the answer to this question important for discerning between authentic and false churches, but at the center of this issue hangs this thing we call "Christianity." Christianity is defined by the Gospel. If a person, preacher, or church has the Gospel, it is Christianity. If not, then they "have the form of godliness, but deny the power thereof" and are no more "Christian" than the LDS or Jehovah's Witnesses or any number of cults that use a Christian vocabulary but are by no means Christians.

Thankfully, the answer to this all-important question is not a difficult one. It is not difficult because Paul defines it:

 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 Corinthians 15:1-4 ESV)

The Gospel is this: It is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and what that accomplished by God for the believer.

Sure, the Gospel can be further defined or articulated and Paul certainly does a good job of that. We know that the process by which God saves us includes election, predestination (those two are different), calling, justification, sanctification, and glorification (read Romans 8:29-30 for details). These things are fleshed out in the life of a converted person by demonstrable faith and repentance. But the above definition in bold will suffice for a clear and easily discernable understanding of what it is that makes Christianity, well...Christianity.

Without the Gospel (given above), a church is not a church, a preacher is not a preacher, and a Christian is not a Christian.

This Gospel is to be proclaimed to every creature. The Good News must be spoken of in light of the Bad News (God's wrath is being poured out without it - Romans 1:18) or else people will not see their need for a Savior. This is done in Christianity by preaching both Law (God's standard of perfection) and Gospel. My children's catechism last week asked "What is the purpose of the Law?" and the answer was "Teach us our duty, make clear our condemnation, and show us our need of a Savior." Therefore, things like law and justice and sin must be spoken of to give us saving knowledge. Romans 10:14 makes it clear that this Gospel must be proclaimed in order for someone to hear it, believe it, and be saved by it.

In light of this indisputable truth of the Gospel, the following are things the Gospel is NOT:

1. The Gospel is not "lived" by the believer. The Gospel was lived by Christ, died by Christ, and resurrected by Christ. The Christian lives "in light" on the Gospel, but the Gospel is what Jesus has done...not what man does. That would be law - not Gospel.

2. The Gospel is not behavior modification. The message "do better" or any version of that (think better, make better decisions, live better, etc...) is Law. It only condemns us. We should do better, think better, and live better. But that's not Gospel. If this is all we teach, we leave people condemned under the Law.

3. The Gospel is not "Love God and Love Others." That is Law (it is a different articulation of the Ten Commandments). What Jesus listed as the two greatest commandments actually condemn every single person who ever lived. Once again, we should love God with all of our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. No one does that. These commandments are designed to show us our need for the Gospel.

4. The Gospel is not "live life abundantly" (by modern standards). It's true that we ONLY have life through Jesus. But the prosperous living mentality would not ring true to the countless thousands who have died for Christ and countless millions who are saved by Christ but God never rescues from poverty. This is speaking of a spiritual abundance and heavenly prosperity.

5. The Gospel is not serving the community. The Gospel is Jesus came to save the community from their sins. Community service without articulation of how Christ did this through His death and resurrection is not the Gospel.

All of the above things are good things. But they're not the Gospel. Someone can live a good life, try hard to love God and their neighbors as much as they should, be prosperous and happy, and serve their community and split hell wide open when they die. Ghandi was supposedly a great person. Atheists and homosexuals are many times "good" people. But the Scripture teaches that no one is good (Romans 3). The fact is, you don't need Jesus for any of the above five things. You can have a perfectly Christless religion with the above messages masquerading as Christianity. You don't need a cross for these things. You don't need a resurrection for these things.

And here is the saddest part; with all the good intentions oozing from the above five misunderstandings of the Gospel and genuine love represented there, the preachers of these false Gospels leave their people under a yoke of Law and burden equal to that of the Old Testament Law. The message "be good, be happy, be loving" can only condemn people who are (according to God's standards) none of the above.

Only the Gospel sparks in man's heart regeneration (being born again). Only the Gospel is a life-changing message. Only the Gospel is a saving message. Let us all challenge ourselves to focus on proclaiming what Paul calls "of first importance."