"And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 'See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.'" Matthew 20:17-19
Amidst the clutter and chaos in the church of what's happening now, the gospel often gets lost. Liberals on the left don't believe it, conservatives on the right take too much credit for it and the people in the middle get told what they must do to be saved rather than what God has done to save them.
The gospel does not need to be reinvented, but it does need to be reclaimed and re-preached, to a church that must understand and a world that must hear. So, here we go.
The gospel is a personal story, and the person in the story is simply Jesus. The gospel is not your story, about what you've done for God. The gospel is God's story, about what He has done for you. Jesus came to you as the Son of God and the "Son of Man," Immanuel, God with us, apart from us, one of us, to offer His life as a sacrifice for our sins. The words "death" and "crucified" speak of Christ's atoning sacrifice which was necessary to reconcile the wrath and love of a holy God. "Raised on the third day" is our hope that Jesus' victory is our victory unto everlasting life.
Follow the simple thread that shows the "Son of Man" going to His "death," "crucified," then "raised on the third day." This is Jesus' story, and this is the gospel.
The gospel is a prophetic story, in the sense that it predicted an event that came true. It would have been inconceivable that the "Gentiles," the Romans, could play a part in the killing of God's Son and the ultimate redemption of God's people. But that is exactly what Jesus preached. "The chief priests and scribes" would conspire with the Roman authority "Gentiles" to carry out the plot of the gospel story. The test of prophecy is truth. If it did not or does not come true, it is not prophecy. If it does, it is. The gospel of the first coming of Christ is absolute, prophetic truth. So is His second coming, but that's another story.
The gospel is a miraculous story. "He will be raised on the third day," Jesus said, and He was. Skeptics, within and without the church, claim He did not. But there is no basis for the skeptics' claims, other than skepticism itself.
Yes, it is impossible for a living person to do the things the Gospels say Jesus did. Yes, it is impossible for a dead person to return to life. Yes, it requires a miracle, for only a miracle makes the impossible possible.
The gospel is the story of the miracle of God becoming man, performing many miracles in His ministry, the great miracle that He could so greatly love sinners, and the greatest miracle of all, laying down His life and taking it up again on the third day through the miracle of resurrection.
The gospel is a salvation story. The gospel does not save your bank account from poverty, your body from sickness, nor your political party from the other. The gospel will not keep you from having a bad hair day and it may not even keep your family together. The gospel is not a trinket nor a trick pony to be bartered about by the sale of indulgences or the hollow promises of television evangelists. The gospel is not owned by one denomination at the exclusion of other Christian traditions. The gospel is not about you, or what you can do for God to make God love you.
The gospel belongs to Christ, and to Christianity, and it is the story of what God has done for you to save your eternal soul.
Christ calls us back to the gospel. The church needs to hear it, again and again, until we get it right. The world needs to hear it, over and over, to get right with God. If you hear Him, if you turn to Him, if you trust and obey Him, you will be saved. This is the gospel truth.
Chuck DeVane is the pastor of Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs and professor of Biblical Studies at Champion Christian College. A native of Georgia, he is a graduate of Valdosta State University, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He has served churches in Arkansas and Georgia, and preached the gospel in several states and foreign countries. You can reach him at [email protected] or 501-525-8339.
Religion on 09/26/2015