Friday DIVE – WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? (Part 2) | fd20260821

INTRODUCTION    

A.  Last session, we started a review of GCI doctrines.   

B.  In this session … we are continuing that review by revisiting one section of We Believe — a resource that assists adults and older teens in studying the core beliefs of our Christian faith.  We Believe is grounded in the Holy Scriptures and expressive of GCI’s statement of beliefs and incarnational Trinitarian theology.  We Believe draws on similar documents from other Christian denominations and utilizes key statements from the historic Nicene Creed (referred to in We Believe as “the Creed”). 

C.  In this session, continue our look at what we believe about the Gospel, which would derive from what we believe about Jesus Christ, as referenced in the highlighted section of the Nicene Creed** below.  

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all that is, seen and unseen. 

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one Being with the Father.  Through him all things were made.  For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.  For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.  On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets. 

We believe in one holy, all-embracing and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.  We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. 

Amen.  

** The text of the Creed is adapted from the translation in The Book of Common Prayer (1979).    

Section 11:  The GOSPEL  

From The GCI Statement of Beliefs:  

• • The gospel is the good news of the kingdom of God and salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. 
  • It is the message that Christ died for our sins and has made us his own before and apart from our believing in him and has bound us to himself by his love in such a way that he will never let us go. 
  • Therefore, he calls on all humans to repent and believe in him as Lord and Savior.   

From the We Believe document … 

• • There are multiple ways to summarize the essential message and meaning of the gospel.  The one in We Believe is based on The GCI Statement of Beliefs quoted above.    
  • Key to understanding the gospel is understanding the Person and work of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, and the nature of the kingdom of God that he inaugurated and will bring to fullness — so we should plan to study those topics later on.  

On a personal note …

I would add that further study of the other topics, underlined, in the statement of belief above (salvation, grace, faith) would also help our understanding of the Gospel.  

11.1  What is the gospel?   

• The gospel is the good news of the kingdom of God and salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
• To preach the gospel is to proclaim the fulfillment of God’s purposes through the sending of the eternal Son of God in the power of the Holy Spirit to break into our fallen world, overthrow its evil, and transform and redeem all who were captive to sin and evil’s power and eternal consequences.  
  • • With regard to the reference to “God’s purposes” in the GCI response, quoted above, I should point out that the Gospel presentation that we call The Gospel in Peas … the first ‘P‘ is a reference to God’s PURPOSE, which is RELATIONSHIP.

11.2  What are the central events of the gospel?   

• The central events of the gospel are about Jesus: his birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. 
• Through these events in the life of Jesus, God’s kingdom has broken into our time and space to bring about our salvation. 
  • 1 Corinthians 15:1-4   
  • Romans 5:15    
    • • Romans 5:12-17, 18-19 
  • John 1:12  
  • 1 John 5:11-12  

11.3  Is the forgiveness declared in the gospel extended only after repentance?   

• No.
• The gospel is the astonishing good news that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 
• God’s forgiveness of us is unconditional, and it is given before our confession of sin  and  repentance. 
• Freed by the Holy Spirit in response to the Word of God, repentance is how we receive the forgiveness that has already been freely given to us on the basis of Christ’s atoning work on the cross. 

NOTE: 

• • • Repentance is not what causes the forgiveness …
    • God didn’t forgive us because we repented …
    • The forgiveness was there before we repented (see Colossians 1:14 and Ephesians 1:7) …
    • Repentance just allowed us to receive the forgiveness.  
• To refuse to repent is thus to refuse God’s gift of forgiveness. 
  • Colossians 3:13  
  • Mark 11:25  
  • Colossians 2:13  
  • Matthew 18:21-22   
  • Hebrews 12:14     

11.4  How should we respond to the gospel?   

• With repentance and faith.  
• The Son of God was sent by the Father to assume our human nature to himself and to rescue and transform it in himself.  
• This was done to reconcile us to God so that we might become his beloved adopted children.  Jesus Christ came, lived and died for our sins and has made us his own before  and  apart from  our believing in him.  He has bound us to himself by his love in such a way that he will never let us go.
• Therefore, the Lord calls on all humans to repent and believe in him as Lord and Savior.  (See 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 below.)  
  • Romans 10:9-10  
  • Acts 16:31  
  • 2 Corinthians 5:14-20  ¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.    ¹⁶ Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.   ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not ^[d]imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.    ²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.  
    • • 1 Corinthians 15:22-23    But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have ^[a]fallen asleep.  ²¹ For since by man came death,  by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  ²² For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ  all  shall be made alive.  ²³ But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.  ²⁴ Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.

11.5  If sin is so evil, how can God forgive it?   

• God forgives our sins because he has the grace and power to overcome them and set things right.   
  • Christ defeated (overcame) sin by His death
  • Christ defeated death by His resurrection
• In forgiving our sins, God is not overlooking or ignoring evil.  God is opposed to sin and evil and always will be.  God judges what is sinful and evil and condemns it. 
• By forgiving us, God rescues us from the dominion and eternal consequences of sin, making all things new, including our human nature. 
  • 2 Corinthians 5:18-21   Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.    ²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.  ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  
    • • In order for God to become the righteousness of God …
      • God had to make Christ (who knew no sin) be a sin offering (for us)
  • Romans 3:23-26    ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified ^[a]freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God set forth as a ^[b]propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, ²⁶ to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  
    • • just … b/c the penalty of sin had to be paid  
      • the justifier … b/c God has justified us (by declaring us “not guilty”  
      • By dying in our stead, Jesus Christ made it possible for God to be merciful to us (and still be just while doing so).  

• Our problem as humans is not merely that we sin, but that, by nature, we are sinners. 
  • QQQ … “We do not become sinners because we sin … we sin because we are sinners.” 
• We have a corrupt, fallen nature that is inclined toward sin, often not able to resist temptation to sin.  That is the bad news. 
• But the good news is that God  has remade  human nature in and through the eternal Son of God who, in becoming human, took upon himself our corrupt human nature and healed it on our behalf.  
  • 2 Corinthians 8:9  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.   
    • • The term “hypostatic union” was developed by theologians and Bible scholars … to describe the way in which Jesus of Nazareth could be both human and divine (fully Man and fully God)  at the same time.
      • That union was made possible when “the Word became flesh” (John 1:1).
      • In order to become flesh (i.e. become human), the Word had to assume human nature.
      • In some way … that interaction between the Word’s divine nature and Jesus’ human nature caused Man’s corrupted human nature to be healed / renewed, in some mysterious, miraculous way.
  • Hebrews 2:17   Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining  to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  

11.7  What part does the Holy Spirit have in this renewal?  

• Because  Jesus  renewed  human nature, the Holy Spirit is able to minister to us as individuals on the basis of Christ’s finished work, uniting us to Jesus with his perfected human nature in a spiritual union.  
• Through this union, the Holy Spirit imparts to us a continuous sharing in Jesus’ love and life so that we are transformed, little by little, into the image of God found in Jesus. 
  • 2 Corinthians 3:18   But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as ^[a]by the Spirit of the Lord^{[from the Lord, the Spirit]}.    

11.8  How can anyone resist the Holy Spirit’s bringing about this transformation?   

• No one can entirely resist the Holy Spirit.  
• In the end the Holy Spirit will make clear and evident to all the truth and reality that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of all.  
• In the end, all will either willingly or unwillingly admit the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.  
• However, Scripture warns of the real danger of willfully rejecting, and thus blaspheming the Holy Spirit.  Apparently, some will do this, even after being convicted of the Holy Spirit’s undeniable witness that Jesus is Lord and Savior and there is no other. 
• Exactly how this rejection is possible we are not told.  We are simply warned of its possibility, which we are to take seriously lest we resist the Holy Spirit, presume upon God’s grace and minimize the many directives in Scripture to accept, receive and respond positively in repentance and faith to the proclamation of the grace of God in Jesus Christ that comes to us by his Word and Spirit.  
  • Mark 3:29 (NKJV)  but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—  
    • • Majority Text Translations 

        Majority Standard Bible … But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is subject to eternal judgment.”
        World English Bible … but whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation.”

        Literal Translations  

        Literal Standard Version … but whoever may slander in regard to the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness — throughout the age, but is in danger of continuous judgment;
        Berean Literal Bible … But whoever may blaspheme in regard to the Holy Spirit does not have forgiveness to the age, but is guilty of eternal sin.”
        Young’s Literal Translation … but whoever may speak evil in regard to the Holy Spirit hath not forgiveness — to the age, but is in danger of age-during judgment;’
        Smith’s Literal Translation … And whoever should defame against the Holy Spirit has no remission forever, but he is liable to the penalty of eternal condemnation.

  • Romans 14:11   For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.”   

What next?  

From The GCI Statement of Beliefs:  

The gospel is the good news of the kingdom of God and salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  It is the message that Christ died for our sins and has made us his own before and apart from our believing in him and has bound us to himself by his love in such a way that he will never let us go.  Therefore, he calls on all humans to repent and believe in him as Lord and Savior.   

NOTE:  Reference is made to the kingdom of God … salvation … God’s grace … faith … Jesus Christ. 

I believe each of those topics deserves proper, adequate attention … 

REMINDER … from the introduction to this section of We Believe … 

Key to understanding the gospel is  understanding the Person and work of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, and the nature of the kingdom of God that he inaugurated and will bring to fullness ….  

The producers of the resource believe … Jesus Christ … and the Kingdom of God … are important … so we should plan to study those.  

However, I think we should look at salvation since that is what most persons associate the Gospel with.