The Gospel: “Why It Is Called the Good News and Power of God”

Elevate Christian Network :: The Gospel

Why We Need the Gospel: The fact is that we see so little difference in Christianity today, as opposed to the world at large, that we oftenwonder what’s to get excited about. The character of many Christians’ lives are too often not profoundly touched by a born again (salvation) experience.

We Christians still display anger, judgment, lust, self-centeredness, and a lack of love. There is a lot of crime, divorce, abuse, addiction, financial

failure and lack of honor in Christian lives – as well as among thieves. What difference does Christ really have on most of our lives?

A FUTURE EXPECTATION AND LONGING

I personally believe this is why so many Christians are so future-focused. If you are familiar with my writings and videos, you know that I am not. I believe that most things we hear about the future are not much more than religious fantasy of a Disneyland nature.

But so many Christians are focused on the coming antichrist, the temple in Jerusalem being rebuilt, the battle of Armageddon, and many other things that I view as fantasy. They are also looking forward to Jesus’ literal 1,000 year reign on this earth, and us ruling with him and kicking heathen butt, while he occupies the rebuilt Jerusalem temple that God himself destroyed in 70 A.D. by using the Romans.

I think we get haywire in our thinking when we don’t see things line up like we think they should – which is what I was talking about with all the problems in Christianity that are no different from the world.

OUR CALLING IS TO LEARN TO RESPOND TO LIFE IN RELATIONSHIP

We are meant to respond to life’s events and difficulties, in a oneness relationship with God. We would like to see things perfect in the here and now, but the reality is that they are not. When we learn to respond in God, at least we’re on the right foot, even if we often take two steps back.

But our focus is on sin, living by law, and sin management, which I’ll talk more about. But the fact is that, if we’re in Christ, Father loves us as much as he does his Son Jesus, even on our worst day.

This is true even though our lives in Christ are often nothing more than a fleeting humanistic attempt to be just a little bit better today than yesterday.

THE SIN OF OUR MODELS: OUR PASTORS AND LEADERS

The cases of moral, sexual and financial failure, even among our leaders and pastors is staggering. I read an editorial comment from a reader, and the response from a Christian magazine. The reader asked why they didn’t report the sexual adultery of yet another pastor of a fairly large church in a certain area of the U.S. The editor responded and simply said that there were so many of these unchristian failings by church clergy that they couldn’t report on all of them. They had a policy of only reporting those of the most visibly known and popularly regarded.

Of course, heterosexual and homosexual abuse by entered into by Catholic priests have reached epidemic proportions, and the cover-up attempts by the highest ranks in Catholicism. This includes even relocating their priests so that they wouldn’t be exposed. Reports and class action litigation of this are now reported on a very regular basis, even though some episodes occurred years ago.

MANY CHURCH LEADERS ARE NOT LIKE MOTHER TERESA

The fact is that we all fall far short of our idealized expectations. There are those who achieve their goals in certain areas of life, but fall very far short in others. We are all at best only partially successful. And what do many pastors do after they have been released by their congregations due to moral failure? Many only relocate a short distance away and immediately start another church.

Almost all of us, even with Christ’s life in us, are far from being an observable Mother Teresa.

Thus Jesus asks, “You who say thus and so… do you practice the same things?”

THE FACT IS WE WILL ALL DIE IN SIN

We will all die with sin in us, and the very least (depending on your theological understanding), we’ll die with some things in us that, by some standard should not be present in a Christian’s life. This is why we need Jesus. This is why Christ became sin for us. This is why he ‘took away sin by the sacrifice of himself.’

Yes, God can and does deliver some people from certain things supernaturally. He did my brother Tim from both smoking and drinking (and he was a real addict and alcoholic). But with most of us he does not. I still struggle with something I’ve struggled with since I was 12 years old. I’m not as bad as I used to be, and I’m not as good as I’m going to be, but I still struggle. How about you?

WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE CHANGE IN MANY CHRISTIANS, EVEN LEADERS?

I believe the reason is that most churches and preachers are still focused on a self-effort, humanistic Christianity. They keep us sin focused, and engaged in confession, repentance and sin management. The message from the pulpit often is, “Go try ABC this week, and see if it works.” Then they add, “If it doesn’t work, come back next week and I’ll give you XYZ to go try.”

“REPENT (OF ALL OTHER BELIEFS) AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL”

These are the words of Jesus in Mark 1:15. Paraphrased, he says, “Hey, I came to bring a totally different focus. The focus has been sin for 2,000 years. Now it’s belief. Throw away (repent) of everything you’ve ever believed before and become totally absorbed and full to overflowing with the good news of the New Covenant gospel.”

DON’T THINK ABOUT A PINK ELEPHANT

I’m sure you’ve heard this illustration. If you’re told NOT to think about a pink elephant, what is the first and foremost thing you think about? It’s a pink elephant. It’s called the power of suggestion.

The same thing applies to the law. Paul talks about most preachers “desiring to be teachers of the law.”

I think the reason they desire it is that it’s easy to preach. The gospel requires revelation knowledge of truth, the law doesn’t: “Don’t lie, cuss, cheat or steal – don’t commit adultery.” Many preachers preach the law, or a system of rules, regulations and standards – and then say that they only preach gospel truth. It’s a lie of Satan. Preaching the law produces a legalist who focuses on condemnation, guilt, criticism, accusation and judgment, because we are trapped in sin and law. This is the trap so many are caught in when Paul says there is NO condemnation in Christ. Hebrews even says we should have NO sin consciousness in Jesus.

So our Christian mentality is that God just forgives us for being jerks, at least some of the time. The gospel is so much more than this.

THE GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF GOD’S GOOD NEWS FOR NEEDY PEOPLE

The gospel is indeed the greatest gift of God this world has ever known, and it is God’s gift to spiritually starving people who live in what can be called ‘the kingdom of self,’ rather than ‘the Kingdom of God.’ The gospel is what causes us to live above law, religion, and the masses of humanistic religiosity.

“The Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Paul called it a new dispensation of grace. We’ll look at how the gospel reveals this to us in other articles. It is the power of God for living life to the max.

 

Featured Roger Himes (The Gospel Coach) Video

Theology and Opinion Cause Failure, Gospel Truth Produces Success:  The gospel produces the presence of God in life, and thus also the power of God. It allows us to live the abundant life of Jesus. If we live by man’s opinion, philosophy and theology, we are dabbling in Christianity and not living gospel truth.

 

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Bible Scripture

Some say: God loves us if we change. The Gospel says: God’s love CHANGES us.

 

 

 

Sammy Rhodes

You don’t have to be somebody when you already are somebody. That’s one of the greatest gifts of the gospel.

 

 

 

Timothy Keller

 

Everyone contextualizes the gospel, but few think much about how they are doing it.

 

 

 

Roger Himes Gospel Transformation

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roger Himes, The Gospel Coach, shows the gospel is the power of God, helping us to live life better by accident than we ever could on purpose. You will find new coaching videos at: http://RogerHimesLifeCoach-GospelTranformation.com. Read regular tweets on Twitter: /TheGospelCoach

 

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• Gospel Preaching
• Arthur Pink, “Another Gospel”