God’s efforts to save were total. Nothing was left unconsidered or unaccounted for.
Today I would like to consider what the Gospel tells us about God. This will be a broader treatment of the subject. As we have considered various aspects of the Gospel we have tried to provide a wider perspective rather than a detailed accounting.
As we look at the Gospel, what can it tell us about God? And more specifically, what can it tell us about what God considered when determining how we would accomplish the salvation of the lost?
I have framed today’s reflection as the Gospel’s might. The idea of power and ability is what we should have in mind. But not only these. We should also consider the scope of God’s considerations.
To put it another way, God’s efforts to save were total. Nothing was left unconsidered or unaccounted for.
The Gospel is the pinnacle of divine wisdom. Within it, we see the very best of the mind of God on display. The fact that it appears simple should give us pause. Just because God was able to accomplish the seemingly impossible doesn’t mean that it was not well throughout.
When we consider the innumerable factors that constitute one hour of one person’s life, we would be hard-pressed to think those events were random. But multiply these possibilities with the hours of one day, one month, one year, and one life. Then multiply those possibilities by all the lives that have existed since the creation of the world, and you will see that God was considering far more than just His own actions.
The interactions of so many independent possibilities should inspire greater awe in God. It is one of the reasons the words of Paul in Romans take on a new meaning considered against the realities described above.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28 NKJV
What things was the apostle thinking about? I would argue that even if Paul was just considering the regular and public aspects of life that would still be remarkable. But, when we see how even those choices that seem inconsequential are compiled over the course of one’s life, we must kneel before the capabilities of God to navigate them all.
This is the Gospel’s might. God has conceived of and accomplished the work of redemption without missing a step or dropping a beat. God has worked all things, both the good and bad, the honorable and the wicked, to accomplish his purposes.
The Gospel’s “center of activity, attention, or concentration” is God’s gracious act of redemption in Jesus.
In Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, there are two principal definitions for the word locus.1 The second of which is:
b : a center of activity, attention, or concentration
I start with this simple definition in order to clarify today’s Gospel focus. The Gospel’s “center of activity, attention, or concentration” is God’s gracious act of redemption in Jesus. That is where we must constantly, consistently, and courageously put the emphasis.
If we ever shift the focus of the Gospel to our ability or inability, we have lost the locus.
If we ever try to live up to God’s expectations in such a way as to try and earn what God has freely given, we have lost the locus.
This issue of the Gospel’s locus is vital to our understanding of the Gospel and of our salvation. Let’s start with the Gospel.
The Gospel is the message from God to a lost world. It is a message that declares that God has provided a way of being reconciled to Him. The Gospel is a message that calls all lost sinners to repentance and faith in the finished work of the cross. The Gospel is a message that reminds us that we are unable to overcome the inertia of sin in our lives. And because of this inability, God must intervene and counteract the pull of sin in our lives.
Under no circumstances can we, as those in need of redemption, contribute anything to the salvation process. It is not only impossible, but it is also unnecessary.
When we think about the Gospel’s locus in relation to the Gospel message this is what we must remember. But there is a second area where one must understand the center of activity or attention. And that area is that of salvation.
Because God is the enactor of redemption, at no point are we involved in the accomplishment of salvation. We are recipients of God’s grace. We are the beneficiaries of God’s manifold gifts of mercy and love.
This does not mean we are passive. We hear the Gospel and we respond with faith, but this is not contributing to the saving. We are called, compelled even, to turn to God. To accept what He is offering us in Jesus. But, none of that adds anything to what God is doing. Because if it ever did, it would shift the locus to us and away from God.
The Gospel’s locus is an important consideration and aspect of the Gospel because it reminds us that God is the one doing the saving. We are not saving ourselves. We are not helping God.
What we do is turn to God and receive what God has said we can now have.
The essential idea of the Gospel’s kindness is that God didn’t have to be.
As we have explored the Gospel more slowly, some aspects of this message can seem out of place. What I mean is that we make assumptions about the nature or even the reasons for the Gospel. But, until we evaluate them, we should take the time to consider some of the implications of what we may have previously taken for granted.
The Gospel’s kindness is one of those areas of the Gospel message we should consider more carefully.
Because we know the Gospel has been preached, Jesus has been crucified, buried, and raised, we assume (and maybe not unjustly) that it was an inevitability. However, I wonder on what basis we make that determination. And do we understand how it impacts all the other aspects of the Gospel we have discussed?
If God had to send Jesus, and Jesus had to die, and if the church had to preach the Gospel, there are a lot of had-to’s there. What gives us the confidence today to believe this?
Now, I want to clearly state, there is a sense in which this is a thought experiment. But it is designed to help us become aware of an aspect of God’s character we do not always consider. We can say that God is loving, merciful, and patient. But do we understand what it means for God to be kind?
The essential idea of the Gospel’s kindness is that God didn’t have to be. God could have judged every last human being alive, condemned them to hell, and would have been within his power and authority to do so. But that is not what happened. God did not execute immediate judgment. God waited.
God considered all the options available and choose to be kind. He chose the cross. He chose to show his love toward sinners and unleashed his wrath on himself.
The apostle Paul says it this way in Romans 3:
…because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:25b-26 NKJV
“God passed over the sins that were previously committed.”
God made a choice not to condemn those who rightly deserved to be.
That’s what kindness looks like. God could have, and God would have been justified if he would have, taken immediate action against sin. But there was something else God was considering. God was considering his own glory.
God protects his own character even when his majesty has been offended by sinners.
This is one of the few places in Scripture where we are given an insight into God’s thought process. But it is a vital revelation of how God makes decisions.
The Gospel’s kindness is that God did not have to save. God did not have to redeem lost sinners. But God did. And that is the greatest act of kindness ever performed.
Every day we have an opportunity to consider what the Gospel means to us. We can look at those who have yet to believe in Jesus and make an evaluation of how they are living. Not in a critical way. Not to judge them. But to compare. How are they fairing without Jesus?
Oftentimes, we may think that those who do not practice faith are doing better. We think that because their public presentation looks “better” than what we are going through, they are not dealing with some trial. And that is part of the problem. We all have become masters of deflection. We all are capable of making our lives look less chaotic than they in fact are.
To live at the whims of the circumstances of life can be stressful. Some would even describe it as being debilitating. But how do we break free from the cycle of constant crisis management? I can think of only one way—trusting in Jesus.
For some, this will be considered either cliche or trite. Or maybe even both. What I have come to realize and believe is that I cannot control how others feel about what I now know.
The longer I walk with Jesus, the deeper I go into what he taught, and the more confident in his Gospel I become. Not because I have attained some secret insight. It’s quite the opposite. I have realized my tendency to complicate what Jesus actually said and called me to do.
My confidence grows because Jesus remains faithful in spite of my struggles to be consistent. Jesus never waivers even when I have my doubts.
The Gospel’s Joy is that we will never be alone again. That in surrendering to the Gospel’s truth we enter into a relationship with the Gospel’s architect. That one of the principle promises of the Gospel is that we will be received into a new family, given a new name, and be included in a divine inheritance.
When we learn to operate according to these new realities (and so many more!) our perspective changes. Our temperaments is adjusted to match our transformed reality. Our conduct is conformed to these new expectations. Our lives are filled with joy rather than a temptation to despair.
Joy is one of the principal gifts of the Gospel. When we embrace the gift of eternal life we are given wings to fly to new heights. When we make the gift of God’s grace the guiding principle of our lives, how we see the world changes. And the reason it changes is because we are changed.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NKJV
Just look again at what Paul told the Corinthians. To have the joy of the Lord is not just something people say to sound spiritual (even though that can and has happened). To have the joy of the Lord is to understand that the momentary afflictions of this world are not worthy of comparison to the riches we have waiting for us in God’s presence.
What we go through in life, if we are walking with Jesus, is producing in us a “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Amen, to that!
The Gospel points to one man, Jesus of Nazareth, as the only necessary sacrifice for sin.
There are many astounding aspects of the Gospel. Depending on the day one or more may take the first position on that list. However, there is one that is constantly vying for that prominent position in my mind.
The facet of the Gospel that draws my attention most often is the Gospel’s Intensity. What I mean is the Gospel points to one man, Jesus of Nazareth, as the only necessary sacrifice for sin. Let’s look at what Paul said to the Church of Rome.
18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:18-19 NKJV
The sin that entered into the world through Adam and Eve’s disobedience was made right, was countered, and was addressed through the obedience of Jesus’s death on the cross. The effect of one act of disobedience forever condemned the lives of every member of the human race to the effects of sin. But, in Jesus, the obedience of the perfect Son of God provided an avenue of escape from the downward spiral of sin.
The Gospel’s intensity is that in one perfect act of surrender to the will of God, all who believe will be saved. The quality of the salvation Jesus purchased by and through his blood would remove the requirements of perpetual offerings of animals. The system of atonement mandated for the people of Israel was abrogated. It was only a placeholder, a reminder that sin required atonement.
But when Jesus entered the scene, what was incomplete and imperfect in the old system, was forever rectified with one perfect offering.
Let’s look again at how the writers of the New Testament capture the intense nature of Jesus’s sacrifice.
Paul says in Romans,
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of Hisresurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:5-11 NKJV
Peter adds his witness when he says,
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit…
1 Peter 3:18 NKJV
The writer of Hebrews provides a theological bridge between the old covenant’s sacrificial system and Jesus’s fulfillment of that system.
23 Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. 24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
Hebrews 7:23-28 NKJV
And a few chapters later the writer of Hebrews expands on how Jesus completes the work left incomplete by other priests of God’s temple.
11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Hebrews 10:11-14 NKJV
At every turn, we are instructed by the Scriptures that in Jesus, the Gospel’s intensity is most keenly seen. What the Gospel says we have because of Jesus’s sacrifice can be trusted because Jesus is the guarantor of what we have been given.
Our salvation is not merely something God hands out. Our salvation was purchased by the precious blood of Jesus. And in Jesus’s sacrifice, all that God required for us to have eternal fellowship with Him was satisfied.
The fact that God decided to enter the human experience so as to accomplish the work of redemption is astounding.
Over the course of our reflections, we have touched on the idea of God walking among his people in the person of Jesus. The very idea of this can be quite staggering. How is it that God could enter into the human experience?
From a doctrinal and theological point of view (as they often times overlap) the answer is the incarnation. The way most translations articulate this is that God “became flesh” or some variation of that (John 1:14). Another example of this idea is found in Philippians 2:7 where the apostle Paul said that God came “in the likeness of men” (NKJV).
Both of these verses point to the way in which God entered the world he created. However, the truth is that trying to understand the mechanics of this reality is impossible. We simply do not know how God, who exists as a pure spirit, can become like us. And yet, this is exactly what the writers of the New Testament declare to us.
One of the Gospel’s most distinctive qualities is that it revolves around the life and ministry of another human being (all caveats about Jesus being all God attached). The fact that God decided to enter the human experience so as to accomplish the work of redemption is astounding.
We don’t have to fully understand the ins and outs of how God did it. What we do need to appreciate is that God did not send angels or write messages in the sky for us to read. God came himself. And in his coming, we see the lengths to which God will go to help us.
The Gospel is one of the most human messages of hope ever shared. It invites us to follow a person. It encourages us to submit to a person. It reveals to us that we can become like that person. It challenges us to love other people as that person loved us.
God entered the world in the person of Jesus. This truth should encourage us. It should motivate us. If God could accomplish so much even while limited by the constraints of the human experience, imagine what we can do when animated by the power of God at work within us.
Does this seem far-fetched? Then consider what Jesus himself said and think again.
12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
We beseech you, Almighty God, look upon the heartfelt desires of your humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of your Majesty, to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.1
The Gospel’s Glory is that God has conquered the consequence of Sin in us. God has defeated death.
When we use the word glory in the Church, it is usually in the context of worship. We want to glorify God. That we should give God glory for the things he has done. Or, we should be in awe of the glory of God. This last idea will be the focus of our reflection today.
During the time of the sojourn of Israel in the desert, whenever they would make camp, the Tabernacle would be in the center of the people. The Tabernacle was the structure God commanded the people to build. It would be where God’s presence would “dwell”.
Now, this idea of a location where God is present is counterintuitive. God is a spirit. He has no corporeal form. And by virtue of this, he is not restricted by the notions of space or time. So, in what sense was God’s presence going to dwell in a specific location? This is where the idea of glory comes in.
The word used to describe this reality is shekinah. This is the specific action of God to make his presence perceptible. It would usually be seen as a cloud or a fire.
If this is the way God showed himself in the Old Testament, is there a corresponding manifestation of God’s glory today? I believe there are. The work and movement of the Holy Spirit among God’s people. The operation of the gifts of the spirit in worship and in our daily life. There is also the often missed but still real expression of God’s presence in our devotional and prayer time.
These are all witnesses to God’s glory. But there is one example that can be tied directly to the Gospel. What is the Gospel’s Glory? The Gospel’s Glory is that God has conquered the consequence of Sin in us. God has defeated death. The great enemy of our lives had been stripped of all its power.
55 “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57 NKJV
You may wonder how this is like the other things I have described. I will tell you. Every time we hear the Gospel; every time we are reminded of how sadly we fail; every time we struggle to make sense of how we could possibly be saved; it is there that God’s presence is manifested and the testimony of the spirit says we have been redeemed. We have been adopted. We have been moved from darkness to light. From death to life.
The Gospel’s glory is found in the persistent witness of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Reminding us that what we want to believe about ourselves because of fear is no longer true about us.
Our destinies have been changed. The trajectory of our lives has been altered mid-flight and we are not pointed toward heaven.
What a wonderful reality. What good news. What an awe-inspiring realization.
We no longer have a Tabernacle or a temple to go to experience the presence of God. We have now become living temples. We are not living tabernacles. And wherever we go, the presence of God goes with us.
Jesus did not just die for those who had fallen short of God’s standard of perfect holiness. Jesus died for those who are working against the will and purposes of God.
God enters the Creation
Of the many aspects of the Gospel, the one that confounds the mind most of all is that God entered into the creation himself. We will not try and explain this profound mystery. It would be impossible to do. The best can do is take God’s description of the events at face value.
We see these allusions and descriptions of this entrance and presence in the world in a couple of places. The apostle John offers us these as an introduction to the second person of the Godhead.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:1-2 NKJV
And then a few verses later, he expounds on what that means. How did the Word do this?
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NKJV
John 1:14 NKJV
In his letter to the Church in Rome, the apostle Paul reminds us that God “demonstrates his own love” in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. But it’s not just that Jesus died that should inspire our gratitude. No, Paul says that when we consider for whom he died, we will be shocked.
The Gospel is for the Enemies of God
Jesus did not just die for those who had fallen short of God’s standard of perfect holiness. Jesus died for those who are working against the will and purposes of God. Paul says that God entered the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to die for God’s enemies.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Romans 5:8-10 NKJV
In another letter, this time to Christians in Colossae, Paul leaves no room for question about the nature of who Jesus really is.
9 For in Him [ie., in Jesus] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily…
Colossians 2:9 NKJV
And previously, earlier in the same letter under the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit says that it pleased the Father to abide in Jesus as he walked on the earth.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
Colossians 1:19-20 NKJV
These are just a few of the more direct links to the entrance of God into the world.
But why should we think about these things? Why should it matter to our understanding of the Gospel that God entered into the created order as a human being and fulfilled the work of redemption?
It should matter because our understanding of this is what helps us appreciate the cost of the Gospel to God!
The Gospel cost God, in the second person of the Godhead (a reality that must be revealed in order for it to be known), a life of suffering and the experience of physical death.
It truly is beyond my ability to adequately describe what this means. In the life of Jesus God experienced what physical death would be like.
This is the cost of the Gospel. Not some fanciful notion of time wasted or resources lost.
God in the Flesh
God experienced the human reality of life in a fallen world.
God saw with his own human eyes the levels of depravity and malice to which people can descend.
God heard with his own human ears the cries of those longing for respite from the brokenness of their own lives.
God touched with his own human hands those who can become ostracized by the cultural norms and mores of the self-righteous religious rulers of the time.
God tasted with his own tongue the poverty of those who had no place to turn in their own communities, so they would follow a teacher into the wilderness in the hopes of finding some semblance of peace.
God smelled with his own nose the stench of sin and the rotted odor of death as life was siphoned away from those unable to escape the station in life to which they were born and subjugated to by their culture.
This, and so much more, is what it cost God.
The Effect of the Gospel on God
God voluntarily, intentionally, and purposefully entered into the world. And God did this knowing how much it would cost God.
Bishop Luis R. Scott, Sr. one time made reference to this cost by saying something to this effect (I have paraphrased my memory of his comments):
Jesus’s time on the earth were the most turbulent years in the history of God’s existence. Because for the first time in the history of God, the perfect fellowship the Godhead has enjoyed had been disrupted.
Bishop Luis R. Scott, Sr.
And that turbulence was chosen by God so that we might have life.
The easiest way of thinking about the Gospel’s ultimate blessing is to recognize that we have been received, through a spiritual adoption, into the family of God.
As we continue our reflection on the Gospel, it would be inaccurate and a little disingenuous to not acknowledge that there are blessings as a result of believing the Good News. At the same time, it would be inaccurate to make the blessings of faith the reason for calling people to a relationship with God. The blessings are the byproduct of the relationship. They should not be the catalyst for it.
Today we will look a the Gospel’s Blessing. In particular, we will consider the ultimate expression of that blessing in our lives. The easiest way of thinking about the Gospel’s ultimate blessing is to recognize that we have been received, through a spiritual adoption, into the family of God.
Due to this adoption, we have all been given an eternal inheritance. It is an inheritance of eternal life. It is promise of eternal fellowship with God. This inheritance will be shared by all how have placed their truth in the work of Jesus on the cross.
What’s more, this inheritance has been guaranteed by the power of God. The protector of this inheritance is God himself, in the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians gives some of the most encouraging reminders in the New Testament about our promised inheritance. The work of God to safeguard what he has promised is not inconsequential. It is an essential reason by which we can have confidence in what the Gospel Promises. Let’s look at what Pauls said to the Ephesians.
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14 NKJV
A little later on in the same letter, Paul offers a warning against grieving the Holy Spirit. Against grieving the one who is constantly protecting what Jesus purchased with his own blood on the cross. What makes this statement remarkable is that, in offering the caution, he couches the warning within the promise of inheritance we have.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:30 NKJV
We have been saved through faith in the Gospel and we have been sealed by the Spirit of God as a way of protecting what God is doing in our lives.
This truly is one of the most glorious blessings. That we have an inheritance from God and that God will make sure that it will never be wasted or lost.
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