The Gospel of the Son of God

Ok, finally! Back by popular demand, I decided one year from my last post to tackle a subject so important that it literally means life or death for those who get it, and that topic is the GOSPEL. Just begin speaking with people about their understanding of God, sin, salvation, Jesus Christ, Heaven or Hell, and you will hear a number of responses, some of which are so crazy you wonder what they were smoking when they thought of it. Recently, I had an encounter with someone who believed everyone was going to heaven. When I asked this very sincere, friendly, and honest person what about atheists who don't believe in God, agnostics who believe we can't know such a Being, or Hindus who believe in reincarnation (a destination which is definitely not heaven), the person looked at me with a countenance of shock/surprise and downright bewilderment. With a simple inquiry to other beliefs, I shattered the glass ceiling on this person's worldview, something I honestly wanted to do in order to move him to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The very next moment led us to speak of absolute truth even though we did not use that kind of language. My friend understood that if I was correct with my exclusive views and his inclusive views were wrong, then that meant he was wrong, some people are definitely in hell, and that moment was suddenly not a good time to talk about it. By God's grace we did move closer to Gospel proclamation, and what I told him was something he had never heard in "church" before now. Even as a minister who should be prepared for the inevitable (I've had these conversations with people hundreds of times), this one shook me to my core, because I saw someone who was totally convinced he was heaven bound based on the fact that he was a "good person." He told me God wanted to use him for God's purposes, because God knew what kind of "good" he could bring to other lives.

It was for people like my friend that I came to Baton Rouge to start La Croix Church, people who are religious to the core, family people, wealthy by all standards, but as lost as sheep gone astray. Their only hope in this life and the one to come is the Gospel. In fact, our only hope as Christians in this life or the one to come is the Gospel as well. It is the same truth that saves us that changes us more into the image of Jesus Christ, but what exactly is it? What should we tell our friends who need to be saved?

Mark 1:1 says, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." In Mark 1:14-15, Jesus is seen declaring, "Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel." What is this Gospel of God?

The word "gospel" means "good news" that is accompanied with great joy. It comes from the word (ev-angel) which signifies a "messenger" who comes to declare this good news. Typically after a great victory on the battle field, an ev-angel was sent back to the the kingdom to declare that their military had defeated the enemy and victory had been achieved which would have brought along with it great joy for the people. Likewise, Mark is using the word in a similar sense biblically in that when he says, "the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God," "the Gospel of God," he is declaring something that God has done/will accomplish through Jesus Christ His One and Only Son. In other words, the Gospel of Jesus is not something you do for God but something God alone does for you. It is the difference between good news and good instruction, grace and advice.

That's really the difference between Christianity and every other religion on the face of the planet. Other religions as my friend was espousing offer good advice for better living. They don't get you to God. In fact, if they are theistic at all, their god is usually angry at you with the result that you constantly serve him in order to earn his favor. The Gospel is radically different. It is not self salvation through good works but salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. In the words of Tim Keller, "The gospel is: I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey.' Religion is: 'I obey, therefore I am accepted.'"

What my friend needed to understand is that all his serving, good works, and happy thoughts were not good enough for our holy God. All the earning, serving, and loving would never be enough to satisfy the debt we racked up through our inherited sin nature and willful acts of sin before this great God. However, "God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

Our biblical "newspaper" has declared that God did it all through His only Son through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. That truth still marches on today as messengers like me declare it just as it is. My prayer is that the eyes of my friend's heart would be opened to see that when Jesus declared, "It is finished!" on the cross, He meant it. The work has been done. Repent from your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Good News! He is the Gospel!

Off-Brand Gospel Truth

Have you ever purchased some "off-brand cologne"? Since I had no job in high school to support my climb to popularity via clothes and cologne, I took full advantage of the samples of good smelling stuff at the counter of my local retail stores in the mall (you know those little samples that look like they could be shots of booze); however, the mall wasn't just around the corner for me to be date ready and worthy, and seeing that my wallet was full of air instead of dollars, I welcomed any form of Christmas "off brand holy water" to advance my social agenda of being someone special at school, dances, or dates.

It wasn't until I met my wife, then girlfriend, in 12th grade that I realized there was a significant difference in the quality of cologne I was using and the expensive brands on the counter in the mall. I totally didn't buy into the phrase "You get what you pay for" back then until my eyes were opened to see that pragmatism is not always the best option as a rule of life. She kept asking me regularly if I had been drinking before and after our dates, and jokingly, I would reply, "Yeah, Preferred Stock." Apparently, there was an obvious odor of drunkenness on my neck that was present long after the good smelling stuff wore off. Sadly, I was oblivious to the filth and really believed the cheap stuff was advancing my cause with the ladies. (No wonder I went out on so many "one daters"!) I'm sure they thought to themselves, "This guy is using Preferred Livestock!")

Usually we look at the past as either really great or really horrible, but I'm sure my memory of it was really somewhere between the two. Nevertheless, you get the point. Sometimes we become so inoculated with something that we can't really distinguish between the genuine article and the fake, the off-brand. Did you know that's precisely the case with the state of the church on many levels today, especially with the hub of the wheel called the Gospel.

The apostle Paul scolded the Galatian churches with these words in Galatians 1:6-7 (ESV), "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to DISTORT the gospel of Christ." [caps and bold added] That's what off brand cologne is, a distortion of the original/genuine article. Where authentic colognes use original vanilla for example, the fake brands use extracts. The sad and devastating aspect of "buying into" a "different gospel" is that it begins to smell like the authentic and look like the authentic but eventually gives off a terrible after-smell that is "a gospel contrary to the one preached to you" in Christ.

So if the goal of Christianity is to bring the authentic Gospel to bear on all of life for the glory of God in Jesus Christ, then we must quickly discern between the "off-brand" and the genuine thing. Once we make this desperate change to the real thing, then we might not only "smell good" to others, we might actually draw more people to us than repel them. May "grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Galatians 1:3-5

Soccer, Theology, & Salvation

There's nothing better in this world than playing soccer, trying to get your mind ready before the game to put your body through serious pain (long after your college playing days), and then one of your fellow players breaks out the question, "What brought you here to Baton Rouge?" You didn't ask for it; there's no getting past it, and you know a theology discussion is about to break out right before the whistle blows. Great timing!!!!! "God, what are you up to right now?"

So, I tell him and the discussion is on. "I came down after Hurricane Katrina to start a new church. I'm a pastor." [There's no lying or 'being wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove,' because that's really what I do. I can't tell him like foreign missionaries in hostile areas that I'm an undercover English teacher or something else. Literally, I'm boxed into a corner, and the Lord wants me to be bold.] Immediately, the jokes are on and your teammates begin confessing their sins to you as if you're God or something, because they really don't get the Gospel. I don't mind the sarcasm or jokes, and I really love these guys; so you tend to expect it after a while of being in the ministry. It just wasn't the best timing, of course.

Nevertheless, the theology discussion begins and even one of the wives gets involved confessing her sins to me and making jokes about priests and pastors. It was all fun and games until one of the gang explained their "church situation" and how they might be different than our church. I knew what dreaded end was coming, and this is how it went down. The discussion turned toward church and how boring it was and how "communion" was placed at the end of their service so no one would "leave." I thought to myself, "How disappointing!" Not only do they think church is boring and unimportant according to their sarcasm, they viewed the Lord's Supper as essential to salvation given the fact that they "had to stay in the service so as to take Communion." Jokingly serious, they told me they preferred it to be up front in the order of things so they could "get it over," leave, and carry on about their day.

Do you see what's going on here? My friends have been sold a false bill of goods. This kind of understanding of salvation is not abnormal in our culture, though. Here we are in the deep South with hundreds of churches of all denominations around us. I'm playing the game of soccer in which I receive great pleasure; my friends break out in a theology discussion about salvation, and they end up being dead wrong. Hey, it's normal down here. Bad tradition trumps good theology, and according to Scripture, the results are catastrophic for them. What shall we say to these things as pastors, Christians, friends, colleagues, fellow teammates, etc?

The apostle Paul declared in 2nd Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Even in a world where Christians and non-Christians can enjoy the pleasures of life such as soccer, friendship, and great discussion, there is a great darkness in which the world lives, the darkness of personal sin that clouds out the knowledge of God in the face of Christ. If there is going to be a new dawn for our friends where they enjoy the pleasure of knowing God and real satisfaction and salvation in Him, then it must come from "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." [italics added]

What this means for us who are out of shape, overweight, and timid is that WE MUST determine to live our lives in such a way and declare with our lips that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that once we have understood this truth rightly according to God's grace, our friends and families will experience the greatest pleasure of knowing the glory of God in the face of Christ. Please pray for boldness in this declaration, continue to be friends, play soccer with them or whatever, and see to it that your conversation is "salted" with the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Planting Grace Goes Blogosphere

For the "thousands in attendance and the millions watching around the world, let's get ready to rumble!!!" We're now joining this April 11th, 2008 the blog world for the curious minds interested in seeing how the Gospel of Jesus Christ affects all of life: work, home, and at play. We exist for the sole purpose of glorifying God in Christ, and we hope the rest of you become passionate about that belief and desire to learn what that looks like on a day by day basis. So please keep up with us, follow this wonderful journey we're on, and pray that in all things we would be good stewards and "guard the good deposit" of the gospel "that has been entrusted to us."