Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash In this postmodern, humanist, and theologically liberal western culture, there is a great misunderstanding regarding the gospel. It’s a word we have become all too familiar with, to the extent that we toss it around, use it in everyday lingo, hear it in songs on the radio, in Christian movies, Sunday messages, and mid-week studies. We hear people talk about having “gospel conversations” with their friends and neighbors, and yet, as we listen to the content of these gospel conversations, we begin to realize that what is meant is that they talked about God and religion on a high level. They mentioned Jesus, church, and the Bible—the core elements of the gospel (not). All of this is indicative that many Christians fail to accurately understand the gospel. Even more so, many Christians struggle to explain the gospel in any meaningful and intelligible sense. This has led to churches being filled with people who say they are Christian, who profess to believe the gospel, but are no more saved than Cain or Judas. Over the years, this has become painfully evident to me as I have had the opportunity to interview individuals for church membership and ask them the question: “Please explain the gospel in your own words?” Over the years, I have had several people sit before me, who grew up in church or at least have been in church for many years prior, struggle with that question. At worst, a few entirely missed the mark. At best, most presented a truncated view of the gospel. What then is the gospel? First, the word gospel comes from the Greek word euangelion, which is found in the New Testament of the Bible. This is a compound word comprised of two Greek words eu (good) + angelion (message or news). Thus, good news! But what is this good news? Good news of what and for whom?
Good news is not good news without the bad news and without it being personal. If someone were to say to you, “A cure for Pick’s disease has been discovered.” You might think, “Oh good! I guess.” But if you knew that Pick’s disease is a rare type of dementia, which causes issues such as behavioral and speech problems, eventually leading to death, which you have just been diagnosed with, then you would probably exclaim, “That is great news!” Thus, the bad news is that we are all sinners in need of a Savior, that there is a just God who is the Just Judge of all the universe, who has given laws for us to obey and live by, and that someday we will all be made to stand before him and give an account for the sins we have committed against him. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and that “it is appointed to man to die once, and then the judgement” (Rom. 3:23; Heb. 9:27). The good news is that Christ came into the world to live the perfect life of obedience to God’s law for us, the life that we could never live, and then he died on the cross and took the penalty for sin on behalf of sinners, on behalf of all those who believe. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death, and that all die because all have sinned (Rom. 5:12; 6:23). Yet, Christ never sinned (John 8:46). Why then did he die on a cross? The Bible tells us that God the Father treated Christ as though he were sinful on our behalf and, thus, Christ died in our place (Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor 5:21). It is for this reason that Christ could not remain in the grave. Since death is the penalty for sin, and Christ was sinless, then the grave could not keep him (Acts 2:24). Thus, the good news of Jesus Christ--the gospel—is that Christ died in the place of sinners, and for those who repent and believe, forgiveness of sins and eternal life will be theirs. But this is where many often miss the mark or latch on to a truncated view of the gospel. For the gospel does not just call us to believe, but to repent and believe. After Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River and began his three-year ministry, the first words he proclaimed were, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mk. 1:15). Jesus did not simply say “believe in the gospel,” but “repent and believe.” This is because without repentance, a person does not truly believe the gospel. And without the gospel, it is impossible to repent. But what does it mean to repent? The Greek word for repent is the word metanoeō, which is another compound word from meta (to change or turn) + neoō (to think or understand). Hence, to repent means to change one’s mind or to change one’s way of thinking, which obviously then leads to a change in one’s behavior. What is worth noting is that not only does Jesus’ ministry begin on this note, but also ends on this note. After Jesus’ resurrection, he meets with the disciples (minus Judas) and says to them, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). The Great Commission is to (1) evangelize [make disciples of all nations], (2) baptize these new converts, and (3) teach these new converts to stop living their lives according to their own set of rules and start living in accordance with God’s Word. Thus, the Great Commission directs us to call people not just to believe, but to repent and believe. However, people cannot repent from something, turn from something and turn to something else, if they are not told what to turn to. They cannot change their behavior if they are not first taught how their current behavior is bad, and what good or God-honoring behavior looks like. This is precisely the point at which many Christians and many churches miss the mark when they advocate that pastors and churches should stick to preaching and teaching the gospel. The gospel does not just call one to believe, to intellectually acknowledge certain truths about Christ to be true. Rather, the gospel calls one to repent and believe, to turn from living life your way and begin living life God’s way, and to place faith in the person and work of Christ. For this reason, it is imperative that pastors preach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) and not shrink back from teaching and preaching those biblical truths which may be painful to hear (2 Cor 2:4), which may pierce to the division of soul and spirit, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb 4:12) or may even cause division within the church (Matt. 10:34-36). A man who has been a horrible husband and father cannot repent from that, turn from that, and become the kind of husband and father God desires him to be if he is not taught from scripture what that looks like. A woman who has been a selfish and self-serving wife and mother cannot repent from that and become a godly wife and mother, fulfilling her God-given role, if she is not taught from scripture what that looks like. However, many do not want to be told they are doing something wrong, or they are falling short. They simply want to hear “God loves you. You’re forgiven. Go in peace.” Many want to intellectually redact the words of Christ so as to make him say, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;…believe in the gospel" (Mk. 1:15) and “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,… And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mtt. 28:19-20). A new believer cannot truly nor fully repent if they are not taught what to repent from and what to turn to. If how I behave and how I live is not what it means to be a Christian, if this is not what it means to truly believe, then how am I to behave and how am I to live? If this is not what biblical manhood looks like, then what does it look like? If the way I live and spend my time is not what it means to be a godly and biblical woman, then what does it mean? Christians will only know the answers to these questions if they are taught and preached from behind the pulpit. Sadly, however, there are far too many pastors who simply hope their people will figure these things out on their own through their own Bible reading or through reading some book or listening to some online sermon. If the Bible offends them, they can be mad at God. If the book offends them, they can throw it in the trash. If the online sermon offends them, they stop listening to that preacher. But if their own pastor offends them from behind the pulpit, they may stop giving. They may stop coming. Or worse, they may seek to remove that meddling pastor from his position of ministry. Kudos to those faithful men who have been willing to preach the “whole counsel of God” regardless of what it cost them (John the Baptist, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and many more). In the end, this is what love does. As Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in his second epistle, “For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you” (2:4). In other words, Paul acknowledges that the first letter he wrote to the church in Corinth was painful to write, and probably even more painful to read, but he wrote that letter because he loved them and wanted them to know God rightly. In the end, Christ does not call us just to believe, but to repent and believe. One cannot repent apart from a knowledge of what repentance looks like, apart from a knowledge of God’s Word--all of God’s Word.
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