Have you ever asked anyone what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is? I have. It was very interesting to hear some of the answers. Some said, “the Gospel is Jesus dying for my sins” – others said “the Gospel is when Jesus saved me from my sins” and one said, “it’s the first four books of the New Testament”. Whilst parts of all these answers are correct, they are not really the fullest answer. Generally speaking, people – Christians or otherwise – don’t have an exact answer.
So… What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
It’s simply a good message, or good news regarding the matter of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is that area where everything functions according to the perfect will of God. It’s where God has complete reign and authority. His government (Godly principles), are the rules by which the Kingdom operates. It is a Kingdom which is not bound by physical boundaries like a kingdom of this earth. In the New Testament, Jesus refers to Himself when He speaks of the Kingdom of God. In Luke 17 He told the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God was “…in their midst…”.
The Kingdom – Sight and Entry
Jesus spoke much of this kingdom in Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7 and I’d like to ask you to spend some time with the Lord this coming week, reading through these chapters. As you do, you will start to get an idea of how the Kingdom of God operates. At a later stage we will spend more time on the topic of the Kingdom.
In John chapter 3, Jesus said that only once we are born again, can we see this kingdom; and only once we are born of water and of the spirit can we in fact, enter into it (John 3:3-5). It would be good for us at this point, to highlight the fact that according to this scripture there is a difference between ‘seeing’ the Kingdom and ‘entering’ the Kingdom. We will go into this a bit deeper over the next few segments but for now we just need to remember there is a difference…. seeing and entering.
In the first two years of His ministry on this earth, Jesus spent much time illustrating the principles of the Kingdom, and as important, the cost of living in it. In the very latter part of His ministry, described in the book of John, He began to speak of the cost of entering His kingdom (John 6:41-58). He told the Jews that He was the bread of life come down from Heaven and those who ate His body and drank His blood, would have eternal life – this must have seemed a very unusual saying to those who could not understand what Jesus meant.
In the book of John, when Jesus explained the cost of entering the Kingdom, it provoked wild reaction from the Pharisees (vs. 52). It also caused separation in the ranks of His disciples, because they just could not accept the teaching. As a result, many of them left Him at that point (vs. 60, 66).
In the second book of Corinthians, Paul explains that Jesus would have to die in order to give the world eternal life, and all those in the world would in turn, have to die, in order for Him to accomplish His will through them (2 Cor. 5:14-15). In the case of those in the world, Paul was of course, referring to a spiritual death.
The Light of the Gospel Exposes…
The message of the Gospel can be likened to a massive surgical lamp being shone on the very innermost part of our hearts or natures, revealing every hidden wrong that resides there. As the surgical lamp reveals all to the surgeons performing an operation within the human body, so the light of the Gospel exposes to us personally, the true condition of our heart/nature (Jn.3:20-21).
We see in second Corinthians that much of what we have inside of us, is hidden from the light of the truth (2 Cor. 4:4). This because before we knew the Lord, the accuser had successfully blinded our minds to the truth of the gospel. This has been so since the fall of mankind’s forefathers, Adam and Eve – and we will look into that situation in more detail soon. However, this condition is more grave for us today inasmuch as the glorious truth of the Gospel…so understood and lived by the early church as described in the book of Acts…has become tainted and distorted with mankind’s opinions, over a period of some 1900 years.
As a result, the professing Christianity of today bears little, if any, resemblance to the lifestyle of Jesus, Paul, or the church of acts.
What then is the result of this exposing Light
As the light of the Gospel exposes the true condition of our natures, it will provoke only one of two reactions in us – either:
- We will want to switch the light off – as was demonstrated in John 6 (John 6:66) by Jesus’ disciples.
Or…
- We will accept what is revealed and seek for help from the only quarter from which it can come – a crucified life with Christ (John 6:67-69).
The fruit of accepting the message of the gospel is a life which trusts in God without question. If this fruit is absent in our lives, then we have either never heard the true Gospel, or we have refused to accept it in a practical way into our lives….
(To be Continued)