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The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’.
And, what is the gospel, the good news?
The King is the gospel.
‘She [Mary] will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His Name ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins’ [Matthew 1:21] were the words of the Angel to Joseph, regarding the birth of the Savior. And after Jesus was born in Bethlehem wise men from the East came seeking Him to Jerusalem saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?’ [Matthew 2:2]
The Lord Jesus in His birth was the Savior King, the good news for all mankind. The King is the ‘gospel’. The gospel is the good news of what He has already accomplished for you on the Cross, what He is doing even now in your life, and also what He is going to do in the future.
The gospel of Christ –
That there is no other gospel, is what Paul very clearly establishes to the Galatians, in the opening verses of his letter to them. There is no other gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. [Galatians 1:7] He warns them not to be influenced wrongly, and turn away to a different gospel.The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God – [Mark 1:1] is how the gospel writer Mark begins.
It is the gospel of God –
Paul introduces himself in the book of Romans, as being one called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God -Which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. [Romans 1:1-3]
And the apostle goes on to declare –
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. [Romans 1:16] You and I too, need never be ashamed to share the gospel of Christ with someone who has not received it yet, for it is the power of God unto salvation. And salvation is the sum total of all the blessings of God. A life that enjoys the blessing of God therefore, in every aspect of it, is possible only through the gospel of Christ Jesus.
1) The gospel is – the grace of God:
But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course, and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace. [Acts 20:24] The gospel of grace is the undeserved favor of God upon you, which brings about a deliverance from sin and the wages of sin, namely death. And having been liberated, in the overcoming power of grace, you can continue to overwhelmingly conquer sin and strife, to reign in life through Christ.
The Old Testament is a shadow of the New Testament. And deliverance from sin is typified in the miraculous liberation of God’s people from the bondage of Egypt. But God did not want them to remain in the wilderness, which most of them unfortunately did.
Even in your life, it is the gospel of grace that gives you the power to overcome obstacles to enter into the Promised Land, which is the blessed life that God has prepared for you. For otherwise, you will remain stuck in the wilderness, frustrated and angry, to may be even as the Israelites did, hark after the bondage of sin that you have left behind.
His grace gives you the power to overcome sin and walk in true freedom. In your weakness or lack, His grace is available to give you the sufficiency in order to overcome it and press on. Except the Holy Spirit testifies that in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. [Acts 20:23]
They are the confident words of Paul, undeterred by problems that lay ahead, for he trusted in the all sufficiency of the gospel of grace in his life. It is a valuable lesson to be learnt, in order to face up to the challenges that arise in your God given, Spirit led path. Running away from it, a change of place is never the solution.
You can, through the empowering grace in you, face up to the challenges that arise in your path. You can indeed speak to the mountain like problem in front of you, in conviction and faith, to see it become a level plain. God’s grace in you is greater than your enemy, whoever or whatever it may be. There is no need to give room to fear in your life. God’s grace will give you the right perspective, that you may run your race with joy, even in the midst of troubling circumstances. It is why you too can say, ‘When I am weak then I am strong; for His strength is made perfect in my weakness’ ; the weakness is temporary, while the blessing of His strength is superior and permanent. Weeping may remain in the night, but joy comes in the morning. And the joy that He gives, no one can take away.
The gospel of grace working in you gives you the desire, and the determination to pursue it, to reach your God given destiny.
Desire – Determination – Destiny
‘Not I but the grace of God in me’ and ‘I am what I am by the grace of God’, are words that you too can echo and confess victoriously and joyfully.
Grace is not a concept or a philosophy. It is Christ who is the embodiment of grace. And Jesus is the gospel, the good news. Grace therefore is good news. The gospel is indeed the grace of God.
2) The gospel is – the light of Christ’s glory:
Describing how the gospel is veiled to those who are perishing, Paul says in their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. [2 Corinthians 4:4]
Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. [Colossians 1:13] And the loving God beckons you to look upon what He accomplished in the lives of Abraham and Sarah- ‘Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who bore you; for he was but one when I called him; but I blessed him, increased him and multiplied him’. [Isaiah 51:2]
God is a good God, and Jesus Christ is his image; the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Him. He will do the same today in your life, even turning the evil that has been done to you into good. The glory of Christ in you is the manifestation of God’s presence in you, exhibiting His power through you.
Lord Jesus Christ is the good news.
3) The gospel is – Level ground:
Paul explains in his letter to the Ephesians, how by the grace of God upon him for the Gentiles, the mystery that was hidden for ages had been revealed through His Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.
The mystery revealed –
It is that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body, and partakers of God’s promise in Christ through the gospel. [Ephesians 3:6] Only in Christ, can true unity and peace come within a person, and in the world around him. It is something that the law cannot accomplish.In Christ though, all who receive Him in faith become one in Him, both the Jew and the Gentile, (which includes each one of us) – we become related by His Blood, heir of God, and co –heir with Him, and thus a partaker of the promise of God.
The dividing wall broken –
Through the Cross where Christ laid down His life for the sins of the world, where God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, the dividing wall was broken. A bridge has been built instead, between man and man, between the Jew and the Gentile. Therefore, Paul declares to the Gentile believers in Ephesus,through Christ we both have access by one Spirit, to the Father. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. [Ephesians 2:18,19] It is where your faith plays a key role, making it all possible.
Justified by faith –
And the Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with believing Abraham. [Galatians 3:8,9] Faith is the common denominator today, in order to be made worthy to receive the blessing of God. It is how the blessing of Abraham comes to you and I, though we are not of the Jewish race.
Sons and heirs in Christ –
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,For as many of you as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. [Galatians 3:25,27] This is the glorious truth after the Cross of Calvary. For, clothed with Christ, you gain a new identity – you are a new creation, where all are one in Christ.
All are one in Him –
There is no longer Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free, no longer male or female – for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [Galatians 3:28] This is the truth; and it needs to be the proof of the gospel in your life, in all your personal relationships. The only distinction is whether a person is of Christ or not. For if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. [Galatians 3:29]
The promise fulfilled –
God has fulfilled the promise, in raising Jesus from the dead. [Acts 13: 33] And therefore now, all the promises of God are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in Jesus Christ. The gospel is – level ground, all are one in Christ.
4) The gospel is – peace, wholeness:
The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ – He is Lord of all. [Acts 10:36] It is what Peter preached in the home of Cornelius, a Gentile worshiper whose prayer God answered, and the gospel entered his life and his home that day. Peter then perceived that God shows no partiality; that through Christ, people of every nation can be accepted and saved. The gospel is – peace among men. It is also a peace that is a wholeness through Christ, where there is nothing lacking or broken. And it comes in a person’s life through the word of Christ.
The woman with the issue of blood heard these words from the Savior, as she experienced healing in her body – ‘Daughter, go in peace, and be healed of your affliction’ [Mark 5:34] It was the good news that removed each and every lack in her life, even the financial.
To the disciples of John who came to Lord Jesus, to clarify the doubt that John the Baptist had regarding the Messiah, the Lord said, ‘The blind see, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; and the poor have the gospel preached to them. [Matthew 11:5]
The Lord pointed out the areas of physical lack that were removed in the lives of people who came to Him; and He goes on to say, ‘The poor have the gospel preached to them’. Thus He establishes very clearly that the answer to financial lack in a person is hearing the preaching of the gospel.
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sicknesses and all kinds of diseases among the people. [Matthew 4:23] Broken people made complete and whole in Christ, in all areas of their being, is the gospel of peace, the gospel of the kingdom, even today. The Savior modeled it, even as He walked on earth.
5) The gospel is – good news of hope:
There is one body, and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling. [Ephesians 4:4] for, surely there is a hereafter, your hope will not be cut off. [Proverbs 23:18] The gospel is the good news of the hope of your calling in Christ; and it will not be cut off. It is the promise of God. Thus, Paul writes these words in the blessed assurance of revelation knowledge – I know that when I come to you – I will come with the abounding blessing of the gospel of Christ. [Romans 15:29] The gospel of Christ is the abounding blessing that Paul desires to convey and share with others. The gospel is good news – to experience and to share, bringing healing and hope. May it come to pass in your life, that God’s name may be glorified.
In the Name of Christ Jesus, Amen.
