The Gospel in Ten Words (8 page)

The
words of Jesus and John have been taken out of context, turned upside down, and
used to sow confusion and uncertainty among many. In the fruitless pursuit of a
free gift we have wasted time trying to manage each other’s sin through the
power of the flesh. Instead of going out into the highways and byways with the
good news of grace, we have cloistered ourselves away to examine our hearts and
stare at our navels. From the devil’s point of view, it has been a phenomenally
successful distraction.

Running after forgiveness is like shopping for air. Air
is free! God has already given us all the air we will ever need. You just need
to open your mouth and breathe it in. It’s the same with his forgiveness.
Forgiveness is not something to pursue, it is something to possess and in
Christ we have it.

The
gospel is not an invitation to engage in soul-searching and fault-finding. The
gospel is the emphatic declaration that you have been completely and eternally
forgiven through the blood of the Lamb.

It is by grace you
have been saved. (Ephesians 2:5)

The word “saved” has
a strange effect on people. Some get quite upset by it. I have had churchgoers
rebuke me because I happened to mention that some are saved while others are
unsaved. Apparently that’s not a politically correct thing to say. Others find
the word a bit meaningless believing “we were all saved” or “none of us is yet
saved” or “we are saved and being saved at the same time.” Still others treat
the word as an invitation to hunker down in the proverbial lifeboat and do
nothing while the rest of the world goes to hell in a handbasket. “Thank God
I’m saved. Now I’m just going to sit tight ‘til Jesus returns.”

The
gospel of salvation is the gospel every Christian thinks they know. “Oh yes,
once I was lost, now I am saved.” Salvation, however you define it, is also the
area where most believers are likely to stand on grace. “I am saved by grace
alone. My works don’t come into it.” But while these broad strokes paint a fair
picture, the devil lurks in the details.

Let’s
start with a straightforward question: Are you saved?

In this age of political correctness, some find this question offensive
for it leads to divisions between the right sort of people (the saved) and the
wrong (the unsaved). Certainly, it is ungracious to draw lines and nobody likes
to be told they are on the wrong side or, worse, that they are the wrong sort
of person. But the sad fact is the world is a hospice, a home for the
terminally ill. It makes no difference how good or moral you are, the end
result is the same for everyone. All fall short of God’s glory, and the wages
of our sin is death.
[24]
In a manner of speaking, we are all the wrong sort of person. But the good news
declares it doesn’t have to be this way. Sin no longer has the last word on our
situation.

The gospel is the happy and joyful announcement that a Savior
works in the hospice giving eternal life to the terminally ill. He has a 100
percent success rate, and he will gladly treat anyone who wants to be treated.
What’s the catch? There is no catch. The treatment is completely free; it won’t
cost you a penny.
[25]
And the best part is this Savior is so good at what he does, he can revive the
worst, the sickest, and most hopeless case in the ward. No one is beyond his
skill.

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me
his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of
God, who has saved us … (2 Timothy 1:8
–
9)

There
has always been opposition to the gospel of salvation but there is no shame in
saving lives. Paul said to Timothy, “He has saved us.” In other words, we’re
okay but they’re not okay. They are not saved. They haven’t heard. They need to
hear. So join with me, Timothy, and don’t ever be ashamed of telling people the
good news of Dr. Jesus.

Paul was a highly
educated man used to moving in elevated circles. But when he began preaching
the gospel of salvation, his message came across as offensive to Jews and
foolishness to Gentiles. It was just too simple for them to see it. They
couldn’t wrap their minds around the fact that a man from heaven had died and
risen again to save us from the curse of sin and death. Yet despite the violent
opposition he sometimes faced, Paul was resolute. He never changed his tune. He
stuck with the gospel because it is the only message that can save the dying.

I am not
ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of
everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Romans 1:16)

Paul
insisted there was only one gospel that saved people and that was his gospel.
“By
this
gospel you are saved” (
1 Corinthians
15:2
). Other gospels, he said, were perversions. They weren’t good news
at all. Those who preached them could go to hell because that’s where their
false gospels would take them.
[26]
Paul didn’t really want to condemn anyone to hell, and he had no interest in
dividing people into groups. “In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male
nor female” (see Galatians 3:28). But he understood that people divide
themselves by their response to truth.

Truth
is divisive by nature. Jesus, who is Truth personified, said he came to turn
“a man against his father, a daughter against her mother”
such that “a man’s enemies will be members of his own household” (Matthew 10:35
–
36
). It’s not that Jesus
came to split families; he came to save them. But not everyone wants to be
saved.
Sometimes fathers and sons want different things. The gospel is
the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, but not everyone
believes. Strange as it may seem, not everyone trusts the Doctor with the 100
percent record:

Most
assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. (John
6:47, NKJV)

Are
you saved? Well that depends on your response to the Savior. That depends on
whether you trust in his grace.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)

The
grace of God is worthless if you don’t believe in it (Hebrews 4:2). Grace can
save anyone but grace scorned saves no one. Dr. Jesus does not force salvation
on the unwilling. As with any gift you have to want it to receive it.

So
faith is essential but don’t overcook it. Christians tend
to fret that they don’t have enough faith as though faith
was something
you have to manufacture. Not so. Jesus is the fountainhead of faith. It is
seeing and hearing about Jesus—who he is and what he has done—that stirs us to
believe (Romans 10:17). It is a revelation of God’s unconditional love that
moves us to trust him.

Faith
is not us making things happen. Neither does faith compel God to act as though
he were a genie in a bottle. What is faith? Faith is simply a positive response
to something God has said or done. And what has God done? He has raised Jesus
from the dead proving that any claims held on our lives by sin have been fully
satisfied and that Jesus really is the firstfruits of new life.

The
resurrection is the key to all of this. The resurrection is proof that Jesus is
who he says he is and that he can do what he says he can. The resurrection
demonstrates that the Savior has broken the power of death and is able to give
new life to all who would have it. A dead Savior saves no one.

Faith
is simply trusting in Jesus. If you do not believe Jesus is the risen Lord,
then the fact of his risenness will do you no good. How could it?

It is popular these
days to teach that the whole world was saved at the cross, that Jesus died not
as humanity’s representative but as humanity itself. Those who preach this
message typically ask, “Jesus came to save the world—did he fail?”

I
am certain Jesus accomplished all he came to do, and yet not everyone is saved.
If they were, why would the apostles risk life and limb preaching that
we
must be saved
? Why would they write letters telling us that
God
wants us to
be
saved
and that he commands people everywhere to
repent
and
believe
in the name of his Son in order
to
be
saved
? For that matter, why would the risen Lord commission us to preach
the good news to all creation so that whoever believes
might be saved
?
[27]

The
grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men (Titus 2:11), but
not all receive it. Consequently, not all are saved. Jesus said: “
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved
…
(John 10:9, NKJV). Trusting in the Savior is the requirement for salvation (Acts
16:31). There is nothing wrong with telling believers they are saved and there
is nothing wrong with telling unbelievers they can be. Believers need the
assurance, and unbelievers need to hear the good news.

When
I was a young Christian, I had no assurance of my salvation. Full of doubt and
insecurity I gave my life to Jesus repeatedly over a period of about three
years. The problem was I thought my salvation was based on what I did. This is
an unbearable load.
What if I did it wrong? There is an awful lot riding on
that one prayer – how can I be sure I got it right? I can’t. I’d better do it
again.
What I needed was someone to tell me the good news of
his
salvation: “Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
[28]
If you have called, then you are saved. Believe it. Rest in it.

Most
Christians have a decent enough grasp of the gospel of salvation. They’ve heard
enough about grace to know they need it to be saved. But while they may see
Jesus in the big picture of salvation, they often miss the devil in the
details.

Those details usually emerge from the mouths of evangelists who try
to sell the extravagant gift of grace for a small price: “Just turn from your
wicked ways … just confess your sins … just do this one small thing for Jesus.”
At first it all seems so reasonable. Who wouldn’t want to turn or confess or
turn cartwheels through daisy fields when seized by the power of a great
affection? Don’t misunderstand me; I am not against any of these things. But
saying you must do them in order to be saved is the thin edge of a diabolical
wedge. Just look at what happens next.

The one who responds to the evangelist’s invitation is presented
with a slightly longer list of deeds. “Now that you’re a Christian you have to
read your Bible and pray every day, join a church, and go tell others about
Jesus.” Keen to please the Lord who saved him, the new believer reads his Bible
and what does he find? More things to do; more rules to keep. He attends the
new members’ meeting at his new church and what does he get? Still more rules
and more expectations.

Guess what, kid, it never ends.

It’s not long before the small list becomes a big list and
suddenly following Jesus is sheer hard work. The more he learns about the
Christian life, the more he finds he must do:

Here are
three keys to resisting temptation, five steps to overcoming sin, and eight
more to walking in victory. Don’t forget to pursue the spiritual disciplines,
attend the pre-dawn prayer meeting and the midnight mass. Please support these
eighteen worthwhile causes, get behind this new program, and, while you’re at
it, how about helping out with the youth group on Fridays and Sundays? On
Saturday we expect you to lend a hand with the church clean-up and we hope you
will spend your vacation time building our new prayer chapel.

The new believer was told Jesus would set him free but he doesn’t
feel free at all. He feels like a worker ant toiling for the good of the
colony.

To keep the worker ant motivated, the higher-ups will provide a
steady stream of rousing pep talks: “I would rather serve in the courts of the
Lord than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” For extra productivity they may
also crack the whip of guilt: “Look how much Jesus has done for you. What will
you do for him?” To advance whatever cause they have bought into they will
manipulate emotions, pretend to speak for God, and shame those who fail to
perform.

And when the worker ant eventually breaks under the ungodly weight
of works, they will shoot him and toss his broken corpse outside the anthill.
“If you won’t work, you won’t eat.” So grace dies and the devil wins.

Swallow the lie that says you must prove your salvation through
works
—
that
faith without self-effort is dead
—
and you will have fallen from
grace as hard as any Galatian.
Fallen from grace does not mean fallen into sin or fallen
out of the kingdom.
[29]
Fallen from grace means you are trying instead of trusting. Instead of resting
in his work, you are trying to score points with yours. Whether you are working
towards justification, sanctification, or whatever, it just won’t work. Grace
cannot be earned. God does not keep score.