The Naked Gospel: Truth You May Never Hear in Church (17 page)

M
Y WIFE
, K
ATHARINE, IS QUITE THE WOMAN
—
A SUPPORTIVE
wife, a great mother, a research scientist, and a sailboat captain. On one of her overnight sailing expeditions to the Bahamas, Katharine encountered life-threatening circumstances. Together with a few friends, she found herself moored on a coral reef in the open water a long way from any other boats or land. Katharine was an experienced sailor, but she made one potentially fatal error. She read the tide charts in the opposite way such that low tide was misunderstood as high tide.

As the sailboat sat on top of the reef, the water grew rougher, and the vessel keeled sideways in the wind. A couple of her friends hopped over the side and swam under the boat to see how badly the coral had bitten into the hull. Would the boat be diced to pieces? Was it possible to drag the boat off the coral without serious damage to it? After some investigation, they believed the boat’s hull to be intact, but there seemed to be no way to remove the vessel from its wedged position.

The only solution was to wait it out. For hours they sat there until high tide rolled in and rescued them from the reef. You can imagine the relief they experienced as they finally reached the harbor in the Bahamas—dry land, hot showers, and good food. Arriving at their final destination meant so much more to them given the obstacles they encountered on their way.

Katharine’s misreading of the tide charts led to a stressful predicament with no safe harbor in sight. Christians today can experience something similar without an accurate understanding of the New Covenant. I’m not talking here about logging time reading words on a page. Katharine did that with the charts! The problem is that she misread the charts and arrived at the
wrong meaning.
In the same way, we may feel we know what the Word says, but do we really know what it means and what it means for us personally? I’ve met some knowledgeable Bible scholars who were filled with anxiety and had no “safe harbor” in their lives.

In Hebrews 4, we’re told of a Sabbath-rest, a safe harbor for the people of God. Upon entering his rest, we rest from our own works, just as God did after creation. This safe harbor is a spiritual attitude we adopt because of the finished work of Christ. The resurrection enables us to relax in a protected place—to rest easy, knowing that we’re secure, accepted, forgiven, and righteous. When the low tide of law living threatens to entangle us in a reef of sin, we can refer to the “charts” again. A proper understanding of the New Covenant will allow us to find safe harbor.

This book has been about my own misreading of the charts and how I, and others like me, have found safe harbor. Remember the REVEAL survey I referred to in chapter 2, which showed that more than a quarter of maturing Christians were stagnant or dissatisfied with their spiritual lives? But it’s nearly impossible to be dissatisfied once you’ve encountered the truth in all its life-changing power. My prayer is that you, like so many others, will reap benefits from the stripping down of all the convoluted ideas we’ve added to the message over the years—from the truth laid bare, from the
naked
gospel.

I’ve tried to make the naked gospel as transparent and easy to understand as it is in Scripture. The real gospel should be easily understood by young and old, educated and uneducated. After all, it was successfully delivered to thousands of people by fishermen of no particular status or educational background.

Understanding the real thing should not require a new and extrabiblical vocabulary. Just as a child knows the meaning of “all gone” at the end of a good meal, God has simply and emphatically proclaimed to his children:

• Your relationship to the law is now
  all gone.
  
• Your old self is now
  all gone.
  
• Your sins are now
  all gone.
  
• All obstacles preventing closeness are now
  all gone.
  

It’s amazing how simple and straightforward the naked gospel really is. In fact, most of my exposure to the New has involved more
un
learning than learning. Once we remove the clutter from our theological closet, the gospel shines brightly again. And it once again becomes a powerful, practical benefit to us on a moment-by-moment basis.

If it’s the real thing, it will change lives radically, but it will also bring controversy. Wherever the real gospel is taught, it results in false accusations of many kinds. Consider John, for instance, who found himself having to clarify that the gospel promotes
upright
living, even though we
still
sin:

My dear children, I write this to you
so that you will not sin.
But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

1 J
OHN
2:1, italics added

Similarly, we find Paul responding to accusation as he answers the frequently asked question “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” with these words: “By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2). Obviously, some had accused Paul of teaching that it was OK to use our freedom for sin (Romans 3:8; Galatians 5:13).

Grace, in your face, begs questions. Grace, in your face, brings accusation. Nevertheless grace, with no condition to ruin it, must be taught without regard for the reaction. Given the radical nature of the genuine message, these words of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones may point us to the litmus test for any preaching we choose to sit under:

There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace.
If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel…
There is this kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation.

D. M
ARTYN LLOYD-JONES
,
The New Man:

An Exposition of [Romans] Chapter 6

(London: Banner of Truth, 1972), 8-9, italics added.

As we put forgiveness, freedom, identity, and new life side by side, we encounter a gospel that at first glance appears dangerous. But upon further examination, we discover just how brilliant our God is in designing a bulletproof covenant that brings
real
relationship and
real
change into our lives.

When some worry that once-for-all forgiveness with no strings attached will lead to more sinning, we can assure them that God was not naive in making such a move through the cross. On Calvary, God also dealt with our core desire to sin. In Christ, we have died to sin and don’t really want it anymore. Conversely, when others have only grasped their new identity in Christ and then fail to meet their own unrealistic expectations concerning performance, we can comfort them with the truth of once-for-all forgiveness.

When some feel they have already gained an intellectual grasp of forgiveness and identity but still lack the “power” to make any real change occur in their lives, we can remind them of the life of Christ they possess—his presence and his power over sin. Conversely, if others have already come to know a life of dependency on the risen Christ but still get tripped up by how much they’re
not
doing or
not
giving, we can rescue them from measuring themselves through a reminder of our freedom from a law system.

In short, the real gospel is a bulletproof message that is essentially spiritual common sense from every angle. It makes biblical and practical sense, and there is no verse in the entirety of the Scriptures that ruins its splendor.

Think about it. If it’s the genuine historical message that God has always intended for us, then every passage in the Bible must eventually fall into place in light of the most powerful, overarching truths.

“My Bible has come alive again for me. Words leap off the page like never before, and I can actually understand what I’m reading for the first time.” Over the years, I’ve heard statements like this countless times. And isn’t that what it’s all about? Being counseled by our own personal Counselor as we dive deeply into his Word? And once we become aware of the reality of the New Covenant, things become a lot clearer.

So have you been awakened to how good we have it on this side of the cross?

If so, there’s really only one sensible thing to do.

Thank God.