Gospel Basics

In a day and age where many are promoting easy believism and the health and wealth gospel, it was refreshing to come across this paragraph while reading the book, What Is A Healthy Church?, by Mark Dever. If I may add, an all-around great read. Here is the excerpt, taken from page 76.

The gospel is not the news that we’re okay. It’s not the the news that God is love. It’s not the news that Jesus wants to be our friend. It’s not the news that he has a wonderful plan or purpose for our life. As I discussed at greater length in chapter 1, the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died on the cross as a sacrificial substitute for sinners and rose again, making a way for us to be reconciled to God. It’s the news that the Judge will become the Father, if only we repent and believe.

Here are the four points I try to remember whenever sharing the gospel, whether in private or in public – (1) God, (2) Man, (3) Christ, and (4) Response. In other words:

• Have I explained that God is our holy and sovereign creator?
• Have I made it clear that we humans are a strange mixture, wonderfully made in God’s image yet horribly fallen, sinful, and separated from him?
• Have I explained who Jesus is and what he has done – that he is the God-man who uniquely and exclusively stands in between God and man as a substitute and resurrected Lord.
• And finally, even if I’ve shared all this, have I clearly stated that a person must respond to the gospel and must believe this message and so turn from his life of self-centeredness and sin?

How often do you hear these things when listening to the gospel being explained?

~ by derekphillips on May 29, 2008.