Summary
The Gospel is simply the great news ever announced. It is the life changing, world shaking news that Jesus has come and nothing will ever be the same again.
When we receive this gift of God by faith we are transformed by grace. Grace is the death of our old life and the beginning of a new life. The Gospel is the good news we get to carry into a broken world and we are called to shout it from the roof tops!
What is the Gospel? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT41M013X3A
Galatians 1:6-7a TPT - I am shocked over how quickly you have strayed away from the Anointed One who called you to Himself by His loving mercy. I’m frankly astounded that you now embrace a distorted gospel! That is a fake “gospel” that is simply not true. There is only one gospel—the gospel of the Messiah!
Myth 1: The Gospel is the story of Jesus dying for my sins.
It’s a myth because that is not anywhere near the complete story. It’s good news but the Gospel is so much greater. The greater truth is so much more mysterious and hard to conceive - Jesus didn’t just die for us, but that Jesus came, took on our flesh and died as me and He died as you. He took all of our anguish, sin, loneliness, suffering, disease, separation anxiety, religion and religious striving etc and He owned it. Now we get to exchange our old identity and take on His. We are in Christ, hidden in union with God and all striving and religious effort can cease. We are called to enter the rest of union.
John 1:1-5,14 NIV - In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
“Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is the proclamation of the end of religion, not of a new religion or even the best of all religions. If the cross is the sign of anything, it’s the sign that God has gone out of the religion business and solved all of the world’s problems without requiring a single human being to do a single religious thing” - Robert F Capon
Q. Have you let myths or traditions infiltrate your Gospel thinking? What is the impact of these myths?
Q. Have you discovered what the Bible says about your union with Him?
Myth 2: I’m just a sinner saved by grace
Ephesians 2:8 AMP - For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion] that you have been saved through faith. And this [Salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God.
Romans 6:2-6a - We have died to sin once and for all, as a dead man passes away from this life. So how could we live under sin’s rule a moment longer? Or have you forgotten that all of us who were immersed into union with Jesus, the Anointed One, were immersed into union with His death? Sharing in His death by our baptism means that we were co-buried and entombed with Him, so that when the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead, we were also raised with Him. We have been co-resurrected with Him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life. For since we are permanently grafted into Him to experience a death like His, then we are permanently grafted into Him to experience a resurrection like His and the new life that it imparts.
Could it be any clearer that our former identity is now and forever deprived of its power?
Galatians 5:24 NIV - Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Colossians 2:11-12 NIV - In Him (Jesus) you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP - Therefore if anyone is in Christ [joined to Him, in Union], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].
“You are not a “sinner saved by grace.” You are a saint. Take the word sinner completely out of the equation now. Grace transformed you from one thing into another.
God did not just pull you out of sin. He pulled sin out of you! You are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. This is much more than the forgiveness of the old self. This entails the complete annihilation of the old self. God sank the whole ship.” - John Crowder (Mystical Union)
The kernel of truth in the statement of ‘I’m just a sinner saved by grace’ is that it affirms that salvation, union with God is not something that can earned. But the very act of receiving grace never leaves you as you were but grace always transforms. The New Testament writers refers to those who are followers of Jesus as saints never as sinners. So now we can say ‘I was a sinner but now I am a saint saved grace’
Q. God’s grace always transforms. What transformation have you seen in your life?
Q. Do you see yourself through the transformation of grace?
Q. How does God see you and what does He think about you?
Myth 3: ‘Preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary use words’
It’s a quote that is often associated with Saint Francis of Assisi but in fact Saint Francis never said it.
The kernel of truth is that is that the Gospel is not simply words. It’s not enough to simply throw bible bombs into someone life and think that’s enough. The Gospel if it is authentic has to be demonstrated because it’s the greatest love story ever told and love always looks like something. But it also has to be preached in order to heard and for people to respond to it’s invitation.
Q. How did you first hear and respond to the Gospel?
Q. In your life/community how are you sharing, demonstrating and inviting others to respond to the Gospel?
Q. Do you believe like Paul that the Gospel is the power of God to bring salvation to all who believe? Or has your Gospel lost it’s fire?
Further reading
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-the-hypostatic-union
‘The Divine Dance’ by Richard Rohr
‘Mystical Union’ by John Crowder
‘Spirit Wars’ by Kris Vallatton
‘Paul’s key to the liberated life: Romans six to eight’ by Norman P Grubb