Why the Gospel Matters
One of the most important questions that need to be answered is that of the gospel. Why is the gospel important to the Church? You may think that that is not important, but I hope you will soon be persuaded. You see, in most churches, the gospel has been lost over time. And this has happened across history a number of times. And the tendency to lose the gospel goes in two directions.
One of them is that of a message of good works. In other words, it is that of telling people that the way in which God is going to accept them is by their efforts either through churchgoing, or participating in baptism or participating in the Lord’s supper or eucharist or communion, whatever phrase your church might use and so forth. even giving money in the church.
People are made to think that the more you do this, the more God is going to accept you. And then they are also encouraged to get out there and be engaged in good works; help the poor, grieve with those that have lost loved ones, and so forth. And that way, God is going to accept you. Sadly, that becomes a message in the church that ends up eclipsing the gospel altogether. But another way in which people end up losing the gospel is by thinking that the preacher, the pastor has some kind of powers that will take away their own struggle with sin or from living lives that are displeasing to God. And so, they think that by simply going to this man of God, he is going to do something to them. They think by his powerful prayers that somehow, they will overcome sin in their own lives. All that is not the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What the True Gospel Is
What then is the gospel? It is the message that God has sent his son into the world in order to be our substitute. He has lived a perfect life, a life that we cannot live. And then setting aside that, he has taken on himself our sin, the liability of our sin, so that on the cross, God has punished him in our place. And in that way, we when we turn from our sinful life and believe in his son, he not only forgives us our sins freely but he also clothes us with the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ and on that righteousness alone will he accept us in heaven. That’s the good news that we ought to take to the whole world, to people that might even come to church regularly because it is the only way of salvation.
Why the Gospel Is Important for the Church
Now why is that important? Well, it’s important to the Church in a number of ways. First of all, it is the way in which people come into the Church. Let me read to you from Acts and chapter 2; “And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” So, you can already see that it is in responding to the gospel that people were added to the church.
But there’s another reason why the gospel is important and it is that that I want to spend the rest of my time on and it is this; that even when people have entered into the church, they will then be helped to become Christians as God wants them to be through the regular diet of the gospel. Number one, it is the way in which they grow in their faith. The more they are nourished by the message of the gospel, the more they fix their eyes on Jesus. The one who is the pioneer, the one who is the finisher, the one who ultimately is their role model in life. So, it is important for them to be hearing more and more about Jesus and him crucified to strengthen their faith.
Christ as Our Model
I’ve already hinted in the second place that it will be Christ as their model. The reason why we have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – four different angles from which the life of Jesus is displayed to us is because we are meant to be imitators of him. And so, as we see the way he lived a life of righteousness and at the same time a life of love, a life that was concentrated to God in every sense. We are challenged as Christians on how it is we are to live. The spirit of God in our hearts inspires us to live the right life. The model of Jesus gives us the example to follow. So, preach Jesus Christ to God’s people and they will have a model to follow.
But then also there is the aspect of them being inspired, them being motivated to live that kind of life. How is that going to happen? Again, it is in the Lord Jesus Christ as they follow his example and also as they see how he has loved them. It was the mind of the apostle Paul to go in that direction and that’s why he wrote to the Colossians in Colossians chapter 2 as follows. Colossians 2:6-7, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” What the Apostle Paul was saying to the Colossians there is yes, you receive Jesus as saviour very well. That’s how you become a Christian. But then you build your life on Christ in precisely the same way.
What do you do? It is by continuing in the Lord Jesus Christ. You don’t move away from that foundation. And one of the ways in which you see that this is how you are living your Christian life is by the way your life will be full of gratitude, full of thanksgiving because you’ll be saying Jesus has loved me so much by his life and by his death and even now as he is in heaven interceding for me, I want to respond in love to him as well. And so, you will love him, loving God and then you will love others as well. You will love the brethren. You will want to do to them what Jesus would have done for them because in many ways you are following his example. You will also want to go out into the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ because that’s precisely what you have learned from him and the love of God in your heart will want to reach out as far afield as possible.
Persevering in Christ
So ultimately you find, that knowing Jesus and continuing to be reminded of him is the way in which believers will end up being committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s one reason why for instance we have the Lord’s supper to celebrate regularly because it reminds us of his death and we say to ourselves if Jesus loved us so much let us love him back by a genuine life of sacrifice and let us give to him our time, our talent, our money, our everything.
A Call to Church Leaders
And therefore, for those of us who are church leaders, we must never abandon the gospel. We must continue to feed God’s people with the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of God in Jesus Christ. We must continue to share with God’s people what the Apostle Paul calls the unsearchable riches of Christ. In other words, the treasures of the gospel that would transform the lives of believers and cause them to want to live for him.
That should be our message. That is the way we ought to make sure that the gospel remains at the very centre of the Christian faith. Have we lost it? Let’s get back to the gospel as it has been taught in the scriptures. Have we moved on to other forms of bringing in people? Let’s get back to the gospel and to the gospel alone.
