The True Gospel
For years I have searched, trying to understand, asking questions to learn what the gospel truly is. There has been a stirring inside of me, sensing it is far more than what is normally accepted. A couple short sentences in the current book I am reading turned on the switch. An a ha moment happened, words were placed together in this book that brought a concrete way of understanding the gospel that has been in my spirit for a long time.
The common idea is that it’s based on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Now those are important events. Very important, in fact the crux of our faith as Christians. I certainly do not want to down play this event. But there is more. The gospel was boiled down to four spiritual laws, neat and tidy sound bites that can be a transferable concept. You are a failure in life, you’ve broken rules you didn’t even know you broke. But Jesus died to make you better instead of allowing you to die how you should. That rather sounds like some bad good news.
That gospel has focused on the sin of people, it calls us out makes us feel like we suck all the time. It has been used as a stick to smack our knuckles with when we get out of line by not obeying the rules. We fall short of the moral code, even after we believe and accept this gospel that we once sucked but are now better because someone died for us.
The challenge I have had with this is that it’s not the gospel Jesus shared, it’s not the words He spoke and the love He poured out which compelled people to become his followers. So if this is not what Jesus told everyone, then what is the true gospel? What did Jesus share. That is what I have wrestled with. I know it has to do with the Kingdom of God since Jesus went around saying “The Kingdom is near!” That was his proclamation. Everyone is invited, all are welcome regardless of how much you suck. Now that is good news to my ears.
The a ha moment, the words I read that brought light to the good news, the gospel, I have tried to understand came to me this morning reading Hugh Halter’s newest book, Flesh. In it he wrote “The gospel is not news that we can accept Jesus into our lives. The gospel is news that Jesus has accepted us into His life and that we can live His life now.”
That is great news! Jesus accepts us. He is the son of the king, He was sent to model to us the Kingdom of God (and to pay the debt for sin), and He accepts, loves, pours out grace to us. Jesus accepts us into the kingdom as we are, to inherit all the riches of the Kingdom of God. We can live his life now, we can live with the power and authority of the King in our life now. The kingdom is based on joy, love, grace, and freedom. God adopts us into his family, prepares the feast for us, and gives us an inheritance. All of this because Jesus accepts us into his life and allows us to live it out now.
Who wouldn’t want to live his life. Full of love, joy, and peace. When He went out he got to help people in ways we never could without his power (Holy Spirit) with in us. Sick got healed, demons that tormented sent away, He even walked on water and calmed a raging storm. Sounds like great stuff to me. So the gospel is not about us accepting Jesus into our lives, it is that He has accepted us into His life, calls us his sibling, and hands us the keys to the Kingdom.
Friends God loves you more then you know, He accepts you as you are, loves you unconditionally and wants to hand you the keys to His kingdom. Be willing to allow Jesus to accept you into his life, follow him, live out his life now.
Paul
@mannaxc
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