What IS the Gospel?

We throw around a lot of words in our day to day lives that we do not always have a complete grasp on its meaning.  One of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride, we see one character constantly yell "Inconceivable" as the event he is stating is inconceivable is actually happening.  Which leads another character to plainly state "you keep saying that word, I do not think you know what it means".

As Christians, there are a lot of big and fun theological words we like to throw around to prove our bona fides with other believers, and hopefully appear quite smart to outsiders.  But the most important word we say, and often do not grasp fully, or explain totally, is "Gospel".

The straightforward answer to what IS the Gospel, is, Good News.  Specifically that Christ died for sinners.  And that is the greatest good news of all the good news that could have ever been news'd.  But there is a lot to it that we miss.  And when we miss the details, we are missing a richness and a power that is the engine that drives the good news.

Jesus starts His ministry in Mark 1 with this proclamation.

 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

"There it is" you shout.  Jesus does use the word Gospel here which is often rendered as "good news".  Do not miss though that there is a powerful context that can't be skipped over to shout "Good News".

First Part:  The time has come--The Bible describes all of creation groaning(Romans 8:22) in anticipation of God's redemption of His creation.  Jesus is announcing to those of us who are desperately waiting on redemption and healing that the promised time has come.

And what is the important context of that time arriving??

Second Part:  The kingdom of God has come near---  Jesus does not say, God has come to help you out in your life.  This is IMPORTANT.  God is KING.  And it is HIS kingdom that is coming to bring about that which creation has been groaning for.  And our first HONEST response should be FEAR.

All of Romans 2 explains why.  God is Holy and will judge all people.  There will be no place to hide.  No excuses to be made.  The kingdom of God is His and all those who are in sin will be eternally separated from God.  By God's very nature His holiness will not fellowship with sin.  When the kingdom of God comes, you are either His, or in sin, and those in sin will face what the Bible calls Hell.

Third Part:  Repent--- The Biblical word Repent is another one we often misuse.  It isn't simply a statement of "I'm Sorry"  It means an active turning FROM sin and going TOWARDS God.  This part of Jesus's call in Mark chapter 1 is that all of creation has been waiting for the Holy and Righteous King to come and establish HIS Kingdom and therefore, you and I, need to run to God and away from sin.

Fourth Part:  And believe the Good News--- Here is what the good news is really all about.  You and I are DEAD in our sins(Ephesians 2).  But Christ enters into death on our behalf, and defeats it.  In our sin and death we CANNOT run from Sin, but the good news is that Christ dives into our sin, pays our price and carries us towards the Father.

The Good News is never about what we have done in response to the coming of a Holy King who will Judge all, but it is about our inability to save ourselves and, by faith, believing in the work of Christ that has been done on our behalf.

See, no matter where you are at right now, God IS coming to establish HIS kingdom.  He is not coming to fix some stuff up for you and clean up our messes to make things more palatable for us. The Good News is that redemption is coming, and YOU can be a part of it BECAUSE of Jesus.

That is the Gospel.

Cheap Grace and the Nuclear Option

I Corinthians 5:1-2
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. ² And you are proud!"

For years I worked at a pool and tennis club and coached a swim team with around 100 kids between the ages of 5 and 18.  There were two camps that the parents fell into; Those who disciplined their kids, and those who didn't.  You can guess which kids I enjoyed the most.  The worst was when I was undercut by the non-disciplining parents.  Their kid would do something egregious, I would give some sort of consequence(sitting out of the pool, extra laps, etc) and then that parent would berate me for it in front of their kid.  Didn't matter what the kid had done, they were an angel, and how dare I say they couldn't pick on someone weaker than them.....

 One of my favorite Christian writers of the 20th century wrote,

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost Of Discipleship

Doesn't that smack a little close to home today?  We are so quick to give cheap grace that never calls us to something more. 

The church in Corinth apparently has something rotten inside of it.  There is a man who claims fellowship with them who is living in unrepentant sin.  What is interesting is that the Corinthians know this is a problem because the language Paul uses, "It is reported", indicates he had to get this information from a different source than them. 

So why are they proud?  Cheap grace.  They have bastardized the idea of "come as you are" and turned it into "stay as you are".  The Gospel calls us to pick up our cross.  The message of Jesus was "REPENT and believe". 

The power of the Cross is that there is no sin too big to keep us from grace.  And there is no sin to big that grace cannot heal and change.  When we refuse to address sin in the light of grace, freely given, it is a red flag. 

But here is the thing.  It is not a red flag of being a non-Christian.

None of Pauls language infers that he is calling this person a false Christian.  He is calling him out for sin.  Later in this section he says that the Corinthians need to remove him from fellowship so that he can face the reality of the destructive nature of sin and come to repentance! 

And then it gets even better.  In his follow up letter, 2 Corinthians, he readdresses this situation.  The man has faced great sorrow and has repented.  Paul tells the church to not let him suffer any longer, to restore him, to bring him home.

Cheap grace is destroying our people.  One sin at a time.  One family at a time.  One Church at a time.  Grace is free, it is not cheap.

Our greatest passion and drive should be to be more like Christ, AND, to encourage our brothers and sisters in the same manner.  When we refuse to speak truth and hold to account our community we begin to rot from the inside. 

Ask yourself this question;  What would the Christians in my life do if they were aware of unrepentant sin in my life?  What would my church do with unrepentant sin?

And then ask yourself;  Does that align with God's word?

Let me make something clear.  I am not calling for the hammer in all of our lives.  We each struggle with sin.  But are we struggling, or are we proud of it?  Pride over sin is the road to destruction.  Are you surrounding yourself with people who will speak Christ's grace into your life, a grace that is never cheap.

Christ died to set you free.  Not to so you can be free to do whatever you want.