Tuesday, November 6, 2012

"Gospels" or "Gospel"?

What is the Gospel? It is not the account of Christ's life on this earth, since He lived under law:

"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law," (Galatians 4: 4)

Under law, Jesus was fulfilling the law of Moses (Matthew 7: 14) from the moment that He was born to the moment He cried out "It is finished!" (John 19: 30)

The Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- outline for the  readers what happened, and more consistently how Jesus Christ was God made flesh, the Messiah who came to take away the sins of the world.

The problem for many believers in the Body of Christ is that we have gotten all caught up in what happened  -- the who, what, when, and where of it all.

But the "why" has remained for too long unpreached or rendered irrelevant, and this perversion by way of distortion of the full Gospel message must stop.

Paul preached the fullness of what it all means in the Book of Acts:

"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13: 38-39)

If Jesus had not died on the Cross, to give us forgiveness of our sins and full redemption in righteousness from the law, then all of His healing and doing good (Acts 10: 38) would have been in vain. If we do not have this love (1 Corinthians 13), the love in which God sends His Son to be the propitiation, the Mercy Seat, for our sins, then all of the healings, all of the miracles, all of the signs and wonders are nothing. Jesus came to die for us, that He may give us His Life, His Standing, and thus reconcile us with His Father.

This is the Gospel, this is the Good News. The accounts in the first four books of the New Testament are crucial, inspired, no doubt about it. Yet for too long, the churches have gotten all too caught up in what happened instead of revealing what all of it meant, what it means for us, how much God loves us now. Because many churches have not received that we are no longer under the Old Covenant of rules and regulations, that the entire Word of God is not about following rules or following Christ in our own effort, but rather resting and submitting to His Finished Work, that He may live through us, and causing us to thrive we can be a blessing to the world and reveal the heart and mind of God through His Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel accounts tell us what happened, but the remaining books, from the Epistles to the end reveal what it all meant. The Twelve disciples walked and ministered with Jesus on this earth, but it was Paul, fully versed in the Law, a Pharisee of Pharisees, who received the greater revelation of God's grace revealed. With this expanding revelation, with a growing awakening of God's love for him, John, whose name means "God's grace" revealed Jesus, God and man, both servant and king, combining the true testimonies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, confirming for all that Jesus Christ is indeed God, and master of every need and conqueror of every plight, the very life that we need, that very Life who was given for us and keeps giving to us.

Do not settle for what happened, learn more about the grace and knowledge of the Lord, why Jesus was sent, why He came, and what He offers  to all who believe on Him.

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