Becoming Gospel Fluent | What is the Gospel? Part 1

* This week’s blog is a re-post from 3/16/22

When I was in high school, I took four years of Spanish, but I never really could speak the language fluently. On the other hand, my friend took only one year of Spanish but then spent his entire first year of college studying in Guatemala. He returned to Arizona speaking Spanish fluently! How did that happen? And why wasn’t I able to speak Spanish fluently after four years of studying it in high school?

Here’s a big difference: my friend immersed himself in Spanish. He immersed himself in the Spanish-speaking culture. He found himself surrounded by women and men who constantly spoke Spanish. He studied in Spanish. He read books in Spanish. He watched television in Spanish. My friend found himself completely absorbed in the Spanish language and culture. 

I often like to talk about the church as a people who are to become ‘gospel fluent’ in the everyday stuff of life. What do I mean by this? It means that we must become immersed in the truth of the gospel. The gospel must surround us, inform us, speak to us and through us. The gospel must be something we know fully and speak regularly and naturally. How does this look in the everyday? We’ll get there in the coming weeks, but we first need to start with what we mean by the gospel.

The gospel is the “good news,” particularly good news about Jesus. You can summarize the gospel in several ways, but here’s a definition I like to use:

The gospel is the good news that Jesus is Lord and King over all creation. Jesus ushered in God’s kingdom and died on the cross for our sins, was buried, resurrected, and exalted to the right hand of God the Father. In his great love and by his amazing grace, God the Father saves those who repent of their sin, believe the gospel, and follow Jesus. When King Jesus returns on the Day of Judgment, everyone who has followed him will enter into the eternal Kingdom of God.

In other words, the gospel is the good news proclamation that Jesus is Lord and King over all things. Because Jesus is Lord and King, he has all power and authority over all people and all creation. Because Jesus is Lord and King, he can forgive our sins. Because Jesus is Lord and King, we can find a new way of life no longer enslaved to guilt, shame, or burden. Because Jesus is Lord and King, we can rest in the hope that he will one day completely renew and restore all creation that the tragic effects of sin have marred.

What is sin? Sin is all about me – living my way, in my power, for my glory, instead of living in God’s ways, in God’s power, for God’s glory. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), and we need the gospel. We all need Jesus to rescue us from the tragic effects of sin and to reign as Lord and King over every area of our lives. 

The gospel calls us to repent – literally changing our mind about who God is – and believing that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. In faith, we believe that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection have restored us to a right relationship with God the Father and have ushered in the renewal of our lives and the renewal of all creation. In faith, we also decide to follow Jesus and submit to his good, right, and perfect reign over our lives.

The gospel of Jesus Christ has done so much for us! Here are three super important things we can believe because of the gospel:

1. We believe we have been saved from the penalty of sin.

2. We believe we are being saved from the power of sin.

3. We believe we will be saved from the presence of sin.

Is this good news or what?

Next time we’ll look at how these three things get worked out in our everyday lives. Until then, consider:

– Is the gospel really “good news” to me? Is it really “good news” for others?

– Is there any area in my life where I have been making it all about ME?

– Do I believe that Christ’s saving power is sufficient enough to really change me?

I’m praying for you!  I am blessed to partner with you, FBC, in this gospel journey!

-Pastor Wade