We cannot overstate the necessity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The vital key to knowing God truly and as fully as possible is to deeply understand and believe the gospel.
God’s way is the gospel.
God’s way of saving lost souls is the gospel.
And God’s way of turning his enemies into his beloved sons and daughters is the gospel.
God’s way is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
God’s way is faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What the gospel teaches us about God
The header of this website says its subject is knowing God and his ways. God’s way is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and for the next few months we will probe this crucial message for what it teaches us about God and his ways with mankind. For the gospel truly does reveal his ways, his counterintuitive ways, his ways so unlike man’s ways, his priorities and values, his likes and dislikes.
The gospel is a photograph of God. Understand, truly understand God’s gospel and how different it is from any of man’s gospels, and you see God as he is in full, crisp, sharp color—a photograph of God as large as heaven.
Every aspect that we know of God and his ways is contained somewhere in the gospel. Creator and Redeemer, Judge and Savior, wrath and mercy, holy and good, lawgiver and sin-forgiver, wise and loving, sovereign and free, revealing himself and hiding himself, God in heaven and God on earth, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, the Cross, the blood, the resurrection, the ascension, and much, much more. The gospel is our most complete understanding of God.
The necessity of the gospel
The gospel is the heart of the Bible. You can understand many true things about God and his ways, but if you don’t understand and believe the gospel, you don’t know God as he must be known.
Exhibit A is the Pharisees. They studied the Old Testament Scriptures obsessively, yet when God himself stood before their very eyes they did not recognize or accept him because they did not understand or accept the gospel. Meanwhile, uneducated, simple people who did understand the gospel clearly and quickly saw God in Jesus.
The gospel is a sword that is infinitely sharp for cutting to the deepest depths of the human soul. Because it reveals God like no other message, it either draws people in or drives people away like no other message. You either love it or hate it. In the gospel of Jesus Christ you either see infinite love and wisdom, or foolishness.
If you believe the gospel you are saved. If you reject the gospel, you are condemned.
“I am not ashamed of the gospel,” wrote the apostle Paul, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16–17 ESV)
Fasten your seat belts. Prepare for uncompromising biblical truth. Don’t miss a week. We now begin the series of all series. Kneel and worship the Creator and Redeemer—the God of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)