The Cutting Edge Gospel: What is the Gospel? March 11, 2013
Posted by Henry in The Cutting Edge Gospel.Tags: faith, gospel, repentance, resurrection, salvation
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The Cutting Edge Gospel: What is the Gospel?
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb 12:4)
What is the Gospel? The Gospel essentially is the good news of salvation first spoken of by the Old Testament prophets and which was delivered and fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel calls us to repent and to turn away from our sins so that in the fullness of time we will be saved from eternal damnation. In a world full of many voices and many messages even in the church, the Gospel can sometimes be hard to pin down precisely. However, Paul speaking to the Corinthian church summarizes the Gospel in the following verses of 1 Cor 15:
1Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Since Christ died was buried and resurrected we too can one day be resurrected to eternal life if we believe this Gospel message, repent of our sins and live a life of faith in Jesus Christ.
Spirit of Discernment 
Quote above: “In a world full of many voices and many messages” I am so grateful to have Gods word in my hands. It brings so much comfort from the confusing voices that are out there. Last night I was reading Proverbs 2 and thought I would share it as it helps to define how not to get off track and acknowledges there are “many voices” out there. I have left my church. One year of questioning just 3 or 4 things, then Tony Campola came to speak and was embraced by the Senior Pastor to come back. I have researched Tony Campola diligently, besides the video which was left on the web site. I don’t believe he was ever saved through repentance and receiving Jesus Christ as the one and only way to God. TC’s teachings are completely demonic and from the pit of hell. I don’t think I could say it more clearly. Jesus says, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life, NO ONE comes to the Father EXCEPT BY ME. So then, there is no other way. I have given the information I have researched and transcribed from my last church regarding the Tony Campola event to another church I am interested in attending. I do not know what their reaction will be as there are so many voices out there, maybe they are one of those voices. The great falling away is in process via the emergent church. What a learning curve this has been for me. I am so grateful God found me worthy to show me. So grateful I heeded His warnings. I have my slingshot and I am using it.
Gracie
Gracie,
I really do appreciate you sharing your experience. It will certainly help others to wake up to the truth.
“The Gospel essentially is the good news of salvation first spoken of by the Old Testament prophets”…the OT prophets clearly look forward to reconstitution of the Israelite monarchy, to a restoration of the nation, to a redemption of the Israelites from foreign occupation/rule, but I find no evidence they had any concept of a salvation from hell. This is one of the reasons why “the Gospel can sometimes be hard to pin down precisely.” There is a difference between the Christian view that Jesus is the prophet promised by Moses in Deuteronomy “the LORD will raise up a prophet from among your brethren, him you shall hear, and whoever does not shall be cut off from his people” and the unscriptural view that the Law says somewhere “you must keep every commandment perfectly or be damned to hell” and that the gospel is our salvation from the Law damning us to hell, an idea perfectly unscriptural and impossible for any rational person to find in the Old Testament anywhere. If you base your gospel on that latter concept, then people who know how to read and who dare read the Old Testament will have a hard time following what you are saying, which is one reason why a lot of people find Galatians very strange.
“Since Christ died was buried and resurrected we too can one day be resurrected to eternal life if we believe this Gospel message, repent of our sins and live a life of faith in Jesus Christ.”
This is a great clue as to what the gospel really is. People run around all the time saying the gospel is this: “The Law says you’ll be damned to hell if you don’t keep all its commandments perfectly. So Jesus died and his keeping of the commandments is imputed to you, so you can avoid hell and go to heaven.” But the Law doesn’t say any of that!
However, Paul never speaks of us being damned to hell at all. He speaks of Adam’s sin damning us to die (Rom 5:12) and he speaks of how those “who are Christ’s at his coming” will be resurrected (1 Cor 15). The default damnation from “original sin” is only to death, to dying and staying dead or ceasing to exist: and salvation is that if we believe in Jesus we will not have to do that but will be resurrected, just like you said; “Since Christ died was buried and resurrected we too can one day be resurrected to eternal life” — that’s the gospel.
However, hell is also mentioned in the New Testament. But its mentioned in the New Testament, but never as our default status: its mentioned as a danger for those who sin too much. Jesus says, for example, “Whoever says to his brother ‘you fool’ is in DANGER of hell-fire.” He doesn’t say “you were born condemned to hell-fire”!!!!! He doesn’t say “as soon as you committed your first sin you were certainly damned to hell-fire”!!!!! He says if you commit too much sin, or certain sins, you are in DANGER of hell-fire. Now the default damnation then, per Paul, is to dying and ceasing to exist; but believer’s escape that and are resurrected; while the really bad don’t get to partake in either of those options but go to hell-fire. That’s the true gospel.
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The Gospel in a nutshell! I love that you are rightly dividing the Word. We need to question everything we hear today, and make sure that scripture backs it up. God bless you!