How important is the gospel?
It may be that evangelicals suffer from (or think they suffer from) ‘gospel fatigue’. When everything is claimed to be ‘gospel-centred’ and ‘gospel-driven’, there is a danger of thinking (if not actually saying), “Oh, not again! Give us a break!!” Indeed, I have heard people urge that Christian ministry must move beyond the gospel and deal more with its practical outworkings.
Sam Storms invites us to listen to Scripture. What follows is based on this article.
- The gospel is worth our very lives! – Mark 8:35 – “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
- The gospel is worth leaving everything for! – Mark 10:29-30 – “Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.’”
- To testify to the gospel is an unspeakable privilege! Acts 20:24 – “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
- Those who disobey or reject the gospel face the eternal judgment of God! – 1 Peter 4:17 – “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
- The gospel is so important that the wrath of God rests on those who tamper with it! – Galatians 1:6-9 – “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”
- Apart from the gospel there is no salvation! – Ephesians 1:13 – “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
- The gospel brings hope; without it there is only despair – Colossians 1:23 – “if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”
- The gospel is a sacred trust! – 1 Thessalonians 2:4 – “but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.”
- The gospel is worth suffering for! – 2 Timothy 1:8 – “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.”
- Our whole lives must witness to the truth, beauty and glory of the gospel! – Philippians 1:27 – “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”