What (Or Who) Is The Gospel?
Posted by truthtalklive on 6 August, 2009
This post was filed in Christian Teaching and has 3 comments
Do we really understand the Gospel? What is the good news and why do so many evangelical Christians not get it?
John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, where he first sensed God’s call to enter the ministry.
He went on to earn degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.) and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem.
John is the author of more than 30 books and more than 25 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at DesiringGod.org.
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3 Comments on “What (Or Who) Is The Gospel?”
Stu,
Great show! Dr. Piper is a very passionate and articulate defender of the gospel. I enjoyed listening to him answer questions. His passion for God is infectious.
Now it is time for people to recognize that eternal life is Jesus Christ, and not a destination of some fabled paradise for which they misappropriate the name “heaven.” Evangelists who preach a gospel with a heaven or hell dilemma (there is a dilemma of salvation or damnation but salvation is not in heaven and damnation is not in hell), who offer the reward that you’ll “go to heaven when you die” and who preach a “how to get to heaven” gospel are frauds. Their gospel is a sham and a lie. It’s no wonder they make merchandise of the church and sell books and tracts for money. Their doctrine contradicts the very words of Christ recorded in John 3:16.
God commands all men every where to repent. Repentance is not feeling sorry. If God wanted us to feel sorry for our sins, just exactly how sorry would we need to feel before we would feel sorry enough? Judas Iscariot was sorry, and he repented of the thirty pieces of silver. The sorrow of the world worketh death. Now godly sorrow worketh repentance, but it is not the same thing. Repentance toward God is when we turn to him and we forsake all other things.
“Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”
To repent means to turn toward something, because you cannot turn away from one thing without turning toward another. You need to turn toward God. And if you turn toward God, it means that you cannot possibly be turned toward anything else. You cannot possibly be turned toward God and sin. You cannot possibly be turned toward God and dead works. You cannot possibly be turned toward God and mammon. You cannot serve two masters. If you are turned toward anything else, you are not turned toward God, and you have not repented.
“[We] preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.”
The turning here is an inward change of heart initiated by God. The sinner responds by yielding in repentance toward God and faith toward Jesus Christ who was set forth to be a propitiation for the remission of sins. Christ’s work of redemption is sufficient to justify the one who comes to him. Acts or works of the redeemed meet for repentance and demonstrating faith are not prerequisite, but should follow where there is opportunity. The believer’s faith and hope and inheritance are not heaven itself, but in Christ himself who is in heaven. The believer’s grace will be brought to him not when he goes to be in heaven, but at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet. 1:13) The gospel is not “how to go to heaven,” rather the gospel is the means by which the word is preached to us. That word is forever enduring. It is the word of the Lord. (1 Pet. 1:25) It is the same word that became flesh. The word is not the means to some other end involving the imagination of the sinner’s heart. The word is the end. He is the beginning and the end.
Jesus didn’t preach that he who believes on him “gets to go to heaven on the last day.” Therefore let us stop looking forward to what Jesus did (the creation of the heavens and the earth), for the former things will pass away and he will make all things new. Should we then look to what he will yet do? If we have been taught of God and learned from our Father, we ought not to turn the truth of God into a lie and worship nor serve the creature more than the Creator. Let us therefore start beholding the source himself. Remember what Jesus said we would do if we had learned of the Father.
“Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” (John 6:45) He doesn’t say that they “goeth to heaven.” He says they, “cometh unto me.”
Jesus did not come to send people somewhere else. He said his sheep follow him. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28) “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, [even] eternal life.” (1 John 2:25)
Jesus told us what eternal life is: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3)
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life.” (John 6:47-48)
Jesus’ disciples knew what eternal life is. John wrote, “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” 1 John 5:11
“And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” 1 John 5:20
In his time in the flesh, there were many who heard this testimony, but who refused to accept it (John 6:66)
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. John 5:39-40
“One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.” Jesus had declared eternal life to him very clearly, but he went away.
Many times Jesus said to people, “Go thy way.” If he knew that he was the way, he was the truth, and he was the life, would he send someone away from him? When they had appropriated Christ for their needs and purposes of healing and deliverance, he invited them: “Go thy way.” One man got it: “Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” Because he was no longer blind, he knew the way.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. John 6:53-57
“I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I am that bread of life. I am he who satisfies. Heaven and earth will pass away but my word shall not pass away. My word testifies of me, and I am the word. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning, and the ending. There was none before me, and there will be none after me. Besides me, there is no other.”
My comment was a response to What or Who is the Gospel — and what it is not. Just to be clear, it is not a commentary on John Piper.