The Missing Gospel

Romans 1:1-4,15-17 (KJV)
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, [2] (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) [3] Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; [4] And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
[15] So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. [16] For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. [17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (ESV)
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, [4] that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

The biggest problem, I feel, facing the church is not immorality, lack of zeal, complacence or love of the world - although these are evident problems. The biggest problem is the neglect Gospel of Jesus Christ. The biggest problem is that we are greatly ashamed of this Gospel, though we think that we are not. Christianity has become anything but about this great Gospel, which has power to save anyone who hears and truly believes it. The biggest trick that the Devil has pulled in evangelical Christianity in the modern era is to either dumb down the Gospel or to present the Gospel as though it is not the most important thing of Christianity. Yet this Paul said the Gospel was "of first importance", and he was ready to preach it to even those were saved.

See, the Gospel is not only for the unbelievers, but it is also for the believer who have known the Lord for the longest time. Paul says in the passage above that he is ready to preach the gospel to believers in Rome; why? Because Gospel saves the believers, he says. But they are already saved! you ask. Salvation is not a one-time thing. Belief is not something we Christians do once. We must continue to believe, from the moment we are saved, until the moment we enter into glory. Faith that believes for a season and falls away is not real faith, but a dead and counterfeit faith. We were saved by the Gospel, by believing in it, and we continue to be saved by this great truth and announcement of God, by continuing to believe.

But the Gospel to the modern church has become something you give only to be unbelievers. 'Let's preach the Gospel to the pour lost souls', we say, not realizing that we ourselves need it every day to live. The Gospel becomes some sort of a ritual that a Christian must go through in order to enter into the Kingdom of God, and afterwards Christianity becomes to be about other things: spiritual gifts, moral living, social justice, etc. But nothing could be further than the truth.

Why is the Gospel so important? Why can't we just have Christianity that puts the Gospel as an accessory? Why can't we have a Christianity like that? First of all, as Paul says in Romans 1:2, it is because the entire Bible is about the Gospel. There was no other central topic that transcends ALL the pages of the Bible. Go back to Genesis, and read the chapters about Abraham, how he almost offered his only begotten son, only to be stopped by God who provided him a Lamb instead to be killed. Read how Joseph was sold and betrayed by his own brethren, and became a slave, only that through his suffering he may save his brethren when God exalted him to be king. Or read Exodus and see how the Passover Lamb was slain and its blood was applied to the door posts that by the blood Israel may be saved. Or read when Israel was bitten by serpents for their sins but was saved when they simply looked to the bronze serpent that was lifted up. How about Samson through whose death did more good than while he was living? How about David, through whose psalms he prophesied Christ's life, death and resurrection? The whole scriptures is about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet what is our problem? That we try to find other things in bible and we teach them. Sure, bible is good for moral and wise instruction and is the manual for living our life. But primarily it does not exist for this purpose. Do we want wisdom in how to be good and successful in this life? Go read other books written by clever men, but don't read the bible. What sets the bible apart from other books? It is that the bible is the testimony of what God has done through Jesus Christ in His Son. Read what Jesus said:
John 5:39-40 (ESV)
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, [40] yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
The bible testifies of Jesus Christ, not of man. The bible is about God. But we the Church has chosen to teach from the Bible other things than Jesus Christ and His good news, as if they were of either equal or more significance. It is no wonder there is no faith among the people of God, since faith comes by hearing the word of God, and this word is about Jesus Christ and His gospel. Let us pray that the Church will begin to see the Gospel, Christ and God in the scriptures, and not the things of man.

The second reason why the Gospel is so important is because the Gospel is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, as Paul says in verse 3. You can't know Jesus Christ without knowing the Gospel. You can't claim to preach Jesus Christ without centrally preaching He did on the cross and the resurrection. If the Gospel is missing from our churches, that means that Jesus Christ Himself is missing from our churches. Jesus Christ's whole being was consumed with fulfilling the promises made by the prophets of the Gospel. Read:
John 12:27 (ESV)
"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ''Father, save me from this hour''? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
The main purpose why Jesus Christ came to the earth was to fulfill word of God, which is primarily His Gospel. His whole life's purpose was to die for sinners and rise again on the third day. The Gospel was who He was, and what He thought about during His 33 years of living on this earth. Christ Himself is our Gospel. See how Paul makes no distinction between Christ and the Gospel. Both are one:
2 Corinthians 4:3-5 (KJV)
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: [4] In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. [5] For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
Therefore if the Gospel is neglected in the Church to be a secondary thing, that means that Jesus Christ Himself is neglected as a secondary thing. The Gospel is what defines who Jesus Christ is. The Gospel is what shows who God Himself is. We will not get a better revelation of what God is like, except through what He did for us on the Cross. Let us pray that the Gospel will again be the centre of our churches, so that Christ, and God will be the centre. If the Gospel does not become the central thing of Christianity, what will happen? As Paul says, there will be nothing but the preaching of men. There will be nothing but preaching about great Christians, but not Christ Himself. There will be nothing but preaching of doctrines of men, made by men, made for man. The Church without the Gospel is nothing but a man-centred institution, existing only for the glory of men. Isn't all this what is already happening now? Why? Because the Gospel is hidden in our churches as much as in the world. Let us pray that the Gospel be revealed in the church, so that God may get the glory in it, not man.

But what is this Gospel? What is the main purpose of the Gospel? As it is written in Romans 1:17, the Gospel reveals how sinful man can be righteous before God. How can a man be just before God's eyes? By working hard to be good? By attending church service and reading the bible and singing worship songs? By giving donations to charities and praying every day and avoiding sins? By going to different Christian meetings and serving in all kinds of ministry? No, these things are all great and good, but it does not satisfy God's perfect standard of righteousness. Even the greatest and most noble works of man are tainted with the putrefaction of sin. And even when our works are done with perfectly selfless motives, our good works do not outweigh our bad. We have committed eternal crimes against an eternal God. We have despised and offended our very Source of life, and therefore we must pay the fine in our death. No good work can conceal our wicked works we have already committed. It rather increases God's wrath against us because we, being blind to the sins we committed, think that we can earn a right standing with God. It is like a murderer, who says to the Judge, 'Yeah, I killed the man. But after I killed him I gave money to charity, went and did years of volunteer work, helped many people and even adopted orphans. Therefore I think I have the right to be cleared of my guilt'. The Judge would have none of it, and sentence him to life in jail. God the Holy judge will not hear the cries of sinners, and sentence them all to eternity in Hell.

How can man then be righteous before God? It is by faith. A man who is righteous before God is a man who lives by faith. But faith in what? Faith in God's righteousness revealed through Jesus Christ. It is by trusting in Jesus Christ as one's righteousness. It is by trusting in the works and the merits of the another Man who has perfectly pleased God. The Good News is that the Son of God became a man to fulfill the righteousness of God that no one could fulfill. Christ came to earth and lived a perfect life of obedience to all the commandments of God. There was never found in Him any sin, but His mind was full of doing the will of His Father. He satisfied God's perfect standard of righteousness. His good works were never tainted with self, but were perfectly for the glory of God and for the benefit of people. Though He was God, He hated self glory, but He denied Himself and never accepted the praise of men. His works therefore were the only good works that God has ever accepted from a man. God never had to show mercy or grace to Him, and all the blessings He received were all perfectly deserved.

Jesus also fulfilled God's righteousness by His death. God laid upon Him all the sins of the world, and He decided to die under the law for the punishment of the sins of His chosen people. He died so that whoever trusts in Him would be justified, as though having lived a perfectly pleasing life, and as though having died justly under the wrath of God. This is the great good news for us. And on the cross God vindicated His righteousness for all the times He overlooked the sins of His people in the past, and for all the forgiveness and mercy He will show to His people in the future. God was showing the world through the cross that though He is compassionate, He is righteous, and that death of His own Son was the ONLY way God could be pleased in forgiving sinners. God's wrath and just anger upon the head of His own Son was the only way that God could be satisfied to forgive us. There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. But it is not the blood of animals or men that satisfied the wrath of God. But God would only accept the blood of His own Son. How can therefore be another way to salvation for man? God has provided the only way that sinful, murderous, immoral, deceitful, hateful and idolatrous and self-worshipping wicked men to be saved. How can anything else then satisfy God's vengeance against our sins, but our faith in His Son who lived and died for us?

This is Gospel of Jesus Christ that is missing from our churches today. The Gospel of today's church makes sin light and therefore God's glory light. Today's Gospel upholds the righteousness of man, over the righteousness of God. We make much of man's works, but make so little of what the Almighty God has done for us. We speak much of what the Gospel can do for us, and not for what it did for God's vindication of righteousness. How can the churches be saved? By believing again in the Gospel, and trusting afresh in the righteousness of God fulfilled on the cross of Jesus Christ. Let us pray that we have a revelation of God's holiness and His hatred for sin. It was because He despised sin so much that He killed His own Son and crushed Him with full force of His wrath. He was not satisfied to kill ten thousand angels for us, but it had to be His only begotten, beloved, all pleasing Son. Let us pray that we have the revelation of this Gospel which has power to save both from condemnation, and from the power of sin.

Sean Kong