Articles
What is the Gospel to You?
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. (Eph. 1:18-19)
Paul loved the gospel. To him it was a treasure of far more value that all the wealth in the world. Several times in Ephesians he used the word “riches” to describe the gospel as the manifestation of the abundant glory, love, and mercy of God, all of which He poured out generously upon us:
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us” (Eph. 1:7-8a). “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). “But God, being rich in mercy…raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-7). “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:14-16).
Jesus once compared the kingdom of heaven to a hidden treasure which a man discovered in a field; overjoyed to find a treasure of such value he sold everything he had (house, clothing, food, livestock, property, jewelry—everything) so he could buy the field and make the treasure his own (Matthew 13:44). Similarly, it is like a jeweler who finds a perfect diamond and in order to obtain that “once-in-a-lifetime” gem sells everything he owns (cf. Matthew 13:45-46). The gospel of Christ is that diamond worth every sacrifice.
Sadly, to us the gospel is often little more than a list of do’s and do-not’s, a formula of how one obtains the salvation of Christ, or a monotonous story we dutifully repeat once a week before the Lord’s Supper. Do not misunderstand—each of these has its rightful and necessary place, but there is more to the gospel than facts. Ephesians shows us that what Paul loved most about the gospel of Jesus Christ was that it forgave our sins, reconciled us to our Father, made us His chosen and adopted children, sealed God’s promise by giving us the Holy Spirit, and provided us with a glorious hope of heaven. In short, the gospel bridges the gap between us (sinners) and God (the Holy One), creating a beautiful relationship. When we study Ephesians (which we are doing Wednesday nights) we ought to feel an overwhelming urge to break out in joyful song in praise to the God who did all this through Jesus.
As many times as we may have heard it, the gospel will always be “good news.” It should never become stale to our taste. We cannot become so accustomed to hearing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that we no longer receive it as the Thessalonians did, “with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). (After all, we sing “Tell me the old, old story” and “Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life.”) We must never grow so dull of hearing that the urgency of the gospel does not slice open our hearts as it did the Jews the first time it was preached (Acts 2:37). Nor ought we to think that “we know all there is to know about Jesus” since we can never fully grasp the depths of the gospel, or in the words of the Holy Spirit, “know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:17). Certainly we should not think of or treat our worship as dull, routine, or tedious for it is in this setting that we can express our joy and thanks in heartfelt praise to the God who saved us through the gospel.
I am convinced that the more we appreciate the “unfathomable riches of Christ” the more we will share them with others. If we do not value the gospel ourselves, how can we expect to convince others that it, like that buried treasure or valuable pearl, is worth selling everything?
So I ask: what is the gospel to you?
