The Gospel...An Introduction

"I felt like I was walking on egg shells all the time because it felt as if, at any time, I could go to hell because I'm not doing enough.  And that's where you see a lot of people who grew up in churches where the gospel might not have been fleshed out...where they become atheists because, it's like, I can't do enough to please Him anyway so why?  Why trust Him?  Why believe in Him?  I'm still the same person.  I'm still wicked.  I'm still sinful."

Jackie Hill-Perry, taken from the DVD documentary American Gospel:  Christ Alone

I'm not here to do a review of this film.  I'm not here to critique it, recommend it, de-bunk it or praise it.  That is not the purpose of this post.  However, I would like to use this quote as a spring board.  I hesitate to write this post because I'm afraid that a lot of what I have to say is going to be a rehashing of what I've already said.  At the same time, I think some things bear repeating.

The church today, for the most part, does not know what the gospel is.  Let me attempt to expand that out a little bit.  I think that most churches are what you could call "Statement of Faith" orthodox or "What We Believe" orthodox.  What I mean by that is most churches will have a Statement of Faith or a list of "What We Believe" as a church that will be spot on as to what the gospel is.  But, when you hear the preaching, or look at the emphasis of the church, it becomes clear that it is not the gospel at all.  It's all law.  Here is an example.  There are a ton of churches, and I mean an absolute ton, that have a vision statement or mission statement for the church that goes like this, or something very similar....."Love God, Love People".  That sounds nice, right?  Putting God first, then loving folks because of that?  The trouble is that it's not the gospel.  Not even close.  It is the law in total.  Matthew 22:34-40 says:

"But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together.  One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"  And He said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'  On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.'" 

The point I'm trying to make is that the focus of the church is on doing things, which is all well and good.  But the doing of a thing is not the gospel.  You can go down to the food pantry and volunteer all you like.  You can even feel good about yourself for doing it, thinking how nice of you it was to spend your time doing that.  But, unless you give the gospel to them, they are on their way to hell with a full belly.  That is the problem.  People equate doing good things and acting a certain way as the gospel and that's backwards.

Michael Horton said it very well in the aforementioned American Gospel:  Christ Alone.  He said:

"The gospel isn't What Would Jesus Do; now go and do that.  The gospel is What Has Jesus Done; now believe that.  This distinction between the law and the gospel is, really, the most important thing to remember.  And it's one of the things that we're forgetting." 

This is so true.  You can add to the What Would Jesus Do mentality.  You can also say What Would Jesus Not Do.  And this makes me think of my son.  This is what my wife and I taught him...the law.  We completely yoked our son to the law and his behavior.  As he grew older, he began to realize that not only could he not live up to the burden placed on him; neither could his parents.  He saw Debbie and I not be able to do the very thing that we expected him to do.  He saw the hypocrisy.  He saw the impossibility and it left him in despair.  Eventually, he threw in the towel altogether.  He knew he couldn't do it.  Why try?

Parents, your children are sinners.  They are born sinners.  They were conceived in sin.  So were you, if I may.  They have an inherently sinful nature.  So do you.  Even if they, or you, are saved by grace, there is a war taking place between the old nature and the new.  And sometimes, no matter how hard we try and as bad as we don't want to, we sin.  It is inevitable.  Even the apostle Paul fought this battle.  Romans 7:14-15, 19 says:

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.  For I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate......For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

Not even the apostle Paul was good enough.  No one can ever be good enough.  Parents, stop saddling your kids with works righteousness.  It's killing them.  As a matter of fact, stop saddling yourselves with works righteousness.  It's killing you.

Watching this DVD and thinking about my son has caused me to want to explore the gospel a little bit.  I think that an investigation of the gospel is in order.  So, over the next however many posts it takes, we are going to explore what I believe to be the best summation of the gospel...the Doctrines of Grace, tied up nicely with the bow of the TULIP. If you do not know what I am alluding to in the acronym TULIP, it stands for:

T....otal Depravity
U....nconditional Election
L....imited Atonement
I....rresistible Grace 
P....erseverance of the Saints

I hope that y'all will stick around with me as this investigation is as much for me as it is for anyone else.  I am constantly learning about, and stand in awe of, the grace that has been extended to me.  It truly is amazing.