The Untarnished Gospel

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. Romans 1:16

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13

Possibly like you, I have sat under many sermons and from many differing churches and pastors. Sometimes I did not recognise the gospel that brought me to Christ. I believe we can be guilty of making the gospel something it is not. At the risk of offending or saying something out of turn, let me share with you some of the things that the gospel is NOT.

The gospel is NOT:

A talk on history. Not even middle east history.

A lecture on Sociology.

A discourse on Psychology

A comparison of religion to science

… If I needed any of these improvements to my education, I would go back to University or Night Classes. My own thought is that these things can be used to show how clever or knowledgeable the preacher is. They do not have anything to do with the gospel, the grace of God or our salvation.

When will we get back to basics and preach the whole gospel in our various churches? Our wise God gave us all that we need to know, through His Word, and the advice to young pastor Timothy when he encouraged him, and us, to:

Preach the Word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favourable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2

Ashamed?

On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities. Acts 26:10-12 NIV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. Romans 1:16 NIV

Both of these texts are spoken by the same man, Paul, so what happened? Paul (or Saul as he was) had been a one man persecution unit for the established church of its day, headed by the pharisees. Schooled by their best teachers, and fired up to hunt down, persecute and murder the early Christians. He was probably looked up to by those who were lower in the church ranks. But (I like the ‘buts’ in the Bible) God stepped in on the road to Damascus, as he was on one of his missions, and the course of Christian teaching and history changed forever. Paul encountered a very real God, and his heart was changed.

Being brought up in a Christian home is a great blessing, and I would not change that one bit, but in my early years I did wonder what I had been saved from. I did not have a life of great sin to repent of, but at an early age gave my heart to the Lord Jesus. My examples lived in my own home. There was no need for a blinding light, or to be physically shaken. I loved to hear clear testimony to the saving power of a Holy God, who stepped into a sinful life and changed it, just like Paul. Looking back now that I am a bit older(!) I can see what God did save me from. My human nature would certainly have taken me into places I should not have been, and I was saved from a lot of unhappiness and grief in that process. I am thankful to a merciful God for His wisdom. Please do not misunderstand my words. I have been less than I should have been at times through the years, and have let my Lord down, but has he abandoned me? No. Has He betrayed me? No.

I will finish this with a thought. There may be times when we should speak out, or speak up for our God and our Christian faith, and we don’t. As children of the family of God, we have a choice to openly recognise our salvation, or be ashamed. That may equate to abandonment or betrayal on our part, but never, never on God’s part. For me, that is good enough reason for me to be thankful for what I have been saved from, whether known in this life or not! No, I am not ashamed!