Last night was a great start to our new sermon series called New Life M3: The Message, The Mission, The Methods. We discussed the first and most important of the aspects of who we are as a local church. The Gospel message is our foundation, and it informs everything we do, including our vision statement (which we will discuss next Sunday night) and our philosophy (which we will discuss in the final week of the series).
Many Christians wrongly believe that the Gospel is merely a set of facts that we must believe in order to go to Heaven. While it is true that the Gospel is based on historical facts (Jesus really lived, really died, and really rose from the dead), the Gospel is not merely a set of facts to be believed.
Rather, the Gospel is the Good News that Jesus lived perfectly, died, and rose again to purify for Himself a people that are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). The Gospel is the Good News that a believer no longer has to live in bondage to sin, but is made a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). The Gospel is the Good News that a believer no longer has to strive, hoping to please God by doing good works and avoiding bad works (Gal. 2–3). Best of all, the Gospel is the Good News that a believer is no longer an enemy of God, but a friend, and is counted as both not guilty and righteous in God’s eyes (Jn. 14:15; Rom. 3:21–4:8).
The Gospel is not just Good News for the day on which I die, though it most certainly is Good News on that day. The Gospel is Good News every day of my life, because every day of my life as a believer I enjoy fellowship with God through the shed blood of Christ. I am set free to serve Him, to serve His people, and to serve unbelievers in my life.
This is why we talk so much about the Gospel message at New Life. The Gospel has changed us, is changing us, and will continue to change us each day. And that’s Good News.