The Gospel of God
“. . . in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” (1 Timothy 1:11)
Paul the Apostle had been given the good news to proclaim to the Gentiles. When God wants men to hear His message He always sends a messenger. Many have wondered why God sends men with His message rather than speaking directly to the human race. There are at least two simple answers to this question: first, God desires faith. There can be no relationship between God and man unless man trusts God (See Heb. 11.6). Hearing the message through another man requires that we exercise faith, believing that God is trustworthy. Secondly, it would be overwhelming if God were to speak directly to humanity. There is a record of God speaking directly to people at Mount Sinai when He spoke the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel. The result was that the people were scared, thought they were going to die, and begged that Moses could be their mediator! I do not doubt that modern man would have the same response to God speaking directly to them. So we should consider it a merciful condescension on God’s part to send human messengers. The Gospel is proclaimed by men, but it is God’s message. The Gospel did not have its origins with men, but is a revelation of God. The preachers that God sends speak His Word faithfully.
The Gospel is really a message from God that is about God. The Gospel reveals what God is like and how we can come to Him and be accepted by Him. One of the great downfalls of humanity has been the worship of false gods, which is idolatry. Instead of worshiping the living God, who created the world and made man in His own image, man chooses to make gods in his own image. Man’s greatest sin is his failure to acknowledge the true God. This means that the knowledge of God is man’s greatest need. Men must turn from idols to serve the living God! Idolatry is not just an ancient sin. Modern man is just as ignorant of the true God as the ancient pagans. Most of our modern idols are ideas about God that have been fashioned by man. An idea about God that is false is a false god just like a graven image is a false god. Perhaps the greatest revelation in the Bible is that there is only one, true, living God and we are to worship Him. The Gospel is the message about this God. God can be known through the Gospel. We are not referring to some vague and impersonal Higher Power. We are speaking of the God of Israel, who is also the Father of our Lord Jesus.
Jesus came into the world to reveal God and to bring us to the Father. This fact is stated very clearly in the prologue to John’s Gospel: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known” (John 1:18). This statement is only understood correctly when we also have some understanding of the relationship between Jesus and His Father. John also reveals this relationship: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). John is clearly stating that Jesus is Himself a member of the Godhead, which consists of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus was able to make God known because He is Himself God, and shares the same nature with God the Father. But in order to make Himself known, God became Flesh and dwelt among us as a man in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1.14). Therefore, the incarnation – that God became a man – is a critical part of the Gospel. When we come to know Jesus we also come to know God. Jesus came into the world as a man in order to make God accessible to us. So when we come to Jesus we are coming to God.
Coming to God is an intimidating proposition when we consider the reality of sin and how God feels about unrighteousness. How can sinners come before a righteous God and be accepted by Him and not condemned? Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it (John 3.17). God already had reasons to destroy the human race if He had wanted to do so. There were times when God’s wrath did break out momentarily, as was the case in the Flood. But God already had a plan from the beginning to bring salvation to sinners and make them righteous. The whole story of the Bible is the unfolding of this plan of salvation. Even though God did not want to destroy humanity, this does not mean God could ignore sin. God is righteous and cannot pretend that unrighteousness is acceptable to Him. If God were to ignore sin He would have to compromise His own character. So God has devised a way in which He be both righteous in dealing with sin and still save sinners. How is this possible? The Gospel revealed that, because of what Jesus has done on the Cross, God is able to maintain His own integrity while also justifying the ungodly through faith in Jesus Christ (See Rom. 3.21-26).
When the Gospel is believed the people will come to know God, which is eternal life (John 17.3). The Gospel is not simply about man’s need, but about God Himself. Man’s greatest need is God Himself. This knowledge of God that leads to eternal life is not merely intellectual knowledge but is the knowledge of intimacy and fellowship. Apart from God we die. There is nothing good without God. The Gospel reveals the way to Life because it reveals a way for us to come back to God and be restored to fellowship with our Creator. No human need can be truly met until we are in fellowship with God. In the Gospel God is really giving us Himself. If man’s greatest need is fellowship with God, then any so-called Gospel that does not reveal God in Jesus Christ is a false Gospel (See Gal. 1.6-9). And we have no shortage of these pseudo-gospels today! One of the marks of these false gospels is that the people who embrace them still remain ignorant of God and out of fellowship with Him. The true Gospel will bring men into an acute awareness of God. This awareness will result in an awareness of sin and uncleanness, as the prophet Isaiah felt when he saw the glory of the Lord (Isa. 6.5). Only then are we ready to hear the Gospel of God!
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