Lessons from the Hebrew Prophets (Part 3 of 5)

The Unwilling Prophet

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD (Jonah 1:1-3).

Everything about the book of Jonah is designed to surprise us. We are first surprised to find that God would send one of His prophets outside of Israel to a pagan nation. God had sent all of the prophets to Israel because they were the chosen people who were in a covenant with God. All of the other nations worshiped other gods. So we are surprised by God’s concern for Nineveh. Furthermore, the city of Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, which was the enemy of both Israel and Judah. So God was sending Jonah to speak to pagans who worshiped other gods and who were the enemies of God’s chosen nation! Secondly, we are surprised by Jonah’s foolhardy attempt to run away from God. Not only was this a blatant act of disobedience to a direct command from God, it is also a futile effort. No one can really run and hide from God. But Jonah tried it nonetheless. These surprises are only the first few verses of the book! The surprises do not stop coming. We are surprised throughout the book by the piety of pagan peoples and their responses to God, especially when compared to the prophet Jonah’s stubbornness. Of course, Jonah is mostly remembered for spending time in the belly of a great fish. But the real surprise is that God gave Jonah a second chance, the very thing God was also giving to the city of Nineveh! The biggest surprise was perhaps reserved for Jonah himself. After walking through the city of Nineveh and preaching a very stark message of doom, Jonah sat down outside the city presuming to watch God destroy it. This is what Jonah actually wanted to see. Yet, the people of Nineveh repented and God spared the city! Surprisingly, this made the prophet Jonah very angry, though he had no right to feel that way.

God shows us in the book of Jonah that, while He elected Israel for a special purpose, He also has care for the rest of the nations of the world. Jonah was so angry after preaching in Nineveh because he wanted God to destroy the enemies of his people. Perhaps Jonah had forgotten all of the times God had spared the people of Israel. God had chosen to make a special covenant with Israel because He would use them to reveal Himself to the rest of the world. God’s promise to Abraham was to bless the whole world through Abraham’s family (Genesis 12.1-3). Ultimately the blessing would come in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the Seed of Abraham (Galatians 3.16). God had a plan that included the entire world and so it should not surprise us that God would have care for the city of Nineveh. Israel’s privilege was for service to God and the accomplishment of His purpose. This purpose included the blessing of the nations of the world. The people of Israel would be the Divine Conduit through which this blessing would flow out to the world. Apparently, if Jonah knew this at all, he had forgotten why God had chosen Israel. The plan of God had not progressed to the point we now see in Christ. So we cannot be too hard on Jonah and hold him to our standards today. We have more revelation than he concerning God’s purpose. But Jonah should have known enough about God not to be so surprised or offended by His compassion.

Jonah’s stubborn unwillingness to go to Nineveh reveals his lack of compassion for them as well as his ignorance of God. I do not want to speak evil of the Lord’s prophet. Yet I cannot excuse Jonah’s behavior. Jonah surely knew from the Law that God had often had compassion for Israel when they sinned again Him and did not treat them according to how their sins deserved. But Jonah was completely unwilling to extend this same compassion to the people of Nineveh. I cannot be too hard on Jonah for this attitude because I have had this same attitude every time I have harbored bitterness in my heart toward someone. When someone else sins, especially if they sin against me, I am quick to become angry, to want revenge, and to desire to see that person punished by God. This is the most natural human response, seen in Jonah and in my own heart. But the book of Jonah is teaching us that this response is not appropriate for those who have known and even personally experienced the compassion and forgiveness of God. Jesus even went so far as to say that if we are unwilling to forgive those who sin against us, God will withhold forgiveness from us (See Matthew 6.14-15). This is a serious warning to us all! Those who know the compassion of God cannot be unwilling to see others enjoy this same compassion.

As I have already mentioned, in the account of Jonah we are also surprised by the response of pagan people to God. Jonah seems to have a stubborn and rebellious spirit toward God. He refused to obey God until he has no other option. Yet, the pagan people that Jonah encounters seem ready and willing to listen to God and do what he says! When Jonah is on the boat, foolishly trying to get away from God, the sailors are much more devout than Jonah is:

So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish” (Jonah 1:6).

Now Jonah knew why the storm had arisen. When he told the sailors that they must throw him overboard to save themselves the men at first refused to do so, seeking to spare Jonah’s life! This was ironic considering that Jonah himself did not seem to care if the entire city of Nineveh was destroyed. Upon finally arriving at the city of Nineveh, Jonah did his duty and preached to the people:

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them (Jonah 3:3-5).

I have to ask why, if the city of Nineveh took three days to cross, why Jonah only spent one day preaching? Clearly, Jonah still did not want to be there and he did not want to preach to the city of Nineveh and he extended as little effort as possible, not even giving much explanation for the impending doom of the city. Amazingly, the king himself heard about Jonah’s preaching and alerted the rest of the city:

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it (Jonah 3:6-10).

Again, we are amazed that this pagan king and all of his subjects there in the city of Nineveh believed Jonah’s preaching and repented before God! There are people we think will never repent and turn to God. We may avoid these people, thinking that we should not waste out time on them. We may even dislike them intensely. Yet these may be some people who have simply not heard the Word of the Lord and may be ready and willing to believe and turn to God!

Jonah teaches us that God must first prepare His messengers so that they can see things from His perspective. When we turn to the pages of the New Testament Scriptures, we see Jesus surprising his disciples by preaching in Samaria, even speaking to a sinful woman at Jacob’s Well (See John 4). The Samaritans were hated by the Jews, being a mixed race with a heretical worship and theology. Jesus was willingly doing what Jonah had refused to do. And Jesus was preparing His disciples for their mission, not only to Samaria, but to the ends of the earth. After Jesus had risen and ascended, it was time for the Gospel to go to the Gentiles. Much like Jonah had been with the city of Nineveh, the early Christians were not eager to preach to Gentiles. But God was preparing to open the door to the Gentiles, and He was preparing both the messenger and the hearer. A gentile man named Cornelius had received an angelic visitation, telling him to send for a man named Simon Peter. Meanwhile, God also gave a vision to the Apostle Peter. When the reluctant messenger was finally prepared, and Peter stood in Cornelius’ house, Peter finally saw the truth that had previously escaped him:

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35).

Peter then preached the Gospel to the first Gentile hearers, something that had long been promised by God and prefigured in the story of Jonah. This realization that Peter had must also come over anyone who might be an unwilling participant in God’s mission to the world.

Lessons from the Hebrew Prophets (Part 2 of 5)

Weeping for the Lost

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jeremiah 9:1)

God’s servants enter into the Lord’s work with their whole being. And so Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet, being sent by God to announce judgment on Judah and the beginning of the period of captivity. Jeremiah wept for his people as he saw that the wrath of God was unavoidable because the people would not listen to God’s Word. This prophet saw the demise of a nation that had been called by God yet had turned from Him to serve the worthless idols of their pagan neighbors. This unfaithfulness was such a great tragedy that Jeremiah could not hold in his tears! The prophet was affected by what was going on in the lives of the people he had been sent to serve. Jeremiah took no pleasure in seeing the people turn from God, suffering the inevitable consequences of their sin. When the Lord sends people out into the world with the message of the Gospel, it is impossible for them not to be personally moved by the heartbreaking condition of our world. I would go so far to say that we are not ready to actually be the Lord’s ambassadors and carry the message of reconciliation until we have personally perceived and been moved by the profound needs of our world.

In other words, the messengers that God sends out into the world must feel what God feels and see the world in the way God sees it. Until we have the Father’s perspective, we cannot do His work. God cares and feels compassion for the spiritual condition of people. Perhaps we tend to think of God as too holy to have feelings. But you cannot read the Scriptures and conclude that God does not care. Even God’s anger shows that He is touched by the condition of humanity. I want to be careful here that I do not make God out to be like a man with all of the weaknesses of unpredictable or uncontrollable emotions. Yet at the very beginning of human history, when the whole world was filled with violence and wickedness, the Scriptures record that God was grieved in his heart (Genesis 6.6). The thought of God being grieved by human sin might be a new thought to some people who only think of God as some kind of spiritual mind without any feelings whatsoever. Others think that God’s only possible reaction to wickedness is wrath and anger. While the wrath of God cannot be ignored, God’s response to humanity’s fall has been rather complex. There are times when God gets angry. But anger is not the only thing God feels toward the human race. When God came into the world in Jesus Christ, we witnessed a wide range of emotions. Jesus also wept over Jerusalem, much like the prophet Jeremiah had done. Until we learn to weep over the sins of people and their unbelief, we do not have the heart of God or of Christ.

But let’s be very clear on this point: the wrath of God must eventually be revealed against unrepentant sinners. Yet, this situation does not give God pleasure. Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem, as did the prophet Jeremiah, because both saw that the wrath of God would eventually fall upon the people because of their stubborn unbelief. The Lord may express His wrath against sin, yet He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33.11). I know that the idea of God’s wrath is to modern people one of the most objectionable of doctrines. Why would God choose to judge and destroy people? This is not a simple issue, but what many people fail to understand, perhaps even ignoring this reality, is that God is patient with sinners and He send them warnings and also gives them space to repent. But there are people who continually harden their hearts and refuse to listen to God. It is a lamentable condition to be spurning the grace and mercy of God so that all that is left is the wrath and judgment of the Lord! God is gracious, patient, and merciful. He is not looking for an excuse to condemn or destroy us. But God is also holy and just and cannot ignore wickedness forever. So while God’s first desire is to bless, He will also curse. Perhaps those parents who have had a rebellious and perhaps wicked child understand how God also feels about the human race. Parents want to do good things to their children, but they cannot, if they are good people who really care for the welfare of their offspring, ignore rebellious and wicked behavior. Parents may become angry at their rebellious children, yet their heart is filled with love and good intentions at all times. There is something similar in the heart of God for all of his rebellious offspring. Consider the kindness and the severity of God (Romans 11.22)! When we know these things about God, it will be impossible for us to take any kind of pleasure in the demise of wicked people, even if they are our personal enemies! We would rather see people repent and be saved and blessed by God. And we would do everything we can to bring about this repentance.

God’s people also feel great sorrow for those who remain alienated from God, or who have known God and turned away from Him. Just as Jeremiah and then Jesus wept over the people of God who had turned away from Him, the Apostle Paul also had sorrow over the unbelief of his Jewish brethren:

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:1-3). 

Paul was actually saying that, if possible, he would suffer eternal hell himself if it meant that the unbelieving Jews could be saved. This is nothing less that the Spirit of Christ in Paul moving him to say this because Jesus actually was accursed and cut off so that we could be saved. Paul was feeling for his lost Jewish brethren what Christ had felt and been willing to do for the entire human race! This is, no doubt, what made Paul such a tireless worker for the sake of the Gospel. Paul really cared about lost people and was willing to suffer any personal loss of inconvenience if he could save some of them. Until we are willing to feel deep compassion, and even weep, for the souls of people, we will probably not be moved to do much for their sad state. If we do not weep for the lost, as well as for those who have fallen away, then our hearts are not beating in rhythm with the heart of God. Like Jeremiah, Jesus, Paul, and many other faithful servants sent from God, we must weep, while there is still time to weep, for those who have been “slain” and ruined by sin.

Lessons from the Hebrew Prophets (Part 1 of 5)

The Call of God

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

Many people today wonder if they can hear the call of God. Does God actually call people today, as He called the prophet Isaiah, and others in the Scriptures? There seems to be a great distance between us and the stories in the Bible. The people in the Bible seemed so close to God, as if heaven itself were just barely separated from their world and could come breaking through at any time. We might read the Scriptures and conclude that visions, miracles, and the voice of the Almighty were happening nearly every day, to everyone. On the other hand, in our modern world, God seems distant and remote. Yet we still reach out for something of God that we can experience for ourselves. Of course there are those people who do not reach out for God and who may question His very existence. There are even those who claim to believe the Bible, and study it rather diligently, yet who disbelieve any direct involvement of God in our lives today. God used to do those things, they say, back then, but He has since gone mute and no longer speaks to us today. The Age of Signs and Wonders has passed away, they claim with much conviction and authority. But we have to ask why the things that have been written in Scripture have been put there for us, if not to show us something about God that will always be true. God does not change. The Bible does not show us a God who is distant. He is always there, even when we cannot see. Isaiah the prophet saw the veil lifted from his eyes so that He could see the glory of the God of Israel.

God’s call often comes during difficult times. The prophet Isaiah saw this vision of God at a difficult moment in the history of God’s people. The people of Israel were divided kingdoms and were facing the rise of powerful empires, like Assyria and then Babylonia, who would swallow up all other nations. King Uzziah had just died when Isaiah saw His vision of the Lord. Uzziah had been a progressive king and the people of Judah, with their capital in David’s city of Jerusalem, had prospered during his long reign (See 2 Chron. 26). But in spite of the long reign of Uzziah and all of his seemingly successful projects, the spiritual life of the nation was continuing to deteriorate. God was about to do something to judge the people for their ongoing sins of idolatry and unfaithfulness to the covenant He had made with the nation of Israel. God called Isaiah to announce the beginning of the period of captivity. Isaiah received this call at the end of a period of hope and prosperity under King Uzziah. But the future looked dark as the storm clouds of God’s judgment began to gather. Every generation has its good times as well as challenging periods. This generation, I believe, is much like the generation in which Isaiah lived. We have been enjoying some years of peace and prosperity that may be giving way to a period of trouble and perhaps even Divine judgment. God does not call His servants only during the times of peace and relative ease. God may have a difficult work to do during dark times!

God calls us to first see His glory. Before receiving his prophetic calling, Isaiah saw a vision of God!

“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6.1-4). 

It is no accident that when Isaiah saw the Lord, He was seated on a throne. Uzziah the king had died, but the true King of Israel, and the ruler of the whole earth, was not dead! When the people of God had been in captivity for many years, everything Isaiah would prophesy coming to pass, the prophet Daniel would also see God seated on His throne in glory (See Daniel 7.9-10). Centuries later the heavens were opened to the Apostle John and he also saw a throne in heaven (Revelation 4-5). This throne is the central fact of all reality. God is always seated on His throne, ruling over this world and all of its inhabitants. We must also see this throne, if only through the eyes of faith. Were we able to peel back the veil separating heaven and earth, we would still see this Throne, and the One seated there! God first means to have us see that He is really in charge of everything. Our knowledge of God must begin at His Throne. Much of our anxiety and doubt in life comes from a failure to see clearly the glory of God.

The call of God will make us uncomfortable. Isaiah was immediately confronted with the holiness of God.

So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 6.5)

Isaiah saw this vision of the Lord in the Temple, probably because he was a priest serving there in the Temple Solomon had built. The Temple was a larger version of the Tabernacle that God had commanded Moses to build. The Tabernacle and the Temple were built to remind the people of Israel of the holiness of God. Because God is holy He is completely separate from sin. Anyone who would approach the presence of God, as the priests were called to do, had to be holy. God had commanded the priests to wash themselves and to present the blood of animal sacrifices. Only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, did the High Priest go behind the veil into the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept hidden – the very seat of the presence of God. But I do not think even the High Priest saw what Isaiah saw! In the presence of God there is always an awareness of God’s holiness and of our unworthiness. Isaiah probably thought he was a dead man because he had seen the Lord and he knew he did not deserve such a vision. God’s presence and call will make us feel a sense of unworthiness because there is no one who is righteous and holy before God.

But this feeling of unworthiness is not the end of God’s dealing with us, as it was not the end of Isaiah’s experience in the presence of the Lord:

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6.6-8). 

In the presence of God there is mercy. In Isaiah’s time this mercy was provided through the altar of sacrifice where atonement for sin was made with the blood of bulls and goats. But these sacrifices all pointed to the one sacrifice of Christ, who has taken away our sin with His own blood. There is a way for us to stand in the presence of God having been completely cleansed from all sin. God’s call includes the provision of forgiveness and salvation from all sin. And this complete salvation will also sanctify us and make us willing participants in God’s purpose. Those who know they have been cleansed will also offer their bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12.1-2), saying “Here am I! Send me!”

The Gospel (Part 5 of 5)

The Gospel of Peace

“. . . and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15)

The Gospel is the announcement of Divine accomplishments. This means that the essential message of Christianity is not about what men have done or should do, but about what God has done for man. The Law of Moses was about the duty of man, or what we must do for God. Moses preached “do this, and live.” In other words, under the Covenant of Law the whole relationship with God depended on meticulous obedience to the commandments. There were not just the Ten Commandments, which was really just a summation of the Law, but there were actually well over six-hundred different commandments that the Israelites were to keep! Anyone today who wants to live according to a principle of law must remember that the main thing in this arrangement is what we do, or don’t do, in order to please God and be in a covenant with Him. The Gospel is not like the principle of law but is something completely new and different. The Gospel is good news about God’s work for us. God has done something for us that we could never have accomplished for ourselves. The gracious works of God for man are what makes the Gospel good news.

The good news is that God has accomplished something for us what we could never have done. Having a law was insufficient. The law never changed anyone. Law is actually designed to alter behavior, rewarding or punishing us for what we do. But simply having a commandment does not change my nature or how I feel about God and His law. There is enmity between God and sinners. That means that by nature man has a dislike, even hatred, for God and His law. We are born rebels and there is no commandment that can change our rebellious hearts. In fact, the Law actually stirs up this innate hatred in man for God. A commandment is a limit placed on man’s behavior. But sinful man resents this limitation and wants to be free to do what he pleases. And so the commandment chafes against man just like a harness or a bridle and a bit would frustrate and anger a wild horse. We have all probably seen a man trying to break a wild horse to wear a bit and bridle. The horse does not want to be under control and fights against this strange contraption that man has placed on his head and his back! That is a picture of the enmity of sinful man against the Law of God. There can be no peace and fellowship with God as long as this enmity exists in our hearts. The Law was given to show us our sinful, rebellious nature. But the Law by itself could not change us. Something else had to be done to remove this enmity from our hearts.

God has made peace with the world through the Cross of Christ. Our rebellion against God also has an effect on God. God is not passive about rebellion in His universe. God is righteous and cannot ignore sin. When the Devil and his angels rebelled against God, they were cast out of heaven. When Adam and Eve sinned they were cast out of Eden. There are always consequences for sin because God is righteous. Sin angers God. God’s righteous anger is called wrath. There is probably no concept in the Bible that is so distasteful to modern man than the doctrine of Divine wrath. But it is literally everywhere in Scripture. Man tends to think that God does not see His sin or does not care enough about it to do anything. Yet the Biblical record gives many examples of God reacting to human sin, as if to teach us the folly of thinking that God is neutral about our sin. Modern man tends to believe in a kinder, gentler God. This is why modern man has often missed the reason for the Cross. Sin is so offensive to God, Jesus had to suffer and die so that sin could be put away from God’s presence. Jesus was God’s peace offering which enables God to put away His anger or wrath against man’s sin. Now that God’s righteousness has been satisfied by Jesus’s sacrificial death, He can make peace with sinners.

The peace that Jesus made has to be appropriated. There are those who hold to a doctrine of universal salvation, meaning that all men are saved unconditionally, regardless of their knowledge of the Gospel or their response to it. This ignores the need for a response to the Gospel of peace. The Gospel declares that peace has been made, yet it is still possible to remain at war with God, refusing to accept what He has done. When nations go to war, it might be that one side wants to have peace, yet the terms of that peace are rejected and the war rages on and on. This is also the case with the human race and God. God has offered terms of peace. Those terms are to believe on His Son, Jesus Christ, who has made peace with God. All those believing in Christ are reconciled to God, accepting and appropriating the peace that Jesus made. However, if we will not accept peace with God through Jesus, the wrath of God still hangs over us. I believe this needs to be preached to sinners more than it is today. The truth is, if God has made peace and offered us this peace, we dare not reject the offer and then think we are guiltless and free from danger.

Preachers of the Gospel are sent to reconcile men and women with God. The Gospel is not preached by angels but by men and women sent from God, who have themselves been reconciled to God by the same message that they preach to others! The Apostle Paul understood the ministry of preaching in this way: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). Preachers who preach God’s message are really speaking for God, and God is making an appeal through their preaching. The appeal is to be reconciled, to be at peace, with God. Sinners are called, are even begged, to lay down their arms and stop being at war with God. God’s wrath has been satisfied in Christ and He no longer has to be angry with you! Instead of God being your enemy, He can become your heavenly father. Come home to the Father and be at peace with Him! That is the message of the Gospel of peace.

The Gospel (Part 4 of 5)

The Gospel of Salvation

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).

One of the great promises in the Gospel is the promise of salvation. To be saved means to be rescued from some danger and brought to a place of safety. A physician is a savior to his patients, saving them from sickness, injury, or possibly death, and restoring them to good health. Witnessing the drama of someone’s life being saved is one of the most powerful events we can experience, even if the drama is a fictional account portrayed by actors. Salvation stirs something in our souls because it is a matter of life and death. And we have the desire to live and not to die. It should not surprise us that God’s message would have such a compelling nature. The Gospel deals with the deepest needs and longings of the human soul. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1.16). Believing the Gospel is what will save us, unleashing the very power of God in our lives. This is why the Gospel needs to be preached. Unless the message is declared the power of God will remain hidden like an untapped resource. In certain places there are vast quantities of natural resources, like oil, coal, minerals, or precious metals, lying just beneath the surface of the earth, but are unused. The greatest power in this world – power unto salvation – is in the Gospel, awaiting someone to open it and use it!

Salvation is one of the major themes of the Bible. One of the earliest examples of salvation comes in the story of Joseph. After being sold into slavery by his own, jealous brothers, Joseph was exalted to be the ruler of Egypt where he was able to then save his father’s house from starvation during a famine. When all of this began to unfold, Joseph said, in retrospect, that “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors” (Genesis 45:7). Joseph was a savior who prefigures the coming of Jesus. But the greatest illustration of salvation in the Old Testament is the account of the exodus of God’s people from bondage in Egypt. The story of Joseph saving his family ends with Jacob and all his household coming to Egypt. And there Jacob and all his sons died. But their families increased and Israel became a nation in Egypt. A new ruler came to power who did not know Joseph and the people were cruelly enslaved. But God sent Moses to deliver His people. And so Moses is also a savior, sent from God, who would become another foreshadowing of Jesus. As the terrible plagues on Egypt reached their climax with the death of the firstborn, the people killed the Passover Lamb and sprinkled the blood on their doorposts so the Angel of Death would pass over them, and their children would be saved from death. These things were done in preparation for an even greater deliverance to come.

Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world to be our savior. When the birth of Jesus was first announced to the virgin Mary, it was said of Him that He would save His people from their sins (Matt. 1.21). The very name chosen for the Son of God was Jesus, which means “the Lord saves.” Jesus was not born into the world to be a political savior. At the time of Jesus’ birth the Roman Caesar Augustus had already been hailed as the savior of the world. It was Caesar who established the famous Pax Romana, or the Peace of Rome, which gave order and stability to the political world. Jesus was not like Caesar. He came to save His people from their sins. God does nothing without a purpose. Sending His Son into the world was absolutely necessary for our salvation. And Jesus could not enter the world in power and glory but had to enter in humility. Salvation actually required God becoming a man. Because it was a man who had sinned and brought death into the world, a man had to be the one to save humanity from sin. Animal sacrifices like those offered under the Law of Moses could not take away humanity’s sin and the penalty of death. So the Son of God came Himself in order to offer Himself as the spotless, sinless sacrifice for sin. Jesus was born to die. He died so that we might be saved.

We must understand why we needed salvation. The Gospel of salvation only becomes good news when we understand the great peril from which we were rescued. The reason many people do not receive the Gospel is because they do not see the need for salvation. One of the great burdens placed on preachers is to make it clear to people why they need salvation. I personally feel that this is one of the great failures of modern preaching – the terrible consequences of sin have not been made clear to the modern man! How pointless it is to preach salvation when people do not generally believe that there is any real danger. If we are not in trouble, then why did Jesus need to come to rescue us? In the past the great evangelists believed that before the Gospel could really be preached effectively there had to first be the preaching of the Law of God, which would then lead to a conviction of sin. When people are convicted of sin they begin to see the danger and then the Gospel of Salvation can be presented with some relevance. Modern preaching has dispensed with preaching about the Law and the reality of sin. So the Gospel of Salvation seems irrelevant. Preaching only about the love of God will not adequately explain why Jesus had to die an agonizing death on a cross. Only when we understand that God is holy and righteous, and that sin brings His wrath, will we understand what Jesus came to do for us on the cross when He took our place and died for our sin. That is the Gospel of Salvation!

The Gospel (Part 3 of 5)

The Gospel of Christ

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:6-7).

Paul was writing to the Galatians because they had turned away from the Gospel of Christ. These Gentile believers had heard the Gospel directly from the Apostle Paul. But later it seems that some other teachers had come to the churches in Galatia with a different message. These Jewish teachers, who claimed to be Christians, told the Galatians that simply believing in Jesus, as Paul had taught them, was not sufficient for acceptance with God. These teachers told the Gentile Galatians that they had to be circumcised, as the law of Moses had commanded. While this specific issue of circumcision seems a strange and remote issue for us, for the early Church it constituted a major obstacle. God had made it clear, first to the Apostle Peter, and then by Paul, that the Gentiles needed to hear the Gospel. God intended to include the Gentiles in His Kingdom, which to the Jews was a new and difficult development. The first Christians were also Jews who were quite zealous for keeping the Law of Moses. This included such things as circumcision and also the dietary restrictions. It was the conviction of many of these Jewish Christians that if Gentiles were included they must also submit to the commandments of the Law to then become Christians. But the leaders of the early Church, including Paul, met in Jerusalem to consider this question and the clear result was that the Gentiles were to be accepted into the fellowship of the Church purely on the basis of their faith in Jesus (See Acts 15). Faith in Jesus is what Paul had taught the churches in the region of Galatia, but they were turning from this pure Gospel of Christ to another Gospel.

There is only one, true Gospel. Paul makes this point very clear in the introduction of his epistle to the Galatians: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8-9). There is absolutely no ambiguity here! Paul does not tolerate anyone who distorts the Gospel. To distort the Gospel is to actually preach a completely different message. There can be no tampering or modifying of the Gospel. Clearly the Gospel is not a matter of interpretation or personal opinion. Paul goes on to say to the Galatians that he received his Gospel directly from God (Gal. 1.11-12). The Gospel is a revealed message, not a message devised by men. Paul did not claim to have developed his own version or interpretation of the Gospel. All of this sounds very intolerant and narrow to the modern mind. Modern people are proud of having their own thoughts and opinions. Many modern theologians even speak of reinterpreting the Christian faith so that it is relevant to the culture of today. I believe that Paul’s words to the Galatians are especially relevant for our times: “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” There is only one Gospel and no man has the right to tamper with it!

The Gospel does not need to be modified because it is always relevant. God’s message addresses the deepest needs of the human race. There need not be any confusion about the human condition because God has clearly defined what is wrong with the human race. Sin is the problem. And to develop this point, God made a covenant with Abraham’s descendants and gave them His Law. The Law was really an extended commentary on the nature of sin, its effects, and what must be done to remove it. Paul has an extended treatment of this subject in the epistle to the Galatians. Like the Galatians, many people today do not understand the purpose of the Law. The Law was never meant to bring salvation or justification. The Law was meant to teach us about the nature of sin and our need for salvation. The Law prepares us for the Gospel. To try to be justified by the Law is to miss the whole purpose for it! The Law is about sin and is preparation for hearing and believing the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ. Everything in the Law pointed us to the coming of the Savior. The Gospel is good news to someone who really understands the message of the Law and has been taught by it. It seems that many people today have not been taught by the Law about sin and are therefore not prepared to hear and believe the good news about Jesus.

All false Gospels add something to Jesus. In other words, the false gospels convince people that having faith in Jesus cannot be enough – there is something else in addition to faith in Jesus that is required to be justified in the sight of God. The Galatians had heard and believed the Gospel. Paul reminds them that they had then received the gift of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3.2). What more did they need? If God had already given them His Holy Spirit what could they possibly be lacking? I do not think that the teachers that came to Galatia were against Christ or faith in Christ. They were simply adding an additional requirement, which happened to be circumcision. Circumcision is not the issue today, but there are still teachers adding to the Gospel of Christ. The implication of adding to the Gospel of Christ is that Jesus Himself is not sufficient. There are still those who insist that keeping certain aspect of the Law of Moses is a requirement for believers in Christ. This is adding to the Gospel of Christ. We are justified by faith, this principle of faith being well-established by Abraham. (See Paul’s extended argument concerning Abraham and faith in Galatians 3.6-29.) Our faith in Jesus is the basis of our acceptance with God and adding any other requirement is adding to the Gospel of Christ.

There is a tremendous danger today of believers deserting the true Gospel of Christ. Paul made it clear that the Galatians were in grave danger! After beginning in faith the Galatians were taking a dangerous detour. If salvation is through faith in the Gospel of Christ, then leaving the Gospel for another message is tantamount to the sin of apostasy, for which there is no recovery (See Heb. 6.4-8). Salvation is found only in the Gospel of Christ (Acts 4.12). There is salvation in no other message. It should be noted here that we are not saved by believing a doctrine, but by personal faith in Jesus Himself. The Gospel of Christ is the message about Jesus and we place our trust in Him as our Savior and Lord. Those who preach the Gospel must preach Christ and no other message, which is no gospel at all. Believers must not be turned away from simple faith in Jesus. We must stay on the Narrow Road that leads to Life (Matt. 7.13-14). Jesus IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14.6). Everything that we need for spiritual life and acceptance with God is found in Jesus.

The Gospel (Part 2 of 5)

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!