...a lot of eyes on Rome as the cardinals prepare to pick a new pope. And for the first time, some American cardinals on the list. Well, what I wanted to ask you about, there seems to be some concern, and you hear this a lot, that– among Catholics, there shouldn’t be an American pope because that pope would be too tied to the U.S. government. Kinda the mirror image of John F. Kennedy’s problem back in 1960. What do you think of that?Frankly, I haven't kept up with Catholic news. Sure, I knew that the previous Pope had retired — that hadn't happened in something like 600 years. And, yes, I knew that the College of Cardinals were meeting to select a new Pope (that engendered a lot of teasing with some friends who are fans of an American baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals). But, quite honestly, that does not impact my life in any way at all. No disrespect intended, it just doesn't.
President Obama gave a witty response, I don’t know if you’ve checked lately, but the conference of Catholic bishops here in the United States don’t seem to be takin’ orders from me, but what caught my attention was President Obama's next statement:
Look at that again, ...the central message of the gospel ... is that we treat everybody as children of God and that we love them the way Jesus Christ taught us to love 'em. That got me thinking, "I don't think that is the gospel message, but how would I define the gospel?" [Disclaimer: This is neither a political statement, nor criticism of President Obama — his statement just got me thinking.] So, I worked on it for a bit. I wasn't starting from scratch; I had heard other people define gospel, but I had never tried to do that for myself. If you want a single New Testament passage that gives a definition, a good place to start is Colossians 1:13-23. But, I wanted to see how I would define gospel. This is what I came up with:I– my hope is– based on what I know about the Catholic Church and– the terrific work that they’ve done around the world.And certainly in this country, and, you know– helping those who are less fortunate– is that– you have– a pope who sustains and maintains– what I consider the central message of the gospel. And that is– that we– we treat everybody– as children of God and that– we love them– the way Jesus Christ taught us to love ‘em.
We were once alienated from God and were enemies of God because of our sin, our evil behaviour (Col. 1:21). Jesus came to earth as a human descendant of Israel's King David (Rom. 1:3). However, Jesus was not just a good man. Jesus is God's Son (Rom. 1:3), he is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), he is one with God the Father (John 10:30), he is fully God (Col. 1:19). He was powerfully proved to be God's Son by his resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4). He reconciled us with God through his death on the cross (Col. 1:22), forgave our sins (Col 1:14), and made us citizens of his Kingdom (Col. 1:13). This reconciliation to God becomes reality when we believe this good news (Eph. 1:13) by faith (Eph 2:8). The guarantee, the seal, of our reconciliation and our ultimate salvation is the presence of God's Spirit in us (Eph. 1:13). Our good works (love, justice, service, etc.) are not the cause of our salvation, but are the result of our salvation by faith (Eph. 2:10) and the evidence that God's Spirit is in us (Gal. 5:22-26).
- How would you define gospel?
For the Kingdom,
Bob A
As I thought about this again last night, another passage came to mind that talks about another facet of the gospel — Luke 4:16-21. Taken out of the context of the whole New Testament and, indeed, the whole Bible, one could come to the conclusion that the whole point of Jesus' coming was to relieve social ills or to provide political liberation. The good news is holistic.
ReplyDeleteLuke 4:16-21 — He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Bob - this is an interesting question and a good thought. It is always amazing to me that there are so many folks out there who either have never really heard the Gospel or do not have an accurate understanding of what the Gospel is. Yet in Mark 16:15 Jesus tells the disciples to preach the gospel to all creation. So it is important for us to understand what the "gospel" is if we are to be obedient to Christ's command.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite passages related to the gospel is what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:1-11. Without writing it all out, the parts Paul emphasized in this passage was that according to the scriptures, Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the 3rd day and appeared to his disciples many times after that and to many others.
I don't think we can simply say that we should only use this as the gospel because there are other passages that speak to this issue. One book I read recently was by Wayne Grudem called "Christian Beliefs, twenty basics every Christian should know". In that book he states that the Gospel message should have the following elements (I will use my words since I don't exactly recall all of the author's words) - 1) Discussion about Christ and salvation - this would include that all have sinned, that the penalty for sin is death and that Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins. 2) An opportunity for the the person to respond in a personal way to Christ's invitation to be saved. This "personal" response would be in repentance and faith. 3) A promise that the person responding would be accepted by Christ, would be forgiven and would have the assurance of eternal life.
I am sure I could come up with some of the verses that the author referenced, but I don't have that with me right now.
But I do believe this is an area where each believer should do some homework and thing about so that they have an accurate picture of the gospel so that they can share the gospel with others and recognize false gospels as you did when you heard the above interview.
Great thoughts. Thanks for contributing to the conversation. I had thought about this question for years and really felt like I had a good grasp of a Biblical definition of "the gospel." I had just never taken the time to think through it in a systematic way and write it down. The interview with Pres. Obama was simply the catalyst to get me to put my thoughts here for review and discussion.
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