Grace Classics: Escape to Reality Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (2 page)

Read the New Testament and you
might come away thinking that there is more than one gospel. The first words of
the New Testament in the King James Bible are, “The Gospel According to
Matthew.” Read on and you will also find the gospels according to Mark, Luke
and John. Keep reading and you will come across Paul telling the Romans about
“my gospel” before warning the Corinthians to hold firm to the gospel that “I
preached to you” (Romans 16:25, 1 Corinthians 15:1). Read all the way to the
end and you will also encounter the “gospel of your salvation” (Ephesians
1:13), the “gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15), the “glorious gospel of the
blessed God” (1 Timothy 1:11), before finally reaching the “eternal gospel”
proclaimed by the angel (Revelation 14:6).

Of
course, these are all labels for one and the same gospel. There is only one
gospel in the Bible and that is the gospel which was known to Paul as the
gospel of grace:

I
consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and
complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the
gospel of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24)

The gospel of grace is
the
gospel and there is no other. This gospel is not built on a doctrine or a
theology, but on Jesus Christ himself:

The Word
became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory
of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth… Out
of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For
the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
(John 1:14, 16–17)

Whenever you read the word grace
in the Bible, you can substitute the name Jesus for Jesus is grace personified.
He is the embodiment of the Father’s grace. What does the grace of God look
like? It looks like Jesus. What does the grace of God sound like? It sounds
like Jesus. How do we know that God is gracious? Because he gave us Jesus who
is full of grace and truth.

When
Paul refers to the gospel of grace in Acts 20, he means the same thing as when
he and others refer to the gospel of
Christ
or the gospel of
God
or the gospel of his
Son
or the gospel of
peace
. All these
gospels reveal the One who is called Grace, who was given to us out of the
fullness of the Father’s grace, and through whom we have received grace upon
grace.

What
about when Jesus refers to the gospel of the
kingdom
(Matthew 24:14)? Is
this a different gospel?

Whenever
you hear Jesus talking about the kingdom you can substitute the word “king”
because the kingdom is nothing without the king. Who is the king? His name is
Jesus. When Jesus says we are to “seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness,” he is essentially saying “seek me and my righteousness.” And
where do we find his righteousness? In the gospel of grace:

For in
the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by
faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by
faith.” (Romans 1:17)

To sum up, the gospel of the
kingdom is the gospel of Christ which is the gospel of God which is the gospel
of grace. They are different labels for the exact same gospel message.

So what
is the gospel of grace? Paul summarized the gospel of grace like this:

Now,
brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you,
which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
By this gospel
you are saved
… For what I received I passed on to you as of first
importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he
was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… (1
Corinthians 15:1–4, emphasis added)

What are the three most important
bits of the gospel message according to its most prolific preacher? They are;
(i) that Christ died for our sins as foretold in the Scriptures, (ii) he was
buried, and (iii) he was raised as the prophets foretold.

On the
cross Jesus bore our sin and secured our eternal forgiveness. He died so that
we might live, was wounded that we might be healed, and he was cursed that we
might be blessed.

Jesus
forged a new covenant in his blood, exchanging our sinfulness for his
righteousness. His miraculous return from death confirmed that Jesus is God’s
Son, just as he said he was. It also showed that the demands of justice had
been fully satisfied and that no further payment was necessary.

The
gospel is good news whether you believe it or not, but it will only benefit you
if you believe it. Paul said to the Corinthians, “by this gospel are you
saved.” By which gospel? By the gospel of God’s grace:

For it
is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

The gospel is no mere message. It
is heaven’s cure for the world’s woes. And we can be fully confident that God’s
cures are effective! Those who trust in his goodness and grace experience
salvation power in all its fullness—victory over sin, healing from sickness, and
freedom from oppression.

For I am
not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of
everyone who believes… (Romans 1:16a)

The gospel is not just good news
for the sinner. It is good news for the sick, the prisoner and the poor. It’s
even good news for Christians.

A word after

I didn’t know this until I wrote
the above article, but it turns out that some people believe there are
two
gospels—one for Israel and another for the Gentiles. Apparently the Jewish apostles
(Peter, James, John, etc.) preached the former, while Paul preached the latter.
I’m not so sure about this. Paul said that anyone who preached another gospel
was accursed (Galatians 1:8). If the apostles had different gospels, then the New
Testament writers are a house divided.

What we
can say is that there are different audiences and different ways of presenting
the eternal gospel of grace. There are many people but only one body, one
Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Ephesians
4:4–6). The angel brought good news of great joy for
all
people and that
good news is
the
one and only gospel of Jesus Christ.

Travel the world and you could be
forgiven for thinking there are thousands of religions and belief-systems. But
in reality there are only two: religion based on your works and religion based
on the blood of Jesus. People waste years studying different religions trying
to figure out which one is best. But strip away all the packaging and you’re
left with a simple choice: it’s your works or his blood.

From the
time of Cain men have been trying to impress God with the fruits of their
labor. And from the time of Cain God has been rejecting their offerings:

The Lord
looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did
not look with favor. (Genesis 4:4b–5a)

Abel offered the firstborn of his
flock while Cain brought a fruit basket. Why was Abel’s offering accepted while
Cain’s was not?

By faith
Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he
obtained witness that he was righteous… (Hebrews 11:4 NKJV)

Abel’s sacrifice revealed his
faith. Since faith is always a response to something God has said or done, we
could ask, what was Abel responding to? He was responding to the sacrificial
gift God had given to Adam and Eve in the Garden.

While
Abel’s faith was a response to what God had done, Cain’s faith was in the work
of his own hands. Abel considered what God had done, but Cain wanted God to
look at what
he
had done. Big mistake. Instead of responding to God in
faith, Cain tried to forge his own religion and was rejected.

Two brothers, two religions

Religion based on human effort is
unacceptable to God. You can toil and serve and bring costly sacrifices every
day of your life but it will not improve your standing before him one bit. You
cannot buy your salvation with acts of charity. You cannot bribe your way into
his good books with acts of righteousness.

Of
course this does not mean you should go out and slaughter some poor sheep. The
blood of animals does nothing to take away our sins (Hebrews 10:4). Before the
cross these things only had value because they pointed ahead to the blood of
Jesus. We live after the cross. The Lamb of God has come and his one-time
sacrifice was more than enough to account for all the sins of the world
(Hebrews 9:26).

Just as
there are only two religions, there are two kinds of preacher; those who say we
are qualified by works and those who say we are qualified by the blood of
Jesus. These two preachers may look the same, but their messages could not be
more different. Consider the following contrasts…

The
Works-Preacher says you have to do stuff to stay saved. Make a mistake and
you’re lost for eternity.

The
Blood-Preacher says Jesus’ blood has obtained your eternal and complete
redemption (Hebrews 9:12). Nothing can separate you from the love of God.

WP:
Don’t touch! Don’t handle! Touch no unclean thing and be holy.

BP: You
are sanctified by the blood of the covenant (Hebrews 10:29). We separate
ourselves from unclean things not to become holy but because we are holy and
what fellowship does light have with darkness?

WP: You
have to overcome in life’s trials and dress yourself in white clothes, otherwise
Jesus will blot out your name.

BP: It’s
not about you. Jesus is your victory! Wash your filthy self-righteous clothes
in the cleansing blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14). Rejoice, because he
promised to never blot out your name.

WP: Say
your prayers and have a regular quiet time because if you don’t remain in him,
he’ll lop you off and throw you into the fire.

BP:
Jesus said, “Whoever drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (John 6:56).
Remaining in Christ is not about what you do but what you believe (see 1 John
4:15). Those who come to him he will never cast away (John 6:37).

WP:
Beware of sin! It desires to be your master, so avoid it and run from those who
have it.

BP: Be
Christ-conscious, not sin-conscious. His sacrifice did away with sin and you
have been set free from its power by his blood (Hebrew 9:26, Revelation 1:5).
Live free from fear and condemnation.

WP: When
you sin, you need to confess to get forgiven again.

BP: You
were forgiven 2000 years ago (Colossians 2:13). Your forgiveness is not based
on your confession but his blood (Matthew 26:28). True confession is agreeing
with God about who he is and what he has done.

WP: When
you sin, you need to confess to get clean and clear your guilty conscience. Ask
the Holy Spirit to examine you and point out your shortcomings.

BP: The
blood of Jesus cleanses and keeps on cleansing you (1 John 1:7). It is the only
effective guilt remover (Hebrews 10:19–22). The Holy Spirit will seek to
convince you of your righteousness in Christ (John 16:10).

WP: God
is holy and lives in unapproachable light. Don’t even think about drawing near.

BP: You
who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ
(Ephesians 2:13).

Are you listening to Pastor Cain
or Pastor Abel? Is your faith in the death-dealing works of religion or in the
life-giving blood of Jesus Christ? Are you striving to earn God’s favor or are
you resting in the finished work of the cross?

It makes
no difference whether you’re Catholic or Protestant, Episcopalian, Baptist or a
member of the Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism. If you are
standing on the blood of Jesus, then you are completely forgiven, you are
acceptable, and God’s favor rests on you!

A word after

This was one of the first articles
I posted on E2R and the reaction it elicited taught me the amazing, stunning,
and super power of making contrasts. Readers loved these distinctions and I can
understand why. To grasp grace it’s often helpful to see what grace isn’t.
Indeed, the Bible does this for it tells us that grace isn’t works, grace isn’t
law, grace isn’t a lot of things.

Yet contrasts
such as these are not often heard in a religious culture that esteems balance
and moderation. Instead, we hear things like, “It’s grace plus works,” or “God
gives us grace to keep his commands,” or “If you confess, he will be gracious
to forgive you.” These mixed-up messages lead to mixed-up thinking. “Sometimes
God loves me, sometimes he’s angry with me. Sometimes he blesses me, sometimes
he curses me.”

As much
as I love the gospel of grace, I hate the message of mixture. I hate how it
distorts the white-hot love of our Father and paralyzes those who receive it.
And this is why I’m thankful for all the contrasts in scripture. I’m glad we
have Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, Hagar and Sarah, Mt Sinai and Mt Zion,
first Adam and last Adam. In a world of mixture dividing lines help us to separate
the pure gospel of heaven from the earthly additives that ruin it.