The real Gospel
May 20th, 2005I recently had a friend tell me that he was sure he was “on God’s shit list” now.
Nope. It’s not even possible. There is no such thing and I will freely condemn and spew vile at any religion that teaches such heresy.
A few weeks ago, I had another friend tell me that he wasn’t really sure if he was a Christian or not because “I still mess up so often.”
Damned religion.
I wish more churches preached the Gospel. The word means, “Good News.” Is it “good news” that you’re a sinner? Is it “good news” that you don’t measure up? Is it “good news” that you’re not perfect? That’s what many religious churches preach. Probably the second most often quoted verse in the Bible is “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Well, duh.
Do you wanna share the solution or do you just want to beat people over the head with the problem?
The answer to all those previous rhetorical questions is, “Nope. That’s not good news.” All those things are true, none of them are “good news” and that’s why Jesus Christ came. That’s the good news. No reasonably sane person has to be told that they don’t meet God’s standard. We all know that instinctively because we’re spiritual beings. I find it fascinating that John 3:16 is the most well-known and oft-quoted verse in the Bible, but it seems no one ever reads or quotes on into John 3:17. You can’t get the full message of the Gospel without them both.
Jesus didn’t come to condemn. The people you’re preaching to don’t need to be told they’re sinners. If they don’t already know it, they won’t believe you when you tell them. If they’re there listening to you, it’s because they are looking for the solution to that problem, not because they are unaware of it.
The Good News is that God doesn’t have a “shit list.” Even if He did, you wouldn’t be on it. There’s nothing you could do to get on it. Whether you’ve known Him and slipped away or never known Him, He’s still your loving Father watching and waiting for you to come home. Yeah, He knows what you’ve done. He doesn’t care because He’s already forgiven you.. He is love and He loves you. That’s good news.
There are 42 places in the Bible where you can find the exact phrase “[His] mercy endureth forever.” FORTY-TWO places. Do you think maybe He was trying to send a message? There are well over a hundred variations of the same thought.
Micah 7:18 says:
Who [is] a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth [in] mercy.
Did you catch that? He delights in mercy. In the original Hebrew, that could be accurately translated as “takes pleasure in.” It pleasures Him to show mercy.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says:
[It is of] the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness.
So. Now we know that His mercy endures forever and it’s new every morning. That means that every morning when you wake up, you have more mercy available than the day before. Yesterday’s mercy endures forever and you got a fresh dose this morning. Why? Because providing mercy gives Him pleasure.
I’ll wrap this up with two more scriptures. Isaiah 53:10-11 says:
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
He’s satisfied. “He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” Keep that in mind as we move into the very next chapter where we read in Isa. 54:7-10:
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. For this [is as] the waters of Noah unto me: for [as] I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.
“but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.” As the waters of Noah… so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.
You need a theologian to help you misunderstand that.
God’s not mad at you. Larry the Cable Guy says, “That’s funny. I don’t care who ya are.” I’m tellin’ you, God’s not mad at ya. I don’t care who ya are.
And that’s definitely good news.
How do you square that with passages that clearly speak of YHWH’s wrath? People incited Him to anger all through the Bible. You’ve posted some good thoughts here, but I think your picture is a little off-balance.
It’s really pretty easy, Arielle. I see none in the New Testament except for the book of Revelation.
I quoted His words from Isaiah 54. He swore an oath that He would no more be “wroth” with us.
Tell me how you square that with any teaching that He’s doling out judgment in anger today.
Your mother once accused me of being a “dispensationalist.” I don’t like labels and I don’t subscribe to any particular “theology,” but I think Isa. 54 (among others) makes it pretty clear that we are living in a dispensation of grace.
And, incidentally, I want you to know that I respect you and your mother both quite a bit. I’m not attacking, I’m responding.
It’s still good to be reminded of that, especially after that circus I was at yesterday.
DC,
Conduct a poll and ask people the question: “Do you consider yourself to be a good person?” or “Are you good enough to get into Heaven?”
Isn’t the Good News that Jesus Christ has delivered/saved us from the bad news? If people don’t believe there is any bad news, if they do not perceive a need, they will perish in their own self-righteousness. The only people JC had harsh words for were the self-righteous.
If people recognize their “lostness” they are ready to hear the Good News. If they do not see their own sinful state, they need a John the Baptist to call on them to “Repent” Our job is to do this in a gentle, loving manner, without condemning them ourselves. But they are not in right relationship with God.
Also, You rightly state that God extends His mercy to us continuously. I think that is called “common grace.” But Grace is extended to those who choose to be “in” Christ.
“Whether you’ve known Him and slipped away or never known Him, He’s still your loving Father watching and waiting for you to come home. Yeah, He knows what you’ve done. He doesn’t care because He’s already forgiven you.. He is love and He loves you. That’s good news.”
The part of your statement that really bothers me is “never known Him”
It is some good news that God loves you. God is a loving god. Some more good news is that He is also a just god, and requires justice for transgressions against His character. Would God be loving if He withheld knowledge of this requirement from people?
The Good News is that God Himself has fulfilled this requirement, and has endured/paid the penalty for those who accept His gift.
The Good News is impotent if it is not claimed by it’s intended beneficiaries.
I don’t think we should beat people over the head with their sinfulness, but neither should we gloss over the fact that our transgressions are unacceptable to God, and the situation must be dealt with.
24The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
2 Tim 2:24-26
Sorry, I must have left off the end-mark for the italics.
God was speaking to the Israelites, saying that He would forgive them…but one has to admit rebellion from God (ie. sinful nature), seek forgiveness from Him, and accept the free gift of salvation by the blood of Christ through faith.
Unless a person accepts Christ as Savior and Lord, he or she will be separated from God for all eternity.
The good news is the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and the opportunity to live abundantly with God now and forevermore.
Let’s not be wishy-washy about the gospel. Too many die and go to hell every day!
Also, there is no condemnation FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST. Those who reject Christ will stand condemned.
In fact, until one accepts Christ, one already stands condemned because of his or her sinful nature.
Elena,
Thank you. Your comment was much more concise and to the point. After reading over mine, I think I tried to say too much and started rambling.
I pray that some relevant thought made it through.
Whew! Talk about timing! I needed that big time. I’ve been beating myself over the past few days, as, even though I understand that I’m a sinner, and I could never measure up to God’s standards, I just sometimes get to the point where I’m thinking that sooner or later I’ll just get too many negative points on my record. Maybe that doesn’t make sense the way I wrote it, but hopefully you get the idea. I continue to sin, even though I try not to, and I guess sometimes we need a reminder that God expects that too, but, with repentance and faith in Jesus, he will also forgive us that. Thanks dude.
Okay, haven’t read the rest of the comments but first…
I’ve never felt attacked by you DC, even when we disagree. =) Hopefully you’ve never felt attacked by me.
Secondly, the specific situation I was thinking of was the death of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, detailed in Acts 5:1-11. It’s a bit long to post here, so perhaps you’d like to read it and then comment further?
By the way, my mother believes we live in an age of grace now, and that the OT was an age of grace as well. Everywhere you look you find examples of YHWH’s incredible grace and mercy. She just doesn’t agree with certain aspects of dispensationalist theology. (I don’t know a whole lot about the various ists and isms, myself.)
Elena said:
Let’s not be wishy-washy about the gospel. Too many die and go to hell every day!
And then she followed up with:
In fact, until one accepts Christ, one already stands condemned because of his or her sinful nature.
I think you missed the point of what I was saying and I take the blame. I stand by everything I said but perhaps I should’ve provided more context.
Still, it fascinates me how religion rears it’s head against the gospel. I disagree with the essence of your argument, Elena. As well as with the essence of IM’s comment.
This post was the Gospel as pure as it gets and your religion makes it impossible for you to accept it without placing conditions on it. That’s why religion creates as many “atheists” as Christians.
I’ll do a follow up post or two to explain what I’m getting at.
And, as always, I love y’all, I just despise religion.
Honey chil’, it ain’t “religion”—it’s scriptural. I’ll have to get back to ya on the exact references.
And dearie, “religion” also means “how one practices what one believes,” which is not the connotation you’re using. I wish you’d choose a more precise term.
And we all really ought to delineate what we mean by the words condemn and condemnation.
I’ve never felt attacked by you DC, even when we disagree. =) Hopefully you’ve never felt attacked by me.
No, I haven’t. Fret not. I added that disclaimer because I have a tendency, in this medium, to come across quite a bit harsher than I intend to. I often attack ideas viciously and it appears that I’m attacking people.
I’m glad you’ve never felt attacked by me. I was just trying to make sure you didn’t.
I haven’t either, DC,(thought you were attacking me at any time) and appreciated this blog. The last few weeks have been tough, and it was good to be reminded of Father’s mercy. We moved (a long story) and I have been offline for just over 5 weeks now. It is amazing how much one can get done without the distraction of the internet. Anyway, even if life is tough, Father’s mercies are new every morning. It could have been much harder not having phone or internet to communicate without His mercies. I even resorted to the postal service when I remembered that it existed. I sent Arielle birthday greetings by post and she had quite a reaction that she hadn’t thought of that for my birthday. I do prefer email, though, over the postal service, and sad to say very few letters that I sent have been answered by the same mode of communication. I think I got one response and that was because I had to know an answer in a certain amount of time. Oh well! In spite of the difficulties of life, my home has shalom, my husband and I have shalom, my children are all well, and my Father is still on His throne.
Love and shalom,
Serena
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