‘Believing In The Gospel’
Sermon Summary
18 February 01
Romans 1:16,17

Recently I spoke on Celebrating Salvation – celebrating that amazing event wherein the Creator of this Universe and us, by virtue of His presence within the believer, provides eternal life. Celebrating this event helps remind ourselves of the reality of what has taken place and provides the assurance that John was trying to stimulate in each believer in 1John.5:11-13. This assurance is necessary for the Christian life is to be lived as a response of appreciation to what God has done for us as individuals, not as a means of getting God to save us Eph.2:8,9. Celebrating one’s own salvation is a way of helping to sustain a sense of conviction and assurance about having received eternal life. There is also a further dividend in being convinced of one’s own salvation – you see believing in the effectiveness of the Gospel for oneself is the starting point for having a strong sense of confidence in the effectiveness of the gospel for others. Such confidence encourages us to share the gospel more freely and comfortably with others.

The Gospel: 1Cor.15:1-5

The Gospel that was preached, gossipped, and shared by one means or another in the early church is probably best summarised in Paul’s words in 1Cor.15:1-5. The facts of Christ’s death and resurrection were applied with different emphases according to the audiences involved, but one key repetitious aspect is the forgiveness of sins eg. Acts.2:38, 3:19, 10:43 – that Jesus was killed, raised from the dead, and that forgiveness of sins can come to all who believe in him. And as you peruse the book of Acts, you see the church growing and spreading phenomenally as people believed in this message for themselves.

As you go through the New Testament, you will also find that this message is integral to people finding salvation because God has ordained that it is this message that saves - none other eg. Eph.1:13,14; Rom.10:12-15; John.3:36; Acts.4:12; etc.

In 1Cor.1:18,21 Paul argues that God deliberately chose the message of the cross as the means of saving people. We are warned in advance that many will think the gospel foolish, absurd, and quite ridiculous – but nonetheless, it is God’s choice, and is viewed by him as wisdom 1:30, why? Because the gospel is God’s means of providing righteousness, holiness, and redemption! Nothing else of our devising could ever accomplish that. Illustration: Group of boy scouts went hiking and when they were returning, a couple of the fellows said they knew a better way. The two set off, separating again after a disagreement about taking a further shortcut. The conclusion was that the one who took the shortest cut was never found. His father would come years later calling out his name, to no avail. There is no shortcut that works. Responding to the gospel is the only way.

How Convinced Are You Of The Power Of The Gospel

It has been said that the emotion of shame about the Gospel betrays unbelief in the truth of the gospel, and that the absence of shame is the proof of faith. We need Paul’s sense of confidence in the Gospel.

Consider Paul’s Confidence In The Gospel: Rom.1:16,17

One can ask in what way is the Gospel the power of God for salvation? The answer however is not clear.

I do like this particular line of thought. John Murray, a respected theologian and Bible Commentator, argues powerfully along these lines. That is, the power of the gospel is not in it revealing a plan or a method of salvation. Instead, its power is found in the dynamic effect of a person seeing for themselves the righteousness which God gives them through Christ’s death. Seeing that righteousness or God’s total acceptance of oneself in the gospel is the dynamic revolutionising truth which God uses powerfully in the individual. Seeing it as a plan or a method is simply a grasping of the facts; seeing one’s own acceptance mirrored in the gospel is a powerful saving experience – as God intended As one comes to believe in their own full acceptance before God, a revolution carried out by the combination of ones own realizations and the power of the Holy Spirit takes place.

The Important Point:

I would maintain however, that on a practical level the way in which the power of God is released through the Gospel is not the important thing. The truth of the matter is that Paul viewed the gospel as dynamite. The how and why is not as important as the fact that it was, in his view. He handled the Gospel with an expectation that it was powerfully able to do it’s job. He saw it as divinely powerful. In fact the word he uses is the root that is used for the English word dynamite - a high explosive with great disruptive power. Explosives are generally categorised as being mechanical, nuclear, or chemical. Their important properties are generally density, stability, sensitivity, velocity of detonation, detonation pressure, heat of explosion, and available energy. I am not sure how scientists would categorise the gospel, nor it’s explosive properties, but the fact is that we need to have Paul’s view - that the gospel is God’s divine high explosive capable of providing all with salvation. We need to have a higher degree of confidence in the Gospel than in ourselves being able to persuade people to believe in it. Paul’s confidence in the power of the Gospel enabled him to share it even when he had no confidence in himself 1Cor.2:1-5.

All we need to know is that inherent in the Gospel there is power to convert and justify a person, if they will believe in the righteousness or divine acceptance that is there for themselves in it. Knowing that this is true for ourselves, we are in a fit state to share the gospel in persuasive ways so that people will find faith stirring within them. Now it is true that we cannot induce faith in Christ, for ultimately that is God’s prerogative and responsibility, and I assume it comes primarily from the convicting work of the Holy Spirit John.16:8; but it would seem that our efforts of persuasion are incorporated into the development of faith in an individual Acts.2:40, 18:4, 26:28; 2Cor.5:11 etc. As Paul put elsewhere, one sows another reaps, but it is God who causes the Gospel message to flourish and grow in a person 1Cor.3:6. Obviously though, the more convinced we are in the power of the gospel, the more persuasively and fully we will share it with others.

Conclusion:

It is so easy to be hesitant and awkward in sharing our faith with others, mostly due to uneasiness about the power of the message to impact others. But as Paul called the Christians in Corinth ‘letters from Christ to be read by all’ (2Cor.3:1-3); and Peter said that Christians should always be prepared to ‘give a reason’ for the hope they have 1Pet.3:15; as Jesus said for His disciples to be the ‘light of the world – a city set on a hill’ Matt.5:14-16; and the members of the early church shared the gospel wherever they went after the Jerusalem persecution Acts.8:4,11:19,20. – so too are we to share. They had confidence in the gospel, Paul had supreme confidence in the Gospel – that it was a powerful message; so too must we. If we have this type of view of the gospel, we will not be embarrassed in sharing it. So believe in the power of the gospel – keep in mind that it is God’s dynamite. Place it in people’s minds and you will never know just when it will go off, but when it does, it will bring salvation to that individual.

Blessings

 

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