Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
How we think about the gospel and what we are telling the world about the Father’s heart is so much more important than we know. Jesus said, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) That is huge. So what is the gospel message all about?
I believe the gospel message is all about the good news of what God has done in Christ to reach us. It is never about what we must do to reach God or make Him happy.
This is so clearly seen about a year into Jesus’ ministry. He had healed and delivered so many people that they were flocking to Him in droves; “The crowds came and searched everywhere for Him. They finally found Him and held Him tightly, begging Him to stay with them.” (Luke 4:42 Passion) Without doubt there was something incredibly good they experienced by being with Jesus.
Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones pastor of the Westminster Chapel in London from 1939-1968 said something that helped me better understand the gospel. He explained the gospel in terms of good news versus good advice: “Advice is counsel about something to do and it hasn’t happened yet, but you can do it. News is a report about something that has happened—you can’t do anything about it—it’s been done for you and all you can do is respond to it.”
All other religions give advice, and they drive everything you’re doing on fear, insecurity, guilt and shame. He gave a great illustration: “A king goes into a battle against an invading army to defend his land. If the king defeats the invading army he sends back to the capital city messengers, a very happy envoy. They come back and say, “They have been defeated! It’s all been done! Therefore respond with joy and now go about your lives. Conduct your lives in this peace which has been achieved for you.”
But if the invading army breaks through, the king sends back military advisers and says, “Swordsmen over here and marksmen over here and the horsemen over here. We’re going to have to fight for our lives.”
Every other religion sends military advisers to people. Every other religion says, “You know, if you want your salvation, you’re going to have to fight for your life.” Every other religion is sending advice, saying, “Here are the rites, here are the rituals, and here are the laws and regulations. Fight for your life.”
Christianity is to send messengers, not military advisers. It doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do about it. Both messengers and military advisers get an enormous response. However, one is a response of joy, and one is a response of fear.
When you hear the gospel, when you hear a message that it’s all been done for you, that it’s a historical event that’s happened, your salvation is accomplished for you, what do you want to do? You want to cling to Jesus like the people did in Luke 4:42. You want to tell others about Him. You want to get involved helping His desires be known and done.
If on the other hand, military advisers come and say, “You’re going to have to live a really, really, good life if you want God to be happy with you and to get to heaven.” What are you going to do? Likely, you’re going to want to get with the program and do whatever it takes or you may run away as hard as you can.
In a given point in time from outward appearances the person who heard good news and the person who heard advice may look to be doing basically the same thing, but the motive on the inside is vastly different. One is joy and peace and one is fear. In the short run, they may look alike. But in the long run, one leads to burnout, self-righteousness, guilt and all sorts of problems and the other leads to an open heaven.
Many Blessings, BW