Facets of The Full Gospel
/The Well Rounded Gospel
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is central to the transforming work that the church is called to proclaim and facilitate. The Truth of God’s Gospel is dimensional, rich and vivid. That being said, I fear that The Gospel is sometimes oversimplified into trite talking points to seemingly be more palatable or to appear wholly “positive”. Recently I was reading Romans 1 when I noted how Paul specifically highlights three of God’s qualities in The Gospel. The passage I noted says
“For [the gospel] is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”
What immediately struck me is the repetition of the phrase “For [fill-in-the-blank] of God...” According to Paul, the following qualities are showcased in Jesus’ Gospel: 1. The Power of God; 2. The Righteousness of God; 3. The Wrath of God;
From what I can see and tend to see (admittedly I don’t see everything), there seems to be a focus by many churches towards a more soothing and sensitive approach to God’s Word, including The Gospel. This means that there’s an inclination towards: 1. God’s love in The Gospel (John 3:16); 2. God’s grace in The Gospel (Ephesians 2:8-9); 3. God’s generousity in The Gospel (Romans 5:15-18 and 6:23); and 4. Hope because of The Gospel (Colossians 1:21-23). Please don’t misunderstand me — God’s love, grace, giving nature and the hope that His Truth provides are all noble and should always be celebrated! My point is that the ‘pleasant sounding’ aspects are part of The Gospel — but there’s more! So, in addition to love, grace, etc. The Gospel also magnifies God’s power, righteousness and wrath.
God’s Power in The Gospel
As seen throughout The Scriptures (and beginning in Genesis 1), God’s Word is the most powerful force in the universe. And of course His Word frames the good news of His Gospel, so it naturally contains and shares His power. Jesus’ church must perpetually remember and consider the transforming power of Jesus’ Gospel. This message converts from death to life (1 John 3:14-15), dark to light (1 Peter 2:9), old to new (Ephesians 4:20-24) and hate to love (1 John 2:8-11). God’s Word divinely empowers The transforming Gospel, which turns regular humans into holy saints! Simply stated, the power contained within The Gospel is wonderful, thoroughly transformative and eternal.
God’s Righteousness in The Gospel
In addition to showcasing God’s power, The Gospel also reveals God’s right-ness and the reality that He is the equitable judge of the earth. Though we probably think of The Gospel as being a New Testament and Christian message, the foundation of The Gospel is found in The Old Testament. Time and time again from Genesis to Malachi The Lord first spotlights and then rightly pre-judges people. Examples of those God rightly picked to exclude from His salvation include: Ishmael (Genesis 17:18-21 and Galatians 4:21-31), Esau (Genesis 25:21-23 and Malachi 1:2-3) and Pharaoh (Exodus 3:18-22). Though I’m not convinced that David’s older brother is refused salvation, in 1 Samuel 16:4-7 God passed over him because God saw Eliab clearly and rightly. How so? The Lord examined Eliab’s heart. In contrast, God pre-selected and pre-approved Job (Job 1:8-12 and 42:7-8), the Prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4-19) and the Apostle Paul (Acts 9:10-16). The example of Paul is a particularly interesting because when The Lord sends Ananias to help Paul regain his sight Ananias essentially says ‘Are You sure about this man Lord? Are you getting this right?’ Looking back on Paul’s life and ministry I think we can all agree that Jesus was right and correct to call Paul out of darkness and into His marvelous light! Is God’s judgment right? Emphatically yes! Is God’s right-ness evident in The Gospel? Most definitely!
God’s Wrath in The Gospel
And finally Paul clearly states that God’s wrath (which is a passionate and swelling anger) is uncovered in The Gospel. Romans 1:18 challenges the perception that The Gospel is only “God is love” or ‘God loved the world so much He sent His Son’ The reality that The Gospel is infused with wrath might be foreign to us—but it shouldn’t be! Think all the way back to Eden when God gave the first version of His good news.
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. ”
I’ll re-state God’s grave warning... ‘I have made you fully alive and completely free, with only one exception. You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because in the day that you eat of it I will certainly curse you to complete death.’
So we see that from the beginning it is clear that the rejection of God’s message leads to banishment, punishment and death. Let us consider the extreme intensity of eternal torment apart from God and then note that Jesus Himself warns against refusing God’s Word (see Matthew 10:5-15, Matthew 13:41-43 and John 20:19-23). We must receive that wrath is a key point of The Gospel.
Closing Thoughts
I invite you to examine Romans 9:14-24 where Paul reiterates the presence of God’s righteousness, power and wrath in His Gospel. In these 11 verses we see: First the right-ness of God’s election, next the power of His mercy and finally the patience of God’s wrath.
Paul personally knew Jesus and towards the end of his ministry he states
“I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.”
Paul, though being dead still speaks, and even today his words remind us that the fullness of The Gospel includes God’s power, righteousness and wrath.