Thursday, February 16, 2006

Lesson5-Day 4 The Gospel is About The Gift of Saving Faith

Faith is so complex. To me it is hard to describe and hard to quantify (not that it can be quantified, but my engineering mind wants to quantify faith).

How do you explain this faith that Peter spoke of in Act 3:16:

By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.

The lesson rightly shows that there are two truths about the man's faith. First, it was faith in the name of Jesus. He trusted that Jesus was who he claimed to be and that he had the authority to save the man from his condition. Second, Peter asserted that his faith came "through Jesus." Saving faith is a gift. Jesus has done all that is needed for our salvation. He even gives us the ability to believe in him.

I very much like the way Jerry Sheveland wrote about what it means to repent. The lesson says: To repent is to turn in faith from the guilt of our sins to God's provision - Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for our sins and rose again to give us his eternal life. Repentance is a change of mind, turning from disowning Jesus to owning him as Savior and Lord.

Repenting is not simply praying a prayer or walking down an aisle and asking God to forgive us of our sins. Rather repentence is an act of Lordship. Saying to Jesus; "I will follow you." The Gospel is to follow Christ not just "forgive me of my sins." "Forgive me of my sins" is a subset or benefit of following Christ. It is part of the Gospel but not the totality of the Gospel.

This week is causing me to think deeply as to what the Gospel is and how we (I) need to communicate the Gospel. What are your thoughts on what the Gospel is?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a enormously important question? In the first place, what actually is the Gospel?

I used to think it was the fact that once I believed it, then I'd be able to go to heaven someday. I knew that because I accepted it that I would change, and not do the incredibly obvious sinful things I used to do. I was told that I'd be born again. All these and many more changes would occur in me because Jesus loves me and will work in me.

My thinking has changed in regards to exactly what the Gosepl is. I've come to see that the changes I mentioned previously are what happens in me as a result of the gospel. Although the results cannot be separated from the Gospel, they are nonetheless, (I think) better described as fruits of the Gospel. The changes and (so-called) benefits are actually fruits of the gospel and not the gospel itself, or I should say, not all of the Gospel.

No doubt though, the fruits could not exist without an act of God sending Jesus - in the way he sent Him. The Gospel is what God did for us in Jesus. What I am totally incapable of doing or being, a perfectly made image of God, God did for me, by sending Jesus to be simultaneously God and Man.

It is interesting to note how Peter in Acts steers the attention off the healings the apostles are doing (what God is doing in them) toward the facts of what God has already done for all of them by Jesus being born, sufferring, dying and rising again. Peter says those facts are the Gospel.

Now, the question is, how will I interpret those facts? Furthermore, how will my life be different based on my interpretation of those facts?

P.S. Sorry for the long post Bill, but I found myself working out my own thoughts. Thanks for letting me take up your blog space.

February 17, 2006 6:45 AM  

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