Do we really know the Gospel?

Introduction

My answer to the topic question is, we do not know the gospel. The 'we' specifically points to the majority of Christians in Kenya. Yeah, there are a lot of mentions on the gospel but there is very little on the content of the Gospel. I once did my research on a Christian organization with a huge membership and unfortunately out of the 23 respondents I realized that only one of them was able to explain the gospel clearly. I am quite convinced that this, to some extent gives us the image of  the 75 - 80 percent of Christians in our country. This is a great danger since it means that there is a high probability of Kenya having numerous nominal Christians. We can't sing our songs rightly because we do not know the gospel. We can't preach correctly because we do not know the gospel. Eventually,  We can't serve acceptably because we do not know the gospel. Furthermore, without the gospel we remain to be dead as a church since the main reason the church even exists is because the gospel exists hence, without the right knowledge of the Gospel, it is highly probable that there is no existence of a true church, no matter how much fire a church exhibits. Therefore, the big question begs to be asked, what is this gospel that I dare claim we do not know, despite the hundreds of churches that exist while daily claiming to preach the gospel? 

The information below is partiality drawn from my research about the understanding of the gospel among members of an unnamed Christian organization. The discussion revolves around some of the questions I asked my respondents as I sought to find out how much they understood the gospel. 

Question 1

“Has humanity kept the laws of God e.g. (the 10 commandments)?” 

2 of my respondents said “Yes” while 21 others said “No”.

Before we engage in trying to answer this question we have to define what sin is. It can be defined in many ways but one of the definitions is actually the breaking or disobedience of God's commandments. Therefore, the bible (the standard of life for every christian) explicitly states that all humanity has sinned against a holy God.

All people whether Jews or Gentiles are under the power of sin. No one is righteous- not even one… no one is seeking God…. All have turned away; all have become useless.

Romans 3:10-18 – There is no one just, not one, there is no who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have gone astray, all alike are worthless; there is not one who does good, there is not even one. Their throats are open graves; they deceive with their tongues; the venom of asps is on the lips; their mouths are full of bitter cursing. Their feet shade blood; ruin and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they know not. There is no fear of God in their eyes.

Romans 3:23- … For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…

Genesis 6:5- … And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 8:21- I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.

Isaiah 53:6 - … All, like sheep have gone astray…

Isaiah 64:6 - …We have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like polluted garments.

Psalms 51:5- …True I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me. 

Matthew 19:17- there is no one good but God….

Paul in the epistle of Romans labors in the first three chapters to bring all men under the verdict that they have sinned against God whether the Jew or the gentile. With regard to the Gentiles they have not the law but by nature have observed the prescriptions of the law. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, when their consciences bear witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse them or defend them after completion of various actions (Romans 2:14-16). 

If anyone comes and claims to be good, can they stand and say that they have obeyed the whole prescriptions of the 10 commandments alone? Can the Jews? Certainly not. The Jews despite having the law. They have not obeyed (Romans 2:17-24). What about the gentile (including Kenyans)? Certainly not. As earlier stated the Gentiles (Kenyans), show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts while they seek at times to obey its ordinances. Hence, despite having the law the Gentiles (Kenyans) have still not kept the law to prove this, we can use the moral law that is the ten commandments and the two greatest commandments according to Jesus that  were given by Moses, that is , love your God with all your soul, heart and mind or love your neighbor as yourself.

In the whole of humanity, who can boldly say that they have loved God every moment of their lives with all the heart, soul and mind? Who can boast of having loved their neighbors as themselves that, they have done to others as unto themselves yet vices such as tribalism and corruption are menaces in our society. If anyone is not yet convinced of their sin, they also should judge themselves by the moral law which according to Paul, is in our conscience even without been tutored (topic for another day).

Is killing wrong?

Go to the most distant tribe which has never had the bible and ask them whether they believe it is wrong. 

Exodus 20:13 the command says; you shall not kill ( Jesus goes further to say that not only by killing physically are we liable judgment but this is also equitable to being angry at your brother to a point of calling them, “you fool”. Mt 5:21-22. Bonhoeffer (1949) comments on this verse by saying that anger is always an attack on the brother’s life, for it refuses to let him live and aims at his destruction. Jesus will not accept the common distinction between righteous indignation and unjustifiable anger, because anger is an offense against both God and his neighbor. Every idle word which we think so little betrays our lack of respect for our neighbor and shows that we place ourselves on a pinnacle above him and value our own lives higher than his. The angry word is a blow struck at our brother, a stab at his heart; it seeks to hit, to hurt and to destroy. A deliberate insult is even worse, for we are then disgracing our brother in the eyes of the world, and causing others to despise him. With our hearts burning with hatred, we seek to annihilate. How many filthy words have we thrown at people in anger? Something does not go as we expected, we start labeling malicious names unto the cause of our problems (if it is a person). Elections come we start labeling our rivals even in church obscene destructive names. I have even had malice come from some of the Christians that I look up to in my life. According to God’s standard we have sinned.

Is adultery bad? 

The commandment says that we shall not commit adultery. Jesus comments further that whoever looks at a woman in lust has already committed adultery in their heart. This should quite pinch us especially in this age that almost every material in media is provocative. How many in this age can come and say they have not broken that law? Musicians seem naturally endowed with the ability to describe the "valuables" of the opposites sexes in billions of different ways while their creativity never seems to relent yet few speak about justice, fairness, love and righteousness. Musicians spew their lustful thoughts into our minds and we the masses are ready to embrace the thoughts arms wide open by going further and even enacting those thoughts. Oh this sin alone makes us worthy of trillions of years under his judgement!

Is dishonoring our parents wrong?

Is accusing falsely wrong?

Is coveting wrong?

How many can boldly confess to have never broken any of this commandments any time of their life? 

According to Saint James when one breaks one law, they have broken all the laws. (Jam 2:10). And according to Anthony (2010; 193) sin (or breaking God’s law) is not just missing the mark but a rebellion against God whereby when we do not choose God’s law, we choose the other since we prefer it over God’s law.

In case anyone, brings a charge that they don’t believe anything that is written in the law is wrong that right is relative: I will answer that as much as they don’t agree with their lips that the law is good and right, deep in their conscience they know it is so and it is their desire not to be accounted to anyone that makes them reject the law. By these inferences, I, thus, affirm that all have sinned. If anyone claims that he has not sinned nor broken God's, it means that they have not ever lied in their lives, they have never lusted, they have never stolen, they have never coveted and that they have obeyed many other laws. 

Anthony also affirms by saying that by nature we have that capacity to do those things (good, neutral or bad) which do not commend us to God. That this corruption has permeated our intellect (2 Corinthians 4:4; Romans 1:28), our conscience (1Timothy 4:2), our will (Romans 1:28) our heart (Ephesians 4:18) and our total being (Romans 1:18 – 3:20) has been corrupted. That the corruption of sin extends to all men and all parts of all men so that there is nothing within the natural man that can give merit in God’s sight. (2010;193).

Calvin says that man is devoid of all uprightness, immediately takes occasion from the fact to indulge in sloth, and having no ability in himself for the study of righteousness, treats the whole subject as if he had no concern in it. On the other hand, man cannot arrogate anything, however minute, to himself, without robbing God of his honour, and through rash confidence subjecting himself to a fall, thus, man has no remaining good in himself, and is beset on every side by the most miserable destitution. (1536; 223)

Baxter ( 1615-1691; 4)  men have lost themselves in sin. 

Thus, my stand on the first question is “No”. That humanity has not kept the laws of God.

If humanity has kept the laws of God then there is no need of good news or a gospel because all is well between humanity and God. This dictates that 2 of my responsive respondents could not have a right view of the gospel for, to understand  it, we have to understand that we have broken the laws of God. Hence, 91% of the respondents are on the right track towards understanding the gospel.

Question 2 

 “If the laws of God have not been kept, is it rebellion and hostility against God?”

Consider this analogy. Every institution has laws to govern it. Every member of the individual organization is obligated to follow it and insubordination from the members many times leads to punishment. For example, in a church, when a member doesn’t submit to their laws they face excommunication or in university, when a student infringes on examination laws they face discontinuation or in our country when one goes against our sovereign constitution they face the consequences of their actions. Now, God is the creator of the universe and everything in it including humanity. Thus, he has a right to ownership of this universe and has made human beings stewards of it (Gen 1:26), and just as trustees have to treat property respectfully for it isn’t theirs but their owners’ and that they also have to obey the rules laid out by their owners so also should human beings treat all they have been given respectfully and follow the standards given by God. Hence, not following God’s standards, which is the law, is an act of rebellion and since that trustees’ rights are revoked when they infringe on the set standards so also should God do so but he doesn’t do that. On the contrary, he let’s human beings continue their trusteeship yet they continue rebelling. Hence the great weight of humanity’s rebellion for we continually spit on God's face despite His continued mercies.Moreover, just as an infringement done upon a great person such as a President or Member of Parliament cannot be compared to that done against a common citizen. So heavy is humanity’s rebellion because it’s done against an infinitely great God. This follows that 12 of the respondents were estranged from the great weight of glory in the gospel since the greater the sense of our rebellion in ourselves the greater the appreciation of the Gospel. 

 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:7. In order to feel the great weight of the concept of the gospel the believer must have understood the concept of their rebellion, hence, it follows that only 61% of my responsive respondents who are on the right track of understanding the gospel. That only 61% have a chance of being brought to feel the weight of the gospel through their rebellion. These reactions within create such a desire to adore, obey and treasure God. There is very little of it because there is very little preaching of our horrible state and the actions God took to save us (the gospel).  

Question 3

Should God let breakers of his law go unpunished? 

Deuteronomy 32:4 - How just and upright He is!

Psalms 89:14 – Justice and judgment are the foundation of your throne.

Job 37:23 - touching the almighty, we cannot find him out; he is excellent in plenty of justice.

What is justice?

Watson defines it as to give everyone his due (1668; 85). I would define justice by the words in Ex 34:7 that describe God as keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and that will by no means clear the guilty but visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

Hence, if the justice of God demands that God requite everyone according to his deeds, is He supposed to forgive all who have sinned? How can God be just and at the same time be forgiving? If he decides to let all rapists and murderers to go He ceases to be just and if He decides to punish them he will have to punish even the 'little' sins such as lying and boasting. Such is our Horrible state before a holy God. Some of you by now may ask then what is the good news in this, what is the gospel in this? For there to be good news in anything it means that there must be a horrible state that demands good news. Therefore, for us to understand the good news (the gospel) in this paper we must understand the bad news. Unfortunately or fortunately, at this point I will still have to give more bad news. So I humbly ask that you endure to the end.

   

How is He to reveal His justice upon guilty sinners?

God reveals his justice by His wrath. Paul in Romans 3:5 asks if God is unjust, humanly speaking to, inflict his wrath! How else is God to Judge? The same way a court judge’s sentence leads to jail or a fine so also God’s judgment leads to His wrath. Hence, God’s justice as a judge is revealed by his wrath. Anyabwile and Packer quote John Murray who describes the Wrath of God as the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is evil out of God’s very nature (2015; 36, 1973; 184). This can be seen in different instances in the Bible: 

Genesis 6 – God destroying all life on earth for man’s wickedness had abound.

Numbers 11 – When the people complained against God despite the many favors he extended, his wrath flared against his people.

The book of judges is a cyclic story of the Israelite turning away from God and God bringing judgment upon them by them been ruled by other nations.

The Assyrian destruction of the northern Kingdom, according to Isaiah 10 was God’s judgment for a hypocritical nation.

The Babylonian exile and Judah’s destruction according to Jeremiah 20:10 was God’s judgment for evil.

Some ignorant men will say that that was just in the old testament that the God of the New Testament is different. And I would ask why then do we constantly say that we serve a God who changes not. Another preacher actually said that the God of the Old Testament did not know what He was actually doing. This is even evidence of our idolatry for we have substituted a holy just God with who is said to only love and never shows wrath. Thou shalt not have idols of thy own! If we are to worship God truly we have believe Him as He has described Himself in His word. Otherwise we end up fashioning a god for ourselves and worshiping it zealous! becoming no different from the Israelite in the desert. 

In the New Testament we see God’s justice against sin in places like 1 Corinthians 13 when Paul said that they were sick and some of them died because they revered not the Lord’s Table.

Rev 21:7 whereby, God will bring judgment upon different listed sins by casting the perpetrators in the lake of fire.

Hence, if all have sinned and God is a Just God? What else is he to do but to pour out his wrath upon all humanity by punishing all for each and every of their sin.

Watson says that God cannot but be just. His holiness is the cause of his justice. Holiness will not suffer him to do anything but what is righteous. He can no more be unjust than he can be unholy (1668; 85). Anyabwile quotes Martyn-Lloyd Jones by saying that the righteousness of God is God’s love for holiness, and the justice of God is God’s abomination of sin. Anyabwile continues to comment that God loves holiness and hates sin. The expression of those two things is wrath. Wrath is how God punishes evil and honours purity(2015; 36). He goes further to state that man’s plight is that they face a God who is rightly angry with them because of their sins (P. 35). He goes on to state that man’s predicament is that his sin has provoked an omnipotent and holy God. God stands against man. I would add that man’s predicament is that he is dead in their transgression (Eph 2:1) and since dead people cannot move themselves they have no hope of getting themselves out of God’s righteous justice and cleanse themselves out of that which gives God a holy right to judge them. Such is our horrible state, that not only have we sinned and rebelled but we are now also under the wrath of God (His justice) and since God is Holy and no sin is in Him nor around Him even one sin from us demands eternal wrath. now, what about our countless trillions of sins? we are at a point that our own good works cant save us since the sins that we have done still remain at the sight of God.

Hence, only 2 of the respondents do not believe that God should not let law breakers go unpunished. This follows that the respondents had an understanding of the justice of God but among the 61% that are on the right track on understanding the gospel only 48% is now on the right track.

One may ask then what is the Gospel? What is the good news and as earlier mentioned that for one to understand the good news they will have to see the bad news so that they may value the good news and I believe this is the root of many our problems in the church in Kenya. We are attempting to preach a kind gospel to the people and thus we estrange them from seeing the bad news so that they may see the good news which makes people not treasure the gospel. 

Question 4 & 5

These two questions concern the gospel. They are;

Who is the main cause of the suffering of Jesus on the cross?

In a summary, how do you think the death of Christ benefits Christians?

In this section, I will use the term 'propitiation' a number of times. Meanwhile,  You can look it up the dictionary but by the end of this section you will get its theologically meaning and its importance to the Gospel. 

John Murray is quoted by Packer stating that in the faith of the New Testament; it (propitiation) is central. The love of God, the taking of the human body by the son, the meaning of the cross, Christ’s heavenly intercession, the way of salvation, all are to be explained in terms of it. For in Romans 1:18 Paul sets the stage for his declaration of the gospel by affirming that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men. The wrath of God is dynamically; effectively operative in the world of men and it is as proceeding from heaven, the throne of God, that it is active. Parker continues to say that the rest of Romans 1 Paul traces out the present activity of God’s wrath in the judicial hardening of apostate hearts, expressed in the thrice-repeated phrase “God gave them up”. Then in Romans 2:1-16 Paul confronts us with the certainty of the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God; who will render to every man according to his works: … unto them that obey not the truth … but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation … the day when God shall judge the secrets of man, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.

In the first part of Romans 3, Paul carries on his argument to prove that every person, Jew and Gentile alike, being “under sin” stands exposed to the wrath of God in both its present and future manifestation. Here, then, are all of us in our natural state, without the gospel; the finally controlling reality in our lives, whether we are aware of it or not, is the active anger of God. But now, says Paul, acceptance, pardon and peace are freely given to those who hitherto were “wicked” (4:5) and “God’s enemies” (5:10) but who now put faith in Jesus Christ, “whom God set forth to be a propitiation … by his blood.” And believers know that “much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him”

What has happened? The wrath of God against us, both present and to come has been quenched. How was this effected? Through the death of Christ. “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His son” (Romans 5:10). The “blood” – that is, the sacrificial death- of Jesus Christ abolished God’s anger against us and ensures that his treatment of us forever after would be propitious and favourable. Henceforth, instead of showing himself to be against us, he would show himself in our life and experience to be for us. What, then, does the phrase “a propitiation… by his blood” express? It expresses, in the context of Paul’s argument, precisely this thought: that by His sacrificial death for our sins Christ pacified the wrath of God ( 1973; 183-184); in simpler terms, Jesus on the cross suffered under the full force of the wrath of God (justice) that we deserved. He was cursed on our behalf that we may be saved. Him who knew no sin was made sin for us that we may become the righteousness of God. the curse of God was on Him was so extreme that he he had to cry to His Father "My god, My God why have you forsaken me." He forsaken for a moment so that we may not be forsaken forever. 

Murray being quoted by Parker says that the doctrine of propitiation is precisely this; that God loved the objects of His wrath so much that he gave His own son to the end that he by his blood should make provision for the removal of his wrath. It was Christ’s so to deal with the wrath, that the loved would no longer be the objects of wrath, and love would achieve its aim of making the children of wrath the children of God’s good pleasure (P.185).

Anthony  states that he did not die as a result of an accident, nor by the hand of an assassin but under a judicial sentence, and was thus counted with the transgressors, Isaiah 53:12, by suffering the Roman punishment of crucifixion he died an accursed death bearing the curse for us. Deuteronomy 21:23. (2010; 199).

Anthony continues to say that there are many facets to the meaning of Christ’s death, but the central one- without which the others have no eternal meaning is substitution. This simply means that Christ died for sinners. (2010; 231)

Piper states that this means that God can acquit guilty sinners and still be just (2005;35).

I will sum it up as this; that men have all sinned against a holy God and Him being just has to judge the world in justice by giving the world what is due it but, in Jesus Christ being sent on earth, as he suffered and died on the cross, he offered a holy sacrifice for humanity, just as the Israelite offered the lambs for sacrifice, and just as the lambs suffered pain by spilling their blood so also did Christ also suffer by spilling his blood and all his suffering was the righteous judgment of God upon him that was due humanity and he thus, procured forgiveness of sins. By the wisdom of God, at the cross of Christ he was able to show both his justice and love without compromising any aspect of his character.

Hence, the first settlement in the doctrine of faith is a deep conviction and realization of sin and putting our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the divine sin-bearer and then been grounded in that fact which consequently leads you to learning the other facets of the cross and the gospel and bringing such great affections of thanksgiving, adoration and trembling at the majesty of God.

In question 4 only 6 respondents chose God only 13% of the respondents are on the right track of understanding propitiation and among the 13%, in question 5, only 0.04% (1 respondent) clearly explained that forgiveness of sin is rendered by the fact the Son of God took upon himself the penalty or the justice or the wrath of God that was to befall humanity. The others point out reconciliation and salvation but only 0.04% clearly point out the laying of our sins on the lamb of God and God’s wrath being satisfied on him on our behalf which is now propitiation.

 Conclusion

  

If one says that humanity has kept the law of God, then there is no need for a gospel and also they cannot answer the next question which asks whether breaking the law of God is rebellion since none has broken the law of God and consequently cannot answer the question of whether God should let anyone go unpunished because there is no need of God’s retributive justice because all has kept his law and hence making Jesus’ suffering invalid

If one says that humanity has not kept the laws of God, but says that it is not rebellion against God is illogical because when has disobedience against a sovereign ever been considered as not rebellion plus, they also deny themselves the great gift of expressing great gratitude towards God because propitiation will not capture them as one who agrees to their rebellion which leads to less participation in the essentials of the church. Moreover, why should God give retributive justice to something that is not considered as rebellion? Hence, it becomes illogical to even answer the following questions.

If one agrees to humanities obedience and agrees to humanities’ rebellion but disagrees on God’s justice then they are going against God’s character that is clearly stated in the Bible and thus they clearly state that they don’t believe the Bible why should they even believe its Gospel?

If one agrees to Man’s disobedience, Man’s rebellion and God’s retributive justice but doesn’t see God’s retributive justice on Christ at the cross then doesn’t understand propitiation and it follows that they can’t rightly understand forgiveness of sin, reconciliation, justification and other doctrines that result from it.

It has to be also said that the respondents despite failing in the striking out method used, they got some of the other questions rightly, dictating that they have a knowledge of what concerns propitiation but it has not been dissected for them clearly to understand and thus be rooted in the doctrine of faith.

A correct conception of this teaching always leads to awe and arduous desires to know God and thus leads to fervent participation in the essentials of church life. Hence, it is not seeking to publicize our churches more or entertaining our members that will save us but going back to our roots and preaching the gospel is what will save us.

This research that I have alluded to shows us a picture of our state as the Kenyan Church. We have sought many other ways to solve our problems but we are not using our closest solution which is the Gospel. I am quite convinced that many of our Christians including so called men of God do not know this gospel which is the only gospel. 

I plead with us especially preachers to go back to the cross, see it and treasure it with all their lives for it is the only hope for humanity. It is the only hope for revival, evangelism, missionary activity and many other Christian endeavors. 

Be blessed precious readers.

p.s. This is not the whole gospel but it is at the heart of the gospel.