The Gospel is good news. The Gospel is good news. The Gospel is good news. I find this reminder running through my mind so often in ministry. My tendency is to steal the good from the news of the Gospel. This is a consistent concern of mine in regard to evangelism.
Think about this: How do you introduce people to the Gospel?
In Romans 5, Paul writes, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”1 How does the introduction we give unbelievers compare to the introduction to the faith that Paul refers to here?
Over recent months, I’ve have heard the Gospel message referred to as law and grace. In other words, the Gospel is declared when a believer confronts someone with both law and with grace. In fact, I have often put it this way myself. However, the more I study the Gospel, the more I find myself longing for different, more accurate Gospel language. Is the Gospel a two-part message of law and grace? Is this the best way to introduce someone to the faith? Here’s what I’m getting at…
About the Law, we think of the covenant of works which ultimately brings bad news. The law says, “We have very strict rules here and you have failed to keep the rules. If you keep the rules, you can live. If you break them, you must die.” True! We have all failed to keep God’s law. We have transgressed His Law countless times. We are guilty and we must die. But is the statement “You are guilty! You must die.” a part of the Gospel message? Is the Gospel “law and grace?”
The Gospel is good news. That’s what the term Gospel means. To evangelize is to announce good news. Contrary to the bad news of the Law (though the Law is good), the Gospel says, “Christ has kept the rules on your behalf, been punished for your failure, and is a living and present Savior who is worthy of your allegiance. Christ offers you life so that you may live.” Now, that is good news!! But remember, the Gospel is all good news with no mixture of bad news. Right? So…is the condemning message of the Law actually a part of the Gospel message? No. It may precede the Gospel message, but it is not a part of the good news (because it is bad news). Although we may announce to others the condemnation that is theirs under the Law, we must be careful to keep the Law and the Gospel distinct. In this way, we may protect the Gospel. And we may also help our unbelieving (and even believing) friends by giving them a proper introduction to the faith. Rather than preaching a Gospel of “Law and Grace,” we may rightly confront the lost with “Law then Gospel.” There is a difference.
If we are not careful to draw the proper distinction between Law and Gospel, our friends will hear a message similar to this, “You have broken God’s Law. Because you broke God’s Law, you are a sinner. Jesus can forgive you for breaking God’s Law and help you keep it from now on.” This is not the Gospel. If we present unbelievers with this “version” of the Gospel, we will set them up for great difficulty in Christian living. Sadly, this is the predominate view of the Gospel among Christians today. The majority of Christians believe that Jesus died and rose again so that Law-breakers might be forgiven and, subsequently, become Law-keepers. Since many Christians have received this flawed introduction to the faith, challenged to be Law-abiding Christians, they are struggling to find their identity in Christ. Their joy, hope, and peace rises and falls with their keeping or breaking of rules. Instead of living in the freedom of grace, they are constantly pulled back into the slavery of Law. Although they believe conversion is by faith, they will likely also come to believe that to continue in the faith is to live by performance.
By receiving a flawed introduction to grace by faith, we are easily bewitched to live by rules. And when we break those rules and try to go back to the Gospel message, we hear the reverberation of that tainted and brackish Gospel, “You have broken God’s Law. Because you broke God’s Law, you are a sinner. Go back to Jesus who can forgive you for breaking God’s Law and help you keep it from now on.” And guess where we are. Stuck, trying hard to keep rules. And then, when we break the rules, begging Jesus to forgive us so we can get back to keeping the rules again. Does that sound like good news? Is that what God had in mind when He sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh “in order that the righteous requirements of the Law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit?”2 By no means!
The good news of the Gospel comes to those who are condemned under the Law and frees them to live, no longer by Law, but by grace. Living and obeying as a joyful expression of worship to God who give life. The Law, as I am still learning, exhorts, “Do this and live.” The Gospel proclaims, “Live and now do this.” If you want to give the lost a proper introduction to the faith, help them see the beauty of Christ, His matchless grace, and His faithfulness to accept them on the heels of His own righteousness, not on the condition of rules. Help them to see that the Christian life is not a matter of rule-following, but of Christ-loving. Not earning and keeping God’s favor through Law, but receiving and enjoying God’s favor through grace. Wound them with the bad news of the Law and then heal them with the life-giving good news of the Gospel that promises them grace upon grace upon grace. The Gospel is good news!
- Romans 5:2 [↩]
- Romans 8:4 [↩]
