06.06. Brothers, God Is the Gospel

Here is both the emanation and remanation. The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, and are something of God and are refunded back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God, and God is the beginning, middle and end in this affair.1 Jonathan Edwards ✦ ✦ ✦

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

1 Peter 3:18 ✦ ✦ ✦ The gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

2 Corinthians 4:4

6 Brothers, God Is the Gospel

Since this book was first published in 2002, few things have been on my mind as much as the truth that God is the gospel. The point of that simple sentence is that the highest, best, and final good in the good news is God Himself. When you believe the gospel, you taste and see that the Lord Himself is good and that the best gift He has purchased for you in the death of His Son is the enjoyment of God Himself.

Brothers, I think our people need to hear this constantly. In this fallen world, the tide is always going out. That is, the affections of our people have for God Himself (as distinct from His gifts) are continu-ally prone to shrink. Our job is to tilt the world, by the power of the Spirit and the Word, so that the tide rolls in again. In no way do I want to diminish what has traditionally and bibli-cally been called the gospel. I just want to make sure we tell the whole story. So here’s my summary of that gospel in six steps. These are all essential. If any one of them was removed, there would be no gospel.

1. The gospel is a plan: “according to the Scriptures.” For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:4-5) The gospel originated in the mind of God. It was His plan before the foundation of the world. It did not just happen. The Father and the Son worked it out before the world. They planned it.

2. The gospel is an event: the death and resurrection of Jesus. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) The gospel is an event in history. It really happened. If there was no historical Jesus, and if He did not die and rise from the dead, there would be no gospel.

3. The gospel is an achievement: sin and wrath are dealt with; righteousness and life are provided. In dying, Jesus absorbed the wrath of God.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becom-ing a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13) For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sin-ful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. (Romans 8:3)

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36) The wrath of God is our greatest threat. It hangs over all of us because we are all sinners. Without the death of Jesus, and without faith in Jesus, it “remains” on us. But because of Jesus’ death, applied to us by faith in Him, it does not remain. He bore our condemnation, our curse. In dying Jesus also paid the debt for our sins.

He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6)

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24) Not only did Jesus pay the debt for our sins; He provided a per-fect righteousness that counts with God on our behalf. When we are united to Him by faith, His perfection counts as ours. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Besides absorbing God’s wrath and paying the debt of sin and providing a perfect righteousness, when He died and rose again, Jesus also conquered death and obtained eternal life. As sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

All this—wrath absorbed, forgiveness bought, righteousness wrought, death conquered, and eternal life won—was achieved in history by Jesus before any of us lived or believed. God unilaterally took this initiative to save us through the death and resurrection of Christ.

4. The gospel is a free offer: in the preaching of the gospel, the achievement of Christ is freely offered to all people through faith. The good news would vanish if all that “achievement” on the cross were available only by the performance of sufficient good deeds.

Therefore, an essential part of the gospel is that this news is pro-claimed to all and offered freely to whoever will have faith in Jesus.

We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:28) By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eter-nal life. (John 3:16) So not only has God planned salvation, and performed the event of Christ’s death and resurrection, and achieved the purchase of for-giveness and the perfection of righteousness, but He has also made this achievement available to all through the worldwide, indiscrimi-nate free offer of Christ, so that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

5. The gospel is an application of Christ’s achievement to the world: through the proclamation, the plan and event and achievement and offer, the Holy Spirit applies Christ’s achievement to the believing heart. The fundamental way all the achievements of Christ become ours is by union with Christ. This is why the tiny phrase “in Christ” is so prevalent in the New Testament.

Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. (Romans 16:7)

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:5) In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:26) That last phrase, “through faith,” is the way we experience the work of the Spirit in uniting us to Christ. He does it through faith. And when He does it, all that Christ achieved in His life, death, and resurrection becomes ours.

Forgiveness of sin In him we have redemption through his blood, the for-giveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. (Ephesians 1:7) To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. (Acts 10:43) Counted righteous in Christ

[That we might] be found in him, not having a righteous-ness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. (Php 3:9) Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1) Receive eternal life Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eter-nal life. (John 3:16) But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:16)

Now this is where the gospel message usually ends. Plan. Event. Achievement. Free offer. Application. And, of course, this is a glori-ous ending. Who would deny that forgiveness of sins, justification by faith alone, and eternal life are breathtaking realities for sinners like us? But the picture is not complete. At least the completeness has not been made explicit. There is still a sixth and final step.

I return to my question: What is the highest and best and final good in the good news? Is it justification by faith? Is it forgiveness of sins? Is it the removal of the wrath of God? Is it redemption from guilt and liberation from slavery to sin? Is it salvation from hell? Is it entrance into heaven? Is it eternal life? Is it deliverance from all pain and sickness and conflict?

All of these are precious promises bought by the blood of Christ for everyone who believes in Him. But they are not the highest and best and final good of the gospel. In fact, unless they lead to some-thing else, these are not good news at all.

It is possible to believe in all these things, and to want them and expect them, and still never have tasted what makes all these good things in the good news good. So what is that? What is the highest and best and final good that makes every part of the gospel good news? The answer is given in 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 4:6. And the parallels between these two verses show the depth and the wonder of what each of them means: In their case [the case of those who are perishing] the god of this world [that’s Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. . . . For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, note the italicized words “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” And in 2 Corinthians 4:6, note the italicized parallel words: “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Here is one of the most important statements about the gospel in the Bible. We know from 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 that the foundational events of the gospel are “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Yes. That is gloriously true. Without this there is no gospel at all. But what must we see in those events if they are to be gospel for us? 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 2 Corinthians 4:6 tell us: We must see “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” That is, we must see “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Why? Because that is the ultimate good of the gospel. The gospel is not just historical events—Christ died and was buried and rose. The gos-pel is good news. And we do not see the decisive good in the good news if we do not see in the events the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

Notice carefully the use of the word gospel in 2 Corinthians 4:4 : It is the “gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” This is the gospel. The glory of Christ seen and savored in the work of redemp-tion is the good news. This is the highest and best and final good that makes all the other good things promised in the gospel good.

•Justification is good news because it makes us stand accepted by the one whose glory we want to see and savor above all things.

•Forgiveness is good news because it cancels all the sins that keep me from seeing and enjoying the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

•Removal of wrath and salvation from hell are good news because now in my escape from eternal misery I find eternal pleasure beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ.

•Eternal life is good news because this is eternal life, Jesus said, that they know Me and Him who sent Me.

•And freedom from pain and sickness and conflict are good news because, in my freedom from pain, I am no longer hindered or distracted from the fullest enjoyment of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. In other words, 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 4:6 tell us what the highest, best, ultimate good of the good news is: the glory of God in the face of Christ. Or: the glory of Christ who is the image of God. This is a real glory, a real spiritual light that shines through the gospel from Christ in His saving work and is seen not with the physical eyes but with the eyes of the heart (Ephesians 1:17-18).

Brothers, this is what I think our people need to hear over and over. That forgiveness and justification and eternal life are good for one ultimate reason—they bring us to God Himself, as Peter says so clearly: “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God ” (1 Peter 3:18). There it is. The ultimate end of the gospel is coming home to God. Knowing Him. Seeing Him unsullied with our own sin. Being with Him. Being conformed to Him. Enjoying Him with the capacities for joy that heaven alone will give. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalms 16:11).

Brothers, God is the gospel. What a difference it makes in a church when the people know this and embrace it with all their hearts.

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