Why the Church Needs the Gospel

The contemporary American evanglical church faces a number of serious problems.  We are entangled in a mixed-up mess of legalism, moralism, antinomianism, sentimentalism, shallow theology, self-serving ideologies, an idolatrous thirst for political power, a trite and entertainment-driven approach to worship and a tendency to either unquestioningly protect or attack tradition just because it is tradition.

The solution to ALL of these many problems is the same: the Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a wrecking ball to the oppressive edifice of legalism, as it declares that Christ and Christ alone has fulfilled the Law's demands and earned a perfect righteousness for us.

The Gospel deflates the hollow pretense of our moralism by showing us in unmistakable terms that we are not and can never be good people who can make any claim to being decent and upright before a holy, holy, holy God.

The Gospel also turns back the ugly encroaching disease of antinomianism by reminding us that the Law is good after all and does serve a vital purpose in our lives.  Christ kept the Law for us and empowers us by His Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life, even in holiness.  It is through the Gospel that God makes this promise to us: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (Ezekiel 36:26-27)."

The Gospel rebukes our sentimentalism by showing us hope in the form of a bloody cross. Our emotional sensibilities would never lead us to seek hope and life in Roman execution; it doesn't "feel good" or "right" to say that our sin required the crushing of our Savior and that only in His death will we find life.

The Gospel deepens shallow theology by calling us to ponder hypostatic union, propitiation, expiation, substitutionary atonement, imputed righteousness, vicarious suffering and more.  (If you don't understand these things and would like to know where to start with the most essential of these truths, start with an in-depth study of Romans 3:21-26.  Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition of the Bible will help, as will John Piper's sermons on these verses.)

The Gospel confronts and condemns self-serving ideologies like the Prosperity Gospel by reminding us that Christ suffered and died and that He calls us to take up our cross and follow Him.  The Gospel will remind us that we can boast in nothing but in the cross of Jesus Christ, through which the world was crucified to us and we to the world. (Galatians 6:14)

The Gospel reveals how cheap, inadequate and ultimately unfaithful our idolatrous thirst for political power really is.  The Gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who proclaimed that His kingdom was not of this world.  The Kingdom of God transcends the petty and passing kingdoms of men, yes, even the mighty kingdom of America.  No politician ever achieved the kind of transformation and lasing change that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings to hearts, lives, homes and even communities.

The Gospel exposes the folly of enterianment-driven worship by giving us an awe and wonder at the glory of our redemption that outshines and outlasts any momentary thrill we might get from a great concert by a cool band.

The Gospel also helps us to examine and evaluate our traditions in the light of something more meaningful and vital.  Instead of a relentless drive to reinvent church for the sake of novelty or a stubborn refusal to change anything, we can look at what we do and why we do it and ask a simple question: Does this glorify God and help us proclaim and celebrate the Gospel?  If so, keep it.  If not, don't be afraid to change it.

The church in America (and in the world) has many problems.  It has only one hope.  It is always and only the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ alone, by grace alone through faith alone to the glory of God alone!