There is no denying that throughout history, as the English language has developed and evolved, as with any language, words have changed meaning. All you have to do is go back a few centuries to see that the definition of certain words today would not be recognized by people several hundred years ago. For example, the word “nice” is rooted in the Latin meaning “not to know.” So originally a “nice person” would have been someone who is ignorant and unaware. Now the word “nice” is used to describe someone who is kind, respectful, and polite. Or take the word “manufacture” which in its original meaning is something that is “made by hand.” Of course now we use it to refer to things that are made by machines in factories. The word “counterfeit” used to mean something that was an exact copy, now means something that is fake or a forgery. The list goes on and on.
The analogy that can be made here is this: there are several terms and words that are used in the scriptures that, unfortunately, have different meanings than that of their etymological origin. They are misused and misunderstood much differently today than when they were penned over 2000 years ago, some older than that. The biblical term, or thing mind you, that has changed meaning most drastically is the gospel. Let’s face it, if we were to survey the average churchgoing American and asked them to define what the gospel is, the answers would leave you astounded. The greatest evidence of this is the fact that some of the largest churches in this country, the churches with the greatest number of attendees, are some of the most heretical that do not know the true gospel of the scriptures. These churches exemplify exactly what I am talking about.
The Bible is crystal clear as to the definition of the gospel yet so many choose to either ignore what the scriptures have to say about it or they will twist what the scriptures say and interpret crucial passages the way that they choose and pass it off as gospel truth. It is almost impossible to look at our Christian culture and determine exactly what the gospel is because relativism has polluted it to the point where it is completely ambiguous and obscure. Our desire as Christians is to have an objective meaning for the gospel, as the scriptures do, not a subjective one. Because there is so much confusion surrounding the meaning of the gospel, we must look at what the scriptures say it is and isn’t.
These are some of the most popular answers among Americans today: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Is that the gospel? Jesus died so that I can live at peace with everyone. Is that the gospel? If I do enough good things then God will accept me and my worship. Is that the gospel? While some of these statements may be accepted by many Christians, none of them reflect the central thesis of the biblical gospel.
So what is the gospel and where do we find the gospel in the scriptures? Well there are several places but I want to highlight one specific passage, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2. This is just one of the many places in the New Testament where the gospel is iterated to first century believers. Along with Galatians, Philippians, and Colossians, Ephesians is typically referred to as one of the “Prison Epistles,” as they are generally known. They are called this simply because Paul is writing them from captivity in Rome. Paul mentions this several times in the letter including chapters 3, 4, and 6. Now, there was no specific occasion or problem that inspired Paul to write to the Ephesians that we know of. Nonetheless, it is a powerful letter that beautifully declares the truths of the cosmic redemptive work of God in Christ, the unity of the church among diverse peoples, and proper conduct in the church, home and world. In chapter one Paul explains the spiritual blessings that believers share in Christ while offering a prayer of thanksgiving for the Ephesians. Then we come to chapter 2 in which Paul lays down his infamous instruction of salvation by grace. Starting in verse one, the Word of God says this:
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Now, Paul’s writings are flooded with the gospel message that Jesus is Lord. We can look to his epistle to the Romans or to the Corinthians to see the contents of the gospel message. But there is no place where it is so direct in such a detailed, yet compact, description like in the text we just read.
The gospel, at its core, assumes two basic levels: Man as sinner and God as savior. The doctrine of sin is about as misunderstood as any doctrine in all of Christian theology. We live in a society where even in the church, sin is downplayed. Not just downplayed but completely ignored. People think of themselves as “basically good” and cite the fact that because they’ve never killed anyone or they don’t steal or cheat on their spouse that that is what makes them a good person. In fact, sin has become such a tabooed term in a culture that is obsessed with political correctness that it is now considered politically incorrect to even talk about it. And most churches have bought into this notion that we can’t call people sinners for two reasons as far as I’m concerned. One, because it can be “offensive” and “discouraging.” They don’t want to talk about it because it can be a turnoff to people and that means that they won’t get any “decisions for Christ” that week. And secondly, because they don’t want to come across as “hypocritical” or “self righteous.” I mean the world has hammered into our brains the fact that Christians are just a bunch of hypocrites so the world must be correct in its accusations, right?
According to Paul’s words in Ephesians 2, not only must we talk about sin but it is absolutely crucial for a correct understanding of the gospel. Look at verse 1 “and you were dead in the sins and trespasses in which you once walked.” Notice he doesn’t say “almost dead” or “basically good” but he conveys the fact that the Christians to whom he is writing were once dead. Not physically dead but spiritually dead is the type of death he is referring to. Human beings as sons and daughters of Adam enter the world spiritually dead. They have no inclination or responsiveness toward God and no ability to please God. We were dead. Spiritual corpses; lifeless, unable to react to anything spiritual. Psalm 14 makes this abundantly clear. Paul even quotes it in Romans 3 where he says:
"None is righteous, no, not one; 11no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." 13 "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." 14 "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16in their paths are ruin and misery, 17and the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
If you notice Paul doesn’t exclude anyone. For “NONE” is righteous you see NOT ONE. NO ONE seeks God. ALL have turned aside. No one is excluded because no one can be. In the Garden of Eden God created man and woman in a perfect and righteous relationship with Him. Sin did not exist. In disobedience to God’s command, Adam and Eve acknowledged their nakedness and were shamed because of it. Because of God’s curse, sin became real. Sometimes we think of sin as a specific act such as telling a lie or stealing, however, we must realize that we are in a constant state of sin. We are born into a sin nature meaning our instincts and our motives are all sinful.
Verse 2 continues this same idea of thought “in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Remember Paul is writing to believers which accounts for his usage of the past tense. They used to be spiritually dead and were subject to the course of the world. “Following the prince of the power of the air” is a direct reference to Satan, to which Paul says is now at work in the “sons of disobedience.” Sons of disobedience is a Hebrew term. The actual term meaning “sons of the world” simply refers to those who do not belong to the family of God. They rebel against Him and they, as Paul has already stated, follow the course of the world and Satan.
Verse 3, “among whom we ALL once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Again, Paul excludes NO ONE and continues to reiterate the fact that ALL Christians were once spiritually dead and under the complete wrath of God.
Then we come to verse 4, the turning point of this passage. The climax of the gospel is finally stated and we can learn why this “good news” that we speak of is so good. It begins with probably the most beautiful word in the Scriptures, “but.” Because of this word everything that Paul states from here on out is in direct contrast to everything he has just written the previous 3 verses. Now, it doesn’t nullify what he said, just contrasts it. “but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ.” God the initiator made us alive! Paul gives us an insight into the character of God: rich in mercy and full of great love. And because of these attributes, God is able to make us alive even when we were dead. Notice the contrast of death and life, being dead and being alive. Remember we said that humans posses no good thing and no desire to worship God unless He makes us alive. God’s mercy on his helpless enemies flows from his own loving heart, not from anything we have done to deserve it. And he did this “together with Christ” is what the text says. He reiterates this even further by tagging on “by grace you have been saved” to reassure Christians that it is nothing of their own doing that has made them alive. But it doesn’t end there.
Verse 6 “and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” When he says “and raised us up with him” Paul is comparing Christ’s resurrection with the believer’s resurrection. You might say “But Jesus was raised from the dead, I wasn’t raised from the dead.” Oh but you were. Christ’s physical resurrection gave us hope for many things and it symbolized the action that takes place in the conversion of a sinner. Romans 6 says: "5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
So you see, Christ’s death and resurrection were not only real, historical events but they give us hope that if our trust is placed in Jesus Christ we will have a death and resurrection of our souls. A death of our old selves, and a new life of Jesus. Paul says in Galatians 2:20 that “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” We must understand that what takes place at the conversion of a sinner is more beautiful than we can comprehend. Christ died to sin once for all, it is a final atonement meaning that Christ’s death for the sins of His people is the only death that will ever be necessary. Therefore because He has died once for all to sin, we too, when we are made alive, die once for all to sin so that we are no longer slaves to our sinful nature rather we are slaves now to Christ. This transformation of the spirit being made alive is known as regeneration. This transformation is made complete in the resurrection of new life that takes place. Christ’s physical rise from death gives us hope for our rise from death. Perhaps I’m being a bit redundant, but nothing could be more important than the regeneration of a sinner at enmity with God sanctified once for all, set apart from the world and from their old selves.
Verse 7 answers the question of why God lavished such love upon his people: so that they will marvel for all of eternity over the incredible kindness and love of God. It will take all of eternity to fathom God’s love, and those who are saved will never plumb the depths of it.
We then come to good old verse 8, a verse in which many of us who grew up in the church memorized probably without giving the slightest inkling to its meaning and significance. “for 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.” Paul has spent verses 1 through 7 describing what we have been saved from, who has saved us, and why we need to be saved. He now delves into verse 8 in which his primary purpose is to explain how Christians are saved. In fact he answers it right off the bat, “for by grace you have been saved.” Grace is the unmerited favor that God shows the believer so that they can be saved. Saved from what? Saved from His wrath at the final judgement. It refers to God’s favor upon those who have transgressed his law and sinned against Him. But grace may also be understood as a “power” in these verses. God’s grace not only offers salvation but also secures it. The verb form of “have been saved” in the Greek is sesosmenoi, a perfect tense verb which communicates the fact that the Christians salvation is fully secured through his faith. Faith is a confident trust and reliance upon Christ and is the only means by which one can obtain salvation. And in case you haven’t gotten it the first several times Paul adds “and this is not of your own doing.” The word “this” in this particular phrase points to the whole process of “salvation by grace through faith” as being the gift of God and not something that we can accomplish ourselves. The word “this” is a neuter pronoun used to indicate to take in the whole of a complex idea, this is a very common rendering in Greek, and its use here makes it clear that faith, no less than grace, is a gift of God. Salvation, therefore, in every respect, is not your own doing, so that you cannot boast in salvation as an accomplishment of your own, but only as an accomplishment of God.
It is so important that we understand that our salvation was accomplished completely apart from ourselves and that nothing we did earned us our salvation. We earn a lot of things throughout the course of our lives; degrees, careers, promotions, paychecks, etc. But salvation is not one of these. We earn a promotion at work because we show up on time, we’re punctual with our work, we go above and beyond what is expected of us. Unfortunately, this mentality can carry over to idea of how salvation is obtained. There are those who believe that because they show up for church every week, read their bible every day, pray every night that that’s what gets them in. That because they do these things God will accept them and they believe they are saved. But they have never truly repented and trusted Jesus and they are no different from the Pharisee who believed he was saved because of his adherence to the law. Ladies and gentlemen, these things that I have mentioned are not things that save you. Paul makes it clear that it is only by God’s grace that we are saved, it has nothing to do with us.
Lets conclude with verse 10 “for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” It may seem that this is in direct contradiction to what Paul has just said, that grace is not earned through good works. But the meaning of verse ten rests solely on the fact that salvation is not based on works, but the good works Christians do are the result and consequence of God’s new creation at work.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 says this: beautiful passage… "16From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
The gospel is about Christ. His life, death, and resurrection, so that those who trust in him will be reconciled to God through HIS work, not yours.
I hope you understand that the gospel is scandalous and offensive, it contradicts everything that our culture and society stands for; a sinful man, and a gracious savior.
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