(A)

In our church, we have been considering loving our neighbour and the messages preached involve loving our brethren, the unbelievers and our mission and ministry.

All these invariably centres on the gospel and our calling as a church and as Christians.These brought to mind Romans 8 and Philippians 1 where Apostle Paul masterfully penned the meaning, the ramifications and implications of the gospel.

In Romans 8:3(b)-4, Paul says,
“God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Here is encapsulated the gospel – why did Christ die? What is the object of Christian salvation? Is it merely to give us forgiveness of sins? Is it merely to save those who believe from hell and all it’s punishment and consequences? No, says the Apostle – the object of salvation is not just a negative one – it is a positive one. God’s object was that “the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”, or as he communicated to Titus – “that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works”. In other words, Christ has come to make us positively righteous. Christ endured and suffered and died in order that we may be made righteous in a real sense in the sight of God. The whole object of the gospel and salvation is to enable us to stand righteous in the presence of the Almighty God.

What then is a Christian? Paul, in Romans 8:6-7, stated that if we are not Christians, we are dead. He wrote that the carnal mind is enmity against God and to be carnally minded is death; death means to be outside the life of God. The man who dies in the carnally minded state is lost; he goes into eternity outside the life of God. Paul made it clear that if we do not have the Spirit of Christ we are dead; we are not Christians and we shall remain, if we are in that condition, eternally outside the life of God, in a state of spiritual death and of unhappiness and torment. But if we are truly Christian, we have life and peace in God – we are in God, we know God and we share the life of God – and we have peace with God and peace with external circumstances.

What is it that makes one a Christian?Paul did not say that attending a church makes one a Christian. He did not say that living a good life alone makes one a Christian. Even being interested in the Word of God does not make one a Christian. The Pharisees knew their Scriptures and were very interested in them. The Apostle made it clear – “ If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his”. To say that you believe in Christ is not enough in and of itself. To hold certain views about forgiveness is not of necessity adequate. Paul the great preacher of justification by faith, says,”If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

We must realise and affirm that it is the Spirit of Christ and God who effects regeneration and causes one to be born again. This He does when the one who hears the whole gospel repents and believes by faith in Christ and humbly accepts God’s offer of salvation. The Spirit ‘unites us with Christ, and Christ ‘lives in us by and through the Spirit’.

It is important that we prayerfully share the whole gospel with unbelievers and not a compromised one or a domesticated gospel. A person who responds by just ‘saying the sinner’s prayer’ without repentance and appreciation of the commitment required to follow Christ may not be truly saved. If we faithfully share the true gospel and not one that portrays God as “begging and desperately seeking to bless the sinner and prospers him irrespective of his lack of conviction of sin-repentance, then the person may not be in a position to be born again. We are called to be faithful in communicating the complete and true gospel and it is the Spirit of God who will bring about salvation when He convicts man of sin and the need to come back to God.

Our call to share the gospel with unbelievers is a call to love them and to share that God in Christ seeks to reconcile man to Himself. We cannot be indifferent to the state of the world around us and about us. We see it’s sin and it’s unhappiness, it’s confusion and it’s uncertainties. If we really believe the message of the Bible, we know that the world needs the gospel and the gospel can only be brought to the world by Christians. We are in an age when personal witness and testimony is of exceptional and unusual importance. But we can only do that if we ourselves are perfectly clear that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution to what had gone wrong with man and the world. If we are uncertain about ourselves we shall not be able to speak to others. The man who speaks is the man who knows. Do we know what Is a Christian? Are we Christians? The gospel of John tells us that he who has the Son has life.

(B)
We now consider Paul’s writings to the church in Philippi and look at what he communicated to the believers regarding the gospel. At this point, Paul was writing from prison. He wrote with gratitude for the Philippians’ partnership in the gospel from the beginning (1:5), as they shared in God’s grace enabling the defence and confirmation of the gospel (1:7). The fellowship Paul had known with the Philippian Christians was one of ‘giving and receiving’; he encouraged them to continue standing firm and to strive with him unitedly for the faith of the gospel (1:27), having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Paul was actually focusing on how the gospel features in Christian fellowship, in sharing with one another, in loving one another and exhorting one another unto excellence in Christian life and character. What ought to be the centre of our ties with one another, our fellowship with one another? Paul pointed to the passion for the gospel and the fellowship in the gospel. Nothing else is strong enough to hold together the great diversity of people who constitute the church – this brings about a precious God-centredness that we share with other believers. It is the fellowship of the gospel that is at the centre of our relationships with fellow believers.

Notice Paul’s prayer that the love of the believers in Philippi may abound more and more (1:9). Growing love for God must be reflected in love for other believers (see also 1 John 5 :1). Paul was not referring to sentimentalism – he was stating that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. The knowledge is growing knowledge in the knowledge of God and the insight is gaining insight into God’s ways. Just as knowledge of God and His Word serves as an incentive to Christian love, so love is necessary for a deepening knowledge of God. We need to pause to recognise that the prayers uttered by Paul are gospel-centred; they are prayers offered to advance the work of the gospel in the lives of the Philippian believers. And by asking for gospel fruits in their lives, the ultimate purpose of these prayers is to bring glory and praise to the God who redeemed them.

Paul reminded them of his chains and imprisonment and also their privilege to suffer for Christ and for the gospel’s sake (1:29). He was telling them to emulate him and to put the advance of the gospel at the centre of their aspirations. Only then can they be able to endure affliction and persecution and misunderstanding and even misrepresentations from other Christians.

When we talk about the gospel, we are talking about the good news that reconciles men and women to the eternal God; we are confessing that God Himself has provided a redeemer who died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to Himself. Without the gospel , we are cut off, without hope in this world or the next, utterly undone. Hence, Paul’s writings to the believers in Philippi (and to us present believers) is to put the fellowship of the gospel at the centre of our relationships with fellow believers; to put the priorities of the gospel at the centre of our prayer life; to put the advance of the gospel at the centre of our aspirations – that is, to put the gospel first. In practical outworking, that is what loving the brethren means; that is what loving the unbelievers means and that is what loving the ministry means. We have something valuable given to us by God; we have something precious to give to others, both believers and non-believers alike, and we have a commission given by our Lord Jesus to make disciples of all nations. Teaching them all that Jesus has taught us is part and parcel of communicating the gospel; it does not stop at the point of conversion.

(C)
Why is the gospel and the call to conversion central in the teaching of the Christian church? We must realise that there is a danger of Christians losing sight of the goal, and of thinking that conversions are needed ‘in order to keep the church going’; conversions matter simply because they add to the strength of the church and increase the number in the church, and also increase the reputation of the church, – and this is certainly a negative and wrong perception! The church then becomes interested in gaining members for its own sake.

So why is the gospel and conversion vital, and why is the church being faithful to her mandate when she calls for conversions? The basic answer is that the church, in proclaiming the good news of the gospel, is the human agent in God’s plan for the formation of a new humanity under Christ. The church does not exist merely to perpetuate herself as an institution, or to gain social or political influence, but to re-call men and women to the knowledge and service of God. Conversion is a necessary part of the response to this call. ‘Born again’ describes the basic need of all people.

The basic fact is that there is a rupture of the relationship between God and men made in the image of God – this results in spiritual death, a separation from God, a breakdown of trust, an apathy or antagonism. It is a condition which can only be met by the breath of new spiritual life breathed at the command of God. This is why the Christian church, if she is faithful to her task, does not ask people to be better, or call upon them to turn over a new leaf or merely engage in efforts to alleviate human distress or to better the conditions of human life.
The basic need is is not for additional information or moral motivation but for the restoration with Almighty Glod of a relationship of love and trust and obedience which has been broken, and which can only be restored by the power of God, life from God, dispensed to needy men and women who come to Him at His own summons.

The Christian church does not exist to dehumanise men and women but to call them back to their true humanity, to a restoration in them of the divine image (Col. 3:10). And this restoration requires the conversion of the individual, his reorientation into the knowledge and service of God-in-Christ. Man’s humanity, his nature, finds fulfilment not in the service of other people apart from God but in the service of God Himself. From that basic relationship to God all other proper relationships follow – including loving the brethren, loving unbelievers and loving the ministering and service to humanity.
There cannot be an experience of saving grace (conversion) according to the Christian gospel unless there is, as an aspect of it, the experience of conviction of sin and repentance for sin. An experience which lacked these features would not be the same kind of experience as one which possessed them, and it would not be a true Christian conversion. Here is where the preaching and sharing of the gospel must be whole and not compromised or domesticated. The Spirit of God is the One who effects conversion, but the church is the agent which communicates the need for conversion and restoration. We have to give an account to God for failing to have the right motive and the right wholesome loving communication of the gospel, in dependence on the Holy Spirit. We see here therefore the meaning, the ramifications and implications of the Gospel of Christ. All too long, believers have a hazy idea of what sharing the gospel and conversion mean and this has led to the degeneration of the spiritual state of so-called believers and the church.

(D)
The New Testament has two lines of thought on how conversion (new birth) is brought about. It is the work of the Holy Spirit of God – in Christ’s well known conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, the new birth is referred to as being ‘born of the Spirit’. Christ emphasises that such work of the Spirit is at God’s own disposal, for the Spirit is God’s Spirit, and that it is mysterious and not fully understood or fathomable by human inquiry and reasoning.
The New Testament also teaches that the new birth is brought about by the word of God (1 Pet. 1:23), the word of the Lord (1 Pet. 1:25), the gospel (1 Pet. 1:25), and the word of truth (Jas. 1:18). The indispensable agent in conversion is God’s revealed truth.

The emphasis upon the word of God is also in effect an emphasis upon the mind of man, for the word of God does not work in the soul by magic, but as it is understood and believed (Rom. 10:14). Word and Spirit combine together in the work of the new birth, in bringing men and women to repentance and saving faith in Christ. Without the Spirit, the word of God is without effect – it is disregarded or undervalued. Without the Spirit, people see, but do not perceive (Acts 28:26). At the same time, without the word of God the work of the Spirit would be similarly ineffective because there would be no message from God to be understood and to be believed. The call of God by HIs Spirit is in and through the word (Rom. 1::6,9,11; 1 Cor. 1:9; Eph. 4:4).

The emphasis upon the mind of man also means that there is a place for Apologetics. However, one needs to acknowledge that one cannot argue a man into conversion. It is recorded that a well known Jewish scholar studied the ‘resurrection of Jesus Christ’ and concluded that it is true; however, he did not become a Christian even though intellectually he acknowledged the reality of the resurrection.

It is as the word of God is read or heard, in private Bible reading or in preaching or in discussion, that God the Holy Spirit imparts an understanding of it and confidence in it. It is through the guidance of the Holy Spirit that the various pieces of divine revelation in Scripture are put together, like the pieces of a jig-jaw puzzle, until the whole makes sense and its relevance to the personal needs of the individual is made clear and the person in question comes to place himself under the authority of the word of God. The sharing of the gospel requires prayerfulness and dependence on the Spirit; it also requires the sharer’s understanding and appreciation of the word of God in Scripture in order to communicate wholesomely and effectively to bring about understanding for the hearer.

(E)
The message of the good news of Jesus (the gospel) is disclosed and made known in the Old Testament – the prophetic writings make it known. Yet for most the true meaning of the Old Testament remained a mystery hidden through the ages. It was always there but it was never broadly appreciated until Christ came and began to transform hearts and eyes to embrace the truth.

Jesus asserted to the religious leaders, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).
“Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very daly” (Isaiah 29:9-12; Romans 11:7-8). God hardened generations of Israelits in order that we today might magnify all the more the mercy and majesty of Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 3, Moses’ veil that he wore after encountering the divine presence served as a parable of the people’s spiritual hardness. Apart from Jesus, the Jews could not fully see and savor the beauty of God in the Old Testament, but with the coming of Christ, the veil is lifted and the glory that was always there is now revealed. This is what Apostle Paul means in Romans 16: 25-26 when he speaks of the mystery of the gospel of Christ.

What is clear is that while a remnant few (the Old Testament prophets) rightly grasped that the entire Old Testament was a messianic document designed to instill messianic hope, the majority did not truly hear God’ Word in any way. Often the Old Testament prophets envisioned the very form of revelation that we now enjoy. They saw not only the shadow but also the substance that is Christ (Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 8:5; 10:1). At other times, however, they may have seen only the acorn, with little grasp of how glorious the oak would be that we now visualise.

In Christ, all this changes. In HIm the Lord has disclosed the mystery of the gospel bound up in the Old Testament. The Old Testament may be likened to a dark room filled with furniture. The shape and number of furniture remained obscure and unclear. But the light of Christ enables us to see what was there in the Old Testament all along. We must interpret and apply the Old Testament in the light of the finished work of Jesus. If we read the old covenant materials in the Old Testament apart from Jesus, it is as though the veil were still on our eyes (2 Cor. 3:14). Through Christ the veil is lifted!

We therefore must not forget that the only Scriptures available to Jesus while He was on earth was the Old Testament. We must not ignore the Old Testament in the preaching, teaching and study of God’s Word in the church. The Lord Jesus Himself referred often to the Old Testament, and the Apostles also quoted the Old Testament portions often to clarify to their listeners their relevance and fulfillment in the new covenant. We must also note that the gospel and the Messiah (Jesus) are ’embedded’ in the prophecies and writings of the Old Testament. We need the illumination of the Holy Spirit to appreciate and understand the whole of Scriptures. God’s cosmic and eternal plan to redeem a people for Himself with Christ as the head (as elaborated in the gospel) is already written in the Old Testament, beginning in Genesis. Let us be careful that our hearts are not hardened such that the truth in the Scriptures continues to be hidden from our perceptions and understanding.

(F)
We have seen that conversion comes about through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Word, resulting in conviction of sin and repentance on the part of the hearer of the gospel. We noted also that God ‘speaks’ through the revelation in the Scripture and this impacts the mind of the seeker through the illumination of the Word by the Spirit.

One of the objectives of theology is to determine what is, and what is not orthodoxy i.e. right thinking or wrong thinking in theological terms. It may come as a surprise to some – heresy begins with wrong thinking or distorted thinking of doctrines, and there is much heresy today in the Christian world. For many who claim to be Christians, the understanding and experience of Trinity, holiness, sin, grace, justification, sanctification, church and heaven and hell have been supplanted and replaced by the idea of happiness, niceness, and an earned heavenly reward. It is a belief system that demands little more than to be ‘nice’, with the central goal of life to be happy and to feel good about oneself. God is out of the picture and is not particularly needed except to resolve various problems that might come our way. And this is accompanied by the belief that good people go to heaven when they die. This is certainly not a Christian mind based on a biblical worldview. Unfortunately, such a mindset and understanding begins with the distorted preaching of the gospel and many who responded with the ‘sinner’s prayer’ in the midst of ’emotional highs’ and ‘psychological manipulations’ thought of themselves as Christians.
Charles Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship International, shared that he himself was involved in following up many who said the ‘sinner’s prayer’ in many Christian crusades and he sadly noted that the many who were identified as ‘converts’ went back to their ‘old ways’ in a short while, and ended up worse than before in terms of their morals and values in life.

Charles himself wrote in his book “Loving God”,: “the church has bought into the same value system: fame, success, materialism, and celebrity. We watch the leading churches and the leading Christians for our cues. We want to emulate the best-known preachers with the biggest sanctuaries and the grandest edifices. Preoccupation with these values has also perverted the church’s message”. Successful preachers and pastors, when asked their secret of success, claimed that they give the people what they want – the what’s-in-it-for-me gospel.

Thinking Christians is thinking by Christians about anything and everything in a consistent Christian way – in a manner that is shaped, directed and restrained by the truth of God’s Word and God’s Spirit. The Christian faith is not simply a defined worldview but a faith which claims to be based on revelation – it is a revelation of that which would have remained hidden had God not chosen to reveal it – it includes the revelation of who God is, His desires, attributes and plans for humankind
A Christian mind believes that God brought forth truth and order, purpose and authority into the created cosmos; the naturalistic mind (which accepts nothing outside of the natural realm) believes there is no truth, no authority outside of ourselves and the naturalistic processes of the universe (theirs is a closed system whereas Christians believe in an open system whereby God is transcendent (outside time and space) and He is able to perform supernatural deeds and exercise sovereignty over all of creation).

Paul the Apostle wrote: ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord” (Rom. 11:34a). He further wrote in 1 Corinthians : “The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corin. 2:14-16).

God’s ways in salvation history demonstrate that He is incomprehensible in the sense that no one can fully understand Him – His knowledge is deep and infinite. God is not obligated to explain everything to us and He does not owe anyone an explanation for how He orders His universe. Therefore, as created creatures, we have no right to exclaim like those who have naturalistic minds – “It is not fair – God, if He exists, is not fair”.
Instead, we should humbly believe and cherish what God has revealed – it is not easy to maintain theological humility. We should praise God that He is God and we are not. For indeed, “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen”.

(G)
We have noted that conversion involves the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Word of God. God ‘speaks’ in His Word (Scripture) by revelation, and the Spirit gives illumination and insight for the hearer by impacting his mind and giving him understanding and life from God.

It is therefore important that Christians be transformed by the renewal of their minds (Rom. 12:2). and this includes wholesome understanding and appreciation of the Gospel. Wrong understanding of the Gospel and the Bible leads to wrong living and outworking.

‘The powers of the new world would not be nation-states, as with empires past, but ideologies. It would now be ideas, not nations, that would captivate and conquer in the future. The starting point in the conquest of the world would now be the human mind’ (The Twilight of Atheism – by Alister McGrath).
The late John Stott once noted, “We may talk of ‘conquering’ the world for Christ. But what sort of ‘conquest’ do we mean? Not a victory by force of arms…This is a battle of ideas.”
The heart of the serpent’s temptation of Adam and Eve centred on the mind. He challenged the idea of there being right or wrong: “Did God really say that you should not do that?”He said that death is an illusion: “You will not surely die.” He said that they could become divine: “You will be like God.” He said that the way they would become like God is through enlightenment: “You will know good from evil.”

It is interesting to note that the four basic ideas in the New Age Movement somewhat ‘sound’ rather similar:
1) All is one and one is all. This means God is all and all is God – implying that “I am God.”
2) Since most people do not realise that they are God, they need to be enlightened. Eniightenment, according to them, can come from many source and one source highlighted is termed “spirit channeling” – one of the advocates claimed that that she was dictated by a spirit voice that she says was Jesus, but not Jesus of Nazareth.
3)Everything is relative. Truth is simply within you, so they claim. The Truth is inseparable from who you are…you are the truth. It is a distortion of what Jesus meant in John 14:6. They claim that Jesus meant that He was His own truth, just as we can be our own truth.
4) Reincarnation – after death, the consciousness will reincarnate in another form.

The advocates of the New Age Movement would claim that they believe in ‘spirituality’ and ‘spiritual ideas’ but we can see how far their ideas differ from the truth in Scripture.

Many individuals who identify nominally as Jews or Christians in the United States, in a survey, some years back, aree in fact devout secularists. Secularists are not atheists. The heart of secular religion is moral relativism, a functional atheism if you will, that holds that how life is to be lived is dictated by a particular situation in light of a particular culture or social location. Moral values become a matter of personal opinion or private judgement rather than something grounded in objective truth. So rather than rejecting the idea of God, secular religion simply ignores Him.
False spirituality is rising that will prove to be a more dangerous rival to the Christian faith than atheism.

In sharing the Gospel, we must look to God to share the complete and true Gospel. Many, for instance, would say they believe in Jesus, but we must know which “Jesus” they are referring to. Let us not ignore the renewal of our minds; let us not conform to this world and be ‘squeezed’ into the mold forwarded by the world and the evil one.

(H)
Today it is in the field of science and the writings of what some have called the “New Atheists”, in which the divide between a Christian mind and a secular mind becomes most profound. To think secularly is to think within the the limits of our life on earth: it is to keep one’s calculations rooted in this worldly criteria. Sciences study the processes, the relations, the behaviour patterns within the created system, asking how it works. They actually take notice only of what used to be called second causes within the system, that is functional regularities within the order of creation. Scripture however deals always with the first cause, God Himself, and speaks to concerns that are beyond the scientists’ reach. Scientific inquiry into how everything works fits easily into the biblical frame, but the sciences cannot approach the who – and why – questions that the Bible answers.

The scientific method is to go and look, guess and check – it is an empirical study. The Biblical method is to listen and learn, let God tell you. From science we learn how things did, do, and will happen; from Scripture we learn what they mean. In fact, science and Scripture supplement each other, but they do not challenge each other because first and second causes do not overlap. For instance, the Genesis narrative does not speak to how God created, only that God created. The Christian has nothing to fear from science because the God of the Bible is the God of creation. All true scientific discoveries simply illuminate the world God has made.

In the past, the encounter between science and Christianity is a friendly one; scientists believe in a God who has designed the universe, and this was the basis of the many scientific discoveries that were discovered because there was that understanding of order and design by God in the universe.
Today, the new scientific project borders on reductive naturalism. Naturalism is the idea that nature is all that is. Reductive naturalism is the value that all that can be known within nature is that which can be empirically verified. So a reductive naturalism contends that what is real is only that which can be seen, tasted, heard, smelled or touched and then verified. What cannot be examined in a tangible, scientific manner, is not simply unknowable – it is meaningless. It is a close system – this was noted previously – whereas for believers, it is an open system and reality goes beyond the tangible and physical.

The mistake made by a large number of scientists is to pose as religious pundits, dealing with areas they are not able to deal with. From Stephen Hawking to Richard Dawkins, the idea seems to be that the existence of God is a scientific question, which confuses methodology with philosophy and is terribly misleading.
Philosophical naturalism holds that life is accidental. There is nothing beyond ourselves that will ever bring order, reason, or explanation. We must restrict what can be known to that which is immediately before us, to what is given or factual. And this causes many problems for them in trying to explain the intricacies and design of, for instance, how there can be a life-sustaining planet when it is estimated that for all the right conditions ( at least 20 factors needed for a life-sustaining planet) to come together at the same time and on the same planet would be astronomical. The odds look like: 1 out of 1,000,000,000,000,000. To put it simply, there are so many wonderful details that if changed only slightly would make it impossible for us to exist.

Just to name some of the more familiar factors and omitting the more scientific factors: a) oxygen-rich atmosphere b) ratio of liquid water to continents c) moderate rate of rotation of planet d) correct mass e) orbited by large moon f) protected by gas giant planets etc.

It may take more faith to believe that there is a God than to believe the odds stated above. Scientists may get so excited when they discover a planet which may have one or two such conditions which may indicate the very unlikely presence of life there but they can so easily dismiss the unusual and unexplainable multiple factors which work so harmoniously together to make life possible on earth.

(I)

The sharing of the gospel must communicate the wretchedness of fallen man – the tragic quality of the human predicament needs to be presented. Man was the noblest creature made for fellowship with God and given great intellectual and moral potentialities – now he is spiritually ruined; he had lost his uprightness and the image of God in which he was made; he had been banished from God’s favour. Yet, even in this fallen state, man was still so perverse as to be proud, vainglorious and self-satisfied (Rom. 3:23, 6:23); he thinks himself still good at heart, still free to do good and please God, will trust in his own works for salvation.
The message of the Gospel is hard to receive by fallen man – it depicts man as helpless, hopeless as far as trying to save himself in salvation – the proud and perverse find it hard to swallow that they are no better than the worst of sinners and that before the eyes of God, they are condemned and heading for destruction. It is only the Holy Spirit’s ministry that can effect conviction of sin and repentance in the heart of fallen man – it is the Spirit who is able to regenerate him ( even the worst of sinners among them). God alone saves sinners in and through Jesus Christ.The message of the Gospel, which centres on the Cross, is ‘foolishness’ to man and most difficult to receive; it needs the wisdom and intervention of God to make conversion possible. It is God alone who freely and undeservedly set His love upon us, and reconciled us to Himself by propitiating His own wrath through the atoning sacrifice of His Son; Christ, the mediator, was destined to appease the wrath of God by His sacrifice – He drank the cup of God’s wrath on behalf of fallen humanity.

It is also important to realise that conversion must become a lifelong process; it has been defined as a matter of giving as much as you know of yourselves to as much as you know of God. This implies that as our knowledge of God and ourselves grows (and the two grow together), so our conversion needs to be repeated and extended constantly. What this means is that conversion includes the concept of the practice of lifelong active repentance, the fruit of faith, springing from a renewed heart. The essence of repentance is departing from ourselves we turn to God, and putting off our former mind we put one a new one (Rom.12:2; Eph. 4:22-24).

This explains why the Lord Jesus, in giving what we know as the ‘Great Commision” in Matt. 28.emphasises ‘make disciples of all nations, baptising them…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you’. Teaching them to obey everything takes a long, long time and certainly a lifelong process. Growth in holiness cannot continue where repenting from the heart has stopped. Regular self-examination (not introspection) is a necessity for spiritual health; it involves a measuring of ourselves, morally and spiritually, positively in terms of things done and negatively in terms of things undone, by the behavioural ideals that God sets before us in His Word. This leads to the fruit of God-centred humility, seeking to please the Father, to honour the Son and not to grieve the Spirit of God.

(J)
We have noted that conversion is a lifelong process and it needs to be repeated and extended constantly. Also conversion is in fact the practice of a lifelong active repentance. In one sense, the Gospel has to be ‘preached’ to ourselves throughout our journey on earth to remind us who we have become after conversion (children of the living God), and who we are to live for. As believers, we have been chosen in grace, loved by the heavenly Father before we were born, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit in order to become obedient to the Saviour who shed HIs blood to bring us into covenant fellowship with the Triune God. Holiness means being set apart for God, reserved for Him who has claimed us for Himself. And holiness is one of the reasons for the trials we experience on earth – God is preparing us for heaven; as a Church, we are being prepared to be the holy unblemished bride of Christ; we are to be transformed to be like the Lord Jesus, to share His family likeness. There is meaning in our ‘struggles’ and spiritual warfare; the Holy Spirit is given to enable us to overcome indwelling sin, to combat the negative influences of the world and to overcome the ‘attacks’ and deceptions of the evil one so that we can be truly transformed to bear the image of our Master.

Wisdom in the Bible and Proverbs, is constantly contrasted with folly. Wisdom is about understanding and understanding means specifically knowing how to live as a response to God’s revelation. Wisdom includes understanding but wisdom is also the prudent doing of what we understand that we should do; in other words, wisdom is practical.
However, wisdom in the heart starts in the mind and is thus about thinking and about learning and also about unlearning. One major mark of a wise person is the willingness to accept instruction and correction and to learn to know things better than one does at the moment. Notice the close relationships and interactions among wisdom, understanding and the heart. It is no wonder Apostle Paul exhorted us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewal of the mind (which includes the heart, the understanding and the whole person).

The mind must be instructed and enlightened before faith and obedience become possible – we need to remember this in sharing the gospel and in looking to God the Spirit to bring about conviction and understanding.
A godly man once said: ‘When men felt and obeyed the truth they knew, it was the work of the Spirit of God, but when they were swayed by feeling without knowledge, it was a sure sign that the enemy was at work, for feeling divorced from knowledge and urgings to action in darkness of mind were both as ruinous to the soul as was knowledge without obedience’.
So the teaching of truth must come from the leaders of the church as a task of priority and the learning of truth must be foremost for those who are members and followers in God’s church. Feeding the sheep, tending the sheep – this is what it is all about in the Lord’s communication.

Notice that true knowledge is essential, with or without being accompanied by feelings; and true knowledge comes about with illumination of the mind by God’s Spirit in the communication of God’s Word. And true knowledge brings about understanding, obedience, teachability, and nurtures godly wisdom, and this in turns enables one to live out the ‘Gospel’ in our lives here on earth. The ‘already and not yet’ reality makes all these very important in our pilgrimage on earth before the final consummation. The ‘war’ may have been won at Calvary, but the battles rage on, and the evil one knows he has limited time and he is working tirelessly to ensure that many would follow him into eternal darkness.

(K)
Acts 28: 23-30 with particular emphasis on verses 26-29.

The Apostle Paul, after much difficulties and dangers, arrived in Rome and he was allowed to live by himself with a Roman soldier to guard him.
We review what had occurred before his arrival at Rome: he was nearly killed at the temple of Jerusalem when the Jews accused him of desecrating the temple; he was rescued by a Roman centurion, nearly scourged by the soldiers, but his citizenship as a Roman saved him. He appeared before Felix, then Festus, followed by king Agrippa and when the suggestion was for him to go to Jerusalem for trial (and Paul knowing the plot of the Jews to kill him), he appealed to Caesar.
His journey to Rome was very eventful: he was caught in a severe storm which nearly caused the death of all those on board; they managed to abandon ship and reached an island where the natives were kind to all of them. Paul had a snake on his arm but it did not affect him in the least, and the Lord allowed Paul to heal the father of the headman as well as others on the island. Subsequently, they managed to sail on to Rome. During the storm, the soldiers suggested killing all the prisoners (including Paul) but the commander prevented them.

We see how God, in HIs sovereignty, protected Paul many times and assured him that he would go to Rome to share the Gospel. Despite opposition, plots, storm, snake, and man’s intentions to harm him, God undertook to bring him to Rome. God’s sovereignty ruled in the midst of dire circumstances, and His will for Paul to witness in Rome prevailed, despite severe opposition all along the way.
Npw we come to this passage in Acts 28. Paul called upon the Jewish leaders in Rome and explained his situation; the Jews gathered in large numbers to hear him out. Paul witnessed to them from morning to evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law and prophets, he sought to persuade them about Jesus. Some were convinced whilst others would not believe and they began to leave.

Paul then made his final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:
“Go to this people and say, You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears; and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them” (vv 26-27).
Here we know that those listening to Paul were Jews who were familiar with the Law and the prophets and with Paul’s thorough explanation, they should have been able to understand and to believe. But the Bible tells us that their hearts were hardened (become calloused), and this prevented them from seeing and hearing with understanding in their hearts. The Holy Spirit revealed their heart’s condition through Isaiah and it is not surprising that the outcome was one of unbelief among many.
Notice how seeing, hearing and understanding (in the mind) are all so tied up together, and how all these are related to the condition of the heart. God may ‘speak’ through His Spirit by explaining the Word through preaching, teaching and sharing (of the gospel) but conversion is not automatic.There needs to be readiness in the heart, tenderness in receiving God’s revelation and communication (or rebuke), and God’s mercy and grace to grant faith to the hearer and conviction of sin (with His Word ‘piercing’ the heart).
On the part of those who communicate the truth, they need to take care to share comprehensively in dependence on God’s Spirit, but the outcome depends on God and the reception of the hearer. Ultimately, salvation comes from the Lord God and it is the Spirit who prepares the heart to receive the Gospel and who convicts and regenerates the hearer. We need not be discouraged when the hearers do not respond in the way we desire.

Notice also that the preacher or sharer of the truth of the Gospel is not exempted from sufferings and trials but there can be confidence in God’s sovereignty, mercy and undertaking to fulfil the task at hand. Sharing the Gospel invariably involves spiritual warfare, and therefore prayerfulness and vigilance are needful. The enemy will not give in easily as we seek to claim someone for God.

(L)
When the Gospel is preached, it reveals God’s justice and yet, at the same time, it reveals how sinful humans can have a right relationship with Him. This relationship is by faith, as distinct from being earned.
” 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” (Eph. 2:8-9).,
We cannot be saved by works; it is by grace and through faith, and faith is also a gift from God, and there is no room for boasting – boasting only comes about when there is contribution on our part to our salvation (even a fraction of it).

This truth is perhaps best illustrated in the lives of two religious leaders:
The first is Martin Luther, a 16th century Augustinian monk. Luther was constantly troubled in his conscience although he was a monk; he sought to get right with God through intense severe religious disciplines to a point when he confessed that he could have died from his fasting, penance and other disciplines. Luther confessed also that he in fact ‘hated’ God; he felt that God was so unjust to demand ‘righteousness’ from humans when it is humanly impossible.
From the book of Romans, he shared his discovery:
..”Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Then I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise”.
Luther went on to lecture on Romans and to write a commentary on it. It was on hearing a public reading of the introduction to Luther’s commentary that John Wesley felt his heart ‘strangely warmed’ and was converted.

Wesley was highly disciplined as a student in the university; he was in the ‘holy club’ where he exercised intense discipline to know God through study and the Bible. He even became a missionary subsequently but whilst caught in a storm on a ship, he felt much fear in encountering the possibility of death. In contrast, he saw a group of Moravian Christians who were calm and ‘serene’ in the face of this terrible storm; Wesley felt that the reality of God was missing in his life. It was at the public reading mentioned above at Aldersgate that John Wesly was converted. Although there was so much knowledge of the Bible in his life and so much effort on his part to know God, including becoming a missionary, he only knew God in salvation when by grace and through faith, he was regenerated by the Spirit.

The Gospel tells us that there is a righteousness coming to us by grace, through faith, based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. This is what the Gospel and ‘the righteousness from God’ is all about. You cannot earn your salvation no matter how hard you try. It is only by humbling ourselves on our knees and ‘cry out’ for the mercy of God and His grace that we are in a position to receive God’s gift of salvation through faith.

(M)
We have seen that there is a righteousness which comes to us by grace, through faith, based on the finished work of Jesus Christ (Justification by faith).
We noted also that many Jews in Rome turned away from the gospel preached by Paul, and the Scripture pointed out that the main problem was the hardening of the heart which prevented them from truly seeing, perceiving, listening and understanding. There was no conviction of sin and no repentance on their part.

After conversion, we saw also how conversion is a lifelong process and repentance is also lifelong until the consummation. Repentance involves a complete change of attitude and action; it means turning away from rebelling against, or ignoring, God’s claim upon us and instead recognising that claim and, in reverence, serving Him. In the light of this, grace and faith also continue to be operative throughout our Christian lives – the just shall live by faith, and we need God’s grace continually in the outworking of our lives.

In looking at Ephesians 2, we must not ignore verse 10.: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”. Although justification by faith does not involve any work or effort on our part, after conversion, sanctification and the growth in Christian maturity requires good works on our part. We must not conclude that all we need is to surrender completely to God and let go, and allow God to do all whilst we remain passive in our lives.

This is contrary to the following Scriptural passages:
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philip. 2:12-13).
“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me” (Col 1:28-29).
Philippians 2:12-13 teaches us that God works and we work; but we work and will as God works in us. Paul, in Colossians 1, shares that he toils and struggles – but with the Spirit’s energy as He works within him; here again, Paul toiled and struggled with the power and energy of the Holy Spirit working in him. It is grace-driven effort that is needed in the outworking of our Christian life – it is certainly not being passive and allowing God to do all while we let go and remain as we are.

(N)
The Gospel has been referred to as the good news; it is indeed good news for those who respond positively to the gospel and are ‘born again’ but it is certainly not good news for those who hardened their hearts and refused to repent and ‘receive’ the news that the kingdom of God is here, and the powers of the kingdom are at work already with the coming of the Son of God and his finished work at Calvary.

For those ‘born again’, the Gospel is the good news that heaven has already begun here on earth for those who are Christ. The long expected king of Old Testament prophecy has come. He came in lowliness as the servant Saviour of humankind; now He is risen and enthroned, and from His throne He still comes to us by the personal presence of His Holy Spirit. One day He will come again publicly in glory as the world’s judge. Those who are His are already risen with Him out of their spiritual death into the life of His kingdom, the life named ‘eternal life’.

We are risen with Christ; we live with Christ – this is our eternal condition. It will always be so in life, in death, in resurrection, through judgement and beyond; those who are Christ’s will be with Him and He with them in love, joy and glory – this is the truth about our eternal destiny.

In the meantime, there is constant conflict with the evil one and his forces opposing Christ and His people; spiritual warfare will be ongoing and unceasing. The enemy is a beaten foe, but will keep on fighting to the end. The trials and struggles believers go through on earth, besides preparing us for heaven, include the battles against the flesh, the world, and the devil and his minions.

The Lord is transforming His own people, in the midst of all these, in His own way – from the inside out. He changes heart and character though the physical body remains for the most part unchanged. When the Lord Jesus comes again, we who already have been changed inside out will be given bodies to match – bodies that are true expressions of the new persons we are in Christ. The whole cosmos will be remade into greater glory – it will be a whole new order of things – God will make all things new!

Life here and now is preparation for something more glorious that is ahead of us in the future. This is our Christian hope and our Christian life – this is the good news of the Gospel -it is truly wonderful and glorious. We need to see it and understand it clearly to enable us to be steadfast and faithful, persevering to the end. The end is in itself a new beautiful beginning!

(O)
In this final sharing on the Gospel, I thought it helpful to bring together the meaning, the ramifications and implications of the gospel for us who believe.
Chapter 8 of Romans wonderfully brings together all these regarding the gospel. Before this section, the Apostle Paul had clearly communicated the sad state of fallen humanity in Adam. Humanity disobeyed God’s clear instruction (Gen. 2:16-17) and as a result separation and friction entered into our experience – separation from God, separation between Adam and Eve in their relationship, the whole of creation was also involved, experiencing decay. Humanity faces the inevitability of death which is part of God’s curse upon humans – God expelled humans from paradise (Gen. 3:23-24) and the post-Eden experience has been one of friction, separation and condemnation.
But the gospel tells us what God has done for us in Christ in Romans 3.
For those who repent and respond in faith to God’s offer of salvation, they are regenerated and experience justification – God the judge declares the guilty to be in the right with Him (vs24).
They are redeemed – on the basis of the work of His Son Jesus in laying down His life to buy us back from the bondage of sin, we experienced redemption (vs 24).
Sacrifice of atonement (propitiation vs 25) – Jesus, by dying, bears in Himself the just wrath of God on human sin, so that the guilty sinners do not need to bear it.

Jesus Christ is the foundation of our righteousness. Faith, which is God’s gift to us – for we have nothing to boast (Rom. 3:27) -links us to the work of Jesus our substitute. Righteousness is not only God’s requirement, but also His provision – it is not about what we must do (as in many religions) but about what God has done for us in Christ.

Now we come to the wonderful chapter of Romans 8 which looks at what the gospel ‘achieves’ for believers:

We are delivered first of all from the just condemnation of the law. The law could not justify us because we could not keep it (vs 3 although the law is good). God provided His Son who perfectly met the requirements of the law (Rom. 8:4) and then took our place as the perfect offering for sin (vs 3).
Although the sinful nature of the ‘old man’ (the indwelling sin) remains a powerful force within the believer, God has given the believer a powerful gifty – the indwelling Spirit who enables us to do God’s will.
Paul then contrasts life in the spirit with life in the flesh (vv 5-8).
Being God’s children, we have the Holy Spirit (vs 9) and the Spirit leads us to put to death the misdeeds of the body (vv 14-15) by empowering us for godly and holy living. The Spirit also gives us deep assurance that we are God’s children (vv 15-16). We can relate to God at the deepest and most intimated level and call Him ‘Abba Father’.
As children of God we are heirs with the Lord Jesus and have an inheritance with Him – everything that is Christ is ours!

But then comes this truth that is sobering: for the Lord Jesus the inheritance was the crown via the cross; for us it will be glory via present suffering (vs 17). Not only do we groan under the weight of present suffering (vs 23), but the whole of creation groans too under the frustration of the cycle of growth-decay and it awaits its liberation from the bondage of this cycle (vs 19).

The gift of the Holy Spirit is the down payment of our salvation (the first fruits) – we groan as we wait for the rest of the payment, when our bodies will be transformed (1 Cor. 15:35). Our present experience in this fallen world is one of suffering and groaning (we can dismiss the claims of triumphalism and prosperity gospel). The Spirit is our comforter, our guide, our intercessor – He strengthens us to be holy (vs 13); He revitalises us (vs 11); He reminds us that we are God’s children (vs 16) and that God loves us (vs 15); He is also the guarantee of our full salvation to come.

So the question is : Is there any order to the seeming chaos of life? (include injustice, pain, war, persecution, plagues, misunderstanding, relationship problems, etc)
Paul’s answer is a definite ‘yes’ (vs 28) – God is at work in all things for our good -i.e. for the good of His own people and this good is then defined and elaborated.
From eternity past, God has known us and chosen us – God gave a destiny that believers should be like Jesus (vs 29) – becoming like Jesus is the good for which God works – it is not our health, our comfort and our wealth but our godliness which He promises to achieve. God’s purpose is to build a family and a new community like Jesus – Jesus is the firstborn, the Son of God in unique relationship with the Father, but He is also the firstborn brother (what a great privilege for us believers).
Paul went on to say that as God as predestined us, called us and justified us, so He will glorify us (glorification – a future experience (but interestingly written in the past tense to underline its certainty).
Then comes the four questions and their magnificent answers:
Is there any enemy who can effectively defeat us believers in Christ? No, since God is for us.
Is there anyone who can make a charge against us that sticks? No, God has declared us to be in the right with Him!
Is there any accuser who can effectively condemn us ? No, Jesus is our advocate who will always silence any accusation!
Is there anyone or any situation that can effectively separate us from God’s love? No, Paul then lists all the various possibilities -no person, no situation, no extremity – nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus!

What a magnificent conclusion – the chapter begins with ‘No condemnation” and ends with ‘No separation’ – what wonderful and overwhelming good news – this is what God has done for us in Christ and this is what the meaning, the ramifications and the implications of the gospel point to!