The Centrality of the Gospel for Colorado Baptists
What unites us as Colorado Baptists? What common bond do we share that will help us truly impact this state by penetrating lostness? Is it the Cooperative Program? Is it the Baptist Faith and Message? Is it sharing particular affinities such as being a product of a “mountain/western” culture? Is it geographical proximity? Is it style of worship? Is it our methodology and ecclesiology? What truly unites us as Colorado Baptists?
While I am a strong proponent of the Cooperative Program and believe it to be the most effective means of fulfilling the Great Commission through shared resources, and I subscribe wholeheartedly to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and appreciate the diversity of our many worship styles, methodological and ecclesiological expressions of church, I believe there is something more deeply fundamental that unites us. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am afraid that we are living in an evangelical culture where the gospel is being assumed and whenever this happens, the next generation almost always suffers a drift into liberalism, pragmatism, and a down-grade on the most important message we are called to share. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Paul reminds us that the gospel is of first importance. He writes, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you- unless you believed in vain. 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.”
If we were to poll the average Christian on the street or even in our churches and ask them this simple question: “What is the gospel?” we would find a wide variety of responses. We would see everything from a style of music like the Gaithers or “country gospel” to some nebulous answer like living in the way of Jesus. While I am not against gospel music and I believe that our lives should be patterned after Christ, these answers are not the gospel.
The gospel is not something we are called to live or to do. The gospel is good news that we are to announce and receive. The gospel is the glorious message of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and the all the implications that flow from this. The gospel by its very nature is news that is to be broadcast. It is to be announced. It is to be shared, preached, taught, and communicated so that sinners who are under God’s wrath will repent of their sins and trust in Christ alone for salvation.
Our state has adopted a vision of “gospel saturation” and I strongly agree with this vision. I want to see our state saturated with the message of the gospel so that rebels can be turned into worshippers. But my concern is that we may be in danger of assuming the gospel. While strategies, and techniques, and programs, and initiatives are very helpful in reaching our state for Christ, we must always come back to the truth that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe (Romans 1:16).
I believe that as Christians we must constantly preach the gospel to ourselves everyday to remind us of the power of Christ in our lives. Many times we think the gospel is simply the “entry point” for non-believers to begin a relationship with Jesus and that the gospel is really not that important to more “mature” Christians. Yet, there is nothing more sacred, life-giving, and powerful than for us as believers, pastors, leaders, and churches to meditate upon, drink deeply from, and constantly remind ourselves of the gospel.
As we continue to pray for gospel saturation throughout Colorado, may I suggest some Biblical truths that are central to the gospel. And may these truths motivate and encourage us to keep our focus central upon the most important message we can ever announce.
We must always remember that in our helpless depravity and spiritual bankruptcy, Christ Jesus came to earth to live the life we could never live. He was completely obedient to the will of His Father and fulfilled the Law in thought, word and deed. As the sinless Lamb of God on the cross, He absorbed the wrath of God in our place and became a curse so that sinners could be reconciled to the Father through His shed blood. The innocent became guilty so that the guilty could become innocent. 2 Corinthians 5:21 poignantly states, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. After Jesus obtained our eternal redemption through the finished work on the cross, He was buried in a tomb, and then three days later, God raised Him from the dead. Jesus is alive and is reigning as the one Mediator in heaven at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest.
As those who are dead in sin, we must be made alive in Christ. Through the power of the new birth, the Holy Spirit comes and raises us to spiritual life through regeneration and gives us the gifts of repentance and faith. Once we repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone for salvation, the greatest exchange in all the universe occurs. This is called justification by faith alone. This is the bedrock of the gospel and the church stands or falls on this crucial doctrine. Upon placing our faith in Christ, our sins are credited or imputed to Jesus and we bear them no more. He has totally canceled our debt of guilt through His cross. But there is a second aspect to justification. Not only are our sins credited to Christ, but His perfect righteousness is credited to us so that we can be declared not guilty by the Father. We are accepted by the living God on account of Christ and are no longer under any condemnation.
Those whom God has saved by grace through justification as a result of the atonement of Christ and who have been born again by the Holy Spirit will never fall away. We are eternally secure in the grip of our Savior and are guaranteed an eternal inheritance.
When we remind ourselves daily of these truths by preaching the gospel to ourselves, we receive the power to live the Christian life. We receive the power to lead our churches. We receive the comfort to trust in Christ and not in our performance. The beautiful truth of the gospel is that God loves to save bad people and all of us fit into that category. The gospel strips us of all pride and gives us the motivation to please Christ not so that He will love us and accept us but because He already has loved us and accepted us in grace.
As we move forward as Colorado Baptists my prayer is that we never lose the centrality of the gospel. I pray that we never just assume the gospel and then move onto to bigger and better things. I pray that our churches are gospel-centered in that priority of the cross, justification by faith, and the truths about the new birth are central to all that we do. I pray that as we engage lostness and pray for revival to sweep across our state, God would be so pleased to bless His people because we have been faithful to the most important message He has given us—the gospel of Jesus Christ.
By Sean Cole
Executive Board President, Colorado Baptists
