The Gospel

Last Sunday I posted a blog about the priesthood of believers. Today I want to add to our inspection of integrating your faith. I know there are others that have written about integrating our faith, but each of us has our own perspective on what it means since our lives are all different. Julian Marias says that the life I live is my life, and is distinctive, but there are things that are basic to reality and we have to be sure to witness to how we have integrated our faith into our life.

 Today I want to to tell you why it is not necessary to have a theological education to proclaim the gospel. Jesus ordered all of us to proclaim the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. We are to be witnesses for him to the ends of the earth, and are to make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are all to do what he told us to do. To help us to carry our his orders we were given the Holy Spirit which is the spirit of power. If we are not doing what he told us to do we will suffer the consequences. Gods judgement will be based on two things in our life. (1) are we born again, (2) did we obey his commandments to Love God with all our being, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love one another as he loved us, then have shown love by our actions?

But what is the gospel? In its simplest terns it is described in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. "Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born". This scripture has in it all of the knowledge that, if believed, will result in salvation. Paul said that if we confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that he was raised from the dead we will be saved,(Romans 10:9,10)

It is so simple! 

I was speaking  at a large church in Nashville Tennessee when I was told that an old friend of mine who had moved from Duke to Vanderbilt was dying of pulmonary fibrosis. I called his wife and asked if I might come to see him.They agreed and the next day I went at the appointed time. We greeted one another and caught up with our lives, and then he suddenly said that he had been a Methodist, but when he married he had gone to the Episcopal Church with his wife. He said that the rector came by weekly and served him communion, but in spite of that he felt uneasy about his relationship with God. So I asked him if he had ever confessed with his lips that Jesus is Lord and had believed that he was resurrected from the dead. He immediately corrected me and said if he believed in his heart that Jesus was resurrected from the dead! I said, "You are right, have you?" He said, "I call him Lord all the time, and I do believe in my heart that he was resurrected from the dead". 

I told him that he had nothing to worry about. I saw him again a month later and he said all doubts were gone. He died two weeks later.