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Redefining the Gospel

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My last post was over 10 years ago!

It is always good, and hard, to think back… and to do so honestly. The good and bad. The Good? God's transformative power has been evident in my life. His desire for me to dig into the Word and to grow in the truth, even if I had to go against this world. Another is my desire to spread the good news of the Gospel. I wanted people to be changed as I was changed, broken from the shackles of sin and death.

In the past I called this being "Heaven Bound," as my last post was titled. For me this was the Gospel. I still had a lot to learn about what the Gospel really was. We should always grow towards truth, and sometimes that truth gets clearer over time, but we must be able to identify when it is not. Truth itself does not change, but sometimes truth can be remanufactured into something different.

You can see this in historical based movies. When it says it is “based off of a true story,” does that mean the story is true? Not really, it is an interpretation. The directors, producers, and the writers want to set the tone for the story in a particular way. Facts are refactored to fit a specific genre, to fit into a different culture, political bias, or just to fit into a three hour limit. There are facts in the story, but is it still true if you change the motivation of the hero or heroine? This can even happen to Christ.

We all must make sure that we are following the true Christ, not a carbon copy or interpretation of Him. We should strip off the ulterior motives that we bring to the stories in the scriptures whether it is generational, cultural, class, political, or even religious. Making facts more palatable or relevant in our eyes only distorts the truth. Preventing this from happening can only happen through studying, meditating, questioning, repenting, and relying on the movement of the Spirit and the Word of God.

Ask yourself, if our goal is to be more like Christ, what does that REALLY look like? If you have an answer, does it fit into the scripture? Both the New and Old Testament? What about the words you use? Do they mean the same thing now compared to the time it was written? Sometimes things just do not fit, and we must be able to admit when things are not.

This goes back to my interpretation of the Gospel.

If we were to look at the Old Testament, going to heaven was not in the forefront of Israel's mind. They talked about heaven, but not like we do. God's people were much more interested in their restoration than their destination. The Gospel was never a "get out of hell free" card, but an opportunity to join into God's creative work of restoration among His people. He wants to make us a new creation. And Christ came to fulfil that!

This is what drew me out of hiding (if you know me, this is a correct word, haha). I want to tell the story of the Christ who restores. We are part of His grand story to redeem mankind from the brokenness of this world, of which WE caused. He calls us all to repent and become a part of this beautiful design through submission to His rule and reign in our hearts. This is where brokenness is created into beauty. This is restoration. This is the Gospel.

As I write about the Gospel I pray that my words glorify Him. I pray that His Spirit moves and transforms our hearts from stone to flesh. I pray that we can be a restorative people that turns to scripture not to make our (or other people's) lives better, but lead us to Christ who restores us and the Church. Through that restoration let the Spirit move in our lives so we can truly become the hands and feet of Jesus....
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