I'm in the midst of trying to complete the eldership process with our church (Vintage21 Church in Raleigh/Durham). One of my final tasks - amid meetings w/other elders, lots of character evaluation and discussions about calling - is to complete a questionnaire on theology. The questionnaire has two parts, general theology and pastoral theology. I thought I would post one of my answers to a general theology question here on the blog. The question posed is "What is the gospel?" (i.e. theologically speaking, not how you would explain the gospel message to a non-Christian):
The word Gospel means "good news" and that good news centers on the person and work of Jesus Christ. It helps to understand and explain the significance of this good news by starting at the start. God created man for his glory and made us in his image with the capacity to have relationship with him. We were designed beautifully with worship of God, obedience to his words and dependence on his provision as pillars of our existence. Adam failed to live this way and as a result we are all by nature sinful men. We all chose to worship ourselves and other created things, rebel and question God's commands, and depend on ourselves in pride. The consequences of a life lived this way can only be death, spiritually and physically. The good news is that God, in Christ, is not counting man's sins against them but is instead offering forgiveness and new life to the glory of His name. He is restoring the world back to how he originally intended it to be. This only happens because of Jesus, there is no other way. God has used all of human history to arrange for this to happen. Jesus was sent and willingly came to earth to live a perfect life, the life we were supposed to live but could not. He perfectly worshiped God when we refused to. He obeyed the Father's every word instead of rebelling like us. And he lived in total dependence on the provision of God trusting his life to the will of God instead of following his own way like we do. This perfect life is exchanged for our sinful one and therefore Jesus takes the wrath of God that was due us and, bearing our sins, he dies, crucified brutally on the cross, so that we can be saved. We then receive all the blessings that Christ earned by his perfect life and not the consequences of our sinful life when we put our faith in Jesus. We are reconciled to the Father. We are adopted as sons and daughters. We are given gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit to live for the glory of God. Our punishment is taken by Jesus. The just anger and wrath of God is turned away from us. The burden of sin is lifted from us. We are looked upon by God as if we have not sinned because we are in Christ. We are given a new identity, a new family, a new mission and a new hope. THIS IS GOOD NEWS! Our lives no longer have to be lives of self-absorbed pride and foolishness but can be used by God to bring the Gospel to the world, repair the brokenness of the lives around us and begin to institute the peace with God that is available to all through Jesus Christ.
