Read all the passages referenced and we are talking biblical salvation. John 3:16-17. Jesus didn't talk in terms of his impending death and resurrection. He talked about true GOSPEL salvation. Yet most of the church preaches salvation from sin. Certainly that's a first step but only the first step. The reason so many in the church are so lost and confused is they don't grasp the fullness of the great salvation provided them.
Look at this diagram. You will see that a person sinks in sin, comes to a place of repentance and then after looking to the cross is built up in faith and redemption until they reach the fullness of their salvation on this side of the age or the other.
That's where the badly taught story of the Prodigal comes in. We (I have too so don't holler) preach it as the love of God receiving in a sinner bent for hell. Certainly that's an application that can fill an altar, but it's not the application Jesus made. HE was trying to explain the fullness of the Good News (Gospel) by illustrating that the son, no matter what he did, was always his son, the fullness of his salvation was always his, he needed to come back to the father to enter into it. Not heaven, enter into protection, provision, healing, restoration, and all the other facets we never preach on when we preach the Prodigal. Once a christian saved by grace and returned to the Father, we can then work out our salvation with fear and trembling and looking to the full expression of it all in our lives. That's what's not being taught.
We are too busy preaching folks into hell and then grasping them back. I'm for that. I hate cheap grace. But, let's then help them understand everything wrapped up in the fullness of his salvation. Sozo. Soteria.
Read Ezekiel 36. There is a pretty clear picture of the Fathers salvation and his intent. He doesn't do it for OUR sake. He does it for the sake of his name. He IS salvation. His name is Jeshuah (OT Joshua). God is Salvation.
Let's just suppose you could preach on just ONE of those other facets of full Salvation. Could you exhaust that little partial piece of the full subject of salvation in one Sunday? I don't think so.
16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and He entered the synagogue, as was His custom on the Sabbath day. And He stood up to read.
17 And there was handed to Him [the roll of] the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened (unrolled) the book and found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity],
19 To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound.
20 Then He rolled up the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were gazing [attentively] at Him.
21 And He began to speak to them: Today this Scripture has been fulfilled while you are present and hearing.
Notice that Jesus NEVER talks about going to heaven, forgiveness of sins or the rituals we must or should observe. He declares the good news, The Gospel is that he is the anointed one, the messiah, and as such that the poor don't have to be in poverty any more, that those bound up by anything can be freed, that blindness spiritual and physical can be reversed, that those oppressed by situations can be delivered, those bruised can be healed, those crushed by calamity can be restored. He proclaims that a year of Jubilee has been proclaimed over us, the favor of God is given to us profusely.
That dear reader IS the Gospel.
While to most people it's that Jesus died for your sins. That's how the Gospel has been released but it's not the full Gospel.
I suggest that if you are a pastor and you preach or teach others you might ask yourself today, Am I preaching the Gospel of Hope, Freedom and Deliverance or am I placing people further in bondage?
If Jesus did it, maybe we should too. Preach the Gospel.
7 comments:
It';s very confusing what you say. If we believe that the Scripture is the inspired word of God, then I would think that what Paul says in Rom. 1:16 is the essence of "the Gospel". He is not ashamed to preach and beleive in the "Good News", the euaggelion, the Gospel, because it is the very power of God unto SALVBATION to all who believe. One can put any kind of definition to 'salvatian', sooteria, he/she desires, but I would think that the overall Scriptural definition is first of all, 'a salvation from the power and punsihment of sin"...which gives us the true freedom in this life, though we still have the Old Adam, and gives us the hope for the life to come.
first of all,
Yes, First is good. But then what. Do we keep holding people snatched from hell over the pit on a rotten stick every Sunday.
That's not the Gospel.
Read it again. I am anxious to hear if you think I am really wrong on this. I don't think I am otherwise I wouldn't have written this essay.
I quote from your blog: "Jesus never talks about going to heaven"? He doesn't say it in those exact words, but He did say, "I go to prepare a place for you,...that you may be also where I am". He never speaks of the forgiveness of sins? He said to the sinful woman who cried over her sins, "Her sins which are many are forgiven...your faith has saved you...go in peace". Jesus never talks about ritual we must or should observe, you said; rituals for the sake of ritual He condemned. He did indeed talk about those who were intent on observing ritual as a way to get right with God, and condemned such belief and practice. One who is truly a Gospel-teacher,preacher will speak the same way about ritual, rites, etc. The Law, OUR doing, does not make us right with God. Jesus' doing, and Jesus' dying for sin does. The blog speaks of "fulness of their salvation on this side of the age or the other". The "fullness" is not experienced, or seen, until heaven. Here, we "walk by faith and not by sight". I have and possess the fullness NOW by faith in Christ. John says that "he who believes in the Son HAS eternal life". The blog says, "they do not grasp the fullness of the great salvation promised them". What is the "fullness"? either I HAVE and possess it NOW, the fulness of what Christ has earned for me, or I don't. What part of "fullness" did the woman in Simon's house have when He said, "your sins are forgiven....your faith has saved you...go in peace"? I cannot preach Is. 61 as Jesus did in the synagogue. He preached those Words to them so they would believe that HE was fulfilling that prophecy as the Messiah, not only for Jews, but for Gentiles, as the context shows. You and others preach those words (Is. 61;l Lk. 4) to show people that Jesus DID fulfill those words, that He is the Messiah, and as John says, "the Christ, the Son of God, that believing in Him you may have life in His name" That 'life' is the fullness that I possess now, thanks to the Holy Spirit. I will experience it when I no more walk by faith but by sight.
Jesus never talks about going to heaven"? He doesn't say it in those exact words, but He did say, "I go to prepare a place for you,...that you may be also where I am".
In this context when he FIRST describes the Gospel he does NOT address the issue of heaven. It's not incidental but it shouldn't be our sole focus. Even if there were no heaven, living on this side of the veil like this is worth is all. What Jesus is saying in this Luke passage is you can live like this, you don't have to live in bondage. Later as you rightly pointed out, AND we get to go to heaven.
The blog speaks of "fullness of their salvation on this side of the age or the other". The "fullness" is not experienced, or seen, until heaven.
Here my dear brother I must differ with you dramatically. We can and many do experience fullness of salvation on this side of the veil. We were intended to. Why is John 3:16-17 so graphic. Perish from What? Saved to What. The True Gospel is about so much more than heaven. It's about experiencing Jesus right here on earth. Not every day. But sometimes. Why would so many Christians suffer so greatly with such great joy, not for heaven but for the Grace of God shown on this side of the veil.
The blog says, "they do not grasp the fullness of the great salvation promised them". What is the "fullness"? either I HAVE and possess it NOW, the fullness of what Christ has earned for me, or I don't.
Sadly the fact is many Christians are entitled to much more and they choose for whatever reason (usually blind religion) to not avail themselves of it. They live in defeat, pain, disease, bondage, fear and nominalism. This fullness is the fullness described in the Watchman Nee diagram in the blog which I refer you to again. Click on the references and ask yourself is that about this side of the veil or the other. We have so much of a higher call on our lives as believers and we live so far below what Jesus died for ON THIS SIDE OF THE VEIL.
I will be sad to see believers stand before the Bema seat of Christ and grasp what had been provided that they rejected in the name of blind religion. I love you brother but that's the brutal truth.
"the Christ, the Son of God, that believing in Him you may have life in His name" That 'life' is the fullness that I possess now, thanks to the Holy Spirit. I will experience it when I no more walk by faith but by sight.
You can walk by sight in faith right now. You don't need to wait till some sweet by and by to grasp what a wonderful salvation has been provided. Every Pastor knows the story of the family traveling from Europe to America on a steamship during the migration from Germany in the 1800's. Probably even your and my family. They ate crackers they brought, they drank water and dug scraps from the garbage cans. At the end of the voyage the question was asked them why they never came to the dining room. The Father said, "we couldn't afford it". The captain of the ship laughed and said, "that was part of the price that was paid for your tickets, you could have eaten like kings".
Much of modern religion has people in bondage telling them that heaven is all there is. Suffer now for the sweet by and by. Meanwhile the Captain of our lives is crying out to us, YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIVE LIKE THIS. But religion has placed a chain of bondage on them, keeping them in spiritual steerage without any provision. It is this bondage too that Jesus came to break the chains of.
A stronghold is any belief that holds itself up against the knowledge of God. Any. That includes the knowledge of his salvation pure and FULL.
Unfortunately that is what a large part of the Church preaches. Strongholds built in people's minds that war against the knowledge of God. Either the stronghold of "I'm OK". I go to church once a week for a hour and live like hell the rest of the time or The stronghold that says I know living here sucks but someday I'll get to heaven and it'll all be OK there.
Truths wrapped up in a lie.
We don't have to live like this. We can live higher and better. That is God's purpose in us. Any less is rejecting the banquet table the Captain Laid out for us because we believe we aren't worthy when Jesus already paid the price for our full salvation.
I don't believe in heaven on Sunday so that I can live like hell the rest of the week! I HAVE the fullness of salvation now, and that is why I strive to live a life of discipleship in the Lord Jesus Christ while I walk here by faith until that time when I will walk 'by sight". You imply that what I am saying about fulness makes me one of those one-day-a-week Christians.
You imply that what I am saying about fullness makes me one of those one-day-a-week Christians.
Never would I imply such a thing,
Fullness has nothing to to do whatever with how you live your devotion to Jesus. It has to do with how Jesus lives his life in you. Do you or we ever put stop losses on him and pull punches? Do we sometimes say to Him, This far and no more.
I am convinced as I have ever been that a large part of dying Christendom has made the decision to compartmentalize their lives and live as fully as THEY will allow for Jesus.
I have a question. What if Jesus asked you he asked Prophets of Old to do? Not mourn for your dead wife. Eat a cake of Dung. Walk around naked for a year. Lay on one side for long periods of time and then another. Marry a whore and take her back again and again.
Of course, we would be appalled. But what if?
Then why does old dying Christendom struggle with clear NEW TESTAMENT instruction on how to live in the fullness of the Spirit of God in this day and age? The word is clear starting in 1 Corinthians 12-15. And lots of other places I won't rehearse now. If a Christian can get past those instructions then the rest won't matter. It calls for a new thing many reject.
Fullness is all the facets of living in Jesus and him in you without reservation or consideration for yourself or your reputation.
Most of the dying church balks at instant obedience. They give it lip service but that's all. "these people honor me with their lips but............."
I hope that's not you and if you feel any conviction it's not from me. Could it be the Spirit of God? I'll let you decide.
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