WEEK 2 | GOSPEL
02 GOSPEL
In the first session, we looked at Creekside's mission statement. In these final three sessions, we will look at the three values that we seek to embody as we pursue that mission. Our first value is this:
We are shaped by the gospel in everything.
The gospel is everything for us as Christians. The word literally means "good news" and it describes the beautiful announcement that God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to die for us and thereby restore our broken relationship with God.
READ
1 Thessalonians 1:2–10
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
The Bible explains the gospel in many unique but related ways. The most famous explanation of the gospel in the Bible is found in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Or we might take the powerful words of Romans 5:8: "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Or we could soak in Paul's declaration in Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Each of these (and hundreds of other such statements) bring us to a core truth: We as human beings are broken, and in our rebellion against God we find ourselves far from him (read Romans 1–3 for a full discussion of this reality). But God loves us as his own children, so he sent Jesus to live a life that was pleasing to God the Father. He showed us what humanity was truly meant to be. And at the end of his life, when he was handed over to the religious authorities who condemned him as a heretic and to the civil authorities who condemned him as an enemy of the state, he gave his life on our behalf. He died for us so that we could live. Paul explains it in a bit more detail in Colossians 2:13–14:
"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."
So again we come back to the question: What is the gospel? It's the good news that God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to die so that we could live. It's the truth that our sins are forgiven in Jesus. It's a powerful assertion that we experience new life in Jesus. We are now invited to live without the guilt of our past wrongdoings toward God and the people around us. We find a new source of life within ourselves as the life of Christ renews us from the inside out. The same life that we will eventually experience in the presence of God after we die is available to us even now. So the Spirit of God enters us and empowers us to live in that close relationship with God.
That's good news! And right now, if you simply choose to acknowledge it before God and believe it, that good news is true of you. Ultimately the gospel comes down to this: we are invited to find life in Jesus together.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE SHAPED BY THE GOSPEL?
Our value statement says that we seek to be shaped by the gospel in everything. So what does that mean? First of all, the gospel is meant to be believed. But the gospel never sits passively within us. It always shapes us and flows out from us.
In 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul speaks of a time when he communicated the gospel to the young church in the town of Thessalonica. When they heard that gospel message, Paul and the young Christians he spoke with were in a lot of distress due to opposition from the surrounding community. In that setting, the gospel took root in their hearts. And it began to shape everything about them.
Paul and his companions didn't just share the gospel message, they also shared their lives (1 Thessalonians 2:8). This is significant because it indicates that the gospel wasn't just a verbal message for these early believers. It was a reality that changed their lives. It made them who they were. They lived and acted and made decisions on the basis of what God had done for them through Jesus. So in reality, part of the way they shared the gospel was by allowing the Thessalonians to see the way they lived. This was visible to them because their lives were shaped by the gospel. Through the decisions they made every day and the way they interacted with the people around them, Paul and his friends were communicating the deep truth that life is found in Jesus, not in the unsatisfying pursuits of this world. They were declaring that we are accepted in Jesus, therefore they did not have to work hard to impress God or anyone else. They could simply be a living reminder of the love of God.
Because the gospel is the message recorded throughout Scripture, a major aspect of Creekside being a family that is shaped by the gospel comes through our commitment to the Bible. We can't be shaped by the gospel if we are not saturating ourselves in it. This is why we preach our sermons straight out of the Bible. This is also why we seek as individuals to fill our hearts and minds with Scripture by reading it at home. With this gospel-saturation as the foundation, we regularly meet to worship God in spirit and truth, which means relating to him according to the truth of his word and the good news of the gospel. And we have confidence that as we pursue the life of Jesus together, we will experience the restoration of broken lives and communities through the good news of Jesus.
Being shaped by the gospel in everything allows us to glorify God by finding life in Jesus together and inviting others to do the same.
PROCESS & DISCUSS
1. How would you articulate what the "gospel" is?
2. What does it mean to be shaped by the gospel?
3. If our goal is to be shaped by the gospel IN EVERYTHING, what is an area of your life that still needs to be shaped by the gospel? What might that look like?