The Gospel in Twenty Questions (7 page)

Heaven forbid that
we
preach half a gospel, but what is the
whole gospel? Your answer to this question reveals much about your faith in
Christ. For instance, whenever I proclaim the good news of God’s unconditional
love, I can just about guarantee that some serious person will chide me for not
preaching the whole gospel.

What they
say: “We’ve got to preach the whole counsel of God, brother.” What they mean:
“You should tell people they need to do stuff—repent, confess, turn from sin,
work, etc. —to earn the free gifts of grace.”

Earn the
free gifts of grace?!
What an absurd
idea. It’s like telling your children to pull out their piggy banks on
Christmas Day because you expect them to reimburse you for your gifts. How can
you compensate God for his priceless gifts to us? There is no way. It would be
like Bill Gates giving his fortune to a homeless man and the poor man trying to
repay him with a bottle cap. It’s ludicrous. What can we give back to God other
than our heartfelt gratitude?

“Paul, are
you saying we don’t need to repent and confess and turn from sin?” Those things
are important, but they are not part of the gospel. The gospel is not an
invitation for
you to do
; it’s an announcement of what
God has done
.

Those who
worry that the “whole gospel” is not being preached are basically saying,
“There’s more to this gospel than grace alone.” In other words, grace is not
enough. Maybe you were saved by grace, but to stay saved you have to do stuff.
You have to pay the fee. You’ve got to work for the Lord and tithe and witness
to the lost. But this is mixed up. It’s like telling your spouse, “I married
you for love, but to stay married you have to serve me, give me money, and tell
others how great I am.” What a loveless thing to say.

And what
exactly is this whole gospel we are supposed to be preaching? The Bible gives
us a straight answer, as we will see, but religion never does. Instead,
religion says “it’s complicated, you have much to learn, and if you really want
to please the Lord you should study Greek and Hebrew.” Phooey!

Paul told the
Ephesian elders, “I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole counsel of
God” (Acts 20:27). Some translations say “the whole will of God.” The whole
counsel and the whole will and the whole gospel are the same thing because
God’s will and purposes are always good news.

So what is
the whole counsel of God that Paul proclaimed? He tells us three verses
earlier. The whole counsel of God is “the gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).
That’s it.

 “Just
grace?!” says the serious man. Yes, grace and nothing but. Not
grace-plus-your-confession, nor grace-plus-your-repentance. Just grace.

Here is the
last thing Paul said to the Ephesians:

Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace,
which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are
sanctified. (Acts 20:32)

What is the “word of his
grace”? It’s not the Bible; it’s Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God who builds us
up and qualifies us to share in the inheritance of the saints. Jesus is the
Living Word who testifies to the grace of God.

In essence,
Paul is saying this:

When I came to you I did not hold back from proclaiming
the whole counsel of God, which is the gospel of grace revealed in Jesus. And
now that I am leaving I want to commit you to the word of his grace, which is
Jesus. Do you see my beloved Ephesians? It’s Jesus from start to finish.

If you would preach the gospel,
the whole gospel, and nothing but the gospel of God, then preach Jesus and
nothing else. Jesus is both the will of God and the word of his grace.

So how can we
get this wrong? How do we
not
preach the whole gospel? Not by leaving
bits out, but by adding bits in.

The grace of
God is perfect and cannot be improved upon. Anything we add detracts from its
inherent perfection. What do these gospel additives look like? I am sure you
know them. They are called prayer and fasting, Bible study, the spiritual
disciplines, tithes and offerings, Christian duty, the virtues, works of
service, ministry, self-sacrifice, helps, missions, outreach, submission,
sowing, etc. In the hands of graceless religion, these good things become
death-dealing burdens. If you are being told you must do these things to receive
the favor of God—his love, acceptance, forgiveness, healing, provision,
deliverance, etc.—you are not getting the whole gospel. You are getting a
diluted and contaminated gospel.

Perhaps
you’ve heard people say, “Grace is an important part of the gospel.” That’s
like saying food is an important part of your diet. Grace is not a part of it,
but the whole of it. Any part of the message that is not grace is not good
news. Anything that distracts you from Christ and his finished work has the
potential to turn you around and lead you away from the path of life. Reject
it. Insist on the good stuff and commit yourself to God and the word of his
grace.

Not too long ago Camilla and I
were having dinner at a restaurant. We found ourselves sitting under a sign
that said, “The Law.” The sign declared that anyone intoxicated would be asked
to leave the premises. What struck me was that the law had clear jurisdiction.
It applied only so far and no further. As long as we were in the restaurant we
were under the supervision of the law. But as soon as we stepped outside, the
law had no hold on us.

What about
the laws in the Bible? Are they universal or do they have limited jurisdiction?
Do they apply all the time or only some of the time? Do they apply to us?

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are
not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14, NKJV)

Am I under law? This ought to
be the easiest question in the book, for the Bible provides a straight answer. “You
are not under law but grace.” And just in case you missed it, Paul says it
again in the next verse: “We are not under law but grace” (Romans 6:15). This
ought to be an easy question, but it’s not because many either haven’t heard what
Paul said or they are slow to believe him.

About ten
years ago I was in a meeting and someone asked, “Are we under law, yes or no?”
There was a confused murmur of responses. Most people had no idea. So we turned
to Romans 6 where Paul clearly says, “We are
not
under law.” The
question was asked again. “Are we under law, yes or no?” And there was
still
a confused murmur of responses. Even though they had just read the answer in
their Bibles, many remained uncertain.

Uncertainty
is unbelief, because how can you be confident of that which you are unsure?
Paul writes so that you won’t have any doubts on this issue. He says, “We are
not under law but grace.” We are not saved by the law, kept by the law, or
supervised by the law. As believers, we are to have nothing to do with the law.
It’s the grace of God from start to finish.

“Paul, what law are
you talking about?” What have you got? It makes little difference how you
define law. Law is law. The law could be the Ten Commandments or the commands
of Jesus. The law could be the exhortations of the New Testament or the
unwritten rules of your Bible-study group. “The Law” is anything you must do to
merit favor or avoid condemnation.

The
world runs on law. At home, in school, and in the workplace, we are rewarded
for doing good and punished for doing bad. Much of the church also runs on law.
If you are faithful in your service to the Lord, you’ll be rewarded for being a
good Christian. You’ll be recognized as a star, invited to speak, and given
positions of importance. However, if you are derelict in your duty, you’ll be
marginalized, penalized, and ostracized.

The
kingdom of God runs on grace, not law. In the kingdom we are not blessed
because of what we do but because of who he is. The laws of this world won’t
serve you in his. In God’s economy, all is grace.

“But don’t we
need the law to know what pleases God.” Faith pleases God. Since the law is not
of faith (Galatians 3:12), you cannot please God by keeping it. Your choice is
clear. You can trust in your own law-keeping performance or you can trust in
the grace of God—but you can’t do both. Grace and law are exclusive. Mix them
together and you’ll get the benefits of neither.

“But Paul,
the law gives us knowledge of right and wrong.” So did the forbidden tree and
we weren’t supposed to have anything to do with that
either.
There’s more to life than doing good and avoiding evil. Real life is found in
relationship with the one who fulfilled all the requirements of the law on our
behalf.

The law
doesn’t save us, sanctify us, or teach us how to please God. So what does the
law do?

Watchman Nee tells a wonderful
story about a clumsy servant. As long as the servant sits still and does
nothing, his clumsiness is not apparent. But the moment you ask him to serve,
trouble begins. He knocks over furniture, drops plates, and makes a frightful
mess. In Nee’s parable, we are the clumsy servant:

We are all sinners by nature. If God asks nothing of
us, all seems to go well, but as soon as he demands something of us, the
occasion is provided for a grand display of our sinfulness.
[18]

The problem is that we think
we’re free but we’re not. We’re prisoners of sin but we don’t know it until the
law comes along and asks us to do something we cannot do. The law reveals our
bondage to sin.

I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m
not … I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. (Romans 7:14, MSG)

Picture a prisoner
living in a small cell. He’s been there so long he’s become institutionalized.
His cell is all he knows. He thinks it’s his home and has decorated it with
flowers made out of toilet paper.

Then
the law comes along and says, “You think this is real life? Real freedom and
flowers are just outside this wall. Pass through and be free.” The prisoner
says, “I’ll do it,” and walks smack into the wall. The prisoner remains as
confined as ever, but now he’s had some sense knocked into him. He sees the
stone walls of his cell as if for the first time. He realizes,
This is not
my true home. I want to be free.

We
are the prisoners, and our bodies are the prisons. Our bodies aren’t inherently
evil or sinful, but they are the place where we encounter sin. The effects of
sin are felt in our bodies and minds. This is why Paul refers to “sin in me”
and “the body of sin.”
[19]

Since
we experience sin in the flesh, the temptation is always to respond in the
flesh. But there’s a problem. Sin is stronger than our flesh. We may think we
can resist sin through sheer determination, but it’s a lost cause. This is why
we need the law
—
not to help us win against sin but to help
us lose and lose quickly. Allow me to explain.

The law
serves four important purposes. First, it reveals our sinful state. It draws
attention to our confinement under sin.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s
sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of
our sin. (Romans 3:20)

Before he came to Christ, the
apostle Paul had a problem with coveting. But he didn’t know he had a problem
until the law revealed it to him.

I would not have known what sin was had it not been
for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had
not said, “You shall not covet.” (Romans 7:7b) 

It’s the same with us. We don’t
know what sin is until the law tells us. We don’t know we’re not free until the
law dares us to act free and we find we cannot.

You may have
thought, “I’m basically a good person,” but the law says, “You don’t know what
good is. No one is good except God alone. You have fallen short of the good
life for which he made you. You are less than what God intended you to be.” As
we listen to the accusations of the law we realize this is true. “I covet. I
lie. I slander. I’m not such a good person after all. I’m guilty as sin.”

The second purpose
of the law is to inflame sin. Upon
discovering he had a coveting problem, Paul resolved to fix it. “I didn’t know
I was sinning, but now that I do, I’ll stop.” Problem solved. Only it wasn’t.
To his dismay, Paul found that his law-keeping efforts only made things worse.

But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the
commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin
was dead. (Romans 7:8)

If you have ever tried to
overcome sin in your own strength, you will know that the harder you try, the
harder it gets. You resolve to be pure but you stumble. You promise to do
better but fail again. In exasperation you cry, “I’m such a sinner.” Then you
hear an inspiring sermon about giving God your best, and your flesh responds,
“Jesus, I’ll do it for you.” So you charge hard at that stone wall like a bull.
“This time I’m gonna make it.” Bam! Down you go again. “Why is it that the
harder I try the harder I fail?” Because you’re relying on the flesh and the
flesh is weak. 

The law was brought in so that the trespass might
increase … (Romans 5:20a)

The harder you try to keep the
law, the stronger sin becomes, for the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians
15:56). The problem is not the law, which is holy, righteous, and good. The
problem is you. As sin’s prisoner, you are simply not capable of freeing
yourself. The harder you run into that wall, the harder it’ll smack you. This
leads
to the third purpose of the law.

I found that the very commandment that was
intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity
afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to
death. (Romans 7:10
–
11)

God didn’t give us
the law to help us overcome sin. The law is meant to help sin overcome you. The
law ministers death. It does this by demanding we
perform day in and day out, with no time off for good behavior. “Come on you
sinner! Try harder. Don’t you want to do your best for Jesus? Don’t you want to
be free?”

Urged on by
the merciless law, we run into the stone wall again and again until we are
smashed and broken and our pathetic promises are exposed as futile. Eventually
we collapse, spent and hopeless. From our once-proud mouths we whisper words of
defeat. “I can’t do this. What a wretch I am. Who will rescue me from this
prison of death?”

And this
leads us to the fourth and finest purpose of the law.