Rooted in the Gospel
This Sunday (11/12), we will conclude our 10-week teaching series through our church’s Statement of Faith with Article #10 on humanity’s response and eternal destiny. This article of all the articles may be the most difficult for us to digest as a modern audience. Why? Because it reminds us of the finality to both our time on this side of heaven and the finality of our response to the gospel. You, me, and all people are created in the image of God and share in his likeness (Gen. 1:26). That is, we are to reflect his character, and we share in his eternal reality. If we are truly eternal beings, that shapes the here and now drastically. It means that this life is preparation for an eternity ahead. It also should help us see the gospel in a new, brilliant light. God made the gospel known to us so that we might spend eternity with him. Our Statement of Faith reflects this reality and the brilliant light of the gospel. How so? Here is a helpful excerpt on this very idea and our final article, Article #10.
The Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Free Church of America is an exposition of the gospel—God’s gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what is the gospel? It is the evangel, the good news that God has acted graciously to save a people for himself through his Son Jesus Christ. The gospel is the simple message that Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that we might have eternal life. This message of good news can be stated as concisely as this: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Our Statement seeks to unpack this gospel by organizing the essential doctrines of our faith—our critical Evangelical convictions—around this central theme.
Our final article brings the entire document to a fitting conclusion. The gospel, and our Statement, begins with God and his saving purpose, which flows out of the wondrous perfections of his nature. He is the Creator of all things and is holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This one God, all-knowing and all-powerful, has, in love and grace, purposed from eternity to redeem a people for himself and to restore his fallen creation for His own glory.
But how do we know this good news? We know it only because God himself has revealed it to us. Our second Article affirms that God’s gospel is authoritatively announced in the Scriptures. Through the words of its human authors, God has spoken in his Word, the Bible, without error. The Scriptures are the complete revelation of his will for salvation, and the ultimate authority that stands over every realm of human knowledge and endeavor. Therefore, the Bible is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
This gospel revealed in the Bible is important to us because it alone addresses our deepest human need. Our central problem is not a lack of education, inadequate healthcare or a terrorist threat. It is our alienation from God. We have sinned, all of us, beginning with our first ancestors. We are fallen in our nature before we take our first breath. By our own volition we go our own way in defiance of God’s rightful rule, refusing to allow God to be God in our lives. This cosmic rebellion is evil, and God will not stand for it. As a result we now stand under his wrath, and we can be rescued, reconciled and restored only through God’s gracious work in Jesus Christ.
In the Person of Jesus Christ the gospel is revealed in history. As Israel’s promised Messiah, Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man. He was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He was buried and arose bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven, where, at the right hand of God the Father, he is now our High Priest and Advocate.
God’s gospel is not only revealed in Jesus Christ, it is also accomplished through his work. For when he died on the cross, Jesus acted as our representative and substitute as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. He was raised from the dead as a foretaste of his victory over all the forces of sin and death.
What Jesus did then, two thousand years ago, is now applied to our lives by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit glorifies Christ as he works within us to convict us of our guilt and to grant us new spiritual life as we are born again into a new union with Christ. We are joined to him in his death and resurrection. The indwelling Holy Spirit now empowers us to live in a new way, so that we might become like Christ.
When we are joined to Christ by faith, we become a part of a new family, the family of God, and we become a part of a new body, the body of Christ. God’s gospel is now embodied in a new community, the church, which is manifest in local churches. In the fellowship of the church and through its ordinances, our faith is nourished and strengthened.
In the grace of the gospel, God justifies us, accepting us just as we are. But in his grace, he does not leave us just as we are. This gospel also changes us; it sanctifies us, compelling us to Christ-like living and witness to the world. We are to grow in our love for God and for other people who are created in his image. We are to show the same compassion we have received toward others who are in need. We are to do battle with the forces of evil in this world, in fellowship with one another, in dependence on him, using all the resources he has given us. And in all that we do, in word and deed, we are to bear witness to this glorious gospel among all people.
We believe that one day God will bring his saving purpose in the gospel to fulfillment, when Jesus Christ comes in glory with his holy angels to establish his kingdom fully and completely and to exercise his role as Judge of all. Jesus Christ is coming again, and that is our blessed hope— a hope that spurs us on to remain faithful to our Lord to the end.[1]
[1] EFCA. Evangelical Convictions, 2nd Edition. Free Church Publications. Kindle Edition.