2 posts tagged “gospel”

I was recently watching Larry King Live (yes, I know it seems like I am 50 years old...but I am not), and he was interviewing Joel Osteen.  Now, I don't have a problem with the fact that he has a huge church, and maybe he smiles all the time just because he is blessed with joyfulness.  However, his "gospel" is very dangerous.  You see, Joel Osteen was asked about why he doesn't "pound the pulpit," preaching fire and brimstone.  Joel Osteen retorted that he thinks that people don't need that, but that they need to be told that the good news is that Jesus loves us and wants us to have a good life and a healthy life.  Now this is GOOD.  Certainly, God wants all these things for us, and gives us these things.  But this is not the Good News. 
If Joel Osteen's message is elevated to the Good News, we have a serious problem.  While a good life is a great thing, without any atonement for our sin by the death of Jesus on the Cross, our "Best Life Now" will be worth nothing.  In fact, every single time the words "good news" show up in the New Testament, it is always attached to some declarative verb (e.g. to preach the good news), and is always referring to Jesus.  For Jesus is our Good News, and what Jesus has done for us.
In fact, J.I. Packer refers to this problem in his book, Knowing God.  He writes in his book, "The type of ministry that is here in mind starts by stressing, in an evangelistic context, the difference that becoming a Christian will make...he will be able to overcome the sins that prviously mastered him...[God] will enable him to fin a way through problems of guidance, self-fulfillment, personal relations, heart's desire...Now, put like that, in general terms, these great assurances are scriptural and true - praise God, they are!  But it is possible so to stress them, and so to play down the rougher side of the Christian life...as to give the impression that normal Christian living is a perfect bed of roses."
Joel Osteen preaches the Christian life like this.  Differing from orthodox theologians, he preaches US as victors instead of Christus Victor.  He preaches a good life instead of the good news.
The ONLY thing that is different between Christianity and every other religion is Jesus.  We have a Saviour who dies for our sin, propitiating God's wrath.  Because of Him, anyone who is in Christ no longer stands in judgment.  This is our good news.  Nothing less than that.

I was working at a funeral today, and it forced me to think about what my funeral would look like.  I have been meditating a lot on death, and the mystery that is our death.  The thing is that we run from death; truly, apart from Christ, we are already dead.  And here is the thing: ever since Genesis 3, death is the ultimate and final punishment.  But then an odd thing happened.  In Hosea 13, the prophet is recorded as saying, "O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?" (13.14 ESV)  Hosea mocks death, but in hope and faith, not in reality.  He looked forward to Jesus, who finished this story of Death.  In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul closes his dissertation on the death and ressurrection of Jesus Christ by quoting this verse.  He applies this to Jesus.  THIS IS THE GOSPEL.  The victory of Jesus is the victory over death and sin and Satan.  And he says, "the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor 15.56-7)  What does he give us the victory over?  All of that.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law, the defeater of death and of sin.  I think it was C.H. Spurgeon that taught that death has no more sting.  Instead of being the final judgment of God, it is the final victory.  Instead of opening the door to eternal pain and damnation, if we cleave to Jesus, death opens the door to Jesus.  Releasing us from the pains of this world, from our earthly bodies, and allowing us to shed off this mortal coil and put on our heavenly bodies.

I know that this is a roundabout way to talk about my own funeral.  But the gospel of Jesus' resurrection is of first importance.  You see, I want my funeral to be about Jesus.  I heard a lot of people today say, "God only takes the best, and this guy was one of the best."  Now, this guy could have been great; it sure sounded like it.  But Paul notes that "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." (1 Cor 1.27-29)  I want the sermon at my funeral to be about the grace of God.  That he elected me, in spite of ALL the crap in my life.  That his glory and his honor are of first importance.
Finally, I wish that at least one person at my funeral would say, "well, he beat us to Jesus."  Funerals are sad affairs, and understandably so.  Contrite metaphors and illustrations of heaven certainly don't help.  But death is no longer a curse.  It is a blessing.  Because if we hold fast to Jesus and the gospel, death beckons us enter into the UNINTERUPPED presence of God.
I must finish this blog with this remark: the manner in which I speak of death is ONLY applicable to those of the second Adam: Jesus.  Those who are of the first Adam, still living in sin unrepentant, hold no part in this blessing.  There are blessings meant for all: this is not one of them.  And so hold fast to Jesus.  For he is the Lord and Saviour, and the Judge of the Living and the Dead.  Amen.