The Glory of the Gospel

To my multitude of readers I apologize for my lengthy hiatus from blogdom. Things have been busy for me lately but I look forward to posting several new entries in the next week.

My last entry was written the day before my mom's memorial service. At the service I had the privilege of giving the gospel. The gospel was the subject of my last face-to-face conversation with my mother. I am so glad we talked about this topic and not something trivial. Why do we ever talk about anything else or talk about other things as if they were unrelated to the gospel?

Is there any subject of greater worth than the gospel? Romans 1:16 says that the gospel is power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Does any other subject have that kind of power? Or is there any other topic that has such a great breadth to it? The gospel deals with life and death, sin and righteousness, heaven and hell, God and man, etc. It is comprehensive and it is overwhelming to think that Jesus Christ would graciously give Himself for my sins so that I would be set free from the irresistable pull of sin, Satan, and this evil age.

And the gospel truth has implications for every day life. The gospel deals with the past, present, and the future. For example, for the two days after my mom's service, my wife and I scoured the Santa Clarita valley looking for a house to buy for when we move there later this summer. Talk about an overwhelming experience. Whew! We left astonished and amazed and without a home. But we did not leave without hope. We believe that our God will provide for all of our needs (Philippians 4:19). We believe that in Christ that we not only have the forgiveness of our sins but all of God's blessings (Romans 8:31-32). So we are not depressed. We will keep looking with hope. But, because of the gospel, we keep our house hunting in perspective. Someday we'll be living in the Father's house. Jesus is right now preparing a place for us (John 14:1-2). I'm confident that the place in the Father's house will be infinitely better than the nicest place in California. What do you think?

The gospel! It is glorious! It is good news!

This week I'm preparing sermons on Hope and The Gospel. I'll share some of the things I learned in my study in future posts but for now let me encourage you to rejoice in the gospel, dwell on gospel truth, and share the gospel with everyone you can. You never know when you might have your last conversation with someone.