¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, ¹⁵ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

However, a curious thing happens to us gospelists. Now that many of us have been imbibing the fresh air of the gospel for several years under the influence of Sonship and Keller and others we are facing a new sin problem and that is the problem of feeling spiritually superior to moralists If a moralist can spot an external peccadillo a mile away a gospelist can spot a moralist a mile away. If a moralist feels morally superior to other "sinners" the gospelist feels spiritually superior to the moralist. This feeling of spiritual superiority extends to the terminology used as the gospelist calls himself a "gospelist" contra the "moralist." "Gospelist" just sounds so much more Christ like than "moralist" so the "gospelist" can look down on the "moralist" from His exalted perch at Christ's right hand. The moral of the story (get it, the "moral" of the story) is that we are all equally depraved and all equally in need of God's grace. Thus we need to let our depravity and need for grace guide our view of ourselves and others.

"I can not speak of religion, but I must lament, that among so many pretenders to it, so few understand what it means; some placing it in the understanding, in orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is, that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties, and a model of performances; if they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequent the church, or their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the poor, they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves. Others again put all religion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic devotion; and all they aim at is, to pray with passion, to think of heaven with pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and melting expressions wherewith they court their Savior, till they persuade themselves that they are mightily in love with Him, and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation, which they esteem the chief of Christian graces. Thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety, and at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. Nay, sometimes wickedness and vice pretend to that name. I speak not now of those gross impieties wherewith the heathens were wont to worship their gods; there are but too many Christians who would consecrate their vices, and hallow their corrupt affections, whose rugged humor, and sullen pride must pass for Christian severity; whose fierce wrath, and bitter rage against their enemies, must be called holy zeal; whose petulancy torwards their superiors, or rebellion against their governors, must have the name of Christian courage and resolution. But certainly religion is quite another thing, and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts, and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it. They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'"

...your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴ No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. ¹¹ We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. ¹⁴ Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵ Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

1) The Gospel is a message of historical events - life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Corinthians 15:3) There is no Gospel without the Person, the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus - these events are absolutely essential to the Gospel. 2) The Gospel is a message of what these events achieved - The payment for our sins. The completion of perfect obedience. The removal of the wrath of God. The installation of King Jesus as Crucified Messiah and Lord of the universe. The destruction of death. They were achieved by the events of the Gospel. 3) The Gospel is a message about the transfer of the achiements to particular persons - it happens by the Gospel. If it happens by works - there is no Gospel. If these events existed and these achievements happened and you get them by works, the Gospel is over. It is only by faith alone. We are grafted into Christ where His righteousness and everything becomes made over to us. So the way the transfer happens from the events, to the achievement is the Gospel. 4) The Gospel is the message about the Good Things that are true about us because the achievement has been applied to us - The result - God is only merciful to you and never wrathful - propitiation. We are now counted righteous in Christ - Justification. We are freed from the guilt and power of sin - Redemption. We are positionally and progressively holy, sanctified - Sanctification. We must live in the Glory of the Gospel. The Glory of Christ shining through such awesome achievements, awesome transfer, and awesome experience! 5) The Gospel is the message about the Glorious God Himself as our final, eternal, all satisfying treasure - Even Gospel-loving pastors stop at number four, usually - giving the impression that Justification is the end of the line, or forgiveness of sins is the end of the line, or liberation from sin - redemption is the end of the line, or having wrath removed and escape from hell is the end of the line. There is no Gospel if that's the end of the line! If you can have Heaven - perfect health, all the friends you ever wanted, all of the physical pleasures - purified - you ever wanted and God is not there, is that OK?? This is no Gospel! So many people would say, yes. Have we directed people beyond Justification? Have we directed people beyond the forgiveness of sin?

So that is the gospel: God’s saving work in and through Christ. And the cross is the pinnacle of that work. Knox Chamblin helpfully notes this emphasis in Paul's writing and ministry: "His gospel is 'the word of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:17-18); nowhere is there a comparable reference to 'the word of the resurrection.' In I Corinthians 1:23-24 it is 'Christ crucified' who is identified as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' not as we might have expected (especially in the case of 'power'), Christ resurrected... . Both the cross and the resurrection are 'of first importance' in Paul's gospel (I Cor. 15:3-4). Unless Christ has risen from the dead, the preaching of the cross (and of the resurrection) is a waste of time (15:14); but once the resurrection has occurred, the cross remains central." And the centrality of the cross isn't temporary. The cross remains on center stage even when we receive a glimpse of eternity in the New Testament’s final book: "One is taken aback by the emphasis upon the Cross in Revelation. Heaven does not 'get over’ the cross, as if there are better things to think about; heaven is not only Christ-centered, but cross-centered, and quite blaring about it." Jim Elliff There is nothing more important than getting the gospel right.

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, ¹⁵ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

However, a curious thing happens to us gospelists. Now that many of us have been imbibing the fresh air of the gospel for several years under the influence of Sonship and Keller and others we are facing a new sin problem and that is the problem of feeling spiritually superior to moralists If a moralist can spot an external peccadillo a mile away a gospelist can spot a moralist a mile away. If a moralist feels morally superior to other "sinners" the gospelist feels spiritually superior to the moralist. This feeling of spiritual superiority extends to the terminology used as the gospelist calls himself a "gospelist" contra the "moralist." "Gospelist" just sounds so much more Christ like than "moralist" so the "gospelist" can look down on the "moralist" from His exalted perch at Christ's right hand. The moral of the story (get it, the "moral" of the story) is that we are all equally depraved and all equally in need of God's grace. Thus we need to let our depravity and need for grace guide our view of ourselves and others.

"I can not speak of religion, but I must lament, that among so many pretenders to it, so few understand what it means; some placing it in the understanding, in orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is, that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties, and a model of performances; if they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequent the church, or their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the poor, they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves. Others again put all religion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic devotion; and all they aim at is, to pray with passion, to think of heaven with pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and melting expressions wherewith they court their Savior, till they persuade themselves that they are mightily in love with Him, and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation, which they esteem the chief of Christian graces. Thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety, and at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. Nay, sometimes wickedness and vice pretend to that name. I speak not now of those gross impieties wherewith the heathens were wont to worship their gods; there are but too many Christians who would consecrate their vices, and hallow their corrupt affections, whose rugged humor, and sullen pride must pass for Christian severity; whose fierce wrath, and bitter rage against their enemies, must be called holy zeal; whose petulancy torwards their superiors, or rebellion against their governors, must have the name of Christian courage and resolution. But certainly religion is quite another thing, and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts, and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it. They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'"

...your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴ No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. ¹¹ We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. ¹⁴ Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵ Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

1) The Gospel is a message of historical events - life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Corinthians 15:3) There is no Gospel without the Person, the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus - these events are absolutely essential to the Gospel. 2) The Gospel is a message of what these events achieved - The payment for our sins. The completion of perfect obedience. The removal of the wrath of God. The installation of King Jesus as Crucified Messiah and Lord of the universe. The destruction of death. They were achieved by the events of the Gospel. 3) The Gospel is a message about the transfer of the achiements to particular persons - it happens by the Gospel. If it happens by works - there is no Gospel. If these events existed and these achievements happened and you get them by works, the Gospel is over. It is only by faith alone. We are grafted into Christ where His righteousness and everything becomes made over to us. So the way the transfer happens from the events, to the achievement is the Gospel. 4) The Gospel is the message about the Good Things that are true about us because the achievement has been applied to us - The result - God is only merciful to you and never wrathful - propitiation. We are now counted righteous in Christ - Justification. We are freed from the guilt and power of sin - Redemption. We are positionally and progressively holy, sanctified - Sanctification. We must live in the Glory of the Gospel. The Glory of Christ shining through such awesome achievements, awesome transfer, and awesome experience! 5) The Gospel is the message about the Glorious God Himself as our final, eternal, all satisfying treasure - Even Gospel-loving pastors stop at number four, usually - giving the impression that Justification is the end of the line, or forgiveness of sins is the end of the line, or liberation from sin - redemption is the end of the line, or having wrath removed and escape from hell is the end of the line. There is no Gospel if that's the end of the line! If you can have Heaven - perfect health, all the friends you ever wanted, all of the physical pleasures - purified - you ever wanted and God is not there, is that OK?? This is no Gospel! So many people would say, yes. Have we directed people beyond Justification? Have we directed people beyond the forgiveness of sin?

So that is the gospel: God’s saving work in and through Christ. And the cross is the pinnacle of that work. Knox Chamblin helpfully notes this emphasis in Paul's writing and ministry: "His gospel is 'the word of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:17-18); nowhere is there a comparable reference to 'the word of the resurrection.' In I Corinthians 1:23-24 it is 'Christ crucified' who is identified as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' not as we might have expected (especially in the case of 'power'), Christ resurrected... . Both the cross and the resurrection are 'of first importance' in Paul's gospel (I Cor. 15:3-4). Unless Christ has risen from the dead, the preaching of the cross (and of the resurrection) is a waste of time (15:14); but once the resurrection has occurred, the cross remains central." And the centrality of the cross isn't temporary. The cross remains on center stage even when we receive a glimpse of eternity in the New Testament’s final book: "One is taken aback by the emphasis upon the Cross in Revelation. Heaven does not 'get over’ the cross, as if there are better things to think about; heaven is not only Christ-centered, but cross-centered, and quite blaring about it." Jim Elliff There is nothing more important than getting the gospel right.

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, ¹⁵ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

However, a curious thing happens to us gospelists. Now that many of us have been imbibing the fresh air of the gospel for several years under the influence of Sonship and Keller and others we are facing a new sin problem and that is the problem of feeling spiritually superior to moralists If a moralist can spot an external peccadillo a mile away a gospelist can spot a moralist a mile away. If a moralist feels morally superior to other "sinners" the gospelist feels spiritually superior to the moralist. This feeling of spiritual superiority extends to the terminology used as the gospelist calls himself a "gospelist" contra the "moralist." "Gospelist" just sounds so much more Christ like than "moralist" so the "gospelist" can look down on the "moralist" from His exalted perch at Christ's right hand. The moral of the story (get it, the "moral" of the story) is that we are all equally depraved and all equally in need of God's grace. Thus we need to let our depravity and need for grace guide our view of ourselves and others.

"I can not speak of religion, but I must lament, that among so many pretenders to it, so few understand what it means; some placing it in the understanding, in orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is, that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties, and a model of performances; if they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequent the church, or their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the poor, they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves. Others again put all religion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic devotion; and all they aim at is, to pray with passion, to think of heaven with pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and melting expressions wherewith they court their Savior, till they persuade themselves that they are mightily in love with Him, and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation, which they esteem the chief of Christian graces. Thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety, and at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. Nay, sometimes wickedness and vice pretend to that name. I speak not now of those gross impieties wherewith the heathens were wont to worship their gods; there are but too many Christians who would consecrate their vices, and hallow their corrupt affections, whose rugged humor, and sullen pride must pass for Christian severity; whose fierce wrath, and bitter rage against their enemies, must be called holy zeal; whose petulancy torwards their superiors, or rebellion against their governors, must have the name of Christian courage and resolution. But certainly religion is quite another thing, and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts, and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it. They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'"

...your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴ No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. ¹¹ We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. ¹⁴ Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵ Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

1) The Gospel is a message of historical events - life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Corinthians 15:3) There is no Gospel without the Person, the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus - these events are absolutely essential to the Gospel. 2) The Gospel is a message of what these events achieved - The payment for our sins. The completion of perfect obedience. The removal of the wrath of God. The installation of King Jesus as Crucified Messiah and Lord of the universe. The destruction of death. They were achieved by the events of the Gospel. 3) The Gospel is a message about the transfer of the achiements to particular persons - it happens by the Gospel. If it happens by works - there is no Gospel. If these events existed and these achievements happened and you get them by works, the Gospel is over. It is only by faith alone. We are grafted into Christ where His righteousness and everything becomes made over to us. So the way the transfer happens from the events, to the achievement is the Gospel. 4) The Gospel is the message about the Good Things that are true about us because the achievement has been applied to us - The result - God is only merciful to you and never wrathful - propitiation. We are now counted righteous in Christ - Justification. We are freed from the guilt and power of sin - Redemption. We are positionally and progressively holy, sanctified - Sanctification. We must live in the Glory of the Gospel. The Glory of Christ shining through such awesome achievements, awesome transfer, and awesome experience! 5) The Gospel is the message about the Glorious God Himself as our final, eternal, all satisfying treasure - Even Gospel-loving pastors stop at number four, usually - giving the impression that Justification is the end of the line, or forgiveness of sins is the end of the line, or liberation from sin - redemption is the end of the line, or having wrath removed and escape from hell is the end of the line. There is no Gospel if that's the end of the line! If you can have Heaven - perfect health, all the friends you ever wanted, all of the physical pleasures - purified - you ever wanted and God is not there, is that OK?? This is no Gospel! So many people would say, yes. Have we directed people beyond Justification? Have we directed people beyond the forgiveness of sin?

So that is the gospel: God’s saving work in and through Christ. And the cross is the pinnacle of that work. Knox Chamblin helpfully notes this emphasis in Paul's writing and ministry: "His gospel is 'the word of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:17-18); nowhere is there a comparable reference to 'the word of the resurrection.' In I Corinthians 1:23-24 it is 'Christ crucified' who is identified as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' not as we might have expected (especially in the case of 'power'), Christ resurrected... . Both the cross and the resurrection are 'of first importance' in Paul's gospel (I Cor. 15:3-4). Unless Christ has risen from the dead, the preaching of the cross (and of the resurrection) is a waste of time (15:14); but once the resurrection has occurred, the cross remains central." And the centrality of the cross isn't temporary. The cross remains on center stage even when we receive a glimpse of eternity in the New Testament’s final book: "One is taken aback by the emphasis upon the Cross in Revelation. Heaven does not 'get over’ the cross, as if there are better things to think about; heaven is not only Christ-centered, but cross-centered, and quite blaring about it." Jim Elliff There is nothing more important than getting the gospel right.

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, ¹⁵ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

However, a curious thing happens to us gospelists. Now that many of us have been imbibing the fresh air of the gospel for several years under the influence of Sonship and Keller and others we are facing a new sin problem and that is the problem of feeling spiritually superior to moralists If a moralist can spot an external peccadillo a mile away a gospelist can spot a moralist a mile away. If a moralist feels morally superior to other "sinners" the gospelist feels spiritually superior to the moralist. This feeling of spiritual superiority extends to the terminology used as the gospelist calls himself a "gospelist" contra the "moralist." "Gospelist" just sounds so much more Christ like than "moralist" so the "gospelist" can look down on the "moralist" from His exalted perch at Christ's right hand. The moral of the story (get it, the "moral" of the story) is that we are all equally depraved and all equally in need of God's grace. Thus we need to let our depravity and need for grace guide our view of ourselves and others.

"I can not speak of religion, but I must lament, that among so many pretenders to it, so few understand what it means; some placing it in the understanding, in orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is, that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties, and a model of performances; if they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequent the church, or their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the poor, they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves. Others again put all religion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic devotion; and all they aim at is, to pray with passion, to think of heaven with pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and melting expressions wherewith they court their Savior, till they persuade themselves that they are mightily in love with Him, and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation, which they esteem the chief of Christian graces. Thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety, and at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. Nay, sometimes wickedness and vice pretend to that name. I speak not now of those gross impieties wherewith the heathens were wont to worship their gods; there are but too many Christians who would consecrate their vices, and hallow their corrupt affections, whose rugged humor, and sullen pride must pass for Christian severity; whose fierce wrath, and bitter rage against their enemies, must be called holy zeal; whose petulancy torwards their superiors, or rebellion against their governors, must have the name of Christian courage and resolution. But certainly religion is quite another thing, and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts, and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it. They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'"

...your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴ No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. ¹¹ We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. ¹⁴ Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵ Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

1) The Gospel is a message of historical events - life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Corinthians 15:3) There is no Gospel without the Person, the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus - these events are absolutely essential to the Gospel. 2) The Gospel is a message of what these events achieved - The payment for our sins. The completion of perfect obedience. The removal of the wrath of God. The installation of King Jesus as Crucified Messiah and Lord of the universe. The destruction of death. They were achieved by the events of the Gospel. 3) The Gospel is a message about the transfer of the achiements to particular persons - it happens by the Gospel. If it happens by works - there is no Gospel. If these events existed and these achievements happened and you get them by works, the Gospel is over. It is only by faith alone. We are grafted into Christ where His righteousness and everything becomes made over to us. So the way the transfer happens from the events, to the achievement is the Gospel. 4) The Gospel is the message about the Good Things that are true about us because the achievement has been applied to us - The result - God is only merciful to you and never wrathful - propitiation. We are now counted righteous in Christ - Justification. We are freed from the guilt and power of sin - Redemption. We are positionally and progressively holy, sanctified - Sanctification. We must live in the Glory of the Gospel. The Glory of Christ shining through such awesome achievements, awesome transfer, and awesome experience! 5) The Gospel is the message about the Glorious God Himself as our final, eternal, all satisfying treasure - Even Gospel-loving pastors stop at number four, usually - giving the impression that Justification is the end of the line, or forgiveness of sins is the end of the line, or liberation from sin - redemption is the end of the line, or having wrath removed and escape from hell is the end of the line. There is no Gospel if that's the end of the line! If you can have Heaven - perfect health, all the friends you ever wanted, all of the physical pleasures - purified - you ever wanted and God is not there, is that OK?? This is no Gospel! So many people would say, yes. Have we directed people beyond Justification? Have we directed people beyond the forgiveness of sin?

So that is the gospel: God’s saving work in and through Christ. And the cross is the pinnacle of that work. Knox Chamblin helpfully notes this emphasis in Paul's writing and ministry: "His gospel is 'the word of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:17-18); nowhere is there a comparable reference to 'the word of the resurrection.' In I Corinthians 1:23-24 it is 'Christ crucified' who is identified as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' not as we might have expected (especially in the case of 'power'), Christ resurrected... . Both the cross and the resurrection are 'of first importance' in Paul's gospel (I Cor. 15:3-4). Unless Christ has risen from the dead, the preaching of the cross (and of the resurrection) is a waste of time (15:14); but once the resurrection has occurred, the cross remains central." And the centrality of the cross isn't temporary. The cross remains on center stage even when we receive a glimpse of eternity in the New Testament’s final book: "One is taken aback by the emphasis upon the Cross in Revelation. Heaven does not 'get over’ the cross, as if there are better things to think about; heaven is not only Christ-centered, but cross-centered, and quite blaring about it." Jim Elliff There is nothing more important than getting the gospel right.

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, ¹⁵ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

However, a curious thing happens to us gospelists. Now that many of us have been imbibing the fresh air of the gospel for several years under the influence of Sonship and Keller and others we are facing a new sin problem and that is the problem of feeling spiritually superior to moralists If a moralist can spot an external peccadillo a mile away a gospelist can spot a moralist a mile away. If a moralist feels morally superior to other "sinners" the gospelist feels spiritually superior to the moralist. This feeling of spiritual superiority extends to the terminology used as the gospelist calls himself a "gospelist" contra the "moralist." "Gospelist" just sounds so much more Christ like than "moralist" so the "gospelist" can look down on the "moralist" from His exalted perch at Christ's right hand. The moral of the story (get it, the "moral" of the story) is that we are all equally depraved and all equally in need of God's grace. Thus we need to let our depravity and need for grace guide our view of ourselves and others.

"I can not speak of religion, but I must lament, that among so many pretenders to it, so few understand what it means; some placing it in the understanding, in orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is, that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties, and a model of performances; if they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequent the church, or their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the poor, they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves. Others again put all religion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic devotion; and all they aim at is, to pray with passion, to think of heaven with pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and melting expressions wherewith they court their Savior, till they persuade themselves that they are mightily in love with Him, and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation, which they esteem the chief of Christian graces. Thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety, and at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. Nay, sometimes wickedness and vice pretend to that name. I speak not now of those gross impieties wherewith the heathens were wont to worship their gods; there are but too many Christians who would consecrate their vices, and hallow their corrupt affections, whose rugged humor, and sullen pride must pass for Christian severity; whose fierce wrath, and bitter rage against their enemies, must be called holy zeal; whose petulancy torwards their superiors, or rebellion against their governors, must have the name of Christian courage and resolution. But certainly religion is quite another thing, and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts, and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it. They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'"

...your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴ No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. ¹¹ We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. ¹⁴ Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵ Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

1) The Gospel is a message of historical events - life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Corinthians 15:3) There is no Gospel without the Person, the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus - these events are absolutely essential to the Gospel. 2) The Gospel is a message of what these events achieved - The payment for our sins. The completion of perfect obedience. The removal of the wrath of God. The installation of King Jesus as Crucified Messiah and Lord of the universe. The destruction of death. They were achieved by the events of the Gospel. 3) The Gospel is a message about the transfer of the achiements to particular persons - it happens by the Gospel. If it happens by works - there is no Gospel. If these events existed and these achievements happened and you get them by works, the Gospel is over. It is only by faith alone. We are grafted into Christ where His righteousness and everything becomes made over to us. So the way the transfer happens from the events, to the achievement is the Gospel. 4) The Gospel is the message about the Good Things that are true about us because the achievement has been applied to us - The result - God is only merciful to you and never wrathful - propitiation. We are now counted righteous in Christ - Justification. We are freed from the guilt and power of sin - Redemption. We are positionally and progressively holy, sanctified - Sanctification. We must live in the Glory of the Gospel. The Glory of Christ shining through such awesome achievements, awesome transfer, and awesome experience! 5) The Gospel is the message about the Glorious God Himself as our final, eternal, all satisfying treasure - Even Gospel-loving pastors stop at number four, usually - giving the impression that Justification is the end of the line, or forgiveness of sins is the end of the line, or liberation from sin - redemption is the end of the line, or having wrath removed and escape from hell is the end of the line. There is no Gospel if that's the end of the line! If you can have Heaven - perfect health, all the friends you ever wanted, all of the physical pleasures - purified - you ever wanted and God is not there, is that OK?? This is no Gospel! So many people would say, yes. Have we directed people beyond Justification? Have we directed people beyond the forgiveness of sin?

So that is the gospel: God’s saving work in and through Christ. And the cross is the pinnacle of that work. Knox Chamblin helpfully notes this emphasis in Paul's writing and ministry: "His gospel is 'the word of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:17-18); nowhere is there a comparable reference to 'the word of the resurrection.' In I Corinthians 1:23-24 it is 'Christ crucified' who is identified as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' not as we might have expected (especially in the case of 'power'), Christ resurrected... . Both the cross and the resurrection are 'of first importance' in Paul's gospel (I Cor. 15:3-4). Unless Christ has risen from the dead, the preaching of the cross (and of the resurrection) is a waste of time (15:14); but once the resurrection has occurred, the cross remains central." And the centrality of the cross isn't temporary. The cross remains on center stage even when we receive a glimpse of eternity in the New Testament’s final book: "One is taken aback by the emphasis upon the Cross in Revelation. Heaven does not 'get over’ the cross, as if there are better things to think about; heaven is not only Christ-centered, but cross-centered, and quite blaring about it." Jim Elliff There is nothing more important than getting the gospel right.

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, ¹⁵ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

However, a curious thing happens to us gospelists. Now that many of us have been imbibing the fresh air of the gospel for several years under the influence of Sonship and Keller and others we are facing a new sin problem and that is the problem of feeling spiritually superior to moralists If a moralist can spot an external peccadillo a mile away a gospelist can spot a moralist a mile away. If a moralist feels morally superior to other "sinners" the gospelist feels spiritually superior to the moralist. This feeling of spiritual superiority extends to the terminology used as the gospelist calls himself a "gospelist" contra the "moralist." "Gospelist" just sounds so much more Christ like than "moralist" so the "gospelist" can look down on the "moralist" from His exalted perch at Christ's right hand. The moral of the story (get it, the "moral" of the story) is that we are all equally depraved and all equally in need of God's grace. Thus we need to let our depravity and need for grace guide our view of ourselves and others.

"I can not speak of religion, but I must lament, that among so many pretenders to it, so few understand what it means; some placing it in the understanding, in orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is, that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties, and a model of performances; if they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequent the church, or their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the poor, they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves. Others again put all religion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic devotion; and all they aim at is, to pray with passion, to think of heaven with pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and melting expressions wherewith they court their Savior, till they persuade themselves that they are mightily in love with Him, and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation, which they esteem the chief of Christian graces. Thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety, and at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. Nay, sometimes wickedness and vice pretend to that name. I speak not now of those gross impieties wherewith the heathens were wont to worship their gods; there are but too many Christians who would consecrate their vices, and hallow their corrupt affections, whose rugged humor, and sullen pride must pass for Christian severity; whose fierce wrath, and bitter rage against their enemies, must be called holy zeal; whose petulancy torwards their superiors, or rebellion against their governors, must have the name of Christian courage and resolution. But certainly religion is quite another thing, and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts, and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it. They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'"

...your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴ No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. ¹¹ We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. ¹⁴ Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵ Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

1) The Gospel is a message of historical events - life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Corinthians 15:3) There is no Gospel without the Person, the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus - these events are absolutely essential to the Gospel. 2) The Gospel is a message of what these events achieved - The payment for our sins. The completion of perfect obedience. The removal of the wrath of God. The installation of King Jesus as Crucified Messiah and Lord of the universe. The destruction of death. They were achieved by the events of the Gospel. 3) The Gospel is a message about the transfer of the achiements to particular persons - it happens by the Gospel. If it happens by works - there is no Gospel. If these events existed and these achievements happened and you get them by works, the Gospel is over. It is only by faith alone. We are grafted into Christ where His righteousness and everything becomes made over to us. So the way the transfer happens from the events, to the achievement is the Gospel. 4) The Gospel is the message about the Good Things that are true about us because the achievement has been applied to us - The result - God is only merciful to you and never wrathful - propitiation. We are now counted righteous in Christ - Justification. We are freed from the guilt and power of sin - Redemption. We are positionally and progressively holy, sanctified - Sanctification. We must live in the Glory of the Gospel. The Glory of Christ shining through such awesome achievements, awesome transfer, and awesome experience! 5) The Gospel is the message about the Glorious God Himself as our final, eternal, all satisfying treasure - Even Gospel-loving pastors stop at number four, usually - giving the impression that Justification is the end of the line, or forgiveness of sins is the end of the line, or liberation from sin - redemption is the end of the line, or having wrath removed and escape from hell is the end of the line. There is no Gospel if that's the end of the line! If you can have Heaven - perfect health, all the friends you ever wanted, all of the physical pleasures - purified - you ever wanted and God is not there, is that OK?? This is no Gospel! So many people would say, yes. Have we directed people beyond Justification? Have we directed people beyond the forgiveness of sin?

So that is the gospel: God’s saving work in and through Christ. And the cross is the pinnacle of that work. Knox Chamblin helpfully notes this emphasis in Paul's writing and ministry: "His gospel is 'the word of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:17-18); nowhere is there a comparable reference to 'the word of the resurrection.' In I Corinthians 1:23-24 it is 'Christ crucified' who is identified as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' not as we might have expected (especially in the case of 'power'), Christ resurrected... . Both the cross and the resurrection are 'of first importance' in Paul's gospel (I Cor. 15:3-4). Unless Christ has risen from the dead, the preaching of the cross (and of the resurrection) is a waste of time (15:14); but once the resurrection has occurred, the cross remains central." And the centrality of the cross isn't temporary. The cross remains on center stage even when we receive a glimpse of eternity in the New Testament’s final book: "One is taken aback by the emphasis upon the Cross in Revelation. Heaven does not 'get over’ the cross, as if there are better things to think about; heaven is not only Christ-centered, but cross-centered, and quite blaring about it." Jim Elliff There is nothing more important than getting the gospel right.

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, ¹⁵ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

However, a curious thing happens to us gospelists. Now that many of us have been imbibing the fresh air of the gospel for several years under the influence of Sonship and Keller and others we are facing a new sin problem and that is the problem of feeling spiritually superior to moralists If a moralist can spot an external peccadillo a mile away a gospelist can spot a moralist a mile away. If a moralist feels morally superior to other "sinners" the gospelist feels spiritually superior to the moralist. This feeling of spiritual superiority extends to the terminology used as the gospelist calls himself a "gospelist" contra the "moralist." "Gospelist" just sounds so much more Christ like than "moralist" so the "gospelist" can look down on the "moralist" from His exalted perch at Christ's right hand. The moral of the story (get it, the "moral" of the story) is that we are all equally depraved and all equally in need of God's grace. Thus we need to let our depravity and need for grace guide our view of ourselves and others.

"I can not speak of religion, but I must lament, that among so many pretenders to it, so few understand what it means; some placing it in the understanding, in orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is, that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties, and a model of performances; if they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequent the church, or their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the poor, they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves. Others again put all religion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic devotion; and all they aim at is, to pray with passion, to think of heaven with pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and melting expressions wherewith they court their Savior, till they persuade themselves that they are mightily in love with Him, and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation, which they esteem the chief of Christian graces. Thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety, and at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. Nay, sometimes wickedness and vice pretend to that name. I speak not now of those gross impieties wherewith the heathens were wont to worship their gods; there are but too many Christians who would consecrate their vices, and hallow their corrupt affections, whose rugged humor, and sullen pride must pass for Christian severity; whose fierce wrath, and bitter rage against their enemies, must be called holy zeal; whose petulancy torwards their superiors, or rebellion against their governors, must have the name of Christian courage and resolution. But certainly religion is quite another thing, and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts, and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it. They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'"

...your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴ No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. ¹¹ We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. ¹⁴ Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵ Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

1) The Gospel is a message of historical events - life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Corinthians 15:3) There is no Gospel without the Person, the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus - these events are absolutely essential to the Gospel. 2) The Gospel is a message of what these events achieved - The payment for our sins. The completion of perfect obedience. The removal of the wrath of God. The installation of King Jesus as Crucified Messiah and Lord of the universe. The destruction of death. They were achieved by the events of the Gospel. 3) The Gospel is a message about the transfer of the achiements to particular persons - it happens by the Gospel. If it happens by works - there is no Gospel. If these events existed and these achievements happened and you get them by works, the Gospel is over. It is only by faith alone. We are grafted into Christ where His righteousness and everything becomes made over to us. So the way the transfer happens from the events, to the achievement is the Gospel. 4) The Gospel is the message about the Good Things that are true about us because the achievement has been applied to us - The result - God is only merciful to you and never wrathful - propitiation. We are now counted righteous in Christ - Justification. We are freed from the guilt and power of sin - Redemption. We are positionally and progressively holy, sanctified - Sanctification. We must live in the Glory of the Gospel. The Glory of Christ shining through such awesome achievements, awesome transfer, and awesome experience! 5) The Gospel is the message about the Glorious God Himself as our final, eternal, all satisfying treasure - Even Gospel-loving pastors stop at number four, usually - giving the impression that Justification is the end of the line, or forgiveness of sins is the end of the line, or liberation from sin - redemption is the end of the line, or having wrath removed and escape from hell is the end of the line. There is no Gospel if that's the end of the line! If you can have Heaven - perfect health, all the friends you ever wanted, all of the physical pleasures - purified - you ever wanted and God is not there, is that OK?? This is no Gospel! So many people would say, yes. Have we directed people beyond Justification? Have we directed people beyond the forgiveness of sin?

So that is the gospel: God’s saving work in and through Christ. And the cross is the pinnacle of that work. Knox Chamblin helpfully notes this emphasis in Paul's writing and ministry: "His gospel is 'the word of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:17-18); nowhere is there a comparable reference to 'the word of the resurrection.' In I Corinthians 1:23-24 it is 'Christ crucified' who is identified as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' not as we might have expected (especially in the case of 'power'), Christ resurrected... . Both the cross and the resurrection are 'of first importance' in Paul's gospel (I Cor. 15:3-4). Unless Christ has risen from the dead, the preaching of the cross (and of the resurrection) is a waste of time (15:14); but once the resurrection has occurred, the cross remains central." And the centrality of the cross isn't temporary. The cross remains on center stage even when we receive a glimpse of eternity in the New Testament’s final book: "One is taken aback by the emphasis upon the Cross in Revelation. Heaven does not 'get over’ the cross, as if there are better things to think about; heaven is not only Christ-centered, but cross-centered, and quite blaring about it." Jim Elliff There is nothing more important than getting the gospel right.

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, ¹⁵ if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ¹⁶ Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

However, a curious thing happens to us gospelists. Now that many of us have been imbibing the fresh air of the gospel for several years under the influence of Sonship and Keller and others we are facing a new sin problem and that is the problem of feeling spiritually superior to moralists If a moralist can spot an external peccadillo a mile away a gospelist can spot a moralist a mile away. If a moralist feels morally superior to other "sinners" the gospelist feels spiritually superior to the moralist. This feeling of spiritual superiority extends to the terminology used as the gospelist calls himself a "gospelist" contra the "moralist." "Gospelist" just sounds so much more Christ like than "moralist" so the "gospelist" can look down on the "moralist" from His exalted perch at Christ's right hand. The moral of the story (get it, the "moral" of the story) is that we are all equally depraved and all equally in need of God's grace. Thus we need to let our depravity and need for grace guide our view of ourselves and others.

"I can not speak of religion, but I must lament, that among so many pretenders to it, so few understand what it means; some placing it in the understanding, in orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is, that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties, and a model of performances; if they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequent the church, or their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to the relief of the poor, they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves. Others again put all religion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic devotion; and all they aim at is, to pray with passion, to think of heaven with pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and melting expressions wherewith they court their Savior, till they persuade themselves that they are mightily in love with Him, and from thence assume a great confidence of their salvation, which they esteem the chief of Christian graces. Thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety, and at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. Nay, sometimes wickedness and vice pretend to that name. I speak not now of those gross impieties wherewith the heathens were wont to worship their gods; there are but too many Christians who would consecrate their vices, and hallow their corrupt affections, whose rugged humor, and sullen pride must pass for Christian severity; whose fierce wrath, and bitter rage against their enemies, must be called holy zeal; whose petulancy torwards their superiors, or rebellion against their governors, must have the name of Christian courage and resolution. But certainly religion is quite another thing, and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts, and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it. They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'"

...your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴ No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. ¹¹ We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. ¹⁴ Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵ Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

1) The Gospel is a message of historical events - life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Corinthians 15:3) There is no Gospel without the Person, the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus - these events are absolutely essential to the Gospel. 2) The Gospel is a message of what these events achieved - The payment for our sins. The completion of perfect obedience. The removal of the wrath of God. The installation of King Jesus as Crucified Messiah and Lord of the universe. The destruction of death. They were achieved by the events of the Gospel. 3) The Gospel is a message about the transfer of the achiements to particular persons - it happens by the Gospel. If it happens by works - there is no Gospel. If these events existed and these achievements happened and you get them by works, the Gospel is over. It is only by faith alone. We are grafted into Christ where His righteousness and everything becomes made over to us. So the way the transfer happens from the events, to the achievement is the Gospel. 4) The Gospel is the message about the Good Things that are true about us because the achievement has been applied to us - The result - God is only merciful to you and never wrathful - propitiation. We are now counted righteous in Christ - Justification. We are freed from the guilt and power of sin - Redemption. We are positionally and progressively holy, sanctified - Sanctification. We must live in the Glory of the Gospel. The Glory of Christ shining through such awesome achievements, awesome transfer, and awesome experience! 5) The Gospel is the message about the Glorious God Himself as our final, eternal, all satisfying treasure - Even Gospel-loving pastors stop at number four, usually - giving the impression that Justification is the end of the line, or forgiveness of sins is the end of the line, or liberation from sin - redemption is the end of the line, or having wrath removed and escape from hell is the end of the line. There is no Gospel if that's the end of the line! If you can have Heaven - perfect health, all the friends you ever wanted, all of the physical pleasures - purified - you ever wanted and God is not there, is that OK?? This is no Gospel! So many people would say, yes. Have we directed people beyond Justification? Have we directed people beyond the forgiveness of sin?

So that is the gospel: God’s saving work in and through Christ. And the cross is the pinnacle of that work. Knox Chamblin helpfully notes this emphasis in Paul's writing and ministry: "His gospel is 'the word of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:17-18); nowhere is there a comparable reference to 'the word of the resurrection.' In I Corinthians 1:23-24 it is 'Christ crucified' who is identified as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' not as we might have expected (especially in the case of 'power'), Christ resurrected... . Both the cross and the resurrection are 'of first importance' in Paul's gospel (I Cor. 15:3-4). Unless Christ has risen from the dead, the preaching of the cross (and of the resurrection) is a waste of time (15:14); but once the resurrection has occurred, the cross remains central." And the centrality of the cross isn't temporary. The cross remains on center stage even when we receive a glimpse of eternity in the New Testament’s final book: "One is taken aback by the emphasis upon the Cross in Revelation. Heaven does not 'get over’ the cross, as if there are better things to think about; heaven is not only Christ-centered, but cross-centered, and quite blaring about it." Jim Elliff There is nothing more important than getting the gospel right.