I’ve heard in the past from some pastors and authors that we need to “Preach the gospel to ourselves every day”. But why should we do that if we are already Christians? Do we really need to hear the gospel over and over again? Although many of us have responded to the gospel and given our lives to Christ, I think we forget or take for granted what God has done for us through Christ. We forget many of the basics of our faith like we are forgiven by God, we are children of God, we have the power to live full lives in Christ and the list goes on and on. Because we are forgetful, we miss out on the life God wants for us.

Now to live this kind of life, it is not about understanding a series of theological treatises like some statement of faith, rather it will be a reminder of how important the gospel is to the Christian’s life. In a sense, many of us need to take and retake a course called Gospel 101 with some practical applications that will help us live and experience the reality of being a child of God in a godless world.

I was reading a story about a man who was struggling because he needed to have his artificial hip replaced. The previous month he had to have an angioplasty to clear a blocked artery. On top of all that, he suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. Did all these things come about because he was old? Not at all… He was my age, about 56.

Psychologist, Scott Peck, wrote a book aptly called, “Life is Difficult.”  I think all of us can say a big, “Amen” in agreement. We live in a world that is ravaged not only by the forces of nature and now a pandemic that has affected almost everyone short of people’s sinful actions towards one another. Sadly nobody is exempt. We all have experienced heartache and hardship at some point. Truth be told, if you aren’t experiencing it now, it is a safe bet to make that it will come. Now I’m not trying to be a downer, it is just the reality of living in a sinful fallen world.

I have met many Christians who believe that following Christ means life will be easier. They feel if things are going easy or smoothly, it was a sign that you were in God’s will. But I would suggest from Scripture and experience that the opposite is often true. In fact, for Christians, I think life is even more difficult because our lives are committed to honouring God in a world where His existence is denied.

The difficulty isn’t just life’s normal problems but we also have an enemy called the “Devil” who lurks around looking at ways to cause us to stumble. In 1 Peter 5:8, it says he “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Many people, including many pastors, struggle with anxiety and feel overwhelmed in the midst of life and ministry. Scott Peck was right, “Life is Difficult.”

But underlying all the struggles and pain is the most difficult obstacle we have to deal with and that is our sin. Now I’m not talking about the sin that people do to us, rather I am talking about the sin that we do, and the sin that we battle with daily in our hearts and minds. You see sin isn’t really about what we do to others rather it is about what we do to God. Sin is missing the mark and falling short of His standard for humanity.

And sin brings with it a sense of guilt, condemnation and alienation from God which in turn affects our relationships with one another. We may believe that God loves us, but in our hearts and minds, we wonder if He actually likes us? So can God love us and not like us? I know we say that sometimes about people who get on our nerves, don’t we? We say something like, “As a Christians, I have loved you, but it doesn’t mean I have to like you.” But do we feel that way about how God sees us? Does He love us, but not like us?

Church historian, Richard Lovelace, said this, “below the surface of their lives are guilt-ridden and insecure… and draw the assurance of their acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious willful disobedience.” Why is that? I think it’s because we’ve fallen for the lie that our salvation is based upon us, not what Jesus has done for us. That means eternity and life are conditional – they are based on how we perform and live. Is that true for you? I know many Christians, devoted Christians, who live lives of quiet desperation.

One of the reasons for this lack of what I would call “life,” in people’s lives is we have a narrow view of the gospel. We see it like a doorway we walk through for salvation. Having this view means you see the gospel as only for non-believers. Once you become a Christian, you don’t need it anymore. It is like the ticket you get for getting into the movie theatre. Once in, you throw it out. So the gospel is only for those who are on the other side of the doorway. What you think you need to hear instead are the challenges and how-tos of life and discipleship.

One of the big controversies recently has been the issue of vaccinations. Most of us probably were vaccinated as children. You would have gotten shots for things like polio, diphtheria, tetanus and others. Once you get those shots, you are set for life. You don’t need to get them again. I think we often look at the gospel in the same light. But there is so much more to it. If we see the gospel in only that light, we miss out on all the great things God has for us.

Another reason for our desperation is that many people have a utilitarian or functional view of the Gospel. In other words, what’s in it for me? Some people want the Gospel for its benefits – fire insurance or the “good” life now and forever. Others are looking for a solution to their problems or a way to find a more successful life. This reminds me of a church flyer a writer saw. It said:

At Valley Church, you meet new friends and neighbours; hear positive, practical messages that uplift you each week on – how to feel good about yourself, how to overcome depression, how to have a full and successful life, learning to handle your money without it handling you, the secrets of successful family living and how to overcome stress.

You might think this is an isolated instance but it isn’t. Many preachers today preach a “Good News” that magnifies the supposed benefits of following Jesus rather than Jesus Himself. When we are presented with this kind of message, it is easy to see how we fail to see the Gospel for what it truly is – the solution to our greatest problem – our guilt, condemnation and alienation from God. Beyond that, we fail to see it as the basis of our daily living – as His child, accepted and loved by Him. As a result, many believers today live in what I would call spiritual poverty.

I read a story about a man who lived during the slavery days in the southern US. He left $50 000 to a former slave who had faithfully served him all his life. Now that was a large sum of money even in those days. By today’s standards, it was probably worth 10 million dollars depending on the formula you used. The lawyer informed him that the money was in the bank and was at his disposal. Weeks went by and the lawyer didn’t hear anything from the man. Finally, the lawyer contacted him and reminded him that he still had the $50 000 in the bank for him to use. The man asked the lawyer, “Sir, do you think I can have fifty cents so I can buy a sack of cornmeal?” Because this former slave had never handled much money in his lifetime, he didn’t realize or comprehend the extent of his wealth. As a result, he was asking for fifty cents when he could have asked and had access to much more.

This story illustrates the state of many Christians today. In Ephesians 3:8, the apostle Paul declares that he was called to preach the “boundless riches of Christ Jesus.” He wasn’t speaking about financial wealth rather his focus was on eternity, the spiritual blessings and riches in Christ. Using the illustration of the slave, each of us has been given an inheritance of $50,000 yet we live like it is a burden to ask for fifty cents worth of life. Why is this true? It is because we don’t fully grasp what we have in Christ as much as the former slave didn’t grasp the extent of the wealth available to him.

Just after I became a Christian, I attended a youth meeting at a camp just outside our hometown. There were about 60 or 80 kids there from the town. The speaker got up to speak and so began about an hour of “Hell, Fire and Brimstone” preaching. If you are too young to understand that, it was a sermon where he was yelling at everyone, pointing at everyone, and telling them that they were going to Hell if they didn’t accept Jesus. Although I agreed with the message, that apart from Christ, Hell was your eternal destination, the method was quite offensive and about halfway through, I had to walk out. This message didn’t draw me to Christ rather it pictured God in a way that was hard for me in my immaturity to understand.

Now, I do know people who have come to faith in that kind of environment, but their journey wasn’t so much a “coming to Christ,” rather it was an escape from Hell. That message, as true as it was, neglected one of the most important aspects of the gospel – our relationship with God today.

I have discovered that for many today, the thought of Heaven and Hell are irrelevant. For this generation the issue or key is relationships. So many people today have dysfunctional relationships. It might be with parents, a roommate or a co-worker. That is why the flyer I described earlier is so appealing to people today. It addresses relationships and other practical issues people want to fix in their lives. Now, I do want to say that relationships are important and many of these topics are worth talking about, but these topics don’t begin to touch what Paul is talking about here when he speaks about “boundless riches.” Paul would probably look at us today and shake his head because we are asking for fifty cents or a couple of dollars rather than the riches God has to offer. Now you might be thinking, “Why would Paul say that?” I think he would say that because we really don’t understand the gospel.

The reality is, many Christians today know very little of the gospel, let alone understand its implications for their day-to-day lives. From what I have seen is most people know just enough to get inside the door of the kingdom but don’t have a clue about the boundless riches of Christ.

So what do we do and where do we begin to grasp an understanding of the Gospel to where we can experience and see it lived out in our lives? It starts with the gospel which means, “good news.” This news is specifically good news about our relationship with God. We all like to receive good news, especially if it speaks to some bad news we just received. It is like you had just been told you had cancer, but the type you had was treatable. The gospel is like that. It directly addresses the immediate need that we have. The Bible tells us we were in deep trouble with God. We were unrighteous, sinners, enemies and lost. In fact, the Bible says that we were objects of God’s wrath. In God’s eyes, we are like the mosquito that bites us… all we want to do is get it! So that’s the bad news.

I think many of us are familiar with the good news/bad news jokes. The bad news comes last and is always worse than the good news. But the Bible reverses this sequence. It tells us the bad news that we were in trouble with God and then it tells us the good news is God has provided with a solution that far surpasses our problem. Three times in Paul’s letters he paints a grim picture about us, but in each time he says afterwards, “but.” In effect, Paul is saying, “Here’s the bad news, but here is the Good News as well.” And using Paul’s understanding, the Good always outweighs the bad.

Here is an example. In Ephesians 2:1-9, Paul tells us that we were by nature, objects of wrath. But Paul goes on to say, but now “God who is rich in mercy, “has actually “raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.” This is the ultimate “rags to riches” story. What a contrast. What a change. What could be better?

One of the biggest misunderstandings of the good news is that it doesn’t begin when we die. Death certainly takes us to the finish line, but there are many things we can experience and enjoy now and along the way. You see, we don’t have to feel guilt-ridden and insecure in our relationship with God. We don’t have to wonder if He likes us. We can begin each day with the security of knowing we are accepted and loved by God, not based on our personal performance, rather on the perfect righteousness of Jesus.

Again, thinking about the slave again. Suppose when he received his inheritance, he was not only poor but also in debt in back rent. With the inheritance, he could not only pay his debt, he could buy his own house to live in. His inheritance surpasses any debt he had. And this is the truth of the gospel. We owe an enormous spiritual debt to God which we could never pay. The gospel says that Jesus Christ paid our debt, but it also tells us far more. It tells us we are no longer enemies and objects of His wrath. We are now His sons and daughters, therefore heirs with Jesus of His unspeakable riches. That is the good news of the gospel.

But the question needs to be asked, why did Paul go to such great lengths to describe the bad news of our situation? We can’t begin to appreciate the good news without fully understanding the deep need we have. I don’t think many of us have truly grasped how desperate our condition was outside of Christ. Few of us ever dwell on the implications of being under God’s wrath and none of us fully realize how sinful we are… maybe that’s why we don’t like the “Hell, Fire and Brimstone” preaching?

I’ve shared the story that Jesus told in Matthew 18 about a king’s servant who owed his master 10 000 talents. This was an impossible amount to repay. Why did Jesus use such a large sum? So that people (us) would understand the graveness of our condition with God. There was nothing we could do to make it right.

This is what the gospel is about. Jesus paid our debt to the full and then some. He purchased for us an eternal inheritance worth far more than our debt. It paid the price and then some. It is as if Jesus took us out for dinner. The bill might be $50 and He gives us $1 million to pay the bill and tells us to keep the change. This is what Paul is talking about when he speaks about the “boundless riches” of Christ.