Monday, December 16, 2019

Above All-The Gospel Is The Source Of The Church's Renewal: A Review


Is Gospel Christianity Dead? Pundits are writing the obituary of historic, orthodox Christianity, but pastor and author J.D. Grear believes the post-mortems are premature.

Jesus promised to build his church. He said that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. The church is not going away. Along with this promise, Jesus gave clear instructions for how the church would prevail. He promised to build it on the rock of the gospel.

The most pressing need for Christianity today is not a new strategy. It is not an updated message. It is a return to keeping the gospel above all.

What is the Gospel?

The Gospel is the good news that:

We were dead in our trespasses and sin.

Religion couldn’t help us

New resolutions to change couldn’t help us.

Jesus, the baby born of a virgin in Bethlehem was the Son of God.

He did what we couldn’t do. He lived a righteous life that pleased God.

Still he got crucified on a cross under the curse of sin.

He did that for us.

He died in our place.

But Jesus was raised from the grave to offer new life in his Spirit

Jesus gives this new life to all who call upon him in faith.

‘Therefore there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus’ Rom 8:1.

And now Christ has redeemed us to a life of a love and service where we can reflect to others what he has done for us

The author tells of a conversation he had shortly after he had accepted the call to ministry.

“I had a chance to sit down with a famous senator who had always been a kind of political hero to my family and me,” he writes, “[the Senator] was in his late eighties and had been engaged in politics for decades” so “I told him that I had strongly considered going into politics, but God had called me into ministry.”

“Oh, son,” he said. “You made the right choice. Preaching the gospel to the next generation is far more important than anything I have accomplished on Capitol Hill.”

The author goes on to state that God calls some people into politics and we need to pray for them. But we should never forget that preaching the gospel is the most important thing.

You can purchase this book at your local book store or order it on line.

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