The One and Only gospel The gospel of grace is the gospel and there is no other. This gospel is built, not on a doctrine or a theology, but on Jesus Christ himself: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth … From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (Jn 1:14, 16-17) Whenever you read the word “grace” in the Bible, you can substitute the name “Jesus.” Jesus is grace personified. What does the grace of God look like? It looks like Jesus. What does the grace of God sound like? It sounds like Jesus. How do we know that God is gracious? He gave us Jesus who is full of grace and truth. So when Paul refers to the gospel of grace in Acts 20, he means exactly the same thing as when he and others refer to the gospel of Christ or the gospel of God or the gospel of his Son or the gospel of peace in other places. All of these gospels reveal the One who is called Grace, who was given to us out of the fullness of the Father’s grace, and through whom we have received grace upon grace. What about when Jesus refers to the gospel of the kingdom (Mt 24:14)? Is this a different gospel? Whenever you hear Jesus talking about the “kingdom” you can substitute the word “king” because the kingdom is nothing without the king. Who is the King? His name is Jesus. When Jesus says we are to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,” he is essentially saying “seek me and my righteousness.” And where do we find his righteousness? In the gospel! “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Rms 1:17) To sum up, the gospel of the kingdom is the gospel of Christ which is the gospel of God which is the gospel of grace. They are different labels for the exact same gospel message.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 23:19:35 +0000