“Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8: 34)
The church has coined various words and phrases over hundreds of years in trying to express what Christianity is all about. I mean examples such as “the Word of God,” “sin”, “redemption” and even “the gospel.” To an average daily man or woman, some of these words can seem antiquated, and difficult to understand the meanings in modern life dominated by abbreviations in cell phone text messages and simpler verbiage. Christianspeak can seem like heavenly language but it needs to reflect childlikeness and be easily understood if it is to reflect God’s way of presenting theology, meaning the study of himself.
That’s why I sometimes wonder if we need to press the “reset” button in order to understand “the gospel.” It’s a strange word and any enquirer asking about it after a church service is likely to be met with a resounding “It means good news!” by a well-meaning evangelical, smiling from ear-to-ear. Well, so what? Don’t we have positive vibe messages all the time? Yesterday I saw a private health service trying to advertise “the future is kind.” It set me aback at realising even kindness is now being used as a marketing tactic for worldly wealth advancement.
Yet even that explanation of “good news” somehow fails to plunge into the depth of what the ‘gospel’ really means. Well, what does it mean then? That’s a fair question and at this point I could list bullet points about God coming into the world as Jesus Christ two thousand years ago, pulling our evil onto himself, being executed so that we don’t have to burn in hell – and then coming back to life because death was weaker than him.
It’s crucial to get our theology right but I think there’s something sublime about it all too. Words fail, quite frankly, to grasp the extraordinary truth given to us in Jesus Christ. “Behold the man!” Pontius Pilate said mockingly, as he presented Jesus bleeding to the crowds and not realising how God was using those moments to kill Satan’s power.
The unfaithful crowds beheld him indeed, cruelly calling for his death after coming to him for life. I remember in Luke 6:19, happening sometime before the crucifixion, it says, “power was coming from him and healing them all.” I picture Jesus humbly walking as men, women and children threw themselves at his feet, yearning to be touched by his holiness and receive life defined.
I can understand how they felt. In my first year at university one evening, I was literally crawling on the ground in my bedroom at the hall of residence when my blood pressure plunged from undiagnosed Addison’s Disease. I needed freedom from the shadow of death on me. We need Christ.
The gospel is ultimately the living, resurrected Jesus himself. “He is alive!” we often sing and then carry on our daily lives as though perhaps he is not. Jesus is alive – mull, ponder, stop, THINK, consider what that means! How his resurrection burns all the dross and debris of our lives and sets us aflame in truth and love. More than anything, in love. “Behold the man” indeed and esteem him for everything. He alone is THE good news in the good news. Don’t worship the idea of Jesus. He is living! Adore reality.
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