What Is The Gospel, the Good News, Of The Lord Jesus Christ?

Let’s look at some verses in Colossians 1 and 2, and other various passages throughout the Bible, to see God’s answer to this all-important question…

What has really happened to those who are Christian, to those who though repentance & faith have received the Lord Jesus as our Savior & King?

What is the real Good News that is to be proclaimed & freely offered to all who are not in Christ Jesus, that Good News that is available to anyone through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?

In the verses below, the LORD has provided a blu-ray glimpse into some of the many facets of the diamond of His grace & Truth…

Colossians 1:12:

“…giving joyful thanks to the Father,
who has qualified you
to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.”

1. What does it mean to be qualified for something?
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2. Who qualifies us for heaven according to this verse?
   Ourselves…or God the Father?
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3. What are some ways that we try to qualify ourselves for heaven?
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   a. Our own way/opinion/power: Genesis 3:4-10—sewed fig leaves for themselves to cover their shame/nakedness (Isaiah 53:6—“each has turned to their own way”).
   .
   b. Good deeds: Isaiah 64:5-7—filthy rags.
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4. Our nakedness/shame must be covered—we can’t get to heaven with either our own filthy rags or proudly celebrating our spiritual nakedness (like restaurants that say on the door: “no shirt, no shoes, no service”)—Hebrews 12:14-15 (“without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God…”).
   .
5. What does the Bible say is the only way to truly have our shame/nakedness covered?
   .
   a. Genesis 3:21; Isaiah 61:10; Galatians 2:15-21; Galatians 3:26-27; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
   .
6. By repentance of sins & faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, HE becomes our resume for entering heaven–that is the glory of the Gospel, the Good News of the Lord Jesus!!!

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Colossians 1:13:

“For He has rescued us
from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

1. What does “dominion” mean? Dominion of darkness?
   .
   a. “Territory of a sovereign or government; control.”b. Romans 6:6-18—we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness—no one is truly independent. We are either part of the dominion of darkness or part of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ—there is no third option.
   .
2. What does the Bible mean by darkness? Is it just the “really bad sins” like physical murder and kicking puppies and robbing senior citizens, or is it all sin, even “white collar sin,” like envying others, looking to anything other than the LORD to fulfill us/complete us, laziness, etc.?
   .
   a. Galatians 5:19-21; Matthew 5:21-48; Matthew 6:1-34; Revelation 22:12-17; Romans 3:9-20 (please click HERE).
   .
3. What is the significance of the word “rescue”?
   .
   a. Many think of Christ Jesus being a negotiator, a diplomat. We prize people who can talk/discuss their way out of a tense situation, we love people who avoid war.
   .
   b. But Christ didn’t negotiate us out of the dominion of darkness; He rescued us. Don’t think of a climate-controlled conference room, think of Navy Seals storming a fortified castle/bunker. The cross was a VIOLENT rescue—Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53, Psalm 49:7-9; Mark 10:45; Hebrews 9:15,22 (please click HERE).
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4. What is the significance of the phrase “Kingdom of the Son he loves”?
   .
   a. Many want to be forgiven of their “mistakes”, many hold Jesus in high esteem, but very few hold Him as the One and True King, not just of a neighboring country, but King of themselves. Many look at Him as a prophet, but not as the Son of God, God in the flesh.
   .
   b. He isn’t just our forgiver; when we become spiritually reborn He is now our King. Seeing the Lord Jesus as anything less—buddy, vending machine, cheerleader, ethical consultant, nice man—shows that we haven’t cried out to Him for new life/salvation/forgiveness, but simply improvement; cosmetic surgery, but not open-heart transplant. He doesn’t just forgive us & send us on our merry way to chase our dreams/follow our own path; He rescues us & changes our citizenship to HIS Kingdom so that we live as if we are already in heaven, we live as if we are part of another kingdom, because we are. We don’t blend in with the values/beliefs/lifestyles of the world…

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Colossians 1:21-22:

“Once you were alienated from God
and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
22 But now he has reconciled you
by Christ’s physical body through death …
 to present you holy in his sight,
without blemish and free from accusation

1. What is a common view of humans who haven’t received the Lord Jesus as their Savior & King?
   .
   a. Mistakers…basically good, but in need of some polish/improvement, in need of behavior modification. A run-down house needing varying degrees of repair.
   .
2. In verse 21, what is the picture of humans who haven’t received the Lord Jesus as their Savior & King?
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   a. Alienated from God; enemies of God.
   .
   b. We don’t need correction, we need resurrection (or else Jesus would have simply come to earth to teach, not to die in our place). We don’t need to have our houses touched up/renovated, but knocked down completely & rebuilt new. We don’t need some new year’s resolutions, but the New Life in Christ Revolution.
   .
   John 3:3-8; Ephesians 2; 2 Corinthians 5; Romans 6:4 (please click HERE)
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3. Some might say, “Goodness, I know I’m not perfect, but I don’t like this talk of me being an enemy of God—it is too harsh.”
   .
   a. Genesis 3: Temptation of the devil to Adam & Eve: “You will become like God, knowing good and evil…”
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   b. Genesis 6:3,5-6—“contend with…”
   .
   a. What is a boxer called who wants to fight the champion & take the belt?
   .
   1. “The number 1 contender”
      .
      In different ways, we are born wanting to be our own god, we are born fighting/contending with the One True God for control of our lives. Even if we want to be in charge of ourselves to do good deeds all the time, it is still treason against God—He is to be in charge of us.
      .
   2. Psalm 2:1-3—again, we fight against God & want to be in control of OUR lives.
      .
   3. Luke 8:37—they asked Jesus to leave them…politely! But please leave—Your Presence has cost us so much already—we just want life to get back to normal. .
      a. Whether we chase Him off our lawns with a shotgun or politely ask Him to leave, we are rejecting Christ as our only King & thus we treat Him as an enemy. Thus the Bible talks of sinners as “rebels”—even if we are polite, we want to live as autonomous beings not in submission to Christ Jesus. Thus we treat Him as an enemy, a threat to our autonomy.
      .

1. What is the significance of the word “reconciled”?
   .
   a. “To change, to establish a relationship of peace, to lay aside/withdraw wrath.”
   .
   b. True peace is not the absence of war but the mutual cooperation toward a common goal, and in our case towards God, submission to Him as King (not just buddy).
   .
   c. James 4:4; Romans 1:18, Romans 2:5,8, Ephesians 2:3…1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; Romans 5:8-11 (please click HERE)—“Wrath is rational, calculated anger.”
   .
   d. Why wrath? Why can’t God just “wave a wand” to forgive sin?
   .
   1. Romans 3:21-27—same reason that a judge cannot “be nice” and set free all convicted murderers—that would not be just. In the U.S. we say that one who commits a felony has to “pay their debt to society.” The debt must be paid. God must punish sin; He cannot just “look the other way/sweep it under the rug”—it’s too serious. Bible has many words for sin: transgression, wickedness, rebellion, iniquity, evil, etc. Sin is not a mistake, not slightly coloring outside the lines with our crayon…sin is attacking God with our crayon.
      .
   2. How would you respond to someone who thinks/says, “This is too harsh—the picture of sin that the Bible paints is too much, too exaggerated, making a mountain out of a mole hill.”
      .
      a. The cross of Christ only becomes amazing/awesome when we see how awful sin is. If sin isn’t as big of a deal as the Bible says, then it is no wonder that so many church-attenders are “bored/un-amazed/unmoved” by the cross.
      .
      b. If sin is just a misdemeanor—spiritual jay-walking—than Christ dying on the cross to offer forgiveness is overkill, like getting rid of ants in your house with a shotgun.
      .
      c. If sin is just a bad flu, then chemotherapy/surgery as a cure is overkill, unnecessary, too much.
      .
      d. If sin is just a $500 ticket we owe God, then deep down there’s a sense that we could pay it off ourselves; we might be thankful Jesus died for us, but we aren’t amazed—we would have EVENTUALLY paid it off ourselves, just might have taken longer.
      .
      e. But if sin is a $100 trillion debt we owe to God—more money than is in the entire world combined—then the cross becomes our everything; Jesus is not a hobby for us in a spare time but our very life, the very air we breathe; He doesn’t sit on a shelf in the attic of our minds but He is our only life raft Whom we cling to in the middle of the Pacific Ocean—Hebrews 6:18. Becoming a Christian is not a casual thing, like an impulse purchase of candy while you are waiting in line at the grocery store–“You know, I think I’ll take a package of jesus–it’s on sale!”; becoming a Christian is fleeing from a burning building—or the sinking Titanic—into the merciful nail-scarred hands of the Lord Jesus (see Colossians 2:13-14 below—our debt of sin condemns us, it doesn’t just pester/annoy us like a bill collector).
      .
      f. If sin is cosmic treason against God, if sin is spiritual murder, an assassination attempt against God & His right to be in charge of the universe and us, if the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see that we are on spiritual death row, then the cross becomes amazing, changes everything, like a criminal who receives clemency from the governor at the last minute, a stay of execution & freedom & new life.
      .
      g. The less serious we make sin, the easier it is to not go to Jesus at all, or to go to Jesus simply for behavior improvement or a warm feeling on a Sunday morning. The more serious we see OUR sin, the more we FLEE to Christ Jesus for eternal salvation, not just earthly blessings.

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Colossians 1:23:

23 if you continue in your faith,
established and firm,
and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

1. What is the significance of the phrase “IF you continue in your faith”?
   .
   a. Importance of “holding firm to the end” (at least 10x in NT)—Matthew 10:22; 1 Corinthians 15:2; Philippians 2:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; Titus 1:9; Hebrews 3:6,14; Hebrews 4:14–please click HERE.
   .
2. Does this mean we can lose our salvation?
   Are WE ALONE responsible for holding onto Christ?
   .
   a. Thankfully, NO! God began the good work in us & He will finish it!
   We are to hold on to Him by faith, we are to finish strong, but we are to do so in the utter confidence that He promises to never let go of His repentant people. We walk the tightrope of faith with the sturdy net of His character & promises beneath us!

Ah but how He promises to keep His grip on me forever, again by His free grace!

Philippians 1:3-6: ³ I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Jude 1:24-25: 24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
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1 Corinthians 1:7-9: 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 10:28-29: 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all[a]; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

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Back to Colossians as we seek to understand what the Gospel really is…

Colossians 1:26-27:

“…the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

1. What is the significance of the phrase, “God has CHOSEN to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery”?
   .
   a. We cannot understand all this on our own; God MUST open our eyes to see the Truth of who we are and Who He is.
   .
   b. God gets the glory/credit when we become Christian—we get none of the credit.
   .
   1. On earth, often the person who discovers something becomes more famous/revered than the thing he/she discovered! Not so with salvation—we do not “discover” or figure it out on our own; God reveals to His people the Truth of the Gospel & so even our faith is a gift from God.
      .
   2. “Chosen”—121x in the Bible (please click HERE). Salvation is an action that God starts & finishes: thus the Lord Jesus is “the author & perfector of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Matthew 11:25-27; John 15:16; 1 Corinthians 1:27-30–please click HERE)

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Colossians 2:11-12:

“In him [Jesus Christ] you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him [Jesus Christ] from the dead.”

1. Christ has made an internal mark on our souls that shows the universe:
   “This one is MINE.”
   .
2. Again, to become a Christian is not to just apply a few Biblical principles in your life, is not just to be involved at church & go to a conference or Bible study; to truly be reborn through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ it is to become a new creation, a new person entirely. The fruit that the Holy Spirit WILL BEAR in us & thru us is true holiness/righteousness, not fruit that is artificially taped onto us from the outside (like taping apples to a dead tree, e.g. improving a little a portion of our lives here & there thru isolated Bible principles).

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Colossians 2:13-14:

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”

What a Savior! What undeserved grace!

THAT is what happens when we receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior & King—THAT is the Gospel, loved ones, all a free gift for us!—we were dead in our sins, not just a little bit sick.

And by His undeserved grace, God has made His people ALIVE in Christ, not just a little bit improved. We are forgiven by grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone, and our sinfulness which rightly and fairly condemned us to eternity apart from God, that bill of debt to God the Father has now been nailed to the cross—PAID IN FULL! YES! No earthly powerball lottery can come close to the eternal riches of the treasure of the Gospel, of new life in Christ!

Oh loved ones, to receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior & King
is to agree with all this, as difficult/painful as it may be…

The only way to be cured is to agree with the doctor’s diagnosis
And submit to the doctor’s cure/treatment—

No one will agree to open-heart surgery if they think they merely have the flu.

Thus the devil has humanity right where he wants us—
thinking sin is a lot less horrific than it is…

…we therefore don’t flee to Christ Jesus for salvation,
we wander over to Him (maybe!) for other earthly benefits if we have time…

Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes—and the eyes of loved ones & strangers!—to see & receive & agree with & trust in the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ:

Luke 23:39-43: Thief on the cross: “We are getting what we deserve…”

Luke 18:10-14: “Beat his breast and said, ‘Have mercy on me, a sinner…’”

1 Peter 2:6: “For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’”

Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved…”

Acts 4:11-13: “Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’
¹² Salvation is found in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind
by which we must be saved.”