One of my modern heroes of the faith is a pastor out of Minneapolis, MN named John Piper.  I remember being introduced to his teaching by a mentor of mine, and at the time everything he was saying seemed to be new, and exciting.  Over time, and as I read a few of his books, I realized that essentially he was saying pretty much the same thing over and over again – we are saved through no merit of our own, chosen by God to be reconciled to Him through faith, and God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.    Now in our society, with almost unlimited opportunities to be entertained, we are constantly looking for something new – something better.  That was my initial reaction to Piper, and in a larger sense, the gospel as a whole.

It wasn’t until I had grown in my faith some, that I began to cherish men like Piper, who realize that the gospel doesn’t come with flowing words, and it certainly doesn’t change over time or because of culture. There are men who feel the need to cater to their congregations and readers need to be entertained, and thereby fall victim to make the gospel something it was never meant to be – complex and changing.  The good news of God is not that you fill an empty hole in your heart, it isn’t that your family life will become better, it isn’t financial prosperity.  God may do all those things, if it aligns with His will, but that is manipulating and counterfeiting the truth of the gospel.  The gospel answers the question of how sinful man, can be reconciled to a holy God, for our good and joy, and His glory.  The gospel is a simple message, everyone can hear it, and understand it, yet we need to be reminded of it constantly, because we struggle with sin daily.  How comforting is it to know that when we are confronted with temptations and sin, our refuge is not a complex mathematical formula, it is simply a person, the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

I love the men and women God has put in my life, who remind me of the simple truths of the gospel, who listen to me as I go on about how I’ve failed (again), and just tell me that Jesus knew all of my sin, not just my past, but my present and future sin, and took it all with Him to the cross.  They know I’ve heard that before, they know I teach that to others, but we – all of us need to be reminded of that, our ears need to hear those words, we need to encourage each others’ hearts with that truth daily.  We need to go through life with our hearts clinging hard to those simple unchanging truths, holding on as the waves of life crash against us.  What we will find, is that in those simple truths is a depth of joy, born out of the faithfulness of God amidst life experience, growing closer in fellowship with others who likewise cling to those simple truths, and a beauty – not in the words or idea – in seeing and savoring the God that we have come to know and love.

Paul, perhaps one of the greatest religious teachers of his day, began as a persecutor of Christians, until he was called by Jesus.  Paul was a Pharisee, a group of men known for making long speeches and prayers in public to be admired by others.  This group of men would have memorized the first 5 books of the Bible by the time they were 12, and continued on through the rest of their lives.  These men were so consumed by a complex group of 600 laws (many of which were made up not by God, but by themselves), and details of scripture, that when Jesus came, and explained that all those legal demands, all of the history of Israel as a nation, were only meant to expose in our hearts that we can’t be perfect as God requires – we needed a savior.  Paul, explained to the church of Corinth, as a former Pharisee himself, “ And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

My hope is that we will never grow tired of the gospel – let’s continue to remind each other of the simple truths of the gospel, let it deeply take root in our hearts, for our good, and His glory.

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 – “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.”

 Grace and Peace,

Adam