God's Good News

The Gospel

Bobby Jamieson

• Publisher: Crossway
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781433525391
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

A healthy church is a church in which every member, young and old, mature and immature, unites around the wonderful good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, thus this study pays close attention to the gospel as defined in Romans 1–4. In this gospel-rich study, participants will learn the Bible's teaching on God, man, Christ, and our response and see how these things apply to the practice of the local church.

A series of ten 6–7 week studies covering the nine distinctives of a healthy church as originally laid out in Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever. This series explores the biblical foundations of key aspects of the church, helping Christians to live out those realities as members of a local body. Conveniently packaged and accessibly written, the format of this series is guided, inductive discussion of Scripture passages and is ideal for use in Sunday school, church-wide studies, or small group contexts.

WEEK 1
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

GETTING STARTED

What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? You’d think that would be an easy question for Christians to answer. But if you ask fifty professing evangelical Christians that question, you’re likely to get almost as many answers!

1. What are some ways you’ve heard evangelical Christians define the gospel?

MAIN IDEA

The gospel is the good news about what God has done to save sinners through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ.

DIGGING IN

The most detailed, systematic discussion of the gospel in the whole Bible is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans, especially in the first four chapters.

After announcing that he is not ashamed of the gospel because the righteousness of God is revealed in it (Rom. 1:16–17), Paul begins his proclamation of the good news by delivering some sobering bad news in 1:18 through 3:20:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (1:18)

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (1:21–23)

1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. (2:1–2)

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

11 no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.” (3:9–12)

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (3:19–20)

1. To whom are human beings accountable? What passage(s) do you see this in?

2. What does God require of people? (Hint: See Rom. 1:21–23.)

3. Has any human being done what God requires of us? (Hint: See Rom. 3:9–12, 19–20.)

4. What are the results of humanity’s universal rebellion against God? What is God’s attitude toward humanity because of our sin? (Hint: See Rom. 1:18; 2:2; 3:19–20.)

5. Have you ever heard evangelistic presentations that minimized or ignored the bad news Paul explains in these chapters? If so,

• How would you evaluate them in light of these passages?
• What do you think the results of “gospel” messages that ignore sin and God’s wrathwill be?

6. What are some problems that people tend to present as our main problem when they share the gospel?

7. What, according to Paul, is the most fundamental problempeople face?

To sum up, there are two main points that Paul is communicating in this three-chapter-long explanation of the bad news of humanity’s rebellionagainst God:

1. All people are accountable to God, who is our holy Creator and Lord, and who is worthy of our worship and obedience.
2. All people have rebelled against God, continually sin against God, and are therefore objects of God’s wrath.

Now, on to the good news:

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Rom. 3:21–26)

4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. (Rom. 4:4–5) 

8. What is God’s solution to the problem Paul has been expounding for three chapters?

9. According to Paul, how do people receive the salvation God offers in Christ?

10. The word “propitiation” (3:25) means “a sacrifice that satisfies and turns away God’s wrath.”

a) Who needs to be propitiated? Why?

b) Who does the propitiating? How?

c) What is the result of Jesus’s propitiating death for God? (Hint: See Rom. 3:26.)

d) What is the result of Jesus’s propitiating death for those who believe in him?

11. The word “justify” means “to declare someone to be righteous” (Rom. 3:24; 4:5; see also 3:20).

• According to Paul, on what basis can people be justified by God?
• Can we be justified by doing good works?

We could summarize Paul’s explanation of the good news in these passages in two main points:

1. Through putting Christ forward as a propitiation, God has made a way for guilty sinners to have their sins wiped out, to have God’s wrath turned away from them, and to be declared righteous in
   God’s sight.
2. The way we receive this salvation is through faith in Jesus, by
   trusting him alone to save us, not any good works that we do.

Putting it all together, we could summarize the gospel in four words: God, Man, Christ, Response.

God. God is the creator of all things. He is perfectly holy, worthy of all worship, and will punish sin.

Man. All people, though created good, have become sinful by nature. From birth, all people are alienated from God, hostile to God, and subject to the wrath of God.

Christ. Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life, died on the cross to bear God’s wrath in the place of all who would believe in him, and rose from the grave in order to give his people eternal life.

Response. God calls everyone everywhere to turn from their sins and trust in Christ in order to be saved.

12. Here are some common misunderstandings of the gospel. How would you respond to them in light of the passages we’ve just studied?

a) The gospel is that God wants us to live better lives.

b) The gospel is that God loves you and has a wonderful plan foryour life.

c) The gospel is that God’s kingdom has come in Jesus and now he calls us to work with him to transform every aspect of human society.

d) Can you think of others?

13. What do you think are some of the practical consequences of having a fuzzy definition of the gospel or a wrong definition of the gospel? What are some of the good results that should follow when we rightly define the gospel?

WEEK 2
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

GETTING STARTED

1. What do your non-Christian frie...