Tuesday, January 25, 2011

What is the Gospel? (And what it is NOT.)

I am pleased with this book. Simple to understand, great illustrations and a very clear, biblical presentation of the four essential points of the Gospel. I'll give you one hint: "God loves and has a wonderful plan for your life." is NOT one of the four and it NEVER was. I was deceived for almost 10 years with that one.
Gilbert breaks the Gospel down into the four key points of a proper, biblical Gospel presentation. These four points are: accountability, rebellion, solution and application. The points are clearly supported with scripture, which I really appreciate.
I was reminded once again as I read this book that God has two very distinct ways that He has dealt with man's rebellion against Him. Both involve death. Someone must die and be punished for each individual sinner is held accountable before God. Either Jesus Christ will die as a substitution for a sinner on the cross and then this applied when the person repents and trusts Christ or the sinner will die and face condemnation alone at the final judgment.
For a short book the Gospel was clear, the outline is helpful to remember and the scriptures are given as proper support. Faith and repentance are mentioned which is certainly not the norm in books about the Gospel. However, there is one area that I feel was left out. Actually a friend of mine who gave me the book to read helped me see this. I went back and scanned the book again to verify his complaint. How salvation is applied and the origin of faith and repentance are not clearly explained. God is the giver of salvation. But, what is most often overlooked in modern Gospel and witnessing presentations is that faith and repentance are also gifts from God and not within the sinner until God rebirths them upon regeneration. This order of salvation is critical and is the difference between a God exalting salvation where man is the total recipient of grace verses a semi man centered Gospel where God does a little bit by providing Jesus and man kicks in his personal faith to complete the transaction. The scriptures do not support the later.
I like the book but do have that one reservation.

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