Daily Gospel II

Let's continue with our look at a book by Milton Vincent "A Gospel Primer for Christians." In our last study we saw that Vincent's major point was that Christians need to think about, read the gospel, and on a daily basis. He said that many Christians believe that the gospel is only for non-Christians. They need to hear it so that they might be brought into the Kingdom of God. Vincent says that the gospel is what we actually need to live by each and every day of our Christian walk.

More of his points: Transformed by Glory - (2 Cor. 3:18) says that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. But where do I find God's glory to behold? We know the glory of God is revealed throughout all of creation, but outside of heaven, the Bible indicates that, the glory of God in its thickest density dwells inside the gospel. The gospel is described in Scripture as "the gospel of the glory of Christ" and  "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God." (2 Cor. 4:4, 1 Tim. 1:11)

This is a great point! But it means that we must look into the Word often. We must read the Word of God regularly. If we want to see what regular reading of the Word of God will do, read Psalm 119.

The regular reading of the gospel, the regular beholding of Christ in the gospel will transform us.

Sufficiency in the Gospel -It could be said that the gospel contains all that I need "for life and godliness." (2 Pet. 1:3) It is for this reason that God tells me to be steadfastly entrenched in the gospel at all times and never to allow myself to be moved from there. (Col. 1:23)

Freedom from Sin's Power - Vincent says that as long as we are stricken with the guilt of our sins, we will be captive to them, and will often find ourselves re-committing the very sins about which we feel most guilty. The Devil is well aware of this; he knows that if he can keep us tormented by sin's guilt, he can dominate us with sin's power. The gospel, however, slays sin at this root point and thereby nullifies sin's power over us. The forgiveness of God, made known to us through the gospel, liberates me from sin's power because it liberates me first from its guilt; (Rom. 6:14) and preaching such forgiveness to myself is a practical way of putting the gospel into operation as a nullified of sin's power in our lives.

Resting in Christ's Righteousness - The gospel encourages us to rest in our righteous standing with God, a standing which Christ Himself has accomplished and always maintains for us. ((Rom. 5:1-2, 1 John 2:1-2) The gospel also reminds us that our righteous standing with God always holds firm regardless of our performance, because our standing is based solely on the work of Jesus and not ours.

Cultivating Humility - The gospel is designed in such a way as to strip us of pride and leave us without any grounds for boasting in ourselves whatsoever. (Eph. 2:8 for by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God) Pride produced the first sin in the Garden, and pride precedes every sinful stumbling in our life. Therefore, if we are to experience deliverance from sin, we must be delivered from the pride that produces it.

I will close for now, but the next study will continue with Vincent's book. I wanted to close with some comments on Ephesians 2:8, there is so much theology in that one verse, that it just shines with heaven's Glory. God is to be honored because He is heavy, His worth is infinite, and this one verse is so heavy, it is packed with so much glory. There is Grace, Salvation, Faith, there is the exaltation of God, there is humankind being placed in its proper position of helplessness. There is the character of God saving us by gifting us with the faith to believe Him, which again points to our helplessness, our blindness, God created us, yet we don't know Him, we are blind to Him, and as Scriptures states we are cut off from Him, unless He reveals Himself to us. God sets the record straight with this verse. If God had not revealed Himself, we would not know Him, if He does not give us the gift of faith to believe Him, we would not. We do not have the ability in ourselves. God is a Gracious and Merciful God, if we know Him, it's because of action He has taken, not anything we have done.