God has one goal for the gospel — to save us from our sins so that we can live for Him. This daily devotional looks at our role in proclaiming God’s gospel.
Nuggets
- We proclaim the gospel to all because God does not want anyone to perish in their sins.
- God calls us to diligently work to expand His kingdom both in our hearts and in other’s.
Devotions in the Joy in the Gospel series
God has one priority — our salvation. Everything else is incidental to our acceptance of His gospel.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Getting the Word Outside
“We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1: 28 CSB)
We proclaim the gospel to all because God does not want anyone to perish in their sins.
In the previous verses, Paul had been talking about being a minister for Christ. He said that God calls us so that the mysteries of the Gospel can be made known.
The gospel is all about Jesus. It is His birth, death, and resurrection that is told.
Collyer said that is why personal opinions, “… mortality, human systems, [and] philosophy” can’t be taught. They don’t have a place in Jesus’ story.
Resource
If something else is preached, we give the wrong impression. There is only one way to gain access to God. “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 CSB).
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Isn’t that wonderful? Maclaren reminded us that we have a person to worship, not some theory or philosophy.
Resource
It all comes back to Christ being is us. Or more importantly, we need to be in Christ.
When we ask, Jesus comes to us. But we have to be genuine in our conversion and submit to Him by imitating Him. If we don’t, we really aren’t in Christ.
Glossary
I see the proclaiming and the teaching together. Proclaiming the good news, to me, is more than just preaching. It isn’t standing in the pulpit like the Pastor John-types do.
It is seeing someone in the street and witnessing. We like to think the Matthew 25: 35-36 hungry-gave-me-food, thirsty-gave-me-drink, etc. is all we need to do.
No, we have to say, “I know things look bad for you right now, but Jesus loves you and died for you to save you.” We have to be more than actions to make sure others know it is Jesus working through us.
Collyer talked about making sure we have the ability to communicate with others. That means having a relationship with the person works best.
I just started a new relationship. It is wonderful, and it is scary. At the beginning, it seemed like we had to explain things two different ways to make sure the other got what we were saying.
Now, a little further in, we know a little more about how the other communicates. We can just talk.
But that came from building the relationship — getting to know each other. Dare I say listening to each other.
When we witness, we can’t start out thinking that what we are teaching is so essential and our words are so wonderful, they will get it right off. We have to learn them. That takes diligence.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
But did you see what Paul said? “… warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom …” (Col. 1: 28 CSB).
We have to sound the warning. We must tell the lost about their Savor.
Not just our family. Not just our friends and co-workers where we do get to build the relationship.
It may be people we don’t know. Unfortunately, we may not get the opportunity to build a relationship.
It may be just one shot. That is why Collyer wrote, “Here much care, prudence, and promptitude is required. … Let men see how intent we are on their salvation.”
That is where we have to go with it. The goal of the gospel is salvation.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
It is imperative that we are concerned about the salvation of others.“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (II Cor. 5: 10 ESV).
- Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people.
- Evil is equated with sin because it is that which goes against God and His purposes.
What are we teaching? Maclaren said morality. He wrote, “The teaching of morality is an essential part of preaching Christ. But the moral teaching which is confined to general principles is woefully like repeating platitudes and firing blank cartridges; yet if the preacher goes beyond these toothless generalities, he is met with the cry of ‘personalities.’ But there is no preaching Christ completely which does not include plain speaking about plain duties.”
The morality gets us to where we can imitate Jesus. But it is even more than that? We are also teaching that we have to repent of our sins.
Working for Our God
“I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me” (Col. 1: 28-29 CSB)
God calls us to diligently work to expand His kingdom both in our hearts and in other’s.
Spurgeon reminded us that no one is going to get a pass from proclaiming His Word and making disciples. God has work for us to do and expects us to do it. We can’t just depend on the Holy Spirit it all without us.
However, Spurgeon also reminded us is that we really aren’t doing the work. We are the vessel through which the work is done.
It is the Holy Spirit Who is actually doing the work.
Does that seem contradictory? Maybe it is at first glance.
I look at it more as a partnership. Yeah, God could have instructed the Holy Spirit to just go out and save everyone.
But that would have taken away our free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
Instead, we have to make our decision to accept the Plan of Salvation, and we have to work to get others to do the same.
It is work. Look what Paul said it was. “I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me” (Col. 1: 28-29 CSB).
This is no easy task. Striving means elbow grease and lifting with your knees. At times, it means bench pressing that Buick.
Spurgeon described the Christian life “… as a thing of energy: as a journey, a race, a boxing match. … Faith is the gift of God, but the Holy Ghost never believed for anybody. Repentance is His work, but the sinner must repent. He helps our infirmities in prayer, but we have to pray.”
Resource
- Faith is a gift from God that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
- Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
- Prayer is a two-way communication with God in which we pour out our soul to Him.
Salvation isn’t handed to us on a silver platter. Jesus suffered too much for it to be denigrated to materialism.
We have to take the salvation we are given and make it our own. We have to let it change us, and we have to grab on with both hands and say it is what we believe.
Making the Connections
Spurgeon said something that got me thinking. He wrote, “If your heart never breaks for another, you will never be the means of breaking his heart.”
Resource
Let’s think about this for a second. Our heart breaks when we see others in their sinful condition. That has to be the impetus to start our witnesses to someone else.
If we don’t tell them about their lost condition and Jesus’ sacrifice for them, their hearts will never break. And our hearts have to break in order for Jesus to save us.
If our hearts don’t break, we don’t acknowledge our sins. We don’t regret breaking God’s laws and commandments.
So, yes, in this instance, we do want to cause someone heartache. That is the only way Jesus can come in and heal it.
How Do We Apply This?
- Work completely at our assigned tasks.
- Put in the hard work.
- Get personal with doing the work.
- Break our hearts for others.
Father God. You have given us the Plan of Salvation because You do not want to spend eternity without us. Thank You for saving us and sanctifying us. Amen.
What do you think?
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