The GOSPEL (3)

Call to Prayer

Title: The GOSPEL (3)

By: Simon Nuhu Maina

Date: 25.10.2024

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile ( Romans 1:16).

In the last two weeks, we established an understanding of the gospel by explaining each letter that makes the word. We will continue to delve into that in this last part.

The letter E in the word GOSPEL stands for Evangelisation of the world. The gospel aims to witness the manifestation of the love of God through Christ to the wretched men in the hopeless world of vanity (Matthew 28:19-20). Evangelism is the core foundation of the Christian faith. It is through it that the church grows. Jesus Himself while in this world in flesh preached the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43), He commanded and empowered the disciples to preach also (Matthew 10:1-7). It is therefore very important for believers today to respond to this task. As believers, we are to go and preach, in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:1-2); we should remember evangelism is a command given by our Lord Jesus, and not the work of our local pastor, overseer, Apostle or teacher. We should be aware that it is not a denominational concept or fabrication of men. Evangelism is the surest and most profitable way of adding numbers to the church; it would be naive to think that biological reproduction and intermarriage are the only way a church grows!

For us to comprehend evangelism better, it is needful to understand it as the Great Commission. The great commission comprises three parts; Preaching the gospel, Discipleship and Territorial transformation. For the great commission to achieve its aim which is to establish God´s kingdom on earth, the three must be implored. Preaching the gospel is not about inviting someone to our local assembly called church or magnificent centres but most importantly passing on the message of the cross to them with the primary objective of winning a soul for God. Our major concern is for men to receive Salvation; afterwards, we teach them the doctrines of Christ.

The last letter is L which stands for Life of Christ. After one received Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, they by the working grace of God received the new life of Christ in them. They were translated from the kingdom of darkness to God´s kingdom of light (Colossians 1:12-14). There was an exchange; the sinner gave up his depraved life of sin and received the life of Christ. This means that the sinner must first of all die because sin ceases to exist only when someone dies (Romans 6:6-7). It is only when one dies to Sin that they can receive the life of Christ. You can´t receive the new life while you´re still much alive in sin. People who have not truly died to sin attempt to receive the life of Christ which is not possible.  They want to enjoy the benefits of righteousness but are not willing to die to their sins. It is when we genuinely die to the old nature (Adamic nature of sin) that we can receive the new life of Christ, as a seed of God planted in us (1 John 3:9). Whosoever that claims to have received a new life in Christ, but consistently lives in sin, that person is a liar.

Prayer point:

Let´s thank God for today´s word and also ask God to help us live by His will.