The Heart Of The Gospel

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (II Corinthians 5:21)

As Ambassadors for Christ, we are to go forth in Christ’s stead seeking and praying that sinners be reconciled to God. (Vs. 20) Such reconciliation can only be accomplished by the Gospel of reconciliation. The heart and soul of the Gospel of reconciliation is revealed in our text verse. This is the Gospel in a nutshell. As Mr. Spurgeon said: “The heart of the Gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. They who preach this truth preach the Gospel,…but they who preach not the Atonement, whatever else they declare, have missed the soul and substance of the divine message.” Amen! And therefore, there is no such thing as souls being reconciled to God by any other means or message.

Much of this article I have borrowed from a sermon delivered by the great Charles Spurgeon at his Metropolitan Tabernacle in London in 1886. In reading this sermon I found that his burden was the same as ours is today a hundred and thirty-eight years later here in America. He saw many professed Christians who were Christians in name only, products of false gospels. He said, “I feel bound, in these days to go over and over again the elementary truths of the Gospel. In peaceful times,” he said, “we may feel free to make excursions into interesting districts of truth which lie far afield; but now we must stay at home and guard the hearths and homes of the Church by defending the first principles of the faith.”

The “troublers in Israel” that plagued the Church in nineteenth-century England may not be exactly the same as those we are facing today, but their undermining of the faith produced the same result – nominal Christians, who have experienced no sanctifying work of grace. In addition to strange philosophies and novel interpretations, we are plagued with a type of evangelism that has been dubbed “easy believism.” This method, while using select statements of Scripture, manages to set forth a false gospel. It replaces the necessity of repentance with making a simple apology. Instead of confessing Christ with the mouth and believing in the heart that essential truth of the resurrection, folks are instructed to repeat a carefully worded prayer. They are then assured that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Of course, that is true, but the calling on the Lord of which that verse (Rom. 10:13) speaks is not “once and for all,” but rather, it is a lifelong calling. This verb is one of continuing action. The true believer enters upon a new way of life; it is a life of trusting in Christ. It is needful for those of us who know what we believe to put our foot down and defend the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the days of Nero, there was a great shortage of food in the city of Rome. A certain man who owned a ship went down to the seacoast and there saw many hungry people watching for vessels that were to come from Egypt with corn. The people wrung their hands as the ships came to the shore one by one loaded with sand which the tyrant emperor compelled them to bring for use in the Arena. What infamous cruelty! People were dying of hunger while ships were coming from Alexandria, where corn was plentiful, carrying nothing but sand for gladiatorial shows. The merchant said to his shipmaster, “Take good heed that you go, and bring nothing back from Alexandria but corn; bring you not so much sand as would be upon a penny. Bring nothing but wheat, for these people are dying, and we must keep our vessel for this one purpose of bringing food for them to eat.”

As we see people dying for want of the spiritual bread, and vessel after vessel loaded with nothing but the sand of false gospels, let us vow that our vessels will be delivering nothing but the truth of God, the bread of life so greatly needed by people who are starving for want of the Bread of Life.

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