Hello friend, welcome back!
Question 1. By way of reminder, what are the three things we are wanting to include each time we respond to our students?
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Yes, we are to 1) share our story (identify with the student), 2) share the gospel (at least once, preferably more), and 3) pray for your student.
Today, I want us to consider the importance of providing gospel hope to people as they come to us here at Setting Captives Free. And then today you will have a chance to share the gospel with a practice student.
You know, the devil has really done a number on the church in the past century by convincing us that the gospel is only for unbelievers to get saved. It's "the salvation message." It's the message that tells us we are "saved from hell!" Once we are saved we "move on from the gospel to the deeper teachings of Scripture." This is all false! Lies! It's not what the Bible teaches. And it has convinced an entire century of people that they don't need to continue to hear the gospel after they become believers, they don't need to continue to wash at the cross daily, hence the power of God is missing in their lives.
Please keep in mind that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not merely for unbelievers. It is not merely "the salvation message." It is not merely that which "saves us from hell". No, the gospel is also the sanctification message; that is, it is the power of God to make ongoing changes in the life of believers. Notice this passage:
1 Corinthians 1:18 (NIV) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Did you notice who the message of the cross is powerful for? "Us who are being saved..." The gospel is for believers, too! It is the message of power for us who believe, it is what continues to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. Every subject in the Bible can be seen through the lens of the gospel, and without the gospel every subject in the Bible becomes dead teaching, powerless teaching, worthless teaching.
Please don't fall for the trap of merely equating the gospel with "biblical doctrine." No, the gospel is the death of Jesus for our sins and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-6). Without Jesus' death and resurrection, and how His finished work applies to our situation, we might have biblical truth, but it is not gospel truth. We are not merely to be "biblical counselors", no, we are to be "gospel counselors". We can be biblical counselors without the gospel, but we cannot be gospel counselors without also being biblical.
The gospel is not only the salvation message, not only the sanctification message, but it is also the stabilization message. It is the message that stabilizes believers and establishes us firmly in our faith. Notice this passage:
Romans 16:25 (NIV) Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, Did you notice that God establishes us with the gospel? He establishes us, keeps us firm and secure in our faith, all through the good news of what Jesus did for us in His death and resurrection.
And finally notice how Paul limits his message to the cross of Jesus Christ, and then calls it "wisdom to those who are mature":
1 Corinthians 2:2-6 (NCV) I decided that while I was with you I would forget about everything except Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. 3 So when I came to you, I was weak and fearful and trembling. 4 My teaching and preaching were not with words of human wisdom that persuade people but with proof of the power that the Spirit gives. 5 This was so that your faith would be in God's power and not in human wisdom. 6 However, I speak a wisdom to those who are mature. But this wisdom is not from this world or from the rulers of this world, who are losing their power. Yes, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" is "wisdom to those who are mature." It's not merely the ABC's of salvation, it's the A through Z. It's not merely kindergarten, it's graduate school. It is "the wisdom that leads to salvation" (2 Timothy 3:15) and it is "wisdom to those who are mature" (1 Corinthians 2:6). Therefore, this is the message that we are to give to our students. Our message is not rules, not commandments, not the Law, not merely "biblical doctrine"; that is not our message. Rather it is the gospel that is our message. The cross, the blood Jesus shed to atone for our sins, the death He died to remove God's wrath from us, the hostility Jesus endured on the cross to reconcile us to God, the love Jesus poured out of His broken heart, the grace purchased for us at His death.
Consider the result of being under the Law for a moment. The frustration at not being able to keep it perfectly, the discouragement of failing, the hopelessness that comes from having tried over and over to obey only to fall yet again. The sense that we do not measure up, that we fall short, that the entirety of our lives misses the mark. We become wary of anything that is going to tell us to do something, recognizing the weakness of our flesh in being able to follow through. And we increasingly become uncaring; “I’ve tried and failed so many times, I just don’t even care anymore and have no more energy to try.”
This is what it is like to be under the Law. Therefore, God in His great love, God in His amazing compassion, has done something about the human condition:
Romans 8:1-4 NIV Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (2) because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (3) For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, (4) in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Question 3. According to Romans 8:4, what are the results of believing the gospel, and receiving God’s Spirit?