“ANY message that does not preach Christ crucified in our place for our sins for His glory is a false gospel.”
The message that Jesus humbled himself, came to earth as a man, lived a perfect life, died for us, and rose again is the crux of Christianity. Without this message, Christianity simply ceases to be Christianity. It is a very offensive Gospel in that God would humble himself, become a man, and then die in our place. Paul says to the church in Corinth, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:18).
The gospel is offensive because it causes us to come to a realization of where we are as sinners. We, in and of ourselves, are totally depraved–there is absolutely nothing good in us. We are utterly helpless, damned from the moment we come into being. Futhermore, there is no way that we, in and of ourselves, can do anything to make amends or prevent our fate of eternal punishment. But God, in his love sent His son Jesus to save us from our sins and our depravity. In an act of perfect love, Jesus died as the propitiation for our sins. In other words, the wrath of God that we, in our sin, should have incurred was poured out on his perfect son, Jesus. Wow! That’s ridiculous and insane yet that is the God we serve–that is perfect love. Our only response should be that of repentance and worship unto Him.
All of this to say that if the gospel of Jesus is not proclaimed, we have completely missed it. There are tons of gospels and messages out there that are proclaimed from pulpits in churches across the world; however, if these fail to recognize the lordship of Jesus and his work on the cross, these are false gospels. I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard messages or read articles from “pastors” or “preachers” that do not even mention the name of Jesus. Sadly, these have missed it. We can never sacrifice the gospel of Jesus for something that is popular to the hearer or ‘easier’ to share. The offensive, precious gospel of Jesus should always remain at the forefront of who we are and what we speak. It is the true essence of who we are as believers in Jesus.
