Definition of the Gospel, an Exercise of Brevity
Dec 2, 2012 | By Richard Lee MC ’14
The Bible course at YFA (Yale Faith and Action) is on the Epistle to Romans this semester. As homework, the students were told to prepare a one-minute long explanation on the Gospel according to what Paul presented in Romans. Here is something I wrote, which I shall copy verbatim shamelessly.
The Gospel of is the good news of the salvation of Faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, through Whom God has justly punished our sin and offered the free gift of righteousness to those with faith in Him.
Through our willful disobedience to God, men fell away from God for distorting our relationships with God and with the Creation: for we were made in God’s image to serve God and rule over the Creation; instead, we chose to serve the creation and try to rule over God. Therefore, humanity reaps the natural and rightful consequences of its own rebellion—a world filled with unrighteousness. As members of this corrupted world, all of us have sinned and are counted as unrighteous before God.
But the righteousness of God is manifested through Jesus Christ, who, being God the Son, took on flesh and became a man. Though He obeyed God and was perfect, He was crucified on a cross for the sins of humanity (dying in our place) and was resurrected on the third day (bringing life out of death). Therefore, only through Faith in Christ, we are counted as righteous before God. Those who stand in Christ are alive to God and dead to sin. Therefore, we are to no longer continue in sin, because it has no power over us, but we are to become servants of God. Further, Holy Spirit is sent to those who belong to Christ to lead us so we may become sons of God and be glorified with God.
This is the Gospel of the reconciliation and the restoration of the rightful relationship between God and men. All these come about, not through the work of men, but through the merits of Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Given that I am a layman, if anything I have written can be construed as erroneous, it is not my intention, and please disregard it.
March 30, 2022 | By Michael Kielstra H’22
I first heard the story of the widow’s oil in Sunday school. Found in 2 Kings 4:1-7, it’s an astounding, heartwarming story of divine grace: a widow, utterly helpless and heavily indebted, appeals to Elisha and is miraculously given enough oil to pay off her creditors. What Sunday school teachers tend to gloss over, however, is the depth not only of the widow’s hopelessness but also of the cruelty of her creditors and of the society in which she lives.