I want to take a quick diversion from the series we've been presenting over the past few months to speak on the subject of the glorious gospel. In my doctoral studies, I have been blessed with the greatest books and lectures from the most brilliant minds on the subject of worship and the church; one of which is Dr. Frank Page, current president of the SBC Executive Committee. In a recent lecture about Nehemiah and leadership, Dr. Page made the statement: “If I am doing what God wants me to do, then I don’t worry about what people say.”1
Jonathan Dodson wrote a wonderful book we've been assigned this term entitled, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing. In it, Dodson stressed that the gospel must be central to everything that a believer thinks and how they live. The misconception is that the gospel is operable only at the early stages of a Christ-follower's life—when they are first saved. To the contrary, the gospel should be prominent throughout a believer’s life until they meet Jesus face to face. The confidence that the gospel brings helps a believer to have assurance, the kind of conviction expressed by Dr. Page in not worrying what people think.
Dodson expressed several ways that humans—Christians and non-Christians—try to find acceptance and significance in life:
Proving yourself to yourself; proving yourself to others; proving yourself to God. Each of these efforts to find acceptance has a different target: self, people, or God. As we have seen, our efforts are not enough.2The hope humans seek can only be found in God. Justification by faith (Rom. 8:15; 17; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 3:27; Col. 1:27) puts a stamp on our lives, sealing the unchanging fact that we are in Christ and have all of the benefits therein!
Many—including myself—have lived with a distorted understanding of the Good News that Christ brings to our lives. Dodson writes of the same confidence pointed out by Dr. Page when he said:
[The gospel] frees us from what others think by releasing us into what God the Father thinks — God, the infinite, all-loving, truly glorious, humanity-restoring, grace-giving, personally attentive Savior and Lord. He looks at us and says, ‘You’re accepted, loved; you’re mine. Now go have fun, be yourself in Jesus, and when you have opportunity and prompting, tell others what I think of you in Christ.’3Can I hear a great big, “AMEN?”
The Word brings a promise to all believers: “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe” (Prov. 29: 25—ESV).
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1 Dr. Frank Page, “Presentation: Becoming a Missional Leader,” WRSP 845 lecture, Liberty University (accessed August 2, 2017), https://download.liberty.edu/courses/gibtj.mp4.
2 Jonathan K. Dodson, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 149.
3 Ibid., 108.
