Day 6

The Gospel Road:

The Road Less Traveled

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

The truth is, as a body of believers, we are not separated unto the gospel. On Day 3 we talked about becoming totally absorbed in the gospel. We do not do this. We hear such a hodgepodge of teaching, from so many different perspectives, we often can’t tell light from dark. It just all runs together, and sounds like The Second Tower of Babel.

Do you know this was not the way it was in the first century church? During this time, almost the only thing people had to read and think about was the writing of the Apostle Paul — about the gospel of the finished work of Christ. He had been given the revelation of the gospel by God, and he was appointed to preserve it, proclaim it, and defend it (Gal 1:12-18, I Tim 1:11, Eph 3:1-3, Phil 1:7, 17, etc.)

The first century church was focused on understanding what the finished work of the cross meant to them. They were totally absorbed in the gospel — separated unto the gospel Thus Paul could say, “We should all say the same thing” (I Cor 1:10). It was all about the gospel. Today we have at least two different roads, — if not 10,000 to choose from.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.<
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh<
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Thanks to this poem by Robert Frost, I see a difference between two principle roads: (1) The Gospel Road, vs. (2) The Dirt Road. The Dirt Road is so appealing. There is so much activity on it — so many programs, people, conferences and revivals. It is a broad road, and you can go anywhere and do anything you want. The choices are endless, as are the preachers to instruct you what to do next.

The Gospel Road is nicely paved — no pot holes, bumps and mud like on The Dirt Road. But it’s narrow, not broad. It only has very few people, and they are very focused and absorbed in gospel things. They are not very diverse. The Dirt Road may be messy, muddy, and bumpy, but almost everyone else is going that direction.

Frankly, The Dirt Road seems more appealing. There are just more options, theologies, beliefs, and things to do. We all like choices, don’t we? Don’t we have over 31 flavors of ice cream? Besides, if all our friends are on this road, we’d better catch up with them.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #12

The gospel makes Christianity unique to every other religion in the world. Every religion has its system of rules, laws, principles, methods, etc. This is also true of non-gospel Christianity. Gospel Christianity alone has God himself merging into our spirits, like the Vine and the branch.

If you take the gospel out of Christianity, there is no Christianity. You only have a religion like all the others. On The Dirt Road, like was done with Jesus on the cross, you sacrifice the Person to gain principles.

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Gospel truth seems so contrary to everything we’ve ever heard, especially if we’ve listened to instructors in Christ. They preach from The Tree of Knowledge: do good, and don’t do bad. The gospel is what reveals God’s thoughts and ways to us (Isaiah 55:8-9). God’s thoughts and ways are very different from human thoughts and ways. That’s why we invented theology and religions.

If you live a principle-based, behavior-focused life, your mind does not have a clue what to do with passages like I John 4:17: “As Jesus is, so are we in this world.”

— Or like Ephesians 2:6: “he has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

— Or like the one in Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF the Son of God…”

A behavior-based, principle-focused life has no ‘category’ for these type thoughts. They seem to be remote theology, not practical reality. On The Dirt Road, they are glossed over, and left on the side of the road. They’re not integrated into any belief system.

We know our behavior isn’t always Christ-like, so we can’t possibly be like Jesus in this world. So, this passage seems like fantasy. If our focus is our behavior, we know that this means on this earth — so we can’t be in heavenly places with Christ. And living in God’s faith? No way! We can hardly implement our own faith, let alone God’s.

If we walk The Gospel Road, we see with gospel eyes — all God has done for us in the finished work of the cross. It becomes practical, present reality, not ancient history. Everything takes on new dimensions. We start living in a new paradigm. We see that God’s Kingdom is not ‘up there somewhere.’ As Jesus says, “It is in the midst of you.” Satan tries to keep us living by principles so we remain blind to these realities.

God’s truths build. This is the nature of the gospel process. Nothing stands alone. Almost every day I see a new truth I never saw before. We cannot apply one truth at the exclusion of others. All parts of the gospel are integrated into all other parts, and empower other parts.

Here’s a tip you shouldn’t miss: don’t read Paul piecemeal.
Read him in context with everything he writes.
Paul was given ONE revelation he proclaims and defends:
the gospel of the finished work of Christ.
He only has ONE subject that he talks about 100 ways.
Seeing this put me on The Gospel Road.

Living a principle focused life is living ‘a rich young ruler life.’ The rich young ruler asked, “What must I DO to inherit eternal life? — What do I lack?” This the way ALL principle minded people approach the Christian life: “What do I lack?” — “What do I have to do next?”

It was evident to Jesus that this man was principle focused and lived by the law. So Jesus spoke to him about the law: about living by principles. This is the same thing he did with the lawyer with his trick question about the law — he spoke about the law. He met them where they lived.

The rich young ruler went off in despair when Jesus told him one more thing to do. Read this in Matthew 19:16-22. God deals with us the same way. If we insist on living by principles, he will let us eat ‘principle seed.’ He lets us choose which road we are going to walk, and what ‘seed’ we are going to eat. He doesn’t insist we walk The Gospel Road.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #13

As we have seen, the gospel is not an elective, according to the New Testament. We are required to understand it. The gospel is ’the business of God,’ and we must be about our Father’s business. We must accept truth for what it is, and we must also accept it for who it says we are. It is our JOB to believe. God takes responsibility for almost everything else, but we must believe gospel truth (Mark 1:15).

We often think we will be judged for our sin, but Jesus dealt with sin, and became sin FOR us (II Cor 5:21). Hebrews 9:26 says, “NOW, in the END of the world, has (Jesus) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Whatever you think about the end of the world, in this context it already occurred 2,000 years ago. Our job is to believe it. As believers, our job is to believe everything the gospel says (John 6:29).

Any judgment will be about our BELIEFS, not about our SIN!

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We often have the mindset of ‘the rich young ruler.’ Do you realize that, in the gospel, we don’t lack anything? If we enter into the process of God, he supplies everything. What can the branch produce without the Vine? “Without me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This is an impossible truth for a principle-focused mind to grasp. This is why we must repent and believe the gospel.

Our Father says to us: “Everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31). God plants ALL his gospel seed in us — everything good he has. If we trust him, and believe his gospel, then we receive every single thing the gospel of his kingdom contains. He withholds nothing from us.

The New Testament gospel tells us this in so many different ways. Paul says we receive ALL spiritual blessings (Eph 1:3). Jesus says it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us his kingdom — not just part of it, but all of it (Luke 12:32). This is the nature of God’s giving to us. Paul says ALL things are ours. In fact, he repeats this twice in two consecutive statements (I Cor 3:21-22). Whenever scripture repeats itself, especially in two consecutive verses, we should take special heed.

“(God) who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us ALL things?” (Rom 8:32). Here’s another truth: if we miss something in his gospel, the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to show us anything we miss (I Cor 2:12).

The gospel of the grace and peace of God is the new dispensation. The gospel is God’s gift to us allowing us to FULFILL his word (Col 1:25). This makes the gospel of unequaled importance. The gospel is like the key to the ignition of the car. Without it, the car doesn’t move.

I’ve heard many people refer to the Bible as ‘God’s instruction book.’ This mindset misses The Gospel Road altogether. It leads down The Dirt Road of unbelief. The New Covenant gospel is a LOVE letter from God, not a letter giving us more LAWS.

We will talk about how end time views effect gospel truth later. But there is a concept about this we need to see now, in closing today. In God’s eyes, Christ’s return is not the culmination of history! The CROSS was the culmination of history!

Christ’s return is an event that must occur, as Acts 1:11 says: Jesus will return the same way he left. This is a NATURAL conclusion to things, but it is not the SPIRITUAL conclusion to things. The gospel of the truth of the finished work of the cross is the culmination of all history. In God’s mind, the culmination of history occurred 2,000 years ago: “Now once, in the end of the world, has he appeared…” (Heb 9:26 KJV).

There is ‘a wrapping up’ to do, or the Bible is unfinished business. But history’s focus is the CROSS of Christ’s finished work. Do you believe it? Are you doing Father’s business? Are you walking The Gospel Road?