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    Why the Gospel is the Best News Ever!: The NOT CONFUSED Series, #2
    Why the Gospel is the Best News Ever!: The NOT CONFUSED Series, #2
    Why the Gospel is the Best News Ever!: The NOT CONFUSED Series, #2
    Ebook127 pages1 hour

    Why the Gospel is the Best News Ever!: The NOT CONFUSED Series, #2

    By Gavin Cox

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    About this ebook

    The Gospel is the good news about who Jesus is, what He did, and why He did it. What He did was so extraordinary, and its impact so enormous, that it will effect everything for all time. This book describes the richness of the Gospel, and outlines what the Gospel does when believed, for the Gospel believed is the power of God unleashed in one's life.

    This book explores exactly what the Gospel is - what is meant by this Good News. It then goes on to explore what the Gospel does, for in his introduction to the book of Romans, Paul the apostle tells us that, "the Gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes". As you read you'll discover why the Gospel is timelessly and universally applicable, how it saves, and what the innumerable benefits of that salvation are. The Gospel's greatness lies in the simple fact that it is the continuous application of that which the Lord accomplished through the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. "Why the Gospel is the Best News Ever!" takes time to celebrate the rich, multi-faceted, eternal beauty of who Jesus is, and of what He has done!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGavin Cox
    Release dateMar 12, 2016
    ISBN9781310077531
    Why the Gospel is the Best News Ever!: The NOT CONFUSED Series, #2
    Author

    Gavin Cox

    I am an entrepreneur, author, husband and father, but my passion is the Gospel. My primary expression of ministry is in the leadership of the Highway Christian Church in East London, South Africa. Having been in ministry for several decades, it was my joy some years ago to discover the Gospel. I had been living in a condemnation-riddled mixture of law and grace, and the Gospel's freedoms have revolutionized my life and ministry completely. SoMuchGoodNews? Because the Gospel is the Best News Ever!

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      Book preview

      Why the Gospel is the Best News Ever! - Gavin Cox

      Foreword

      Falling in love is an apt way to describe what happens when we stumble upon the pure Gospel and experience the unconditional love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is much more than mentally assenting to the historical Bible story. Without this encounter with Love, saying the sinners prayer would be nothing more than signing a membership contract into organised religion. That is why we must be born again – out of His Love for us and into love with Him.

      When people fall in love they do really crazy things, like saying yes to a lifetime commitment of marriage. At the time they don't have to prove themselves to the one who fell in love with them. Somehow, mysteriously, love makes them acceptable, beautiful, irresistible, and just perfect, and afterwards it is natural for them to yearn for deeper levels of companionship, fulfilment, and intimacy.

      The true Gospel reminds me so much of this. I'm so grateful that several years back I heard the message of amazing Grace, and it convinced me– His love for me is unearned, unexpected, and undeserved. Grace came and showed me that Jesus got what I deserved, so that I could get what He deserved; the New Covenant is based on His faithfulness, not mine. I simply fell in love all over again.

      It is difficult enough to articulate these things at the level of the romantic, and even more so when explaining the experiencing of God’s Love. Gavin does a superb job of this– almost effortlessly. You will find this book written simply, clearly and honestly. And as you progress, chapter by chapter, you will experience the unveiling of the marvellous New Covenant.

      Don't read for information only. Read to be transformed by this Message– the Good News. These truths will prove helpful in your life now, and again one day with your children and grandchildren. Learn them well.

      Blessings

      Steve Wheeler

      Author of Highway to Grace (available at highway.co.za)

      Preface

      The Gospel is the power of God for salvation!

      This little book is not Scripture-reference heavy, and I’ve left cross-referencing it with the Word to you, the reader. But it is rich in Biblical thought and metaphor, and you’ll recognise these throughout. It was written to be helpful, and written to make you think. I trust it will do both. This is not merely the Gospel as milk, but is also the Gospel as meat. Read, ruminate, and receive, with great joy and liberty.

      The message is not a new one. No fad or fashion here. It is also not dated staleness, or a hearkening back to the past. It is the Good News of All Eternity - the Gospel of a salvation that is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone. This Gospel is the power of God. It is pure plutonium!

      There is a Gospel Revolution underway across the globe, and this book is a part of it. The Lord is restoring these key concepts to His church. The result will be a dynamic transformation, even if a little messy at times, for the Lion of Judah is not a domesticated kitty, and His church is not a potted plant. I am wholeheartedly persuaded that it is time for Christians to do what is necessary to break free from the confines of sterile, impotent churchianity. The Gospel is God’s vision for every child of His, straight from Heaven, and straight to the heart. There is no vision bigger, and rather than local churches harnessing and controlling their members, they should be unleashing them on our world.

      The Gospel - everywhere, all the time, and in every way - is Heaven’s strategy for calling rebel planet earth back to the obedience of faith. This can all seem a little counterintuitive at first glance, but then so is the cross - a holy God giving His world an intimate kiss, rather than the decapitating slap it deserves.

      Christianity is all about Jesus! He is God. He is Grace. He is the Gospel!

      Yours in Him.

      Gavin Cox

      Gonubie, South Africa

      March 2016

      Introduction

      The Gospel

      Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4–6)

      ***

      Crucifixion was a gruesome death.

      It had been sadistically crafted to be excruciating, slow and humiliating.

      Men lived for days on crosses, not that it was much of a life. Relief finally came to their fever-saturated, pain-wracked bodies by asphyxiation. That would happen when the body, traumatised and exhausted, overcame its own involuntary fight for another breath. By the time the lights went out, every nerve ending had been unbearably tormented, and the loss of control of bladder and bowel had long-since removed every last vestige of dignity. Crucifixion, you see, was about more than just ending a life; it was about suffering. Isaiah perhaps described it best when he spoke prophetically, writing that, His (Jesus) appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind. Quite a statement! It takes us beyond disfigured beyond recognition all the way to looked like roadkill. Those who saw Him knew that He was once alive, but were it not for the context, they could not be sure that He’d in fact been human.

      By crucifixion day Jesus had been making headlines in Jerusalem and surrounds on and off for about three years. In the week prior to His execution things ramped up to fever-pitch across the city, and the half-day or so before the nails went through His flesh, the socio-political climate bordered on riotous. Behind the scenes was intrigue, then betrayal by a friend with a kiss for a surprising price - thirty pieces of silver, which was what an able-bodied slave cost. This was all very demeaning, and was followed by not one, but three trials. The Sanhedrin: a cultural and religious body with no civil jurisdiction. Herod: Tetrarch of Galilee and a political sidestep. And Pontius Pilate: Roman Governor of Judea, who was ultimately pressurised into passing the death sentence on someone he knew to be innocent. Included in the carnage was a sleepless night for Jesus, deprivation of food and drink, a mocking and two beatings. The latter whipping applied a heavy multi-thonged iron-and-bone-studded scourge to His flesh in ways that were well able to end a life, which is why lashes of this nature were carefully rationed at sentencing. On top of it all, there was the emotional torment of false accusation and abandonment, not forgetting the tortures of anticipation also, for Jesus knew exactly what was coming His way ahead of time.

      ***

      Father, Son and Holy Spirit had caucused together in the councils of God before the creation of the world. They would create, they had agreed, and then take full responsibility for everything that they had made. Mankind, they had decided, would be the pinnacle of their creation.

      Man being made in God’s image equated to both free moral agency and significant delegated authority. The very nature of God demanded this, for God is sovereign, but He is not controlling. Humanity, and by extension the planet over which mankind presided, was thus vulnerable to deception, unbelief and rebellion. Sin, in turn, precipitated alienation from the God and demands judgement, for He is holy and just.

      Our Creator is altogether good, and so the prospect of judgement as the outcome of His creative endeavours was unacceptable to Him. Redemption was thus of necessity an integral part of creation’s plan. Because there was a first Adam, there would have to be a second Adam (Jesus) also. He would enter the equation innocent, as did first Adam, and be subject to the same temptations that first Adam was. But that is where the similarities would end. Second Adam would make His entrance into an already-fallen world. His choices would not be naive and uninformed; He would be enlightened and acutely conscious of the consequences of His every thought, word and deed. His job description would be different also. His would not be the broad brief of colonising the planet. For Him there would be no longevity, family, or limitless potential and pleasure. His life would be short and sharp, lived with laser-like singularity of purpose. He would live the sinless life first Adam could and did not, and then, sinless, He would take upon Himself the consequences of sin, undeservedly receiving its unbridled punishments. This vicarious propitiation, endured by a perfect substitute, would provide redemption for the worst of sinners. Justice would be served; and the fullest of pardons secured!

      On this, Father, Son and Holy Spirit had agreed before creating anything. So it was, at the perfect moment in time, Jesus

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