FIVE ESSENTIAL DIMENSIONS OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE.

Our topic "What is at the heart of the Gospel."

Is the Gospel message just for unbelievers to hear? When someone says, "I go to a church where the preacher preach's the Gospel." What do they mean?

John Piper addressed this subject in his message
Why Expositional Preaching is Particularly Glorifying to God

• The gospel is a message about historical events: the life and death and resurrection of Christ——summoning us to open them with thorough expositions of texts.
• · The gospel is a message about what those events achieved before we experienced anything or even existed: the completion of perfect obedience, the payment for ours sins, the removal of the wrath of God, the installation of Jesus as the crucified and risen Messiah and king of the universe, the disarming of the rulers and authorities, the destruction of death——all of these summoning us to open them with thorough expositions of texts.
• · The gospel is a message about the transfer of these achievements from Christ to particular persons through our union with Christ by faith alone apart from works——which summons us to open for our people the nature and dynamics of faith by the exposition of dozens of texts.
• · The gospel is a message about the good things that are now true about us as the achievement of the cross is applied to us in Christ: that God is only merciful to us now instead of wrathful (propitiation), that we are counted righteous in Christ now (justification), that we are freed now from the guilt and power of sin (redemption), that we are positionally and progressively made holy (sanctification)——all of which summons us to open these glorious realities for our people week after week with thorough expositions of texts.
• · And finally the gospel is a message about the glorious God himself as our final, eternal, all-satisfying Treasure. "We . . . rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation"" (Romans 5:11). The gospel we preach is ""the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God." If our gospel stops short of this goal——enjoying God himself, not just his gifts of forgiveness and rescue from hell and eternal life——then we are not preaching ""the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). Our ultimate goal is knowing and enjoying God. As we saw in the beginning of this chapter, that is why we were created——that God might share with us the knowledge and enjoyment of himself. This is what it means for him to love us. This is what the cross ultimately obtained for us. And this too, by every text of Scripture——all of it inspired by God to awaken hope in his glory7——calls for the richest exposition that our people may be fed the best and highest food of heaven.

The Gospel message is about God's good news about how He is able to redeem the lost. What I have learned is the Gospel message includes the total story of how God accomplished this great salvation.