Gospel Truths
What is “the gospel?” In this series, we’ll explore the core of the message of good news about Jesus Christ that we in the Methodist tradition proclaim with a “Wesleyan accent.” In a letter in response to someone asking about the content of the preaching of the early Methodist circuit riders, John Wesley boiled down the message of the gospel to four simple statements while also outlining the ways in which people are called to respond to that good news:
God Loves You; Therefore, Love and Obey God | Week 1
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Christ Died for You; Therefore, Die to Sin | Week 2
John Wesley’s second gospel truth calls for a cross-shaped response: “Christ died for you; therefore, die to sin.” Jesus goes to the cross “for us and for our salvation,” as the Nicene Creed states; forgiving our sins and enabling us to have new birth and new life. But before we can experience that new life, the old life has to die—to be “crucified with Christ” as the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20. In Romans 6, Paul lays out the classic pattern of the Christian life: that in baptism we die with Christ and, as a result, sin no longer has any dominion over us. To put it another way, the cross not only saves us from the guilt of sin, but also from its power.
Join us as we unpack all of that this week!
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Christ Rose Again; Therefore, Rise in the Image of God | Week 3
This week’s sermon will look at what it means to be created in the image of God—the image that is revealed in Jesus, the one whom the Nicene Creed says is “truly human.” Paul expounds on this in Colossians 1, seeing Jesus as “the image of the invisible God” and the one in whom “all things hold together.” He is the one to whom all of our identities were designed to be tuned, and all of that is made possible by his resurrection from the dead. If Jesus’ death is the means by which we are liberated from slavery to sin, then Jesus’ resurrection is the means by which we, too, are raised to new life in him—a renewed life in the image of God.
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Christ lives evermore; therefore, live for him until you live with him in glory | Week 4
John Wesley’s fourth “gospel truth” encompasses the meaning of the ascension when he says, “Christ lives evermore; therefore, live to him until you live with him in glory.” In Acts 1, when Jesus ascends, the disciples are left staring at the sky. An angel then shows up and tells them to stop looking up, waiting for Jesus to return, and instead get to work on the tasks Jesus has given them for the interim period—an interim period we are still living within. Those tasks involve being grounded in the word of God, waiting on the Holy Spirit, and witnessing to Jesus in every increasing circles from local to global. To “live to God,” as Wesley puts it, means leaning into those tasks so that when Jesus does return in glory, he will find us living out the vocation for which we were created—being faithful and fruitful people, and multiplying members of God’s family by making more disciples.
We’re going to look at each of those tasks as we wrap up our series “Gospel Truths” this coming Sunday. It’s important that our understanding move from being just about me and my salvation to seeing salvation as part of God’s plan for the whole creation. The Ascension teaches us that King Jesus has not only risen and claimed us as his own; he’s also got a job for us to do.
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