Guarding the Gospel: Know the Gospel

 

A little over a week ago, many churches celebrated Reformation Day–the day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door, calling for a debate on the theology and practice of indulgences.  This call for debate ultimately sprang from his concern for the message of the gospel itself.  We here a lot of talk about the gospel from all manner of places in Christianity today.  We have Coalitions around the gospel, supposed holes in our gospel, even callings to have our very lives connected to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Although the attention on the gospel itself has increased over the last few years, it isn’t hard to see why: the message of the gospel is central to the Bible, and to Christianity itself.

But that raises the question, ‘how do we ensure the centrality of the gospel is maintained?’  If there was ever a part of the Bible that dealt with the task of guarding the gospel, it’s Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Even in the opening verses of the letter, Paul provides some essentials for guarding the gospel; essentials we should follow today…

Read the whole article at Pastor John’s blog