Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church
The gospel consists of the good news that God has accomplished the work of saving sinners. This message is the good news of God and the great message about God! Many dimensions of this gospel can be studied, but in this brief write-up, I will list four dimensions of the gospel.
1. I’m saved BY GOD (justification)
Those in heaven cry out “salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev 7.10). Quite simply, Paul states that God saved us (Titus 3.5). When I consider the good news of the gospel, I must remember that I am saved by God. The source of my salvation is God. He is the originator, the genesis, the accomplisher, the beginner and the One who thought and wrought my salvation. As the psalmist said: salvation is of the Lord (Ps 3.8). I am saved by the effectual, initiating, perfect, supernatural, miraculous work of God Almighty as He came to me and did all that was needed to rescue my perishing soul!
2. I’m saved FROM GOD (judgment)
One of the most remarkable aspects of the gospel is to remember that not only am I saved by God but I am also saved from God. The ultimate nature of hell is being forsaken of God and subject to His ceaseless and infinite wrath forevermore. The beauty of the gospel consists in the reality that God has saved me by His power and from His just punishment. God has saved me by Himself and He has saved me from Himself, that is, His holy wrath, His hot hatred, His just punishment, and His righteous anger. This is what Christ bore on the cross. He was not saved from God’s wrath but was crushed by God so you may be delivered from His infinite crushing for your sin.
3. I’m saved TO GOD (service)
The Lord Jesus proclaimed in the open air in Jerusalem that whoever believes is free. And if the Son makes you free, you are free indeed (John 8.36). This freedom, however, is an interesting freedom. It is freedom from sin and a gloriously joyful bondage to Christ. To be saved by God means that a person is no longer under the domain of sin with sin as his cruel-master but now he is brought into a blessed bondage to Christ with a most marvelous Savior as His master. Believers are called “slaves” and even in glory God’s bond-servants will serve him (Rev 22.3). God saved me by Himself, from Himself, to himself for obedience!
4. I’m saved FOR GOD (God’s glory)
To God alone belongs the glory forever and ever (Rev 5.13). In this plan of God in rescuing sinners, He has saved us by Himself, from Himself, to Himself, and now For Himself. That means that this enterprise of salvation must result in God’s glory and His utmost praise. It must redound to His perpetual praise and His magnificent worship! It ignites our hearts to praise Him in this life as we’ll praise Him in this way in the next also! God has saved you not to make much of you but for you to make much of Him. Boast in the Lord! Let your soul magnify the Lord, make its boast in the Lord and say how great your God is! He saved you!
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