Tag: Jesus

Thinking Out Loud: How is God a Christian’s Judge?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Practical2 Comments

A perplexing question has had me racking my brain for several days now. In what way are we as Christians judged by God? The text that has motivated this question is 1 Peter 1:17, which says

“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,” (1 Pe 1:17).

Context

Verse 17 comes in the midst of Peter telling his readers to place their hope in Christ alone (13), to not be conformed to their former way of life (14), but instead to be holy as God is holy (15-16). So then, the context deals with Christian conduct. More specifically, Peter wants his readers to understand that their profession of Jesus Christ as their Savior should also result in transformed living.

Verses 13, 14, 15-16 provide commands to live a certain way, as well as they provide the motivation for such living. Verse 17 seems to follow suit. It provides a command, “conduct yourselves in fear”. It also provides a motivation, God is both the Father of those who profess Christ to be their Savior and the Judge of all.

How Can God Be The Judge of Christians?

Verse 17 says God judges all impartially according to their works, which should lead to us conducting ourselves in fear during our earthly stay. Commentators and preachers differ in regard to what this judgment on Christians could be.

  • Some hold it is a judgment regarding rewards (Rom 14:12; 2 Cor. 5:10-11).
  • Others skip over the phrase, “who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds,” opting only to deal with the word fear. They then conclude fear means we need to live in reverence to God.
  • While others hold a tension between fear referring to reverence for God, and also a fear of God’s judgment.

What I Think

Based on Peter’s mentioning of God as Father and Judge, the context calling for believers to live a transformed life as a result of their salvation, as well as Romans 2:6-11, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, and John 3:36, I think Peter is presenting a tension here. A tension both John and Paul present in their writings and one that is evident in the passages above.

The tension I think Peter is presenting is that our faith in Christ should produce good works (Gal. 5:21; 1 Cor. 6:9-11). It is these works that are judged, proving that we are Christians. So then, on the one hand, our fear is to be one of reverence and respect for God. On the other hand, we are to fear God as judge, knowing that if we do not finish the race (1 Cor. 6:9-11), we will not inherit the kingdom of God. Even if at one time we did great works for the kingdom, we must continue to live a righteous life throughout our time here on earth. In other words, we must finish the race. God is not a partial judge, no matter how much good we have done for the kingdom.

I don’t believe our righteous living earns us salvation, but I do believe it proves our salvation since it would not be possible to live righteously without the Holy Spirit residing in us. The Holy Spirit would not reside inside of us, if we did not believe Christ to be our Savior.

Final Questions: I Want Your Thoughts

Those are my thoughts. I want to know what you think. To help facilitate that, here are my final questions:

  • Am I on the right track believing there is a tension between God as Father and Judge, or am I missing something?
  • Do you also see a tension between our faith and works, with our works, or obedience, proving our faith?
  • Do you believe fear in 1 Peter 1:17 is referring to reverence only, or both reverence and judgment?
  • Do you believe Peter is talking about our rewards in heaven? If so, how would those rewards motivate us to live holy lives now?
  • What do you make of verses like 1 John 4:18-21, which tells us those who fear have not been perfected?

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Battling the War Within

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical5 Comments

How do we win the war? What war you ask? The war within. Paul tells us there is a war going on inside of us. He says,

For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members (Rom. 7:22-23)

The redeemed and natural man are waging war inside us. Even though there is a war inside of us, it is a war we are capable of winning. In Christ we have the power to kill the flesh (Rom. 8), destroying its dominion over us. The killing of the flesh is what John Owen calls the mortification of sin, which is the title of one of his books. In The Mortification of Sin, Owen provides believers with ways they can do battle with the natural man.

Instead of providing you with all the ways we can kill, or mortify sin (you will have to read the book for those), I would like to provide you with the place we must begin. My thesis, or rather Owen’s thesis, is as follows:

Only Believers Who Rely On the Work of the Holy Spirit Can Mortify the Flesh

Mortifying the flesh in the power of the flesh by means of bodily exercises, self-performances, and legal duties such as wearing rough clothing, making vows and penances, and disciplining yourself is vanity. In regards to such disciplines, Owen says,

Even if some are not neglecting the things appointed by God to lead to mortification, they may not be using them in their proper place and order. Praying, fasting, watching, meditation, and the like, certainly have their use for the business at hand, but many consider them as the fountain and not the stream coming from the fountain. These actions are the means only, and are subordinate to the Spirit and faith (15-16).

The actions Owen mentions, without the gospel as its fountain, are only performed by men while they feel a conviction of sin. After their guilt passes, they quit seeking to kill their sins, which results in their sin returning to its former dominion over time (17). To completely keep the flesh at bay, men must be believers. Owen says, “There is no self-endeavour that can accomplish mortification. Almighty energy is necessary for its accomplishment” (17). To try to kill the flesh by the work of the flesh without the work of the Spirit is vanity.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

As believers, we are given the Holy Spirit, who resides inside of us. He works in our hearts to root out our fleshly desires, “by causing our hearts to abound in grace and the fruits that are contrary to the works of the flesh” (17). The Holy Spirit causes us to see the grace of God for what it is, a free gift to sinners who deserve nothing but death. He also works in our lives to manifest the fruit of the Spirit, which serves to restrict the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21) (18).

While restricting the works of the flesh through the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit takes away our stony heart and “brings the cross of Christ into the heart of a sinner by faith, giving us communion with Christ in His death, and fellowship in His sufferings” (18). By taking away our heart of stone and bringing us into fellowship with Christ in His death and sufferings, we are empowered to root sin out of our lives because Christ has defeated the grip of sin once and for all in His death, burial, and resurrection.

We Work Along With the Holy Spirit

Even though the Holy Spirit works in our lives, we are responsible for mortifying the flesh as well. Owen believes the Spirit “works in us and upon us, as we are able to be wrought in and upon, and yet He preserves our own liberty and free obedience” (See especially Phil. 2:13) (19). The Holy Spirit works on our understandings, wills, consciences, and affections, as long as we allow Him (19).

Conclusion

We can win the war within us, but it is a war that can only be won if we are a believer. For if we are not a believer in Christ, there is no war to be fought, only slavery exists. Those who are not saved by the blood of Christ are enslaved by the Prince of this world. No amount of work will ever break the bondage of that slavery. Only the power of Christ can free us from the enslavement of Satan.

Once Christ has broken the bonds of the flesh, we are free to war against our worldly lusts. A war that we can and will win as Christ’s children. A war the Holy Spirit empowers us to fight.

To those who try to fight the flesh without first believing in Christ, Owen says,

They try many perplexing ways and duties, to keep down sin, but, being strangers to the Spirit of God, they find it is all in vain. They combat without victory, have war without peace, and are in slavery all their days (20).

May we all understand that the war within is not won alone. Rather, it is only won through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our subsequent belief in His person and work. Our belief in Christ brings the Holy Spirit into our lives, allowing us to take up combat against the natural man.

Resources

All references refer to John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin: abridged and made easy to read by Richard Rushing, The Banner of Truth Trust, 2004.

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The Wilderness Temptation

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals4 Comments

Have you ever thought about the purpose for the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness? Have you ever wondered why immediately after He is baptized He is driven into the wilderness for 40 days by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil? The temptations themselves seem odd and random, what holds them together?

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all present us with the temptation of Jesus. Matthew and Luke provides us with the details of the temptation, while Mark gives us a short summary telling us Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. Since Matthew and Luke both provide us with a more detailed account of Jesus’ temptation, we will focus in on those texts; specifically, we will look at Matthew’s account.

Parallel with Israel and More

Besides the obvious parallel with Israel, who was in the wilderness 40 days and failed and Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days and succeeded, showing He is the new Israel – the chosen and anointed one, what else can we learn from this event? In looking at the temptations Jesus faces, we see that they all are self serving temptations that would take glory away from the Father. Let’s look specifically at each temptation to see Jesus’ response and what we can learn from it.

Stones Into Bread

Jesus had been in the wilderness for forty days fasting, He would have been extremely hungry. Satan comes to Him and tempts Him to turn some stones into bread (Matt. 4:2-3). But in doing so, Jesus would have rejected God as the sustaining power of life. Look at what He says in response to Satan: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Jesus was sustained by His relationship with the Lord, He did not need to create something else in order to serve Himself, He knew the Lord would provide and would sustain Him.

The Pinnacle of the Temple

After Jesus refuses to turn the stones into bread, He is taken up to the pinnacle of the temple and is tempted to jump off, so that God will rescue Him (Matt.4:5-6). Jesus was sent to do the will of the Father, which was to go to the cross to die for the sins of mankind, so that man’s relationship with God could be restored, if man believes in Christ as their Savior. To jump off of the pinnacle of the temple, in order for God to have to save Him, would be putting the Lord to the test (Matt. 4:7). More pointedly, He would not be seeking to glorify the Father; rather, He would be serving Himself by seeking to show how important He really is to the plan of salvation.

The Kingdoms of the World

In the last temptation, Satan takes Jesus to the top of a high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He then tells Him He can have all these kingdoms if He will worship him (Satan). To which Jesus says, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve'” (Matt. 4:10). Here Jesus tells us who He is working to glorify and serve, namely, the Father.

Author’s Strategy

Jesus is not concerned with exalting Himself, He is concerned with glorifying the Father in Heaven and serving Him alone. He does not need to exalt and glorify Himself because He is perfectly content in His relationship with the Father and the Spirit. A relationship where mutual love and service has existed before the foundations of the earth. Matthew, Mark, and Luke seek to highlight this fact with their narratives. They want their readers to see that Jesus did not come to serve Himself, but to serve the Lord. In addition, in serving the Lord, He is perfectly content and joyful. He does not need to elevate Himself to a place of glory in order to find joy and happiness because He finds joy and happiness in His relationship with the Lord.

Application

We too can experience this type of love and joy. The gospel tells us that we are more of a sinner than we ever dare thought, but at the same time it tells us that we are more accepted than we ever could imagine. By finding our acceptance in God and not in the world through self-glory or power, we will be more content and happy than we ever thought we could because we are more loved by God in Christ than we ever thought possible. Whereas the world seeks first and foremost to use others for their own benefit, the gospel places service to others at its pinnacle by showing us that Jesus was perfectly content with serving the Lord and seeking His (the Father’s) glory over His own because He loved the Father unconditionally, and He understood the joy associated with His relationship with the Father, as well as the love and service the Father reciprocated to Him.

We too can experience the same lasting eternal joy and love Jesus experiences. All we need to do is believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, that our sin separates us from God and without Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins, we could not have a relationship with the Father. If you would like to learn more about the gospel message, you can read an earlier post I wrote by clicking here.

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Leadership Through Daily Scripture Reading

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Leadership, Pastoral, PracticalLeave a comment

Have you ever wondered why reading through the Bible every year is important? Have you ever wondered why leaders in churches consistently talk about reading your Bible everyday? Have you ever thought about how your Bible comes to bear on the leadership of your family, small group, or even church?

Leadership Through Personal Scripture Reading

Bible reading plans are a dime a dozen, with each one offering you a different way to read through the Bible. However, before we throw our latest plan off to the side, I want us to think through the importance of our daily Bible reading for our leadership. I am not just talking about leadership at a vocational pastor level, but at all levels because we are all called to be leaders/shepherds, whether that be in our homes, our small groups, or over a local congregation.

Personal Confession

I often find myself reading Scripture in order to gain knowledge. I want to know who the kings were at the time of Isaiah’s prophesy, how many times Jesus told His disciples He was going to die without them understanding what He was telling them, or what churches Paul started on his 1st missionary journey. In doing so, I often fail to see how the text comes to bear on my life in particular.

Reading Scripture for Personal Growth, not Just Knowledge

In saying that, I am not saying we should not understand the facts and broad movements of Scripture. Those things are necessary and very important if we are to understand what God is communicating to us, but we must not stop there. We must dig deeper into each text we are reading in order to understand how the text comes to bear on our lives. In other words, our reading of the text is not complete if we just have the facts, we need to understand what the particular text is teaching us about God (His character or what He has done for us) and about mankind.

Once we understand what the text is saying about God and about mankind, we need to probe our own lives to see if we are dealing with the same sins mentioned in the text. As we make that a daily practice, we will begin to understand what Scriptures speak to different issues we are dealing with, as well as we will begin to root sin out of our lives. When we understand what Scriptures speak to particular issues/sins in our lives, we can then determine what others around us are struggling with. But not only will we know what they are struggling with, we will know what Scriptures will help them in their struggles because we have personally sought to apply them to our own lives during our daily Scripture reading.

Importance of a Daily Reading Plan

Notice, I said, “as we make that a daily practice.” Here is where the daily Scripture reading plans come in. They serve several functions:

(1) To keep us on track
(2) To provide us with accountability
(3) To expose us to a wide range of Scripture, which then causes us to probe our lives in different ways.

So, before you throw your daily reading plan aside, think about its function and what it is helping you to achieve.

Conclusion: Tying It To Leadership

If we want to lead/shepherd others, and we all are called to lead/shepherd others, then we must first understand how the Scripture comes to bear on our own lives. As we understand how the Scripture comes to bear on our lives through the daily reading of it, we are then better positioned to understand how Scripture comes to bear on others lives, as well as we are able to provide them with places to go in God’s Word when discussing with them the particular issues/sins they are dealing with.

So if we want to be a good leader/shepherd, we must first shepherd ourselves with God’s Word by reading it daily and reading it widely, as well as by asking ourselves more about the text than simple who did what and where did they do it. We must ask ourselves: What is God telling us about Himself and about mankind? After which we have to be willing to probe our own lives to see if we view God the way the text presents Him or if we are dealing with the sins the text presents.

I hope that you now see the importance the daily reading of Scripture plays in our lives. It is not for the sheer facts or to check another box off of a list as we go through the day. It is so we can, first, personally grow to be more like Christ through understanding and subsequently rooting sins in our own lives out, and, second, so we can help others deal with sins in their lives in a biblical manner.

Some Additional Things to Keep in Mind

As we read the text, we should also seek to understand how we can use it to counsel others through difficult seasons in their lives. In other words, we should not solely ask, what attitude toward God does this address or what sin is illumined in my life, we have to also ask how could/would I use this Scripture to counsel others who are hurting.

Most importantly, we have to understand that when we discover a particular sin we are dealing with through our daily reading of Scripture, we do not root that sin out solely in our own power. It is by preaching the gospel to ourselves that we deal with sin in our lives, as well as by taking certain measures to remove the temptation for that particular sin. This means that we have not truly dealt with a sin if we do not deal with it at the root level.

May I recommend several resources to help you with this. First, I recently wrote about preaching the gospel to ourselves. You can read it by clicking here. I would also recommend two other posts I wrote: Understanding Your Idols and The Functional Centrality of the Gospel. Second, I would recommend you pick up: Counterfeit God’s by Timothy Keller, as well as How People Change by Lane and Tripp.

If you are interested in different reading plan, my friend Dustin Bruce highlighted some in a recent post on his blog Gospel Spirituality. You can check it out by clicking here.

Continue In The Faith

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals1 Comment

Perseverance is the badge of true saints. The Christian life is more than a beginning in the ways of God. It is also a continuance in the faith as long as life lasts. It is the same with a Christian as it was with the great Napoleon who said, “Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest must maintain me.” The only true conqueror who will be crowned is the one that continues until war’s trumpet is blown no more.

The Target of Our Spiritual Enemies

Perseverance is, therefore, the target of all our Spiritual enemies.

The world does not object to you being a Christian for a time if she can tempt you to give up your journey and settle down in her Vanity Fair.

The flesh will seek to entangle you and prevent you from pressing on to glory. “It is weary work being a Christian. Come, give it up. Must I always be humbled? Am I never to be indulged? Give me at least a vacation from this constant warfare.”

Satan will make many fierce attacks on your perseverance. It will be the target of all his arrows. He will strive to hinder you in service. He will insinuate that you are doing no good. He will endeavor to make you wary of suffering. He will whisper, “Curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). He will attack your steadfastness: “What is the good of being so zealous? Be quiet like the rest.” He will assail your doctrinal beliefs: “Why do you hold to these denominational creeds? Sensible men are getting more liberal. They are removing the old landmarks. Blend in with the times.”

Conclusion

Wear your shield, Christian, close to your armor. Pray to God that, by His Spirit, you may endure to the end.

Resource

Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: May 26, Evening

Why Preach the Gospel to Ourselves?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals6 Comments

Preach the gospel to yourself. That is a buzz that is flying around in evangelical circles as of late. I would like to quickly answer what it means and then provide a few reasons why we should preach the gospel to ourselves.

What it means?

Preaching the gospel to yourself simple means that you remind yourself of all that takes place in the gospel. Before we can preach the gospel to ourselves we have to understand the gospel message.

The gospel tells us that we are sinners, who are headed for eternal destruction because our relationship with God is severed due to our sinfulness. Instead of allowing our relationship to remain severed, God made a way for mankind to be reconciled with Himself. When we believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins, we are united with Him. Through our union with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection we are made righteous as our sin is imputed to Him and His righteousness is imputed to us (double imputation), and at this time we are freed from the bondage of sin giving us a choice to not sin. When we take on Christ’s righteousness our relationship with a perfect and holy God is restored because we are made perfect and holy. This all occurs because of the free gift of God (grace) and not because of anything that we have done, which would earn His gift of salvation (not by works).

Preaching the gospel to ourselves simple is a way of reminding ourselves of the truths of the gospel message.

Reasons Preaching the Gospel to Ourselves is Necessary

(1) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us that our relationship with God satisfies us more than any sin. 

Sin will satisfy, it is why we do it. But it will not completely satisfy us, and its after effects often leave us feeling empty, ashamed, and lost. Christ is unlike any sin, He will satisfy us for all of eternity. He will never let us down, nor will He ever leave us feeling empty, ashamed, or lost. He will bring us joy that far exceeds the joy we can gain from any sinful action. When we sin, we are in essence saying that God is not sufficient enough, and what we are going to get from our sin is far better than God. However, when we preach the gospel to ourselves, we remind ourselves that we are ultimately satisfied in God and nothing else.

(2) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us that we are accepted by God’s free grace.

God has accepted us by grace alone, not because of our works. Since God has not accepted us based on our works, then we do not have to perform works in order to keep His grace. This means we obey God’s commands not to earn His grace, but we obey out of His grace. When we are saved, God empowers us to live the Christian life (Philippians 2:13). He changes our desires (will) and enables us to obey His commands by empowering us to serve Him. Thus, we serve Him not to earn His grace, but out of His grace.

By reminding ourselves of our salvation, we remind ourselves that we cannot earn His favor, nor our salvation. Those who believe they have to do something in order to earn acceptance with God, do so because functionally they are trying to be their own Savior. They do not understand Christ has made them holy already. You see, our sanctification is based on our justification. When we try to gain acceptance with God through our actions, we are living like our justification is determined by our sanctification. Preaching the gospel to ourselves serves to remind us that God’s grace is free, not earned.

(3) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us that we are free to live our righteousness out.

When we are saved, we are united with Christ, and we are made righteous through that union with Christ. Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us of our union with Christ and reminds us that we are free to live our righteousness out. In other words, we do not have to first earn our righteousness, we are already righteous, and, as such, we are able to live as Christ now.

Think of it this way: In Christ, we are full, meaning we do not have to fill ourselves up with righteousness like we would a gas tank. We are already full and we will forever remain full. We do not have to pull into the service station to top our righteousness tank off. Our tank never drops below full. Since we are always running on a full tank, we never have to fill up our tank by earning our righteousness. Since we do not have to earn our righteousness we can freely give to others. The reason we freely give is not to earn God’s righteousness, but because God has freely given to us.

However, when we work for our righteousness or feel we have to pay God back for saving us by being obedient, we are not living our righteousness out; rather we are evoking a debtor’s ethic.

The debtor’s ethic says I must give or do because God has given to me.

To help us understand this concept lets look at an area the debtor’s ethic is often evoked. One area the debtor’s ethic is often used is by those who want to manipulate others into evangelizing the lost. They tell us, “Christ died for you on the cross, the least you can do is tell someone about Him.” On the surface this sound good, but the underlying principle is that we are to tell others about Christ because we owe God for saving us and evangelism is a way we can pay Him back.

However, the gospel tells us that we can freely live our righteousness out. When applied to evangelism, it means we tell others about Christ, not because we owe God something, but because we want them to experience the same relationship with Him that we do. We want them to understand that the Savior is the only one who can truly satisfy, making Him better than any sin or idol.

You see the difference. One group evangelizes because they feel they have to, showing they do not understand God’s grace. The other group evangelizes because they want others to experience the grace of God, knowing that He satisfies us more than any sin will ever satisfy us. Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us of God’s grace and frees us to live out our righteousness.

(4) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us that God is most glorified when we are happy in Him and only in Him.

We can strive to live lives that resemble Christ, not to earn God’s salvation or approval, but simple to please Him and glorify Him. You see, God is most glorified and pleased when we are happy in Him believing He is sufficient for us and that we need nothing other than Him (ie sin) to satisfy us. When we preach the gospel to ourselves, we remind ourselves of this truth.

(5) Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us of the magnitude of our sins, which brings about true repentance.

When we meditate on the gospel, we are reminded that Jesus died for our sins. In order to die for our sins, He left His throne in heaven, took on the form of a man, was beaten, mocked, and led to the cross where He died in our place.

With this in mind, we see that the gospel reminds us of the heinousness of our sins, it reminds us that our sins are so great that only the perfect sacrifice of God’s Son could atone for them.

When we understand the magnitude of our sins, and their cost, we are reminded that our sin should not be minimized. To minimize our sin proves that we do not understand the costliness of Christ’s sacrifice, nor do we fully understand the holiness of God. Preaching the gospel to ourselves serves as a daily reminder of the magnitude of our sins, which then serves to bring about true repentance.

When we understand the costliness of our sins, we are less likely to confess our sin quickly, in order to deal with our guilt; rather we are more likely to root sin out of our lives.

If we are quick to confess our sin, in order to alleviate our guilt, then we believe grace is cheap.

However, if we are willing to dig deep into our lives to root our sin out at the core, in order to truly cast it from our lives, we show that we understand the cost of our sins. True repentance understands the magnitude of sin and seeks to deal with it at the core.

True repentance also shows that we understand God’s grace and His holiness. We understand His grace releases us from the bondage of sin and His holiness means He is unable to be wed to an unholy people. Those who are truly repentant are motivated to repent not to earn God’s favor, but to glorify God. We glorify God when we delight in Him rather than in our sin and live lives that reflect His holiness. Our motivation for change is subtle but nevertheless it is a different motivation for change than what the religious/legalist puts forth. Preaching the gospel to ourselves serves to remind us of the magnitude of our sins, as well as it is a catalyst for true repentance.

Conclusion

Since we are naturally drawn to doing something in order to earn what we are given, we must constantly remind ourselves that what God has given us is free. We must also remind ourselves that God is far better than sin for if we do not we will easily succumb to its enticing lure. Furthermore, we must remind ourselves on a daily basis that God satisfies us more than sin could ever satisfy us. Moreover, we must constantly remind ourselves of the costliness of our sin, which should serve to spur us onto true repentance. Lastly, we must remind ourselves that God is most glorified when we are happy in Him believing He is sufficient to satisfy us. Preaching the gospel to ourselves reminds us of all the things mentioned here and is why it is a necessity. This means that preaching the gospel is not solely reserved for non-believers, but for believers as well. May we never forget that the gospel is not only a message that provides us entrance into God’s kingdom, but sustains us and helps us to live within His kingdom.