1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (NET)
Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.
I had a conversation with a colleague who kept telling me how he admired my lifestyle and devotion to God. He wasn’t a believer in the Lord Jesus but said he was a believer in God. We discussed how Jesus Christ is what makes the difference. You cannot preach the gospel without talking about Christ. The gospel is the message about Christ.
If Christ is not in the Center of the message, it is not the gospel of God.
It became necessary for Apostle Paul to make clear to the Corinthians the gospel they received so that they would know what it was and what it was not.
He went on to talk about Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
He further went on to lay emphasis on the resurrection of the dead (read 1 Cor 15). The resurrection of the dead is an important aspect of our gospel message. Take it out of the gospel message and you’ve taken away hope from it. Take away hope and you’ll deaden faith.
Today, there is a gospel message that only seeks to focus on hope and prosperity in this life, but fails to emphasize the coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead. It fails to emphasize to believers that the best they can have in this life of the flesh is less than the least they would have in the life of the resurrected body.
The problem with this kind of gospel is that even though it may be celebrated among none critical thinkers, it would be redundant among critical thinkers and those who are not driven by the need to alienate poverty. That’s why it appears that the gospel [popularly preached today] is losing traction in the most affluent nations of the world today.
Go into today remembering that the true gospel of God focuses on Christ and brings people eternal hope (whether they are rich or poor, young or old) not just for this life but for the life to come.
—Pst. Abraham Damilola Arigi
Website: www.streamglobe.org
Source: Devotional