In the following 5 minute sermon excerpt, Dr. Voddie Baucham explained the gospel of redemption; his purpose in doing so was to clarify the difference between a man-centered gospel and a God-centered gospel.
This culture has long believed that the gospel is about them and has wrongly presented the gospel in that way to those who do not know Christ.
The following are highlights from this sermon excerpt, the entire sermon is linked below video [square brackets and emboldening are mine]:
- The problem, man believing the gospel is about him, is defined
- A contemporary example of this incorrect evangelical position and how it shows itself
- God does not need you, if He did, He wouldn’t be God
- God will prove that to you: when you die, the world will keep on turning as before…
- The beauty of the gospel is that He provided redemption when He did not have to
- [The following scriptures indicate the source of the gospel]
- Mark 1:14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
- Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, having been set apart for the gospel of God,2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, [Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. To experience the Legacy Standard Version, see link at the end of post]
- 1 Thessalonians 2:2 but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much struggle [LSB]
- The above scripture refers to the doctrine of the covenant of redemption that took place within the Godhead before creation
- For example, in John 17:1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. [LSB]
- That is, the Father gave a people to the Son in eternity past as a love gift
- The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, three persons have existed all eternity in perfect unity, harmony and love, lacking nothing
- Out of that love, the Father gave a gift to the Son in eternity past
- The Son, out of love, took on flesh, lived a perfect life, died a death He did not deserve, in order to redeem those whom the Father had given Him in eternity past
- The Holy Spirit, who is the very personification of the love between the Father and Son, applies the redemption that Christ obtained, to all those for whom He obtained it – thus has the love of God has been spilling over, out of eternity into time, manifesting itself in the redemption of God’s people
- Therefore, our gospel is a God-centered gospel, not a man-centered one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9tNrVDcan0
***Voddie Baucham explains the redemption of sinners through Christ. Watch full sermon here: https://youtu.be/6bXessehby0
***The above video came from the YouTube site: The Gospel of Christ, the vlogger, John Henry.
***To read from the Legacy Standard Bible: https://read.lsbible.org/
For those who would like to hear more about the difference between the God-centered and man-centered gospels, I copied the following definition of man-centered gospel from my post, Prosperity Preachers and how they fleece their sheep, 7 March 2019 – numerous terms were defined at the bottom of that post:
Man centered gospel vs Biblical gospel: There are countless man-centered “gospels” on offer today. Such “gospels” say things like, “God wants to make you rich and prosperous in this life,” or “God wants to heal you of every physical and emotional ailment,” or “God wants to provide for whatever needs you feel you have.”…But how do these man-centered gospels differ from the true, biblical, God-centered gospel?
- A man-centered gospel defines our lives in terms of what we “need” or want most. The biblical gospel rightly recognizes that none of us fundamentally live to ourselves, but to God (Rom. 14:7-9).
- A man-centered gospel considers our needs and desires to be our most fundamental problems. The true gospel recognizes that to sin against God and face his wrath is the most fundamental problem imaginable.
- A man-centered gospel is based on our desires, our wants, our needs. The biblical gospel looks to the Bible to define our problems and God’s solution: the sin-bearing death and life-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- The true gospel puts God at the center of the message—and the center of our lives, and the center of the entire universe—because that’s the truth. We live and die in a God-centered universe. (www.9marks.org/answer/what-difference-between-man-centered-gospel-and-true-gospel/)