god in christ the price and the prize of the gospel (1)

7/30/2019 God in Christ the Price and the Prize of the Gospel (1)

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God in Christ: The Price and the Prize ofthe Gospel

Dumnezeu n Cristos: preul i premiulEvangheliei

10 Noiembrie 2012|deJohn Piper|Text biblic:Romani 5:111|Subiect:The Gospel

Serii mesaje:Thirty-Year Theological Trademarks

Romans 5:111

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through ourLord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into thisgrace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that,but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 andendurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does notput us to shame, because Gods love has been poured into our hearts through theHoly Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right timeChrist died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous personthoughperhaps for a good person one would dare even to die 8 but God shows his love for

us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we havenow been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrathof God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death ofhis Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whomwe have now received reconciliation.

What "Trademark" Means

When you hear me say that we are in a series of messages on the thirty-year theologicaltrademarks of Bethlehem, dont think niche branding. Dont think thirty-year exclusives. I donteven like the word distinctives. It seems to connote a desire to be doctrinally different from others.Our mindset is exactly the opposite. Were suspicious of being different from the historicteachings of the church. The last thing we want to preach is new doctrines exclusive to us. Whenwe say trademarks we mean truths that are defining and shaping and precious. We dont meanviews that weve come up with and that set us off from the rest of the church of Christ. We dontwant to be set off. We want to be arm in arm with millions of faithful followers of Gods word. Truthdoes divide. But it also unites. And it is the uniting power of truth that we delight in most.

So we are always testing our interpretations of the Bible by looking back into church history. If wecant find our interpretations there, we would be very slow to preach them in this pulpit. Cults andsects are born in the minds of leaders who crave to be different. Jehovahs Witnesses, Mormons,the Unification Church, Christian Sciencethese were born in the minds of teachers who wanted
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new revelations and interpretations, and found them. They were restless with the limitation of theBible and its historic understandings.

There is a lot of healthy and warranted warning these days about historical hero worship.Warnings about inordinate and uncritical admiration and imitation of historical teachers likeAugustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Luther, the Puritans, Edwards, Wesley, Spurgeon, Barth,Chesterton, Lewis, etc. But we should be careful not to overdo this criticism. People with greathistorical heroes tend not to think of themselves as heroes. They're too busy learning from them.Which means that, for all its dangers, admiring a great line of historical heroes will at least keepyou from starting a sect.

Wise Foundations and Deep Roots

Our instincts are much more in that direction. Our thirty-year theological trademarks are not new,theyre not distinctive to us, they are not a niche, they are not exclusives, they are not eccentric.They all have wide foundations in the Bible and deep roots in the history of Gods people. And ifany of them ever deserved to be guarded from the distortion of novelty it is todays trademark,

namely the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My title is God in Christ: The Price and the Prize of the Gospel. Meaning: God in Christ isthePrice and the Prize of the Gospel. The prize of the gospel is the Person who paid the price , Godin Christ. In other words, the gospel is the good news that God in Christ paid the price ofsuffering, so that we could have the prize of enjoying him forever. God paid the price of his Sonto give us the prize of himself.

To unfold the meaning of this and to show how bibl ical it is I think it will be helpful to take threesnapshots of the sermon title from three different places. One from Romans 5. One from church

history. And one from 1 Corinthians 15.

Price and Prize in Romans 5

Keep in mind that the word gospel means good news. In this case Gods good news for theworld. What is the price and the prize of that good news according to Romans 5? Heres the pricein Romans 5:68:

While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one willscarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one woulddare even to die 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,Christ died for us.

The price of the gospel is the death of Christ. Verse 6: Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8:"Christ died for us." God loved us while we were sinners and paid a price so that we might havean infinite prize. That price was the death of his Son. And what was the prize that he bought forus when he paid that price? Verses 9-11:

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be

saved by him from the wrath of God.10

For if while we were enemies we werereconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled,shall we be saved by his l ife. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in Godthrough ourLord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.


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What did God purchase for us by the price of his Son? Verse 9: We have now been justified byhis blood. And more. Verse 9b: Because of that justification we will be saved by him from wrath.What do we need to be saved from? The wrath of God. Much more shall we be saved from thewrath of God (verse 9). But is that the highest, best, fullest, most satisfying prize of the gospel?

No. Verse 11 begins with another much more. Verse 10 ends: We shall be saved by his life.And verse 11 takes it up a level: More than that: we rejoice in God. That is the final and highestgood of the good news. There is not another much more after that. There is only Pauls sayingagain how we got there. Verse 11b: through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have nowreceived reconciliation.

The end of the gospel is we rejoice in God. The highest, fullest, deepest, sweetest good of thegospel is God himself, enjoyed by his redeemed people. Hence the title of this message: God inChrist: The Price and the Prize of the Gospel. God in Christ became the price (Romans 5:68),and God in Christ became the prize (Romans 5:11). The gospel is the good news that Godbought for us the everlasting enjoyment of God. That's what I mean when I say "God is thegospel."

Price and Prize in Church History

The second snapshot of our sermon title is from church history. For five hundred years protestantChristians have summed up the gospel in terms of the five solas which is Latin for only oralone. And all I do in giving you this summary is add one that is implicit in the others. So inthese historical forms I would define the gospel like this:

As revealed with final authority in Scripture alonethe Gospel is the good news that

by faith alonethrough grace aloneon the basis of Christ alonefor the glory of God alonesinners have full and final joy in God alone.

All these affirmations are grounded in the Bible.

Scripture aloneis the final authority for revealing and defining the gospel of Christ(Galatians 1:9): If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let

him be accursed. The apostolic delivery of the gospel is final and decisive.By faith alone(Romans 3:28): We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of thelaw. Faith plus nothing is the way we receive the gift of justification.Through grace alone(Ephesians 2:5, 8-9): When we were dead in our trespasses, Godmade us alive together with Christ by graceyou have been saved . . . For by graceyou have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not aresult of works, so that no one may boast.On the basis of Christ alone(Hebrews 7:27): Christ has no need, like those high priests, tooffer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did thisonce for all when he offered up himself. (See Hebrews 9:12; 10:10). Once for all and

decisively. Nothing can be added to the work of Christ to cover our sins and that workcannot be repeated.For the glory of God alone (Ephesians 1:6): God predestined us for adoption as sonsthrough Jesus Christ . . . to the praise of the glory of his grace. God saved us in such a waythat there would be no human boasting (Ephesians 2:9; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31), but all


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would show his glory.Full and final joy in God alone(Psalm 16:11; 73:25f): In your presence there is fullness ofjoy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Whom have I in heaven but you? Andthere is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but Godis the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

This is the gospel as millions of Christians have thought about it for centuries, and we are happy

to link arms with this great Reformation heritage: God in Christ: The Price and the Prize of theGospel

Price and Prize in 1 Corinthians 15

The third snapshot of our sermon title comes from 1 Corinthians 15. What I see here is that thegospel has six elements or six aspects, five of which are explicit in the text and one of which isimplicit. Verses 14:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospelI preached to you, which you

received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast tothe word I preached to youunless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as offirst importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance withthe Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordancewith the Scriptures.

Six Indispensable Elements of the Gospel

Here we see six elements of the gospel. If any of these six was missing, there would be nogospel.

1. The gospel is a divine plan. Verse 3b: Christ died for our sins in accordance with theScriptures. In accordance with the Scriptures written hundreds of years before he died. Whichmeans the gospel was planned by God long before it took place.

2. The gospel is a historical event. Verse 3b: Christ died. The gospel is not mythology. It is notmere ideas or feelings. It is an event. And without the event there is no gospel.

3. The gospel is the divine achievementsthrough that event that death. Things Godaccomplished in the death of Jesus long before we ever existed. Verse 3b: Christ died for our

sins. For our sins means this death had design in it. It was meant to accomplish something. Itaccomplished the covering of our sins (Colossians 2:14), the removal of Gods wrath (Romans8:3; Galatians 3:13), the purchase of eternal life (John 3:16). These are objective achievementsof the work of Christ before they are applied to anyone.

4. The gospel is a free offer of Christ for faith . Verses 1-2: . . . the gospel I preached to you,which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast tothe word I preached to youunless you believedin vain. The good news of Godsachievements in Christ become ours by faith, by believing, by receiving. Not by giving aperformance or by deserving or working. What God has done is free to all who will have it. It is

received by faith. Without the free offer of Christ for faith there would be no gospel.

5. The gospel is an application to believersof what God achieved in the death of Jesus. So whenwe believe we are forgiven for our sins (Acts 10:43); we are justified (Romans 5:1); we receiveeternal life (John 3:16) and dozens of other benefits (which is why I wrote a book called Fifty


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Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die). The gospel is the powerful personal application to us of whatGod achieved for us on the cross.

6. The gospel is the enjoyment of fellowship with God himself. This is implicit in the wordgospel, good news. If you ask: What is the highest, deepest, most satisfying, all-encompassinggood of the good news, the answer is: God himself known and enjoyed by his redeemed people.This is made explicit in 1 Peter 3:18: Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for theunrighteous, that he might bring us to God. All the other gifts of the gospel exist to make this onepossible. We are forgiven so that our guilt does not keep us away from God. We are justified sothat our condemnation does not keep us away from God. We are given eternal life now, with newbodies in the resurrection, so that we have the capacities for enjoying God to the fullest. Test yourheart. Why do you want forgiveness? Why do you want to be justified? Why do you want eternallife? Is the decisive answer: "because I want to enjoy God"?

In summary then, God in Christ is The Price and the Prize of the Gospel. The prize of the gospelis the Person who paid the price. The gospel-love God gives is ultimately the gift of himself. Thisis what we were made for. This is what we lost in our sin. This is what Christ came to restore. In

your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm16:11).

As Edwards Explains

I offer this to you on behalf of Christ. Indeed I urge to receive it. Its free. All it takes is for you tosee the beauty of Christ and receive him as your Treasure and your Lord and your Savior. This iswhat it means to believe the gospel. To give you one final enticement I will read the mostbeautiful description I have ever read of what I mean by saying God is the gospel and that thelove of God is the gift of himself. It comes from Jonathan Edwards in 1731 when he was 28:

The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great goodwhich they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is thehighest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is theinheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth andtreasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem, andtheir everlasting honor and glory. They have none in heaven but God; he is the greatgood which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at theend of the world. The Lord God, he is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem; and is theriver of the water of li fe that runs, and the tree of life that grows, in the midst of the

paradise of God. The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what willforever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God wil l be their everlastingfeast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, andwill enjoy one another: but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, orin anything else whatsoever, that will yield them delight and happiness, will be whatwill be seen of God in them.1

Amen.

1Jonathan Edwards, God Glorified in the Work of Redemption, by the Greatness of MansDependence upon Him, in the Whole of It (1731) [sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:29-31] in:Wilson H.Kimnach, Kenneth P. Minkema, and Douglas A. Sweeney, ed., The Sermons of JonathanEdwards: A Reader(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 7475.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300077688/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0300077688&linkCode=as2&tag=desigod-20http://tmp/wktemp-09a0dbf2-b272-4e4d-aa0c-30adbd4ffc3b.html#_ftnref1http://tmp/wktemp-09a0dbf2-b272-4e4d-aa0c-30adbd4ffc3b.html#_ftn1


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Desiring God

Permisiuni: Avei permisiunea i suntei ncurajai s reproducei i s distribuii acest material norice format, cu condiia s nu modificai cuvintele n nici un fel i s nu cerei bani mai mulidect v-a costat copierea materialului. Pentru postarea pe internet, preferm un link ctre acestdocument de pe pagina noastr. Orice excepie de la cele de mai sus trebuie aprobat de ctreDesiring God.

V rugm s includei urmtoarea afirmaie pe orice copie a acestui material pe care-ldistribuii: De John Piper. Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Resurse asemntoare

Nu mi-e ruine de Evanghelie(Predici)Ne Bucurm n Dumnezeu prin Domnul Nostru Isus Hristos(Predici)Cnd Domnul Nu ine n Seam Pcatul(Predici)

Cel Mai Mre Lucru din Lume: Un Rezumat Romani 1-7(Predici)Mesajul mre i plin de mil din Romani 1-8(Predici)
http://resource-library/sermons/the-mighty-and-merciful-message-of-romans-1-8http://resource-library/sermons/the-greatest-thing-in-the-world-an-overview-of-romans-1-7http://resource-library/sermons/when-the-lord-does-not-take-account-of-sinhttp://resource-library/sermons/we-exult-in-god-through-our-lord-jesus-christhttp://resource-library/sermons/not-ashamed-of-the-gospelhttp://www.desiringgod.org/

god in christ the price and the prize of the gospel (1)

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