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What is the Best Source for Understanding Paul’s Gospel?

Most bible scholars refer to either the book of Romans or the book of Ephesians to understand Pauls gospel message. Romans is the traditional go to to summarize Pauls gospel and how to become a Christian. Often referred to as the Romans Road to Salvation. However I believe that the book of Ephesians contains a better record than Romans of Paul’s full gospel because of the reason that he wrote these two letters. Romans was a letter written to the Roman church that was written to help them with specific problems. The book of Ephesians was a general circuit letter intended to be read by all of the churches that Paul had planted. It was not a specific letter written to the Ephesian to help them solve specific problems. Which is the best source for us today? To understand Paul’s gospel that he used to plant churches and disciple new Christians? Well of course we need them both but I believe Ephesians summarizes it better and I think more than a few biblical scholars agree.

This is part II of a 2 part article about the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Romans Road to salvation. Read part I of this post here:

If we can accept it, here is my paragraph-long summary of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ as preached by Paul, greatly condensed and paraphrased, taken mostly from Ephesians 1-3.

There is something of great importance that I feel I must share about why we exist, about the very meaning of life. I feel compelled to reveal this to whoever will listen.  The Glory of God is now seen in the person, and presence of Jesus Christ. Humanity which had once fallen short of that irresistible glory of God no longer falls short of God thanks to Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible God and is the glory of God condensed onto and within a person. Human beings…you and I, are God’s chief creation, his chief work of art. He made us in his own image in order to expand the love and fellowship that he had, into a people and into this universe, it pleased him to create a family to dwell with. God chose people based on his own pleasure to be his very own adopted children. It was then we who turned our back on him, the entire human race repudiating the glory of God to his face. We chose sin and in doing we chose death, we chose and inherited hostility and  rebellion against God and a snubbing of his greatness, his character, his love and his infinite wisdom. Then He decided to make peace with us which is now available freely through Jesus Christ.

He did this for several reasons: 1) in order to create a people who would be a display to all the earth as his redeemed children, believers become a display of his grace and mercy to the rest of mankind. 2) He also created a people in order to put on display his wisdom to all the authorities, men and spirits, both good and evil, and to all the people of the earth. 3) He also did this to make for himself a dwelling place on earth within the people he would create through belief in Jesus Christ. So that his kingdom would be on earth as it is in heaven, all things visible and invisible mesmerized, cooperating with and submitted to his glory.

When we believe in Jesus Christ we become set apart to God, we literally become God’s dwelling place, his new temple, his new home and his growing family on earth. When we believe in Jesus Christ we find new peace with God where there was no peace before, we are made members of God’s family, and we can now become near to God because of Jesus’ shed blood. Him taking our punishment and sentence, him killing off the old race of Adam & Eve, then creating a new race in himself.

Now we can fully know God and his thoughts and live by HIS life, and not our own life. We can approach him directly without a go-between. And we can know his great love, and be filled with the fullness of God; his great power is on display in us, the same power exerted when Jesus Christ was resurrected. When we believe in Jesus Christ we become a new kind of human being, not a Jew, not a gentile but a third race of human with God indwelling. When we believe in Jesus Christ our inheritance is great, beyond what we can even imagine, and we literally become seated with Jesus Christ in heaven.

We can see that the process to become saved as explained in the Romans Road is but a subset of this much-greater narrative. God planned all of this from the beginning. His plan was and continues to be a family, a dwelling place, a bride for Christ and a display of his glory… fortunately for us it also does include him bailing whoever will come to him out of the hell that was going to be our future.

Here is a link to the scholar NT Wright’s lecture about Paul’s explosive gospel.

Please reach out to me by commenting below or email me at collierak@me.com.

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What is the Romans Road? – Part I

What exactly is the gospel of Jesus Christ? I’ve been a Christian now for 22 years, and until recently I thought I understood the gospel thoroughly.  I’ve shared it and taught it to Christians and non Christians and I’ve even memorized it.  This gospel I’ve learned and taught is summarized within several scriptures in the book of Romans often referred to the Romans Road to salvation.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of that sin is death.  Jesus Christ died for that sin even while we were still sinners such that the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So that if you believe in your heart in Jesus Christ and if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be saved…anyone who calls on the Lord will not be ashamed.

These scriptural summary of salvation are all found in Paul’s epistle to Romans (Romans 3:23, 6:23a, b, 5:8 and 10:9-10).

But…I now realize that this is only part of ‘the gospel’, this is actually how a person becomes saved, this is step one in reuniting with our creator explained in a few sentences and is useful in helping others to reunite with God if they are ready and inclined to do so.  This however is only part of the story, one subset of a much grander narrative, a larger purpose, a greater reason which explains God’s purpose for his creation and this life we are moving through.

The full gospel of Jesus Christ does include what I summarized above. But there is a much more attractive, much more compelling, much more gripping story that is often neglected and rarely, if ever told to non-Christians.  A broader explanation of the gospel is referred to in Ephesians chapters 1-3 and some scholars believe this is a good summary of the gospel that Paul preached to the gentile world. And which was so effective at converting and building the many gentile churches that we read about in the New Testament.

Writings from people like Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet, T. Austin Sparks, Watchman Nee and the book of Ephesians have helped me to realize that the Apostle Paul had such success because of his gospel. His church planting and conversion of Godless gentiles to faithful Christ followers was a fruit of his gospel. His message however is not distinctly recorded in most of his epistles because most of his letters were to existing bodies of believers and were written to deal with specific church problems. His gospel preaching was not recorded readily, some bible scholars believe that the closest we have to a recording of his gospel is found in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians was a general circuit letter that was distributed to several churches and is thus considered the closest record we have of Paul’s general gospel.

I have broke down and analyzed Ephesians 1-3 and found that in this letter Paul first told what God did, then he shared at least three reasons that he did it, then he shared at least 8 different realities that God made possible within Jesus Christ.

This gospel is compelling to anyone because it causes our life, our very existence and it makes sense of the reality that we see around us. It connects us with God’s original purpose rather than the “you are headed for hell and here is how to get out of it.” Most are not ready to hear that. The gospel as preached by Paul, explains the universe that we live in and observe, while it reconciles God to man.

Gods story is mesmerizing, it is life-changing and it must be told! Everything makes sense and lines up once we understand who Jesus Christ is, why he made us and this universe and how we fit into everything.

Read part II of this article to see this gospel referred to in Ephesians.

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The Astounding Gospel to the Gentiles

I think we’ve short-changed the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel is not merely mankind’s ticket out of hell, it is the great plan..the great purpose of God which motivated him to create and which he began before he ever said ‘let there be light’. God is not trying to bribe humanity to get saved, the gospel is an offer of peace with God and an offer of reconnection to the purpose God has had all along.

The gospel does include the plan of salvation as found in Romans but it is much bigger and I think more fascinating and compelling than many realize. When we believe in Jesus Christ and accept God’s plan, his mercy and grace are immediately put on display as several things suddenly become true for us.  Most importantly the gospel is not all about us, instead the gospel is all about what God has done, is doing and will do through Jesus Christ. If we all rejected him, he could raise up a people from the stones.

I believe if more non-Christians, and many people who have been raised in church and have learned to tune out all spiritual talk were to hear the rest of the story told in a way that opens their understanding, they would more readily believe in and find a new love and fascination for Jesus Christ.  There would be many more disciples of this amazing, matchless creator and lover of mankind, Jesus Christ.

The book of Ephesians is unique to the Pauline letters in that it was written to a general audience and not to a specific church to solve a specific problem.  As a result of this most scholars believe that it contains a more general overview of Paul’s gospel to the gentiles.  Ephesians was still written to Christians however the basic principles found in Paul’s message revealing Jesus Christ to a general gentile audience can be seen in Ephesians 1-3 (1) Francis FoulkesIMG_0308[1]

So here it is, I will attempt to write the great gospel of God according to Ephesians 1-3 (and a little from Colossians 1)… my paraphrase and rephrasing to be shared with non-believers. Feel free to share this post or just what is written below.

There is something of great importance that I must share about why we exist, about the very meaning of life on earth. I feel compelled to reveal this to all willing to listen.

Human beings…you and I, are God’s chief creation, his chief work of art. God made us in his own image in order to expand the mutual love and fellowship that the father, the son and the spirit had together before creation.  He wanted to expand this love into a created universe, it pleased God to create a family to dwell with and within on a created earth.

It was we who quickly turned our back on him, the entire human race, we chose sin and in doing so we chose death, humans chose hostility and war and rebellion.   

Amazingly God decided to make peace available freely through Jesus Christ.  He did this for several reasons:

In order to create a redeemed people who would be a display of God’s mercy to rest of mankind, believers in Jesus Christ become a display of Gods grace and mercy to the rest of mankind.

He also did this to create a people to display his wisdom to all the authorities, men and spirits, good and evil, in unseen realms.

He also did this to make himself a dwelling place on earth within the people who would believe on Jesus Christ. A people to dwell within who have specific things and tasks he prepared in advance for them to accomplish.

When we believe in Jesus Christ we become the dwelling place of God on earth, all over the earth, displaying him, it is now him living all over the earth through us just as he planned.

When we believe in Jesus Christ and gather together in his name we become set apart to God, we literally become God’s dwelling place, his new growing temple, his new home and his growing family on earth.

When we believe in Jesus Christ we find new peace with God where there was hostility and death, we are made members of God’s family, and we can become near to God because of Jesus’ blood.

Now we even can fully know God and his thoughts and live by his divine life, not only our own life. We can approach him directly without a go-between, and we can know his great love, and be filled with the fullness of God; his great power is on display in us, the same power of God that was on display when Jesus Christ was resurrected from death.

When we believe in Jesus Christ we become a new kind of human being, not a Jew, not a gentile but a new race, a human with God inside and united to the rest of Christ’s body.

When we believe in Jesus Christ our inheritance becomes great, beyond what we can imagine, and we are literally become seated with Jesus Christ in heaven.

Jesus Christ is much bigger, much more involved with and is the culmination of everything in heaven and earth,  all of history, all of war time and peace time, all love, all politics, all wisdom, all knowledge, all science, all ideas and inventions, all the cosmos, time itself, everything was made for Jesus Christ, exists within Jesus Christ, and is heading to Jesus Christ.  He is the all-consuming creator and holder of the universe.

Romans Road to salvation…is what most consider to be the gospel, it is powerful and true but is actually the end of the gospel story, and is the part where mankind is ready to reunite with God, all of the following are scriptures found in the book of Romans and flow together.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, the wages of sin is death, but God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God…

Love him or leave him, you decide, but I can not get enough of him.

Please contact me if you’d like to talk about this at collierak@me.com

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