Your Daily Bread – Gospel: The Lost Word

➡ Paul, the voiceover for a ministry called Your Daily Bread, discusses the importance of the term ‘gospel’. He explains that the gospel is a cherished term in Christianity, representing the message that offers salvation and eternal life. However, he warns that there are attempts to distort the gospel’s meaning. He emphasizes that salvation relies on believing the gospel, which is a truthful message from God.

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God is Government called Your Daily Bread, taken from Christ’s teaching of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6.11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting Scripture, but Scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly, advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today’s focused discussion will be on gospel, the lost word. It feels like I’m always among the group of people trying to rescue words, trying to rescue precious words, words that are biblical words, that somehow get stolen away from the biblical intent and used for all kinds of other things.

And gospel is one of those words. Gospel is perhaps the most treasured term in the New Testament, and certainly in the hearts of all who have been saved, because we believed the gospel. It is the soul of Christianity. It is the jewel of theology, because the gospel is the message that provides the only way of salvation, the forgiveness of sin, escape from hell and a life in eternal heaven. Obviously, there will be efforts to confuse the gospel, to subtract from the gospel, to add to the gospel. The gospel is as assaulted as anything, for the obvious reason that it’s the singular message that saves sinners.

Back in chapter 1 of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul wrote that we as believers have obtained an inheritance, that we have been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that, verse 12 says, we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. And then in verse 13 he mentions the gospel. Yes, we have been promised an inheritance, as verse 11 says. Yes, this was predestined, yes, it is ours in Christ. But verse 13 marks out the role that the gospel plays.

In him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory. All the redemptive purposes that God ordained in the past, all that he planned for the future, comes to reality, as verse 13 says, when you listen to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, and you believe it.

The gospel is a message, the gospel is a word from heaven. It is there called the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Those are parallel statements. The message of truth is the gospel of your salvation. Salvation is dependent upon believing the gospel, which is a true message from God. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse 5, we read this. Again, the word of truth from heaven about salvation is the message of the gospel. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul says, we had the boldness to speak to you the gospel of God. In verse 4 he says, entrusted with the gospel, so we speak.

And in verse 9 of that same chapter, we proclaim to you the gospel of God. The gospel is truth from heaven about salvation, to be spoken, to be spoken. If you go into the amazing book of Revelation and look into the future in the time of tribulation as judgment unfolds on the earth, in an act of divine love and mercy, we read in Revelation 14, 6. This is a vision of what will come in the future. I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.

In the future time of tribulation, as judgment is unleashed on the earth, there will be an angel in heaven preaching the eternal gospel. The gospel is always a message to be preached. The term gospel is used about a hundred times in the New Testament. The word itself, euagelion, incorporates the idea of a message, therefore of communication, announcing, preaching, declaring, proclaiming. Euagelion is the message, and eu is prefixed to the word because it makes a reference to something that is good. So what is the gospel? It’s a good message, it is the good news.

Bound up in the verb form, euagelizo, is the idea of preaching a good message. Euagelizo is the word from which we get evangelise, or evangelical. So you cannot understand the gospel unless you understand it as something to be communicated, something to be declared, announced, preached, and proclaimed. And that something is good news. The gospel is called the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of the sun, the gospel of the glory of God, the gospel of peace, the gospel of the blessed God. And then in Acts 20-24, the gospel of the grace of God, it’s all the same good news.

Jesus came preaching the gospel, you see that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He came preaching the gospel. Subject to Jesus were the apostles, and they were told to take the gospel into the world. And so when you come into the book of Acts, it isn’t long before they are preaching right away in chapter 2. By the time you get into a few chapters later, into chapter 8, you have Philip preaching the gospel, and then you have Peter and John preaching the gospel. And then you have, around chapter 12 of the book of Acts, the apostle Paul begins to preach the gospel.

And all of them are preaching, all of them are proclaiming, all of them are declaring the message from heaven that is good news of salvation. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of gospel, the Lost Word. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. God bless you. [tr:trw].