1:11
“The gospel is not man’s gospel”. This is a fundamental point, and whether or not someone accepts this is a fundamental dividing line. We see many individuals and we see many churches that treat the gospel as if it was man made, and treat the Bible as if it was a human book. So from their perspective we are free to choose which parts of the Bible we accept or reject. If we have “superior” wisdom or knowledge than our ancestors then we should adopt our teaching. If society has “superior” wisdom then we should choose society’s wisdom over the Bible. This is the line that has been adopted by liberal scholars and churches for the last two hundred years or so. Today it is seen most clearly in the attitude towards LGBT issues. If we follow this line then we are saying that the Bible is not inspired, it is not God’s word. In fact we are saying God has not spoken.
We need to treat the gospel and the Bible as God breathed. The gospel was given by God, it was not man’s idea. Jesus came as the Son of God, sent by the Father, filled with the Holy Spirit. He acted in complete and perfect obedience to the Father, died on a cross for our sins and was raised by God from the dead. He sent the Holy Spirit. Christianity is a revealed religion, the gospel is a revealed message. This does not mean we do not use our brains. Paul certainly used his, and there have been and are many great thinkers who are Bible believing Christians. But our starting point in all things is that the Bible is the revealed word of God.
1:12
Paul does not give the details of the Damascus road experience here, though it is recounted several times in Acts, but he focuses on the main point. Christ revealed Himself to Paul. Paul was on his way to persecute some Christians, to persecute Christians in a new city, but Christ intervened directly and revealed to Paul who He was. See that Christ is the focal point, the centre, of the gospel.
No comments:
Post a Comment