Chapter 7: What Does God Want?

What's the Gospel? | Meditation on a Book | What Does God Want? Series | Jesus Christ | Christianity

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Summary and Preview | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9

What’s the Gospel?

Chapter 7 in “What Does God Want?” by Dr. Michael S. Heiser [not an affiliate link] is nine pages and the four sections are:

• What’s the Gospel?

• Why Do We Need the Gospel?

• Are There Other Ways to be Saved?

• What the Gospel Isn’t

Before you read my meditations on this chapter, I want to thank you for reading this series. I hope these posts may help you find thoughts to share with those you know who are not-yet believers.

Or, if you happen to be a not-yet believer in Jesus, my prayer is that this series may help answer some questions you may have about what God wants.

Meditations on Chapter 7

What’s the Gospel?

The gospel is simple.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the powerful story of how God made a way for us human image bearers to go home, to rejoin God’s family. God wants a family, and He wants us back in His family.

The Son of God became a man. He suffered and died on the cross so that our sins would no longer keep us out of God’s family. He rose from the dead so that we could also overcome death and be with His Father, our Father, the only true God, forever.

Page 57, “What Does God Want?”, Dr. Michael S. Heiser.

The gospel is that simple. And “gospel” means good news. That’s the English translation from the Koine Greek, and the gospel is God’s “good news” of how He took care of our sin and death problem.

Sometimes I wonder if we complicate this gospel. Do we add requirements? Do we have expectations of people before they can come to Jesus, expectations that they “clean up first” or make other changes?

We can’t “clean up” ourselves; the good news is Jesus took care of cleaning us up. His righteousness becomes ours when we believe in Him.

The hard part of the gospel is the stubbornness of some people’s hearts. They don’t want to surrender to Almighty God. But the Holy Spirit convicts of sin:

John 16:7-8 (ESV)
⁷ Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: [Emphasis mine]

The Holy Spirit has His job, to convict the not-yet believers I chat with of their sin. And I have my job: To share our loving God’s simple good news of His salvation from sin and death by God’s grace (His free gift) through our faith, our believing loyalty.

Let me not ever preach a different gospel.

Galatians 1:6-9 (ESV)
⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Why Do We Need the Gospel?

We need God’s good news because without it, we are hopelessly and eternally lost. Without Jesus, we can never be in God’s loving presence forever; we can’t be in God’s family, due to our sin. Jesus’ mission was to come to Earth to seek and save the lost, as He Himself said:

Luke 19:10 (ESV)
¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

We need the gospel because without Jesus, we are:

• Dead in trespasses and sin - Ephesians 2:1, and 2:5 [two separate links]

• Ungodly - Romans 5:6

• Alienated from God - Ephesians 4:18

• Hostile toward God - Colossians 1:21

• Enemies - Romans 5:10

Other religions in effect lie to you—they tell you that you can fix the problem of your own distance from God, or that you don’t have a problem. The gospel is the only truth that tells you God had to provide the solution and did. The gospel is transparently honest. It tells you the truth even though it hurts. That shows love. Lying to you isn’t love.

Page 59, “What Does God Want?”, Dr. Michael S. Heiser.

Are There Other Ways to Be Saved?

Jesus was transparently honest, and He was loving when He told people the truth:

John 14:6 (HCSB)
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Jesus told people why they need the gospel. They’re lost.

He also told them the solution. Himself.

God wants a family, and He’s provided the way back into His family relationship: through Jesus Christ the Son of God alone. No other path can do away with our sin and conquer death: No repetitive mantras, no yoga positions and meditation, no spells nor smudging with sage, no power of positive thinking; nothing but Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead can save us and restore us into God’s family.

I’ll be honest. It’s a struggle at times to persuade people to examine Jesus’ claims about Himself. Some people respond to our gospel chats by saying we’re “intolerant”, or they tell us, “Well, that’s just your interpretation.”

It’s not my, or your, interpretation. Jesus made that clear in John 14:6 that you read above.

After His ascension into heaven, in Jerusalem, the apostles Peter and John stood before the religious leaders and proclaimed:

Acts 4:12 (ESV)
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

There’s no ambiguity there. No one becomes a member of God’s forever-family except through what Jesus has done. You don’t add the gospel to other beliefs. It is exclusive. Believing the gospel means turning away from other beliefs. That’s one aspect of what the Bible calls repentance.

Page 60, “What Does God Want?”, Dr. Michael S. Heiser.

What the Gospel Isn’t

The gospel isn’t, and never has been, based on our performance, on our own merit. However, our culture is performance based, which muddles in our minds the wonderful truth of the gospel. 

We must keep our focus on God’s truth.

I still sin. Every day, I struggle with imperfections in my flesh. I get angry. I gossip about another person. I fail to serve those in need. I don’t trust that God will take care of my needs and I fall into worry and anxiety. I watch the news, and then fear consumes my thoughts.

Yes, I still sin and God knows this. He’s not surprised. He knows every thought, He’s heard every word spoken, and He’s seen everything that we have ever done. And again, our loving and gracious Father God has a plan and provides a way for when we sin:

1 John 1:8-9 (ESV)
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We can confess our sins with a humble heart, and then move forward without guilt or condemnation. The gospel, Abba’s good news, isn’t guilt based. Our earthly relationships are conditional, but God’s love for us is unconditional.

And yet, many Christ followers struggle with their feelings of guilt, some for years and years.

The sad truth is that many genuine Christians live tormented, defeated lives, not because of the gospel, but because of the way their guilt has distorted the clarity of the gospel. When they read Scripture they see only their sins and failures. Every sermon is an indictment (and shame on preachers who preach with that as their main intention). The spectacular wonder of the story gets lost and forgotten.

Salvation is not about performance. It never was, never will be, and never can be. We can do nothing to put ourselves at the level of God, to make ourselves fit for his presence. We lack God’s perfect nature. We are like God, created to image him, but by definition we are less than God, and God knows it. That’s why his solution was Jesus, not you.

Pages 62-62, “What Does God Want?”, Dr. Michael S. Heiser 

God’s good news is based solely on His love, mercy, and grace. Period. That’s what the gospel is.

Romans 5:8 (NIV)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The gospel isn’t about us, our performance. It’s about Jesus. And, that’s very good news!

In chapter 8, “What Is Discipleship?” we’ll discover how to walk with Jesus, how to follow Him. See you in the next post!

Your Turn

Do you struggle with guilt? If yes, how does it inform your Bible reading or your listening to a pastor’s message?

Do you think there are other ways to be saved? If yes, what are those different ways?

Soli Deo Gloria!

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