T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 5

What is the Gospel?

We are asking the Lord to help us in these mornings to consider some of the most vital matters of our Christian life. In our New Testament we have a number of documents. Amongst those documents, there is one which stands related to perhaps the most vital question that has ever risen in relation to Christianity. In the matter of space, it is not a very long document. Indeed, it is one of the shorter ones, but into its brief space the writer has crowded the very essence of Christianity. He took up his pen to write this document with an intense determination to settle this great question, so he concentrated into a short space the very essence of Christianity. I do not think the apostle ever wrote anything under a greater sense of importance and necessity. This letter just throbs with the sense of his passion about this particular matter.

A great question had arisen. That question threatened to destroy the real nature of Christianity. The question was this: What is this thing which has invaded this world by the coming of Jesus Christ? For in the coming of Jesus Christ into this world, God had broken into history. And God had broken into history to make an immense change in everything. So the great question was: What is it that has come into this world with Jesus Christ? Is it just the continuation of an old system with some things added to it? Is it a legal system shaped on the basis of the old Jewish system? In other words, is it just the continuation of Judaism with something added to it? Or is it an entirely new, living, spiritual movement from heaven? Is the old garment of Judaism just to have some new patches put onto it? Or is it to be an altogether new garment? Is the old wine-skins of Judaism to have new wine put into them? Or is it to be an altogether new wine-skin? This was the great question and this great question represented a vast difference, and that difference became a great battlefield between the old and the new.

This question just brought Christianity into confusion. For a time, everybody but a few were in a sense of uncertainty about this. It led to very serious divisions amongst the Lord's people. It even insinuated itself among the first apostles themselves. Peter, the leader of the twelve, himself had a great battle over this question. And at one time he came into serious conflict with the apostle Paul on this matter. James, who was one of the brothers of our Lord on this earth, had serious reservations about this matter. The first Christian martyr died on this very question. Stephen was martyred because of this very matter. Wherever Christianity went, this dispute followed it.

We, in our time, are not able to realize how tense was this strain over the matter of the real nature of Christianity. Although this particular document to which we refer did settle it very largely at that time, the nature of this controversy has persisted right through into our own day. Is Christianity a legal system, or is it a spiritual life? It was in relation to that question that the risen and ascended Lord broke through from heaven and laid His hand on the apostle Paul. Jesus came right out of heaven, right through from the glory and put His hand on this man Saul of Tarsus. It was not a small thing for the Lord Jesus, Who had sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, to get up off the throne and come back here again. He must have seen that there was a very serious matter involved, so He did not send an angel or an archangel; He left His place in glory and came down to that man on the road to Damascus, and He laid His hand upon him.

Paul afterward described it as being "apprehended by Christ Jesus". You know what that means, what that word "apprehended" means? Well, I hope you don't know what it means so far as the law is concerned! When the policeman is after a criminal and he finds the criminal, he puts a very strong hand on him and that is the word that the apostle used. He said, "I was apprehended. I was arrested by Jesus Christ." And it was in relation to this specific question. The Lord arrested Paul as the instrument through which He was going to answer this question. So serious did the Lord regard this matter, that it is impossible to understand the apostle Paul's ministry unless we recognize this particular connection. The whole of the apostle Paul's ministry related to one issue, and that is:

The True, Spiritual, Heavenly Nature of Christianity.

Now, Paul himself, by that mighty act from heaven, had come to see this great difference. He had come to see that a great divide had been created between old Judaism and new Christianity, between the old earthly Israel and the new heavenly Israel. He had come to see that these were two distinctly different nations. He had come to see that this question divided the ages. What had existed in the past ages was now terminated, and something new had been introduced to be the nature of things for all the eternal ages. When the apostle Paul himself came to see that, when that broke upon him from heaven, that is, the vast difference between the legal and the spiritual, he threw himself into that battle to the last drop of his blood.

That battle began immediately when Paul was saved. When he had been met by the Lord and entered the city of Damascus, after being baptised and receiving the Holy Spirit, he testified to them that Jesus is the Christ, recognising what that meant where this man himself was concerned: that he had changed his ground. He had left the ground of legalism, the ground of Judaism, and taken the ground of Christ. Then the battle started and he had to flee from the city. And right through the thirty years of his life, everywhere he was found in that battle.

The last chapter of the Book of the Acts, which leaves Paul in prison waiting the sentence of death, finds him still in the battle, the Judaisers are with him in his prison. He seeks to reason with them, but then he has to turn from them and say, "It's no good, I must turn to the Gentiles". The battle was on from the beginning to the end of his life; just this battle on one mighty issue: Is Christianity a legal system on this earth, or is it a spiritual movement from heaven?

Now, I began by saying that there is a document in the New Testament which sets forth the answer to that question. And I expect many of you have already come to the conclusion as to what that document is. If you are not sure about that, let me say at once, it is the Letter to the Galatians.

It is now fairly generally believed that this letter was the first letter that Paul wrote. In my early days, it was believed that the Letters to the Thessalonians were the first letters that Paul wrote, and I used to say that. But further investigation has led those who know very well, to say that the Galatian letter was probably the first letter. Now I'm not going to argue out that matter this morning. You can believe it, or you need not believe it. But, if that should be true, how significant it is that that should be the first great issue about which the apostle wrote! And if you read that letter, and feel the strength with which the apostle wrote it, you can discern how serious he felt this question to be. He saw that there was that which was threatening the whole nature of Christianity. And so he set himself to do this work, that is, to preserve the pure, spiritual nature of what had come in with Jesus Christ.

Before we proceed to consider what is in this letter, which we shall probably not do very fully this morning, but morning by morning we shall look more deeply into it. But before we do that, there are two basic things which must engage our attention.

First of all, what the apostle himself meant by this letter, and that is contained in verse eight of chapter one: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema". The whole letter is gathered into one sentence: "The gospel which we preached." He says that what he is dealing with is the nature of the gospel. He says, "we preach the gospel to you". This letter then, is a restatement of the gospel.

Now, various names have been given to what is in the New Testament. It is called by many "Christianity", that is a very comprehensive term, Christianity; or it is called "the Christian faith", or "the Christian religion". In the New Testament it is known by none of those names. The New Testament never speaks of this as "Christianity"; it never speaks of it as "the Christian faith"; it never speaks of it as "the Christian religion". It is known just by one name. Everything that is in the New Testament and which came in with Jesus Christ is just called "the gospel".

Now, here is something that we need to take careful notice of. You see, we draw a distinction between what we call the gospel, and fuller teaching for believers. By "the gospel", many mean that which is for the unsaved, and what we give to the saved? Well, it's something else. So you're going to have some gospel meetings at the end of the week. They are not for believers, they are for the unsaved. That is an altogether artificial distinction. Everything in the New Testament for the unsaved and for the saved is called the gospel. It is not a religion. It is not a philosophy of life. It is not a system of truths and practices. It is just the gospel and that word means: "Good News." It is given in various connections, such as the "gospel of our salvation". But there is one overall and inclusive thing about this word, and that is, "The gospel of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ".