What the Gospel Is and What the Gospel Does

by Mike Ratliff

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:1-2 ESV)

I had a retort this morning concerning my last post., Emergent Fallacies and the Dummying Down of the Church, which sent me back to my own time of God drawing me out of the darkness into the truth. The person attempted to derail the content or focus of that article by implying that God could save people any way He wanted so why should we be so narrow and judgmental. The one complaining insisted that he knew of many people that were “emergent,” but who loved the Lord and were excited about serving him, et cetera. However, they would not fit the mold of what I would define as Christian. The reason that sent me back to my own time of renewal in 2004 was that I remember that very statement coming across my lips in my excitement of what God was doing in me. I remember it like it was just the other day proclaiming to my wife that God could save any one any way He chose and we were wrong in placing limits in our theology on this. However, I did not hold to that fallacy very long. In fact, it was less than six months later that I went through an intensive study of theology and from that I gained a more precise understanding of the Gospel, what it is and what it does, and why this is the one and only way God has designed to save His people.