God
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Disciples
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Declaring the Gospel
The gospel is all we have as a Church. The good news that God the Son—the second person of the Trinity—took humanity upon himself as the God-man to live a perfect and sinless life and to die on the cross as a substitute for sinners, and to then be resurrected three days later to make a way for sinners to be reconciled to God is our greatest hope! We bank everything on this message as a people, and we believe that the greatest good we could perform to a lost and dying world is to declare this gospel. This consists of words and unambiguous claims: “God is righteous and holy.” “We are broken and sinful, and thus deserve His wrath.” “God pours His wrath out on Christ at Calvary to atone for the sins of all those who would be united to Him by faith.” God builds His Church by this gospel, and if we thus hope to glorify Him and multiply disciples; we must declare this message, and we do so gladly!
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Displaying the Gospel
The grace that we receive through the gospel has a backbone! It doesn’t simply come into our hearts and lie dormant, satisfied to leave our lives the way they were when we were slaves to sin, rather, it stirs us up to love and good works that reflect the gospel! We display the gospel in our words and deeds and attitudes towards one another (that is, the Church), and towards our neighbors and communities. This does not mean that we are preaching the Gospel with our lives, but rather the glorious truth of the gospel we proclaim compels us to live in a way that accords with our proclamation, so we long to see God glorified and disciples multiplied particularly when we not only declare the gospel, but also display the gospel.
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