Orange Moon Thursday, October 10, 2024 "The Sequence of the Gospel"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"The Sequence of the Gospel"

   The sequence of the Gospel, Biblically understood and communicated, always begins with the Lord Jesus Christ… 

    "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8).

    We do not preach or witness to the lost, "You are a sinner.  God has provided a Savior."  We rather proclaim, "There is a Savior, the Lord Jesus, who 'able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him' " (Hebrews 7:25).  We then inform the hearer, "You are a sinner, and desperately need a Savior."  "He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18).  The sequence is vital, first, to be faithful to God and Scripture, and then to affirm in proper order God's saving grace in Christ.

   Like the Israelites of old, healed from snakebite by looking away to a brazen serpent forged in fire and hanging on a pole, sinners cannot be saved by primary focus on their sin, but rather by the hope of "when he looketh upon it, shall live" (Numbers 21:6-9).  Or, in New Testament terms, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).  This does not preclude declaring and defining sin to the sinner in stark Biblical terms of death, deception, and destruction.  "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God… the soul that sinneth, it shall die" we say to the unbeliever, faithfully adding, "This includes you" (Romans 3:23; Ezekiel 18:4).  The Gospel sequence, however, does infuse our communication of the Gospel with the power of a salvation prepared before any sinner was even conceived.  

    The sequence rightly reflects the vital reality that in the heart, mind, and purpose of God, a Savior of eternity existed long before the sinners of Eden and their progeny.  Most importantly, it shines the brightest ray of light in our witness on the Lord Jesus.  No sinner ever received salvation by merely mourning his wrong, but rather by receiving the imputed righteousness of Christ.  Certainly, the mourning is necessary.  But it cannot be primary.  We declare "the Author… the Beginning… and the Alpha" as our blessed theme of witness.  Thereby, the truth of sin stands forth in contrast, causing the sinner to more clearly see his need for a Savior.  "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).

    We must honestly and forthrightly "warn… to flee from the wrath to come" (Luke 3:7).  We best do so by first bearing witness to the wrath that fell on the Lamb of God.  "Christ died for our sins" (I Corinthians 15:3).  The Lord Jesus has always been the basis of salvation, whether of the promise that He would come, or the promise that He came.  In such blessed light, we go forth with a Gospel that ever begins with "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."  Thereby, the sinner sees his darkness in the bright illumination of the Savior.  In God's mind, Christ first, now and forevermore.  May the same glory fill our mind, and our proclaiming the Gospel in its glorious Savior, salvation, and sequence.

"But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children."

(Psalm 103:17)

Memory Verse

   "We went through fire and through water, but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place."

 (Psalm 66:12)

       

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