Topic: Our Glorious Gospel [Friday August 11, 2017]
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:1-19
Key Verse: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
The word gospel means good message or good news. It is a translation of the Greek word “euaggelion”. It is applied to the inspired story of the life and teaching of Christ contained in the New Testament, of which four separate accounts are given. The renowned German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke said “The Cross of Christ is the heart of the gospel. It takes the entire Bible to explain it.
All our teaching must relate to that like all the spokes and rim and tires of a wheel relate to the axis: Jesus is the center and pivot. Everything else will fit into place around Jesus. Indeed the entire word of God revolves around Him. If Christ is not the hub, the wheel will wobble and break.” Apostle Paul, although a contemporary of the other apostles was not a direct follower of Jesus during our Lord’s earthly ministry. It was much later after the death and resurrection of the Lord that Paul became converted. The Lord had appeared unto him on his way to Damascus and ministered to him in a dramatic way. Paul surrendered his life to the Lord and eventually became a committed disciple of Jesus. In this account of his understanding of the gospel, he shared with the Corinthian church the centrality of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
What Paul, by inspiration of God, communicated in this epistle is exactly what Albert Benjamin Simpson stated in his classic popular song, Jesus Only is Our Message. The gospel of Jesus cannot be modernised. Nothing new should be added and nothing old should be taken away. Human opinion, thoughts or political developments cannot change it. Its life-transforming power is unchanging and many hopeless cases have been changed by its power. Jesus only is still the message no matter the will or wish of the modern man. The Blood of Jesus is still the sure antidote for receiving God’s forgiveness.
Thought for the day: The gospel is the power of God for man’s salvation.
Bible Reading in one Year: Jeremiah 19-21
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
