Five Essentials of the Gospel

Thursday night at the “Together for the Gospel” Conference I heard John Piper deliver a powerful message on the topic of “Why Expositional Preaching is Particularly Glorifying to God.”
Piper’s message was so timely. It was like he was speaking directly to me, while I was surrounded in a hotel ballroom by 3000 other pastors from around the globe.

One portion of his message that helped me particularly was John’s five essentials of the Gospel message. Piper’s essentials included:

1. The Gospel is a message about historical EVENTS—the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (See 1 Corinthians 15:3).

2. The Gospel is a message about what those events ACHIEVED. Five achievements he mentioned included: Christ’s fulfillment of a perfectly obedient life; payment for our sins; the removal of God’s wrath from our life; the installation of Jesus as Lord of the universe; and, the destruction of death.

3. The Gospel is a message about the way God TRANSFERS those particular events and achievements. This transference, by the way, is by faith alone.

4. The Gospel is a message about the GOOD THINGS we receive when the achievement is transferred by the process of being born again. Some of the good things include:
a.) Propitiation: having God's wrath removed and never again held against us.
b.) Justification: complete righteousness before God.
c.) Redemption: freedom from the power of sin
d.) Sanctification: holy and pure standing before God

5. The Gospel is a message about the glorious God Himself as our final, eternal, all satisfying TREASURE.

For these reasons, and so many others, I am truly glad I drove to Louisville last Wednesday morning. It was an awesome experience.