Hold Fast to the Gospel!
June 1, 2008
Now that we have wrapped up five months in the Psalms, we plan to move to a number of shorter series in the pulpit this summer. The first of these will be a three week series called “Hold Fast to the Gospel!”
This began with my desire to simply preach the gospel for three weeks. As I studied New Testament texts where the authors were very careful to unpack precisely what the gospel is, I found an interesting thread running through three of Paul’s writings. In each case, the apostle couples his explanation of the gospel with a call to hold fast to it.
1. In 1 Corinthians 15:2, leading up to one of the clearest New Testament explanations of the gospel (15:3-6), Paul identifies the gospel as that “by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you-unless you believed in vain.”
2. In Colossians 1:23, after unpacking Christ’s reconciling work on the cross, Paul says, “if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard” (Colossians 1:23).
3. In Romans 1, in which Paul speaks explicitly about the gospel (vv. 1-4, 16-17), he tells the Christians in Rome, “I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome,” implying that they need to hear the gospel continually.
God willing, we will be exploring each of these texts over the first three Sundays in June. The overarching goal is to reinforce the non-negotiable necessity for believers to hold fast to the gospel. While believing the gospel is certainly the entry point of the Christian life, Paul’s words above make clear that it is also the means by which God preserves us throughout our pilgrimage during this age that is hostile to the message of Christ crucified and risen.
As we work through these verses, I encourage you to commit to the reading plan and memory verses which will support the sermons. My prayer is that our focus on the gospel during these weeks would result in greater fulfillment of our mission statement, namely, that we would glorify God more as we worship God for his mercy in the gospel, nourish and encourage one another with the gospel, and increasingly share the gospel with those who do not believe.
Holding fast with you,
Pastor Chris