In Romans 8 30 the Apostle Paul gives us what has been called the golden chain of redemption. God predestines us. He predestines us in order to call us. He calls us in order to justify us. He justifies us in order to glorify us. It's an amazing chain of grace.

But if we stop here, we behold some amazing works of God in our lives, but we miss the 35 carat diamond that hanks from this golden chain. So what's the gospel for? This is so important. Today's sermon clip explains and it was sent to us from Brian in Peachtree City, Georgia.

It's from a sermon preached back in 2012. Here's Pastor John. Psalm 16 11 in your presence there is fullness of joy. God at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Whom have I in heaven but you? And on earth there's nothing that I desire besides you. My flesh, my heart may fail, but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

That's where the gospel is going for the enjoyment of that. Nothing less and nothing beyond. The third snapshot first Corinthians 15. I invite you to turn there in your Bibles. This may be the clearest definition of the gospel in all the Bible. It's often gone to by those who want to define the gospel in brief terms because Paul does it.

I see six elements, five of them explicit in the text, one of them implicit. So let me read it and then point out these six elements to the gospel. Now I would remind you brothers of the gospel which I preached to you, which you received and in which you stand and by which you are being saved.

So note, did I go too fast by that word gospel? Brothers I remind you the gospel. So he's about to define the gospel. The gospel I preached to you, which you received and which you stand and by which you are being saved. Yes you are. It's the power of God unto salvation.

If you hold fast to the word preached to you unless you believed in vain for I delivered to you, here it comes, as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

Here are six elements I see in that text of the gospel. If any one of these six is missing we have no gospel. Okay, here we go. Number one, the gospel is a divine plan. Look at verse three, end of the verse. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, which were written hundreds of years before Christ died, which means God had a plan.

And if he didn't, we have no gospel. It just was a fluke of history, but it's all written down in the Old Testament hundreds of years before it happened. And Paul says that's essential. Number two, the gospel is not only a plan of God. It is a historical event.

Christ died, Christ rose again. If that did not happen historically so you can see it with your physical eyes, we have no gospel. There's a lot of modern people who try to demythologize this and just turn it into ideas. It's not an idea. He ate fish after the resurrection.

Number three, the gospel is a divine achievement through that event of suffering and resurrection. And by achievement, I mean things like he died for our sins. Verse three, again at the end, Christ died for our sins. There's a design in it. There's an accomplishment in it. Something is achieved in this death.

It's not a random death. God has a design. He's accomplishing something through the historical event like covering our sins, Colossians 2.14. Removing God's wrath, Romans 8.3. Purchasing eternal life, John 3.16. These are objective achievements of the objective event which are true whether you come into existence 2,000 years later or not.

This is what I mean by salvation being extra gnosis. It's out there. God did it in history. It's there. It's done. And then I get born 2,000 years later. And so that has to come in here somewhere. Number four, the gospel is a free offer of Christ for faith.

Now it works. The gospel is a free offer to all for faith. Christ is offered to you for faith alone. Where do I see that? Verses one and two. The gospel I preach to you which you received in which you stand, by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preach to you unless you believe.

So you got those two words, received and believe, just like in 1 John 1.12. To as many as received him who believed on his name, that's what it is to receive the gospel. You can't work for this. It is based on Christ alone. It is external, outside of you, achieved and accomplished 2,000 years ago.

Now you're born. You hear that news. What do you do? I'm going to start working for God so I can impress him how morally worthy I am. You're not. And you never get there that way. You receive it. You believe it. You embrace Jesus as your treasure and your Lord and your Savior from all that you need saving from.

And you are then saved forever. It's an awesome gospel. That's number four, a free offer of Christ for faith. And number five, the gospel is an application of the achievements accomplished in history to your heart individually when you believe. So forgiveness of sins purchased once, applied now. All your sins forgiven when you believe.

Justification. You weren't justified when Jesus died. You're justified when you believe, when it becomes yours. Then the purchase of the justification and the performance of the righteousness 2,000 years ago is applied. That's why I'm using the word application. It's applied to you or eternal life. You didn't have eternal life when Jesus died.

You have eternal life when you believe. And then what he bought out there, what he wrought out there becomes yours through the connection with Jesus through faith. So the gospel is the application to believers of all that he purchased and achieved 2,000 years ago. And now finally, number six, the gospel is the enjoyment of fellowship with God himself.

Now if you say, "Where do you see that?" Well, I see it outside this text, but where I see it inside this text is in the word gospel. Gospel means good news, right? So you have to ask what's good about the good news. And if you stop after sins are forgiven and vindicated in the court and can go free and life forever, if you stop there, you haven't even mentioned God.

That's serious. You know why you're forgiven? So that your guilt won't get in the way of enjoying God. You know why you're vindicated in the court of heaven? So that your condemnation won't get in the way of enjoying God. You know why you have new life and a promised new body someday?

So that you have capacities within to finally enjoy God the way he ought to be enjoyed. It's all a means to number six. And if you want to know where I see it explicitly in the Bible, the clearest text would be 1 Peter 3.18. I'll read it to you.

Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. So I would say Romans 5.11 and 1 Peter 3.18 are the clearest statements in the New Testament concerning God being the prize of the price of the gospel. And that's a great clip from Brian in Peachtree City, Georgia.

This was taken from John Piper's 2012 sermon titled God in Christ, the price and the prize of the gospel. Brian says in his email this quote, when I first heard Pastor John say, if you stop there, you haven't even mentioned God. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Right then God in his grace changed my entire gospel paradigm. I had never heard the idea of God being the highest good of the good news. And I certainly never rejoiced in that truth. I had always thought the highest good of the gospel was the forgiveness of my sins, the escape from hell and a nebulous gift called heaven.

I was only aware of a salvation from something, not a salvation to someone. For so many years, Jesus was a means to an end. But in that sermon, Pastor John, you helped me see that Jesus is both the means and the end, the all glorious, all satisfying end. And I cannot thank you enough.

Amen. Thank you, Brian. That's what we'd love to get in the inbox. Keep the life change clips coming. Send us the clips and then tell us what impacted the clip have on your life. Well, Friday, we return to hear from a med student preparing for a life in oncology to serve the dying.

She wants to maximize her labors for eternal purposes. Pastor John is back in the studio to address that on Friday. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you then. Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9