Dr Paul Allen

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Acts 20:24 “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course…that I received from the Lord Jesus , to testify to the gospel of the grace of God ” ( v. 24 ). Since Jesus’ proclamation of the Gospel involved telling people that “the kingdom of God is at hand” ( Mark 1:14–15 ), His commissioning of the disciples to preach the same message in Matthew 10:1–15 gives us a chance to consider the Gospel and the church ’s spread of it in missions and evangelism. Let us seek to define the Gospel, which is what evangelism is all about. Our English term gospel comes from the Greek word euangelion, which literally means “good news.” In the secular Greek culture of the first century, one who delivered euangelion might be speaking of the birth of a royal heir, a victory in battle, or news about an electoral victory. The New Testament reclaims the common use of this word and invests ...

Why is it that after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden and incurred the just penalty of death, they did not immediately die? What enabled them to go on living to enjoy the many of the benefits of life for years afterward (food, marriage, sex, children, etc.)? And why do so many sinners today enjoy those same benefits, even those who will never believe? In general, we can answer by pointing to grace—a fitting description for every one of God’s blessing, each of which is, by very definition, undeserved. However, because the grace we are talking about here is poured out “on the just and on the unjust” (that is, on both believers and unbelievers—see Matthew 5:45), and since it is of a different kind than the other manifestations of grace we read about in Scripture (e. g. forgiveness of sin, adoption into the family of God, eternal life in heaven—that is, special grace, or graces related to redemption), theologians have found it helpful to distinguish this ascommon grace. It is common in t...