The Gospel is for Believers

"And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ." Acts 5:42

This is the most solid assurance I have yet found in Scripture that the Gospel is not simply the gateway into the Kingdom, but the full substance of what is taught to those who follow Jesus. The apostles did boldly profess Jesus to the unbeliving council (5:29-32), but after being beaten, charged not to teach in Jesus' name, and released, they went right back to speaking Jesus' name and explaining that he is the Messiah (Christ.) And they did this not simply to the lost. The text explains plainly that they taught in the temple and from house to house, the two places we know the church gathered (Acts 2:46).

Is it redundant to hear the Good News of Jesus life, death, burial, and resurrected new life over and over again, week after week, day after day? Not if your goal is that every thought, feeling, and action of your life would be lived as a testimony to the cross. Not if you are a living sacrifice to Christ. In fact, every moral teaching or life-changing command found in Scripture is designed both to convict us of our need of the cross and to instruct us how to live in light of the cross. Without this perspective, we lose focus on the grace of God, and we begin to treat obedience to him like something used to earn his favor.

So let's move past this erroneous notion that somehow the message that Jesus is the Messiah is the starter message only; that salvation comes by grace through faith but is maintained by works and right living. Grace cannot be assumed in the message of the church. The church needs to be constantly reminded of the glorious news that Jesus has died for our sins and given us new life, because it is the first thing we are apt to forget, and it is the truth of the cross that God uses to shape us into fully devoted followers of Jesus.