This post, especially 2 John 9, has been on my heart, so I thought I’d repost…
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“[T]he good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God…” (Mark 1:1).
Jesus Christ is the gospel.
The Corinthians thought it was about spiritual gifts and supernatural manifestations. While encouraging them in the gifts of the spirit, Paul pointed the Corinthians to something even greater: Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the wisdom and power of God (1 Cor. 1:23-24).
In Galatia, they were taught another gospel: believe in Jesus *and* keep the 10 commandments. Paul called them foolish for deserting the crucified Christ and the moral standing that could only come through the grace of the cross (Gal. 2:19-3:6).
God’s fullness—His complete personage, His totality, His mind, all His treasures of wisdom, everything about Him—is in Christ. This is what Paul preached to the Colossians, who said divine fullness was found in religious tradition (Col. 2:2-9).
Paul tells us we are saved if we believe “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-4). Whatever else we believe, whatever pet theologies or scriptural emphases we embrace, these are extraneous.
1 John says that God’s testimony is about his Son. If we have the Son, we have life. If we do not have the Son, we do not have life (1 John 5:9-12). 2 John 9 says, “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” We do not have God because of our beliefs about creationism, eschatology, church government, communion, tithing, or any other teaching of the church. We have God because we continue in the teaching of Christ. He is our message. He is the length, the width, the height, and the depth (Eph. 3:18). He is the all in all (Col. 3:11). He is the first and the last (Rev. 1:17). He is the Word and gospel of God (John 1:1; Romans 1:1-4). God has revealed His Son in us so that we might preach Him (Gal. 1:15-16).
