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The Gospel Truth: Man is Sinful (Vlog Series)
New Vlog Series, Updating Weekly: The Gospel Truth
See the entire series as it is added at our Video Teaching Series page.
The gospel message is a unique one in scripture. Never is it open to individual interpretation or denominational packaging. The message of the gospel is so important and well defined, in fact, that Paul noted
Galatians 1:8 (ESV)
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Ironically, we live in a day when the “gospel-lite” message frequently preached is one which is devoid of its substance. In particular, sin is now off the menu.
The liberal emergent types do not discuss sin. The gospel to them is about what we are going to do – not what we’ve done. Many Word of Faith types eliminate sin from their estranged gospel as well. Joel Osteen proudly exclaims “we don’t talk about sin at our church” while Robert Schuller notes that one of “the biggest mistakes” churches make today is insisting on pointing out everyone’s sin.
So, today the question is asked – and answered: is there a gospel message at all without the mention of sin? Or is the fact that man is sinful the very issue of the gospel message?
The Gospel Truth: Pt. 1 – Man is Sinful from Jeff Kluttz on Vimeo.
Gospel Truth: The Wrath of God Toward Sin (Vlog Series)
A popular message today attempts to discredit the notion that God has wrath toward sin. The proponents of this message claim that because God is love, and everything God does is motivated by love, that God cannot have wrath.
Today’s post in the Vlog series “Gospel Truth” will examine a host of scriptures which clearly and articulately demonstrate that God’s wrath not only exists toward sin, but that such wrath is the epitome of God’s justice and love.
The Gospel Truth: Pt. 2 – God’s Wrath Towards Sin from Jeff Kluttz on Vimeo.
The Gospel Truth (Vlog): The Wages of Sin
There is possibly no less popular message in modern culture than that one should expect to actually be held accountable for one’s actions. Teachers, doctors, politicians and most recently, pseudo-theologians are more than willing to create excuses, conditions and ailments to explain away the wrong doing of any and all that come to them for assistance. Among modern liberal theological minds, Jesus’ death on the cross was a universal saving act by which all are saved – regardless of one’s position in Christ – or even one’s belief in Christ. Former (reasonably) “good-guy” Christian teacher Tony Campolo goes so far as to say that Muslims will enter Heaven before Christians, because they “do” the right things; all-the-while not believing in Christ what-so-ever.
The crux of these theological laterals, it seems, stems from an all-out averseness to the doctrines of Hell. Eternal judgment, naturally, is not a crowd-pleaser doctrine. But what exactly does the scripture teach that the wages of sin are?
This week’s Gospel Truth Vlog Series post seeks to answer that question biblically, with no sensibilities offered for the Oprah-friendly or scriptural deconstructionists.
The Gospel Truth: Pt. 3 – The Wages of Sin from Jeff Kluttz on Vimeo.
The Gospel Truth (Vlog): Atonement Pt. 1
(This is a continuation of The Gospel Truth video blog series. This post assumes the prerequisite watching of earlier videos in the series. Click the link above to watch the entire series up to this week’s installment.)
Understanding fully that man is sinful, God is just, and that God’s righteous penalty for sin is death leads one to the logical next question: is there any hope for me?
There is a quick answer. “Yes, there is hope provided in the person of Jesus Christ.” He did what was necessary to secure atonement for man’s sins by accepting God’s wrath upon himself. But, to truly understand the depths of the work Christ performed on the cross one needs to venture back through redemptive history and examine God’s “promissory note” which was provided in the Law of Moses.
Today’s installment introduces the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Day after day, night after night, the sins of Israel were on public display through a bloody and endless assembly of sacrificial animals. These bloody sacrificial acts provided temporary vicarious recipients for God’s wrath to be expiated upon until the promised Christ came to fulfill these legal requirements in permanence.
The Gospel Truth: Pt. 4 – Atonement Pt. 1 from Jeff Kluttz on Vimeo.
The Gospel Truth: Atonement in the Old Testament Pt. 2
(This is a continuation of The Gospel Truth video blog series. This post assumes the prerequisite watching of earlier videos in the series. Click the link above to watch the entire series up to this week’s installment.)
Last week’s post examined the general nature of the Old Testament sacrificial system. Yet, the heart and soul of the application of blood atonement rested in a very specific Holy observance: Yom Kippur, “The Day of Atonement.”
It was on this day, and only this day, that the high priest entered the Holy of Holies and made application of blood in the God’s own presence. And, it is the understanding of this observance, which Hebrews will demonstrate in next week’s post, that best reveals how Christ’s actions both fulfilled the law and provided vicarious atonement – once and for all – to vindicate God’s wrath and uphold his just cause to punish sin.
The Gospel Truth: Pt. 5 – Atonement Pt. 2 from Jeff Kluttz on Vimeo.
The Gospel Truth Pt. 6 (vlog) – Jesus: the Fulfillment of the Law
(This is a continuation of The Gospel Truth video blog series. This post assumes the prerequisite watching of earlier videos in the series. Click the link above to watch the entire series up to this week’s installment.)
I’ve often said that “the gospel is simple enough for a five year old to receive but complex enough for a lifetime of study.” For many, the simplicity of the gospel message – that Christ died for the remission of sins – leaves them with probing questions as to the why and how of it all. Why did Jesus have to die? How was it exactly that his death satisfied God’s wrath and brought justification to sinful man?
The past few weeks of this series have sought to lay the groundwork for this answer by examining the unfolding of redemptive history; a roadmap of atonement that God developed from the Garden of Eden to the coming of the Christ. The redemptive picture fleshed out in the Law of Moses, however, was only a foreshadowing of what was to come. For, in Christ’s own words, he “did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.” (Mat 5:17) What the law and the prophets had written as a promissory note, Christ paid in full – with blood.
The Gospel Truth Pt. 6 – Jesus: the Fulfillment of the Law from Jeff Kluttz on Vimeo.
The Gospel Truth: Christ Crucified (Vlog)
(This is a continuation of The Gospel Truth video blog series. This post assumes the prerequisite watching of earlier videos in the series. Click the link above to watch the entire series up to this week’s installment.)
This week’s Gospel Truth teaching examines the very apex of the fulfillment of the law: the crucifixion of Christ. As previous lessons have revealed how Christ’s death fulfilled the law of Moses, today’s will focus on the fact that Christ also fulfilled the prophets which spoke of his first coming.
The Gospel Truth – Pt 7 – Christ Crucified from Jeff Kluttz on Vimeo.
The Gospel Truth: Pt. 8 – Grace
(This is a continuation of The Gospel Truth video blog series. This post assumes the prerequisite watching of earlier videos in the series. Click the link above to watch the entire series up to this week’s installment.)
Ingrained into the psyche of our culture is an almost unquenchable merit-based gospel. It seems that everything from good ol’ boy music to water cooler banter have determined that if one is “good enough,” then surely a nod and a kind word can be expected from the Lord at the judgment. When people on the streets are asked if they expect to enter Heaven when they die, invariably the majority of responses deal with one’s work ethic, kindness to neighbors and general “goodness” which is expected to be taken into account as that decision is reached.
Truth be told, all are guaranteed to get what we have earned when we face the Lord. Scripture declares that with great specificity. It declares also however, that our earnings will amount to death and that our best works are as filthy rags. Indeed, the entire law – without Christ’s fulfilling and gracious act of atonement – points to a singular conclusion for all: there are none who are righteous. None who can uphold God’s standard. None who even desire what is good. We couldn’t compile the conglomerate “goodness” of all history and afford to send even one of us into God’s presence.
Our predicament is utterly hopeless…
but for grace.
The Gospel Truth: Pt. 9 – Faith
(This is a continuation of The Gospel Truth video blog series. This post assumes the prerequisite watching of earlier videos in the series. Click the link above to watch the entire series up to this week’s installment.)
Understanding that Grace is the essential foundation upon which salvation is granted still leaves one to ponder the process by which such grace is applied to the sinner’s account. Ephesians, as noted in last week’s installment, states that this “salvation by grace” is installed “through faith.”
Sadly, pondering that conclusion will profoundly confuse many who live in the “new ecumenicism” of our modern culture, which defines “faith” as everything from God’s magic potion to man’s deeper intuition, depending on whether one gets their theology from “christian” (small C intended) television or modern liberal Jesus fad-books which teach a newer, milder variant of salvation in which one is truly not redeemed at all (for there is no true penalty for sins). Which of these “faith” definitions should one pursue to understand the gospel’s path of application?
Simply stated, theological truth is not democratically produced nor deconstructed in focus group meetings. The Bible’s own definition of faith is that which counts. Such will be the focus of today’s continued examination of The Gospel Truth.
The Gospel Truth: Pt. 11 – Lordship, the Product of Repentance
(This is a continuation of The Gospel Truth video blog series. This post assumes the prerequisite watching of earlier videos in the series. Click the link above to watch the entire series up to this week’s installment.)
A great storm is stirred up each time the terms “Lordship” and “gospel” are uttered in the same sentence; let alone the same title of a message. This debate involves what is described as “Lordship Salvation;” a theological debate with substantially sound doctrinal minds on both sides.
This post is, of course, not about Lordship Salvation as a subject; but a continuation of this series on the gospel at the point in which the issue is raised that “Lordship” of Christ is in fact at issue in the very subject matter of repentance.
As has been observed the past few weeks: faith is demonstrated in scripture to be an active response to belief rather than just an academic acknowlegement of certain facts. That response is repentance. Repentance is defined as a turning “from” one’s former understanding and allegiances “to” the trust in Christ.
This act of turning, it will be demonstrated today, is consistently decribed in scripture as an acquiescence to the Lordship of Christ: a confession to his deity and belief that He is the Son of God; and is God incarnate as he said. Such acknowledgment is not synonymous with stating that a new convert “must give every aspect of their lives to Christ” at the moment of salvation – for no sinner even knows “every aspect” of their lives which Christ will demand. Yet, such an acknowledgment is an affirmation to the person of Christ as God himself. As such, a person necessarily at least begins the process of acquiescence – which will be described next week as the process of “sanctification” – by the very turning in faith to Christ as God.
Thus, the idea of “confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord” is not a preconditioned “work” which mandates certain identifyable steps. It is rather the very element of faith expressed in repentance: the knowlege – by faith – of who Christ is. He is Lord.
The Gospel Truth: Pt. 11 – Lordship – The Product of Repentance from Jeff Kluttz on Vimeo.
