The most wonderful, the most glorious news has come to this weary and corrupted and fallen race. For a people who live in darkness and brokenness, a great light has appeared. The Bible calls this good news "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God" (1Timothy 1:11 NASB), and "the power of God unto salvation for all who believe" (Romans 1:16). What does the Apostle Paul mean by the "glorious" Gospel? Well, first of all the gospel is glorious because it conveys a most astonishing act of mercy to lost humanity from a gracious and patient and merciful and just God. It is glorious because it is the most profound statement of the glory of the glorious and eternal God. He who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, just, holy, and faithful has shown Himself to be compassionate and good in a manner which simply takes one's breath away when he finally begins to see it.

The Gospel is also "glorious" because it finds me as a god-hating, unbelieving, hypocritical rebel against God and godliness - and, through no act of my own, it transforms me into an eternal child of almighty God with all the rights and privileges of a member of His royal household. I was delivered from death to life, from wrath to love, from justice to mercy, from abject poverty to fabulous wealth, from being an enemy of God to being adopted as His loving child. There are simply no appropriate superlatives in the English language to properly put forth the glory of the Gospel. To describe how the holy and eternal Son of God could take on human flesh and then "become sin" for me in order that I might "become righteousness" through Him simply exceeds the capacity of the language. The glory of God leaves me breathless. I will peer into it forever, and forever I will shout forth in awe and worship as I fathom a little bit more of the nature of my God and Saviour. The astonishing blessing I have received likewise leaves me without adequate words to express the joy and thanksgiving that well up within me. Before the foundation of the world my heavenly Father ordained that I would be the object of His love and mercy, and He did so for no reason that exists in me. Indeed, in me could be found only darkness and rebellion. The Lord Jesus Christ drank the cup of wrath that I should have drunk, even while I was doing all to suppress the truth of the Gospel. How can words convey these things?

So, as soon as a man or a woman hears this good news of the Gospel they pursue it with all of their being - right? As soon as men are overwhelmed with such joy after being delivered by this Gospel they give themselves to learning it thoroughly, and those who are called to teach give themselves to learn the Gospel thoroughly and teach it with fear and trembling as the very Word of God - right? And the disciples who come into eternal relationship with God do everything that they do in the light of this relationship - right? Oh that it were only so! Oh that the Gospel was made the very centre of all human existence and that men and women gave themselves to growing in the grace and the knowledge of God through the Gospel! Oh that men who set out to teach the Gospel gave themselves to learn the Scriptures thoroughly, and the original languages of the Scriptures, and the doctrines of the "giants of the faith". Oh that all disciples were properly instructed in the Scriptures and given a proper foundation so that they might become effective disciples of Christ and so that they would be fruitful in their service to the Lord, and overcomers in their lives.

Instead of receiving the messenger of the Gospel - the Lord Jesus Christ - with great joy, we - the children of Adam - despised him and resisted Him and finally murdered Him. Instead of rejoicing over the revelation from heaven, we invented an entire system of "truth" to obfuscate and hide and suppress the truth of God's revelation. Little human beings with their small intelligence and their tiny life span and their pitiful frailties have set up a "parallel universe" of human reason and logic in order to suppress the truth of the Gospel and deny the eternal God His rightful place as Creator and Lord of all. Yet God's patience and kindness holds back the terror of His wrath and fury which He most certainly will visit on all who scorn His law and spurn His mercy. Still He holds back His hand until the very last of His chosen ones are delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son.

At least though, we might think, those who have been delivered from darkness into light - at least these ones have become faithful and true and competent witnesses to this "glorious Gospel" through which they have been saved. Once again - Oh that it were so! Not only are there many many false teachers and false disciples of the Gospel, but even many of those who are true disciples and no doubt saved by the Gospel are very incompetent ambassadors. Sadly there are many who are real disciples of Christ, who have indeed been "born again of the Spirit of God", who nevertheless have a very defective understanding of the Gospel. They have been taught a corrupt and deficient version of the Gospel, and thus have they taught others. There are many Churches in this godless generation where the Pastor and elders are either not Christian at all, or else they are true followers of Christ but quite incompetent to teach God's people the Word of God.

For a great many years after I came into a true salvation and into a true relationship with God under the lordship of Jesus Christ, I laboured under a very defective understanding of the Gospel. My teachers were incompetent to teach the Word of God, and they taught much that was either wrong or else not completely right. They were not properly taught in the Scriptures and they were not properly grounded in the fundamentals of the faith. They taught error, they confused the peripheral with the critical, and they were inept in laying a solid foundation upon which to build a fruitful Christian life. I do not doubt the sincerity of these men, nor do I doubt their confession of Christ. They were true disciples - I feel quite sure. But, Oh my what mischief they caused in the lives of God's people because of their incompetence!

After many struggles as a Christian over a thirty year period I decided to take an early retirement to try to gain a better understanding of my faith. I decided to study the teachings of the "giants of the faith", to learn the history of the faith more clearly, and to read the life stories of some of the leaders of the Church down through the ages. Eventually I added to this list a study of New Testament Greek and Old Testament Hebrew. I thought that I could complete my studies within a couple of years, but it has now been six years and there are still some areas that I am working on. Along the way I amassed a library of about six hundred volumes, some advanced Biblical study software, and many other resources for study of the Scriptures. So what did I discover?

To my astonishment I found out very early on that I had only a meagre and shadowy understanding of the great doctrines of the Christian faith. I am well educated, with multiple university degrees, and yet I found that I was appallingly ignorant about even the fundamental truths of the faith. I had thought that I knew at least what men like Luther and Augustine were about, but, in fact I did not. I held views which they would have wept over - and yet I did not even realize it. I thought that I at least understood the history of Christianity, but in fact there were great and important gaps in my knowledge, and what I did know was lacking in overall contextual understanding. I thought that I understood the driving force of the Reformation, but I found that I did not even know where the centre was at all. I was ignorant and arrogant and full of confidence in myself. I was guilty, like so many others, of exalting human nature and robbing God of His rightful honour and glory. Though I had read through the Bible many many times, I found that there were large and important truths that I had either missed totally, or else largely misunderstood. After several years of study my wife and I felt like we had been converted all over again, even though we are confident that we had entered into a true relationship with God through Jesus Christ all those years ago.

Now I find that I am a debtor to others who have suffered from defective teaching of the Word of God even as I did. Even as my own eyes began to open and as I began to be filled with joy and wonder at the great truths of the Gospel - even then I began to be aware of just how many in the typical modern Church have not received the true Gospel at all. Multitudes have been lead to believe that they have entered into an eternal relationship with God by saying the "sinner's prayer" and fulfilling some religious duties such as attending Church. In fact, many of these ones have no reason at all for confidence in their profession, they have never understood what it is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and they are still in love with this world. They have never heard the Gospel spoken clearly and completely and competently, and they have never grasped the stakes that are involved nor just how precarious their position is. It is for these "foolish virgins" (Matthew 25) especially that I write these essays. My great prayer and purpose before the Lord Christ is that some of these might hear, and repent, and be truly saved.

Others, like me, are without question disciples of Christ but they are disciples who have been taught badly. They have tried to follow Christ as the Scriptures teach, but they cannot put the whole picture together. They seem to encounter contradictions and inconsistencies and they cannot seem to find a proper foundation and resting place for their faith. They look around and see scores of individuals in their group who do not seem to be much concerned with all of this, and who live their lives pretty much in the same way as the world around them. For these ones, also, who struggle like I did to find the real foundation of the faith, I pray that God will grant light and truth. To these ones also, I believe I have a debt to declare what God has shown me - that there is clarity and wonderful light in the Word of God. Those who put their full trust in the Word of God rather than leaning on their own understanding will be richly rewarded. God has shown me something, I believe, of the path towards a much closer walk with Christ for those who desire just that, and the key to walking that path is to treat the Scriptures with the respect they deserve.

What is absolutely certain is that the Gospel which was preached by the Apostles is the Gospel that brings salvation to men and women. Any adjustments, any change of emphasis, any replacement of the revelation of God by the reasoning of men will have a negative effect on the disciple. It is true that we are not saved by our understanding (thank goodness!) but by the grace of God and it is true that the Holy Spirit will often use imperfect teaching to deliver a man or a woman from death into life. Nevertheless, the "pure milk" of the Word of God is necessary for a proper foundation and as a path to maturity. It makes a great difference whether or not I believe that the situation of humanity is hopeless. It matters whether I believe that all humans are born with an evil and rebellious nature and are always inclined towards enmity with God. It matters whether I think that MY faith saved me - that somehow I was a partner with God in my salvation. It matters what my attitude is toward the Scriptures - whether they are the very Word of the living God and are to be trusted implicitly, or whether the authority and veracity of the Bible is somehow suspect. It makes all the difference what I teach as the centre and the focus of the Christian faith. Whether I believe in life after death for ALL humans, and whether I believe in a literal heaven and a literal hell will greatly affect how I view the Gospel and how I teach it. Woe to those who put themselves forward as teachers of the Word of God, and yet treat these matters carelessly or worse - teach something different than the Scriptures teach. Scripture itself tells us that teachers of the Word of God will be judged by a much sterner measure than others (James 3:1). As for those who teach a "different Gospel", the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has issued a terrible warning - "let him be accursed"(Galatians 1:8-9).

It is not by accident that the leaders of the Reformation insisted on the "five Solas" to maintain the purity of the Gospel. They are:

• We are saved by Grace alone - Sola Scriptura,
• through faith alone - Sola fide,
• by the authority of Scripture alone - Sola Scriptura,
• by the work of Christ alone - Solo Christo,
• and, for the glory of God alone - Soli Deo Gloria.