Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1951-06-14


repeating something they knew by
heart, like the ritual of a lodge.
1t was devoted to telling the good
news about God to people who did
not know that God had any good
news.
The Gospel Is a Story
THE saying has been quoted in
l. this column before: Christianity
first came to the world not on the
editorial but on the news pages.
Christianity is not Gods new ad-
vice to the world. 1t is first of all
the something God has done for the
world.
Gospel" in Greek means
simply good news. 1t is the story
Of Jesus, the kind of person he
was, the kind of truths he
taught. the kind of work he did,
the death he died. But the story
of Jesus is more than the story
of man, uniquely great though
he was.
1t is, after all, the story of God,
God who became man so that in thA
life of Christ Jesus we can read the
unreliable God, see the Invisible,
know the Great Unknown. The early
Christians were not theologians, and
they did not use the language or
the formulas that centuries OF
thought were to hammer out. They
never used the word Incarnation
and seldom used the word "Atone-
ment." But that was what they
were driving at.
The Story Is a Challenge
+ OOK through the book of Acts for
- the story of Jesus as the early
Christians told it, and you will see
that the Incarnation and the Atone
ment are there. The Incarnation
that God has lived among us as
man among men, that the glory of
God is in the face of Christ. The
Atonement-that for Christ's sake
God offers forgiveness to all men,
that the door to Gods love is a
wide-open portal.
The early church taught and
told this; but not just as a story
to entertain or inform, not as q
puzzle to be solved, not as some
thing to be believed or not, as
We please; but as THE story,
not only the greatest story
ever told" but beyond any COM
parison the most important.
If you cannot see God in Christ,
where can you see him? If you will
not take Gods forgiveness for
Christs sake, then what right have
you to look for forgiveness at all?
Christianity Is a Life
THE readers of the book of Acts
= will discover that the early
Christians were not simply preach
erS. They lived a new sort of life.
The essential thing was that they
lived as a family-the family of
God. They so lived that few have
fully initiated them since.
The way in which Christians
treated one another was SO diff
ferent from what the world was
used to, that an almost new
word had to be used for IL.
When Paul went about pre- acbing.
good deal of what he said was
about himself. Was this because he
had taken the place of Jesus? No.
it was the other way around-Jesus
had taken his place. That is, what
Paul had to tell was not simply
the story of Jesus from Beth. |
lehem to Calvary" it was not even
the story Of the Resurrection.
What always aroused Paul's finest
eloquence was his story of what
Christ had done to him, for him.
through him, in him. The Gospel
is the power of God, he said to the
Romans. And il this were not true,
do you suppose the Christian reli.
gion could have lasted as long as it
has?
But the telling of this story, and
the living of it, is not something the
church can leave to the women. or
to the preachers, or to missionary
societies." Letting the world know
the news, the good news, is the
business Of the whole family Of God
Copyright 1881 by the Division Of
Christian Education, National Council
OF the Churches OF Christ In the United
states OF America. Released by VIM