He's not interested in the
Gospel of Jesus Christ so much as the gospel of HomewardBound.
But there is, of course, only ONE legitimate Gospel and that IS the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The early Church always remembered that there was only ONE gospel and the New Testament never employed the term in the plural. Therefore it spoke only of the four-fold form of the one gospel: ‘‘the Gospel according to Matthew,’’ ‘‘the Gospel according to Mark,’’ etc... and that Gospel is all about salvation,
sanctification, and glorification.
To sanctify in the New Testament means to separate from or to cleanse from moral defilement. Sanctification is the process of separating, or state of being separated, from moral defilement.
God is spoken of as being sanctified by the revelation of His own character, not that He is made holy but shown to be Holy.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the instrument that gives genuine Christians victory over the world, victory over the flesh, and victory over the devil.
The path to sanctification is set forth in Romans 6 (e.g. knowing we are dead to sin through Christ, reckoning this to be a fact, and yielding ourselves to God's righteous demands).
The bible is clear that purification from sin in our lives does not follow automatically from salvation/justification. It involves cooperation on our part; we must align ourselves with God's morality which is a reflection of His very nature and yield to His sanctifying grace.
Sanctification is a process, and often a difficult process, that continues from the time of our salvation to the point of our physical death. There are great victories and also hard defeats. Some areas are easy for us and we get almost instaneous deliverance from some sin while other areas are like molasses that we swim so slowly out of. But whether quickly or slowly we progress over time. We may fall hard like David but also like David we genuinely repent and move forward aided by God and His grace once more toward the prize buffeting ourselves so as not to be disqualified and over time we progress in holiness.
For the purpose of salvation isn't so we can live in great sexual immorality maligning God's Word to justify our sin deceiving ourselves and others even to the point of perverting God's institution of marriage into a homosexual abomination.
Not at all. The purpose of salvation is to bring us into God's kingdom where God can work with us to change us progressively into the image of His son that knew NO moral defilement or sin whatsoever in preparation for eternity with Himself.
That IS the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Homewardbound you are missing something. You keep saying Love is the key right? Well you are showing love to someone when you kick them out of your church in hopes they see the error in their ways. Letting them continue in a comfortable life, with sins that are stated specifically to NOT inherit the kingdom of God (like homosexuality) is a terrible thing. You are not making them want to change at all, and therefore they won't, and therefore they won't inherit the kingdom of God.
King James Bible
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Proverbs 27:6
The wounds you put on someone by kicking them out, by putting them through pain, IS love. It's focusing on their salvation, not how warm and fuzzy they feel on the inside. Which is more important? Salvation, or how good one feels? I would say salvation.