This is the Gospel for Today

An excerpt from “Paul vs Peter” by William R. Newell

Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

2 Cor. 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

The failure or refusal to discern the Pauline Gospel as being a separate and new revelation, that had been kept hidden, secret since the world began, and not just a “further development of Judaism,” is what accounts for most of the confusion today in people’s minds with regards to just what the Gospel is. Paul’s Gospel will suffer no admixture with works on the one hand or religious pretensions and performances on the other. It is as simple and clear as the sunlight from heaven. The end of man is where God begins in Romans 3, at what might be called the opening of the Pauline revelation. Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

For instance, perhaps nine out of ten or ninety-nine out of a hundred of unsaved people today, believe in their inmost hearts (if they could analyze their own feelings) that the reason they are not saved is because of something they have not yet done, some step or other that remains for them to take before God will accept them. Perhaps every human being naturally believes this, but it is absolutely untrue.

When Christ said “It is finished,” He meant that He had then and there paid the debt for the whole human race. 1 Tim. 2:6a Who gave himself a ransom for all…

Now Paul in his wonderful revelation, received from the resurrected Jesus Christ (Gal 1:12), declares that God hath reconciled the world to Himself; that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2Cor 5:19a). Men do not know this, so they conceive that something stands between them and God, something for them to perform or do before God will have them, or accept them, or forgive them.

If you tell a man that to be saved God is demanding no good works of him whatsoever, no religion, no religious observances, or church ordinances at all; that God is not asking him to undertake a lot of duties, or any duties at all; but on the contrary, that God invites him to believe a glad message that his sins have already been dealt with at the Cross, and that God expects him to believe this good news and be exceedingly happy about it – if you tell an unsaved man such a story as this, he is astonished and overwhelmed – yet this is the Gospel for today in “the dispensation of the grace of God,” given to Paul for us today (Eph 3:2).

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