A Big As
No true church exists without the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sin destroys our fellowship with the Triune God and ruins relationships between one another. Death is separation, and spiritual death is not only separation from God but disregard for His Word and enmity toward His person.
No man can work his way to God. The wise of the world can’t philosophize their way to Him. There are no quests, no treasures, no mutilations that earn salvation from God. Dead men are, by definition, incapable of making themselves alive. The gospel, the good news, is that Jesus died, was buried, and on the third day rose again so that any who believe in Him might be forgiven of their sin, cleansed of their guilt, and reconciled to the Father.
The Latin word for gospel is evangel, from the Greek word * εὐαγγέλιον* (euaggelion). It is the message of divine, free forgiveness in Christ.
Christians, by definition, are those who believe this gospel. Christians are the forgiven. Christians, sadly, often sin by refusing to forgive others.
The Evangel in Trinity Evangel Church was largely chosen because of seeing this sort of failure to forgive from professing Christians, and committing ourselves to obedience on this front. Paul told the Colossians, “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Colossians 3:13 bibrefcolossians3 bibrefcolossians3v13). It’s a big as. Jesus told a parable about the servant who was forgiven much who refused to forgive one who owed him little (Matthew 18:21-35 bibrefmatthew18 bibrefmatthew18v21 bibrefmatthew18v22 bibrefmatthew18v23 bibrefmatthew18v24 bibrefmatthew18v25 bibrefmatthew18v26 bibrefmatthew18v27 bibrefmatthew18v28 bibrefmatthew18v29 bibrefmatthew18v30 bibrefmatthew18v31 bibrefmatthew18v32 bibrefmatthew18v33 bibrefmatthew18v34 bibrefmatthew18v35). Jesus taught us to pray, “forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12 bibrefmatthew6 bibrefmatthew6v12).
We thought about being “Evangelical,” but that is too mushy a category anymore. Evangel takes just a little more effort to say, and so to think about. Forgiving just as we’ve been forgiven is supernatural, it is beyond the ability of the flesh, and it absolutely must be proclaimed and practiced by us because our sins are forgiven for His name’s sake (1 John 2:12 bibref1john2 bibref1john2v12). “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32 bibrefephesians4 bibrefephesians4v32).
Forgive your spouse, your children, your brother, your mother, your neighbor. Forgive as you’ve been forgiven.