"I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much - just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don't want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don't want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don't want to love those from different races - especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please."[1]

Don't be too quick to point your finger after reading that quote, because that's you, and me. It's easy to say "that describes so-and-so perfectly", but are you willing to admit "that describes me... perfectly." I have often said that we need to be preaching the gospel to ourselves daily because we are so quick to forget the transforming power that exists within the gospel. It might seem obvious, but it's important to think about the gospel and to recite the gospel because we often think of it as the truth that non-believers need to hear in order to become believers. We might even think that it is for new Christians, to remind them about what they just began to believe. What ends up happening is that we begin to think, very subtly, that the gospel is what saves us and brings us into relationship with God and into the Kingdom, but in order to grow we need to learn more important doctrine. The problem with this type of thinking is that it guts any power or motivation to change beyond what we can muster in our own strength or intellect. We see the gospel as the ABC's of our faith, and in fact, the gospel is the A-Z's of our faith. It is not just that we are saved and then grow through our efforts, but that we are saved and are being saved; that we are saved by the gospel and only grow as we learn how to apply the gospel to every area of our lives. It is good news that we are saved, and it is also the good news of how we are going to grow in our life in Christ.

Whether you have been a Christian two days, two years, or two decades, what you need is the gospel. If you are struggling with suffering, you need the gospel.  If you are hopeless, you need the gospel.  If you are slipping into old patterns and habits, you need the gospel.  Whatever your issue is, you need the gospel. Without the gospel, we adhere to the warped thinking that is created by our sinful hearts, with a desire to secure the "good life" for ourselves so that when we lay our heads on the pillow at night, we can be content with the rebellion and unbelief that exists within. The problem is that we forget that there is no discount version of the Gospel. It is all or nothing (Galatians 1:7).

The gospel is derived from the searching sword of the Spirit (Hebrews 4:12), "living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the divisions of the soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." The primary reason we desire to forget the gospel is because from the word of God, "no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13). Did you notice the word him in that verse? The word of God acts as God himself. Therefore, if we are looking for a discounted version of the gospel, we are asking for a discounted version of God - and that doesn't exist. God is the gospel: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Yes, to answer a question you may have, the gospel is the truth of the Bible of Christ and him crucified: "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). But these are historical facts - in and of themselves, they don't tell us what we are looking to see. Paul answers that in 2 Corinthians 4:6 - we believe in and trust the power of the death and resurrection of Christ because it is through those two things that we receive knowledge of "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Therefore, the good news is that "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit" (1 Peter 3:18, emphasis mine). We are saved and are being saved so that Christ might bring us to God himself! There is no discounted version of that great news.

It is true that the gospel is good tidings of great joy for all people (Luke 2:10,11,31,32), is foretold (Isaiah 41:27; 52:7; 61:1-3; Mark 1:15), is preached under the old testament (Hebrews 4:2), exhibits the grace of God (Acts 14:3; 20:32), is the truth that life and immortality are brought to light by Jesus (2 Timothy 1:10), is the power of God to salvation (Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Thessalonians 1:5), is glorious (2 Corinthians 4:4), is everlasting (1 Peter 1:25; Revelation 14:6), is preached by Christ (Matthew 4:23; Mark 1:14), is given to ministers to peach (1 Corinthians 9:17), is preached beforehand to Abraham (Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:8), is preached to the Jews first (Luke 24:47; Acts 13:46), is preached to the Gentiles (Mark 13:10; Galatians 2:2,9), is preached to the poor (Matthew 11:5; Luke 4:18), is preached to every creature (Mark 16:15; Colossians 1:23), must be believed (Mark 1:15; Hebrews 4:2), brings peace (Luke 2:10,14; Ephesians 6:15), produces hope (Colossians 1:23), gives fellowship amongst the saints (Philippians 1:5), provides the fullness of blessing (Romans 15:29), should be adhered to as the truth (Galatians 1:6,7; 2:14; 2 Timothy 1:13), should not be ashamed of (Romans 1:16; 2 Timothy 1:8), should cause us to live in subjection to it (2 Corinthians 9:13), should cause believers to earnestly contend for the faith (Philippians 1:17,27; Jude 1:3), causes believers to sacrifice friends and property (Matthew 10:37), causes believers to sacrifice life itself (Mark 8:35), is attended by afflictions, (2 Timothy 3:12), provides great promises to sufferers (Mark 8:35; 10:30), is hid to them that are lost (2 Corinthians 4:3), testifies to the final judgment (Romans 2:16), is called the dispensation of the grace of God (Ephesians 3:2), is called the Gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15), is called the Gospel of God (Romans 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Peter 4:17), is called the Gospel of Christ (Romans 1:9, 16; 2 Corinthians 2:21; 1 Thessalonians 3:2), is called the Gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24), is called the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 24:14), is called the Gospel of salvation (Ephesians 1:13), is called the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4), is the preaching of Jesus Christ (Romans 16:25), is the word of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13), is the word of Christ (Colossians 3:16), is the word of grace (Acts 14:3; 20:32), is the word of salvation (Acts 13:26), is the word of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:19), is the word of truth (Ephesians 1:13; James 1:18), is the word of faith (Romans 10:8), is the word of life (Philippians 2:16), is the ministration of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:8), is the doctrine according to godliness (1 Timothy 6:3), and is in the form of sound words (2 Timothy 1:13). And yet, in all of these things, the all encompassing reality and truth of what the Gospel is, is encompassed in the Gospel being God himself. He is the good news. He is what we must preach to ourselves daily. He is what we must first believe, and what we must continue to believe and apply in our lives to grow in godliness. At the end of all the blessings and love of God, we must remember that Christ ultimately died to bring us to God - to the Gospel. John Piper wrote:

From the first sin in the Garden of Eden to the final judgment of the great white throne, human beings will continue to embrace the love of God as the gift of everything but Himself. Indeed there are ten thousand gifts that flow from the love of God. The gospel of Christ proclaims the news that He has purchased by His death ten thousand blessings for His bride. But none of these gifts will lead to final joy if they have not first led to God. And not one gospel blessing will be enjoyed by anyone for whom the gospel's greatest gift was not the Lord Himself.[2]

Embrace God. Love God. Cherish God. Believe God. And don't settle for any supposed discounted versions of God - the gospel is not the gospel when it's only 3 bucks.