What Makes the Gospel Any Different?

6 · Personal story of discovering at a Guatemalan market that most tourist goods are mass-produced duplicates, with one guide (Sammy) able to identify the truly unique, authentic stall amid the sea of sameness

Well, years ago I was with a number of members of our church to a mission, on a missions trip to Central America, to El Salvador and Guatemala. And some of you guys were on that trip with me and remember it, have some great memories there. And one of the big memories I think all of us had was in between our times of sort of serving in medical missions, we had an off day. At Lago Atitlán, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever— I didn't know even it existed before we arrived there. And I thought, man, how is this not every documentary ever? It is this gorgeous lake ringed by volcanic mountains where it's always spring, it seems like, according to those there. And it's just, it's absolutely gorgeous. And so we wake up there, we had kind of gotten there, and then we wake up there and we, kind of went to the market, and it was a very touristy spot even in Latin America. People go to Lago Atitlán to hang out and to have a nice day away. And so as a result, there's a number of tourist kind of stalls and places up and down the street. And one of the things you're amazed by is like, wow, this person's yelling, that person's yelling, this person's got blankets, that person's got pottery, this person's got textiles, this person's got, you know, And then, of course, there's like this— there's always a guy selling soccer kits, soccer jerseys, which, you know, for Liverpool or whatever. I don't know. That's just also there. There's a guy selling candy, all these things. And so you go and you're kind of amazed as a tourist. At least I was like, wow, look at this. Look at that. Look at this. And one of the people pointed out, hey, wait a second. That pot, I think I saw the same. It looked almost the same in 2 stalls down. And that pottery place. And Sammy, who was our guide, went like, oh yeah, of course. Most of it comes from the same place. And of course, we as tourists were like, what? And they're like, yeah, they— I mean, that guy's not making that pot. He's going to buy it from somebody else, and then they have a distributor, and so they just, you know, they sell. And so you started to realize, wait a second, is this market a lie? And you start to realize this pottery is sold here and here and here and here. These rugs are here, here, and here. This little adorable authentic little wooden carving is the same one in every stall. And you're like, it's made by the same guy. And so you start to realize what in the world these are. And then you start, you know, you see other tourists and you're like, yeah, we know. These tourists don't know, but we do. Like, because we learned it 5 minutes ago. And Sammy was great. He was able to do something unique. He could go, oh, you know what? This stall is the one you want to go to. This stall, it's authentic. These, these people make this right there, right? I remember this family from back in the day. That one is the one you want to go to. And so out of all of this sea of sameness, he was able to go right there. That's what you want. That's unique. Nowhere else can you get this other than right here at this stall at Lago Atitlán.

7 · Applies the marketplace illustration to contemporary culture, arguing that the modern marketplace of ideas (parenting advice, diets, self-help, philosophy, business seminars) is all repackaged sameness, producing either endless novelty-seeking or cynicism

Now, the world around us is much the same. Everywhere you look, people are shouting in this big marketplace of ideas. But upon closer inspection, you start to realize, wait a second, I think this is all the same stuff. For example, online influences for parenting. You think, okay, this is this new trend of parenting. No, it's actually just a repackaging of pop psychology from 15 years ago. Realize, wait a second, is that Dr. Spock? Yes, it is. It's just the same, right? Or this fitness influencer, this new diet that no one's ever come up with, and this is what I'm doing. Like, I think that's the Atkins diet, right? It's just, I think it's the same thing. It's got a new name, a new branding. You find these new New York Times bestsellers, but when you read them, they're just repackaging the same ideas about love from the Dear Abby column decades ago. And different, you know, new ideas about identity. That's just, you know, old French philosophy. All these new best practice work seminars. If you've sat through a best practice work seminar, you start to realize after the third one, they're kind of the same, right? You're just like, okay, this is the same stuff. And as a result, one of two things happens. You end up getting shiny, attracted to anything new and shiny that you're like, ooh, what about this? Ooh, what about that? You're constantly chasing the newest, or you just get cynical, right? You just go, I know. Hey, I've got a new book. I know. You ever see, hey, you should really read this book. Yeah, yeah, I've read books like that. You know, you become one of those people, and it is into this crowded marketplace of ideas that Paul writes the letter to the Romans.

8 · Establishes Paul's rhetorical situation: writing to Rome, the most crowded ideological marketplace in the empire, to convince the church that the Gospel is not another option among many but the one truly unique reality

Paul is writing to the epicenter of culture and art and politics and life in the Roman Empire. And no city is more crowded with people shouting for attention. More philosophies, more ideas, more new religious perspectives, more new histories, everything shouting at the Roman Christians for attention. And Paul, seeing this need, writes a unique letter. And one of the things that you will see Paul do in this letter is he wants to convince this church that the Gospel is not the same old thing that they've seen packaged and repackaged 100 times. The Gospel is utterly unique. Paul is going into the marketplace and saying, right here, that's what you want. That's unique. That's what I'm bringing. That's what you've received in Rome. Now, one of the things you'll notice is that Paul Paul writes a long, detailed letter about what? About the gospel. The thing that this church most needs to hear him talk about is not some new idea, but the same idea. Notice he says he is set apart for this work, for the gospel of God. That word euangelion was a declaration. It was a piece of news. Paul is sending this piece of news, the gospel, into the heart of the Roman Empire, but it is not the same old news. It is new news. It is unique news. It is profoundly different news. And he wants the Roman Christians to be utterly assured that in this marketplace of ideas, they have something, actually the only thing truly unique.

9 · Direct statement of sermonic intent: to convince Christians of the Gospel's utter uniqueness against the culture's alternatives, and to help non-Christians understand Christian exclusivity claims as pointing not to human answers but to a divine source

And similarly, that is my goal today. Friend, if you are a Christian, I want to convince you in just a few minutes that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is utterly unique in the face of the world. And nothing you find on YouTube or in your favorite podcast feed or in the New York Times bestseller is going to unseat it. It is the same old, same old except for this. That's what I want to convince you. And if you're not yet a Christian, I want you to understand why Christians are so intent on saying they have the answers, because you'll see in a minute that we don't think we have the answers at all, but we know where to find them.

10 · Structural signal announcing the sermon's five-part argument addressing Gospel uniqueness

So with that, we're gonna jump in, answer in 5 quick sections, what makes the gospel any different?

11 · Exposits Romans 1:1, noting what Paul omits (Roman citizenship, scholarly credentials) and what he emphasizes (servant, called apostle, set apart for the Gospel)

Number 1, what makes it different? The gospel is not adjustment, but transformation. Look at Paul's intro in verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. Notice how Paul introduces himself and how he does not introduce himself, rather. Paul is writing to Rome. And so, you'd think that he'd want to present, first of all, kind of who he is, And what's most important about him, right? And so, for the Romans, the thing you would expect Paul to mention right at the top of the letter is that he is a Roman citizen. Now, in Rome, citizenship wasn't just like, hey, you were born here. Hey, you had Roman parents. You can be a citizen. No, that's not the way it worked. It was an elite status conferred only on a select few, and Paul, very unique among the Jewish people, has this status. So you think, okay, I'm sending a letter to Rome. The first thing I should mention is I'm a Roman citizen. Even most of the people in the congregation at Rome would not have been Roman citizens. So you'd think, well, you're going to start with that. No, he doesn't. Or you think, well, maybe this is a big marketplace of ideas. They want to know what's your standing. They want to know, Where do you rank? They're always very concerned with rank, the Romans. So you think, okay, Paul might mention, well, I am one of the foremost scholars of the Hebrew and Jewish religion. I trained under one of the greats. I'm one of the greatest minds the Jewish nation has ever produced. Here are my credentials. He doesn't do that either. In fact, look at how he introduces himself. Paul, A servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

12 · Explains Paul's backstory from Acts—from chief persecutor of the church to apostle—demonstrating that his transformation is not incremental improvement but radical reversal by encounter with the risen Christ

What Paul begins the letter with is evidence of his transformation by the gospel. Because the Roman church would've known some of his backstory. Paul was once the opposite of a servant of Jesus Christ. He was once the foremost persecutor of the Church of Jesus Christ. He is introduced into the book of Acts by watching Stephen be stoned to death for declaring that Jesus was the Messiah. And Acts says he approved of it. And then he goes from there to jail Christians, to beat them up, to ravage the church. He is on his way to persecute more Christians where he is stopped in his tracks by the resurrected Jesus himself. And so the Paul writing the letter to the Romans is utterly different from the Paul that began that road to Damascus. Paul introduces the most important thing about him, which is that he has been transformed by Jesus and his life trajectory irrevocably changed by Jesus. That's what he wants you to understand.

13 · Contrasts cultural philosophies (which offer incremental optimization—'you but a little better') with the Gospel (which offers total transformation—'the opposite of where you started')

Now, why is this important? Because in Rome and in America, often philosophies, religions, ideas, they tweak our identity, but they don't fundamentally transform it, right? We want 5 tips to a little bit better marriage, 5 parenting tips for teens, right? 5 healthy foods hiding in your fridge that will make you thin. Like 5 tax optimization strategies to get you a little more money on your return. Right, we're looking for who can help me adjust or tweak who I am because here's the reality, we're not interested in changing fundamentally who we are, we just wanna optimize it, we just wanna adjust it, we just want it to be a little better. I wanna be like me but just a little better. But the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't do that. All of these stalls in the marketplace of ideas are like, well, we can make you a little thinner, we can make you a little richer, we can make you a little more desirable. And Paul says, we can utterly transform you from the inside out, leaving you the opposite of where you started. And everyone's like, whoa, whoa, that's a different booth. And Paul's like, yeah. It is.

14 · Direct assertion of the first point of Gospel uniqueness, followed by appeal to the lived testimony of the congregation as evidence

The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not offer, hear me Christians, adjustment to your life, but transformation of your life. That's what makes it utterly unique. And friends, if you're like, well, I'm not sure that that's true, friends, just meet some people here. This is the congregation of people that none of us are where we started years ago. Friend, if you have met Jesus, you're not adjusted from where you started, you're a different person. And that's utterly different.

15 · Introduces the second point of Gospel uniqueness by returning to Romans 1:2, establishing that the Gospel is not subjective or personal truth but the promised, objective truth of God rooted in the Old Testament Scriptures

Second, second thing that makes the gospel utterly different: it is not my truth or your truth, but the truth. Look at verse 2. He promised this gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Paul knows that the Roman Christians are inundated with 1,000 religious traditions.

16 · Describes the religious buffet model of Rome (and modern America): as long as you affirm Caesar, you can build your own eclectic pantheon

In fact, one poet said that it was easier to throw a rock and hit a god than throw a rock and hit a human in the city of Rome. Meaning that there are just statues everywhere. And here's the way Roman religion worked. And it was, okay, as long as you paid your dues to Caesar, Caesar is the Lord, okay, which Paul's going to fight later, and then it's going to be a whole thing. So, Caesar is Lord, and then you can kind of build your own religion however you want to do it, right? If you've been around in El Paso a long time, I think of like back in the day when the 20-somethings that I knew would go down to the Grand China Buffet, the greatest buffet ever assembled in the city of El Paso, other perhaps than the Ponchos on McCray. That was the spot. Okay, so think of one of those, whatever your favorite is, right? The buffet. And how's a buffet work? Well, nope. Everybody loves to go to the buffet because they don't have to agree on what to order. They just go and pick whatever they want. And so that's the way Roman religion worked. You would be like, okay, I want to have some Apollo. I like Jupiter. He's kind of a big guy. I love this guy. I love this. I don't love this person. I'll go kind of— and this is kind of my personal pantheon of gods. And this is kind of who I pray to and follow, right? Everybody can build their own. And similarly in America, isn't it much the same? Everybody can kind of build their own religion. You're like, okay, I want to have a little Buddhism, a little Hinduism. I really like this stuff about loving people from Jesus. I really want to do this, want to do that. I like this. I like— you mix it up and you build your own little platter of religion and philosophy.

17 · Asserts the exclusivity of the Gospel by emphasizing Paul's repeated phrase 'the gospel of God'—not a human construction or personal interpretation, but God's own Word

And Paul comes in and very rudely, I might add, just knocks the platter over. And so he says, this gospel of God is not just like one of those build-your-own religion. It is a promised beforehand through the holy prophets in the holy Scriptures, Gospel of God. Notice the claim here. The claim is not that this is Paul's Gospel. The claim is not that this is Peter's Gospel. The claim is that this is the Gospel of God, that this is God's Gospel. And similarly, friends, we have to be crystal clear on whose Gospel this Gospel is. This is not our Gospel. This is not Sal's Gospel he's taking at Horizon. It's a little different than Ricky's Gospel over in Central. It's not Billy Graham's Gospel. It's not Martin Luther's Gospel. It's not Augustine's Gospel. Friends, this is God's Gospel. And it's not a truth, it is the truth. That's what is being claimed from the first pages of the letter to the Romans.

18 · Confronts the 'that's your truth' objection by arguing that the Gospel's claim to be THE truth is warranted because it comes from the one omniscient perspective—God himself

Now, often you're kind of going, okay, well, well, but that's your truth. You've heard somebody say that, like online or in person? Well, this is my truth. You can have whatever truth you want, but let me have whatever truth I want. And let's all just decide whatever we want. And Paul, again, just says, excuse me, and then bam, knocks it over again. Right? It's— if you could say it this way in the marketplace, all the other Gospels are like, would you like to add something to your life? Would you like to add a God into your life? And Paul is over there with a hammer smashing idols. Right? Can I have that? Right? It doesn't coexist. Listen, the Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't coexist alongside other religions. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is singular and unique because what it claims for itself, it is the truth. And why can it claim that? Why can anybody show up and say, well, I know what to do? Because aren't all of us limited in our perspective? None of us can fully see the way, can we? But there is one omniscient, authoritative perspective on life, and it is the perspective of the Creator and Maker of all things who sees the future from the past and who chooses in grace to then speak and help us understand from his perspective what we cannot see through his Holy Scripture. Right? That's the claim of the Bible. It's not another book. It is the book, or it is nothing. Right? Those are the only 2 choices.

19 · Direct appeal to conviction, pressing the listener to settle whether they believe the Gospel is God's truth or merely human opinion

So, are you convinced, friends? Are you convinced that this truth, this Gospel truth, is not yours or mine, but God's? Because until you are, you'll never fully understand the uniqueness of the Gospel. That's second.

20 · Introduces the third point of Gospel uniqueness—it is rooted in verifiable history, not myth—by contrasting the Gospel with Rome's fabricated origin story (the Aeneid)

Third, third, not myth but proof. Not myth but proof. Notice this. He talks about the gospel and his Son Jesus, God's Son Jesus, who was descended from David according to the flesh and then was declared to be not just the Son of David but the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead. Now, why is this important? Because in Rome's context, Rome was known to play fast and loose with history. Jonathan Matthews and I are gluttons for punishment, so we're reading a bunch of old, old books, one of whom was the Aeneid. And if you've never heard of the Aeneid, it's like the Odyssey but worse. Because here's what happened. Rome was like, well, the Greeks have the Odyssey, And everybody loves the Odyssey, and it's kind of a big deal. So we're going to do one for us. And it's not going to be about the Greeks. It's going to be about the Romans. And everyone's like, yeah, let's do it. Right? And so what it does is mythologically, it retells the origins of Rome from basically the events at Troy. And this hero, Aeneas, goes on an odyssey. Sound familiar? Arrives in Italy where he fights a war, kind of like the Iliad, and wins, and they found the city of Rome, and it's all this mythological stuff, and it was totally fake. Everyone knew it was fake, but you know what? Everyone loved it. They're like, we love it. This is us. And you're like, well, not strictly us, but it's kind of— sure, it's fine. We'll use it. Right? That was often the Roman perspective. Myths about the gods, myths about people. It's kind of like, well, it's really the mythological part of it that matters, not the reality of it so much. But Paul says no. And he roots the historicity, the history of Christianity in— not in myth, but in proof. And notice what he does. He does 2 Radical things. Number one, he refers to Jesus' descension from David. Basically, he says this: this is a real man, real flesh and blood, not this fake Aeneas, not this other mythological figure. He has a family with a family tree that you can read in the Gospel of Luke, right? You can— Matthew's compiled the whole genealogy. You can read his genealogy. You can go into the Middle East. You can dig up the stuff and see where his family came from. He was real. Now, what happens though in every age is people are like, well, I don't know. I don't know about that. You can't say that. You can't say it's proved. You can't say it's verified. And friends, here's the reality. The historicity of the Bible is always questioned and always proved. And it has been from the first century. For example, here's just a few examples. I'm going to put some of these up on our blog or Substack this week. You have things like this. People question the Hittites from the early days of Israel. They're like, the Hittites aren't real. We never found anything from the Hittites. It's yet again proving that you can't trust the Old Testament. Until 1906, where somebody finds reference very clearly to the Hittites exactly where they're supposed to be. And you're like, oh, well, never mind. There's other things you can't— there's other problems, not that one. Okay, great. People have have said, well, Belshazzar. All right, Belshazzar in Daniel. We don't have anything from him. Right? So, obviously, the Bible, it's more of a fictional, it's more of a myth thing, until in 1854, they find Belshazzar. Right? Same thing. People questioned even that David was a real person. King David. They're like, well, he didn't leave behind all this archaeology, so we don't know. It's probably just a myth. He's probably Odysseus. He's probably Aeneas. It's probably David, unquote, a myth, until 1993, at Tel Dan, a stele with clear proof of David being exactly where he's supposed to be. Over and over. Even, you'll find missionary references where Luke is recording this consul, this guy, this Gallio of Achaia, for example, and people are like, he's just making names up, until the archaeologists go find Gallio of Achaia. Over and over.

21 · Argues for the historical reality of the resurrection by noting that the earliest opponents (Jewish leaders, Roman authorities) had every incentive to disprove it but could not produce Jesus' body, and that eyewitnesses testified to the risen Christ even under threat of death

Rome needs to know this is not another myth. Friends, we need to know this is not just another myth. This is proved reality. And not only is it proved, is the Old Testament history proved, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an historical fact. Friends, here's the reality. From the very beginning, everybody has tried to disprove the resurrection. And do you not think that the Jewish leaders would love nothing more than finding the body of Jesus and trotting him out and going, see, we told you he was dead. But they couldn't do it. And then the Romans were like, this might be a problem. Let's find the guy. And then they realize, well, actually the tomb is empty. And then they start making up things like, well, the disciples stole the body. Great. Let's have Paul grab them all, throw them in jail, tell them they're going to get killed. And they're like, he really is alive. And they're like, if you don't tell us where Jesus is, we're going to kill you. And they're like, he's alive. And then they killed him. And it just kept happening. Because the early church itself, the eyewitnesses who saw Christ resurrected, All testified, and many of them were around at the time of Romans. Okay, so this is not ancient history. This is like the '80s. Like, there's people around. Like, I know you Gen Z people are like, you guys are from the 1900s. Like, what even went on back there? I mean, like, we're from there. We're from the 1900s. We can tell you. That's the situation Romans was written into. Do you not think that Nero and all of the Jewish leaders would love nothing more than to be able to pour a bucket of cold water on this idea that this carpenter from Galilee rose from the dead? Absolutely. But none of them could.

22 · Drives home the apologetic force of the resurrection by citing Tim Keller's strategy of always returning skeptics to this historical fact

Friends, 2,000 years later, with all of the archaeological evidence of the last 2,000 years. We can look into the— through all these layers of rock. No one has found the body of Jesus because he's not here. Like, years ago, I heard an interview with Pastor Tim Keller from New York. And he spent decades in New York arguing with angry New Yorkers about the things of Christianity. And he was asked, what's the one thing you point skeptical people to? Because he lived in a skeptical city, right? What's the one thing you point skeptical people to in your apologetics? And he said, it's always the same thing, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because as much as they look, no one can prove that he's in a tomb, And no one can deny the evidence of the early church that they truly believed He had risen again. And if that happened, then everything has changed. Friends, if one man under His own power, 3 days in the tomb, 2,000 years ago, walked out of that very same tomb, then everything changes, doesn't it? Everything changes. So, friends, we believe not a myth. We believe in history. We believe in the reality of Jesus Christ.

23 · Signals the fourth major point (grace before rather than grace after obedience) and notes that this will be the central theme throughout the entire Romans series

Number 4, we believe then not grace after, but grace before. I'm only going to touch on this because we're going to spend essentially the entire book of Romans unpacking this. But I want you to notice something.

24 · Exposits Romans 1:5 ('we have received grace and apostleship') and contrasts it with the universal pattern of Roman polytheism: perform rituals and offerings, and maybe earn divine favor

Verse 5, through whom it says we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith. Paul is referring to people like him who have been commissioned by Jesus to go out and share the message of the gospel. But notice Paul beginning this theme of grace in the letter. Notice when grace met the Apostle Paul and contrast it with everything else in Rome and everything else in religion. This is the reality. There were a million variations. I tried to even look up how many variations of polytheism were prevailing in the Roman world at the time of Paul. And basically, it was like infinite combinations. So everybody had their own kind of spin on things. But there was one utterly clear pattern. You have to do stuff and make offerings and then maybe you'll receive the favor of the gods if they're in a good mood. Meaning you do the work and you might receive grace. Meaning favor. You do the work. You do the offering. You make the vow. You give up the thing. And maybe you'll get favor. Maybe you'll get grace.

25 · Uses Paul's Damascus Road encounter to establish that Christianity is unique: grace comes BEFORE obedience, not after

But friends, Paul's story undercuts the entirety of Roman religion and every religion since. When did Paul receive the grace? Was it because he had worked really hard to attract the favor and attention of Jesus Christ? No. When did God's grace interrupt Paul? On the road to persecute the Church of Jesus Christ. So what that means is Christianity is utterly unique. It is a grace before religion, not a grace after religion. Every other religious practice is do the stuff, you might get favor. Christianity is you've been given favor by the grace of God. And that's the starting point for the Christian life. Oh, friends, you feel the difference? Every other stall is selling, you do good enough, you might get favor. Christianity is selling, God gives you favor. That's the starting point. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. We'll say much more about that.

26 · Introduces the fifth and final point of Gospel uniqueness: its universal scope

And then last, fifth, I just want to point this out. Who is this gospel for? Who is this gospel for? Who gets in? Basically, to this gospel faith. Look at verse 5, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you, Romans, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Now, look, this is utterly different than the Roman orientation. Right? The Roman orientation is, we win when you lose. Right? You lose, we win. That's the pattern. That's what we've been doing for a few hundred years. It's going great so far. Right? And Rome was a one guy wins at the end and it's us kind of culture.

27 · Illustrates Rome's zero-sum worldview by recounting the violent ending of the Aeneid—even when victory is won, mercy is denied

In fact, you see this at the end of the Aeneid where they fight a war. Aeneas fights a war against some of the native people that are there. And Turnus, you know, he's a good guy. He's the opposition leader. And they kind of have a duel at the end. And Turnus kind of is like, he's beaten. And there's this moment where you're like, oh, man, Aeneas is going to spare him. And they're going to come together and give each other a big hug and say, let's build this Roman Empire. And it's going to be— I can see it. It's great. And except for one small problem. At the end, Turnus is like, you have beaten me. And Aeneas is like, yep. Sick. Right? He just takes him out. In fact, he takes him out because he gets reminded that the guy killed one of his other friends and he's just like, nope, you got to go. You got to go. That's it. That's Rome. Okay? Rome wins when you lose. That's Rome. There's only one winner and it's us.

28 · Applies the Roman zero-sum logic to contemporary American culture, noting that fantasy football and sports betting have hyper-individualized even communal sports fandom—now it's just 'I win when you lose,' not even 'our team wins

And it's funny, our culture has taken this to the extreme, haven't we? Look, it used to be when I was growing up in the 1900s, The, the way that you would watch football was you would be committed to like at least a team. Like our team is gonna win, our team is gonna lose. But given the rise of this crazy fantasy football sports betting world, it's just you trying to win, right? It's not like, well, if the Cowboys— everybody's always like, well, the Cowboys might lose, but I don't have any of those players, right? Right? They're, what are they thinking about? Are they thinking about the Cowboys? No. They're thinking about themselves. And everybody in America is like, yeah. We're kind of Roman in our thinking. I'm gonna win when you lose. But, but where does that money come from when you win the sports betting? From other people. And I don't care. Right? It's just, I'm gonna win.

29 · Contrasts Rome's founding myth (others die so we rise) with the Gospel (Christ dies so all can rise)

And notice friends how utterly different the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. Everybody else is telling you, We can help you win. We can help you win. Paul comes in and goes, yeah, I lost and I couldn't be happier about it. Because who the gospel is for is not for one group, one people, one narrow slice of the world and land and ethnicity. It is for the nations. Notice the contrast in the stories. Look, Rome's founding origin story is that others have to die so that our empire and founder can rise. But Christianity flipped it upside down and said our founder died so that others could rise. Like, that's unlike anything else. The Roman story is that only one nation, one people matters in the end. And the Christian story is this, that Jesus Christ is building a new humanity and every tribe, tongue, people and language is invited in under his banner. And so with Jesus, we all win in the end. Do you feel how utterly different that is? Every other religion is like, we win. Jesus says, I died so that you could win and I could build a new people that will triumph forever. And it's open to anyone. Even Romans. Right? For Jerusalem people, it would have been unthinkable that like We're going to start a religion that the Romans are in on? No, no. Same thing with Rome. Rome is going, we don't want whatever they have. We want our own thing, right? And Paul says, it's bigger than both of you. It's bigger than all of you. It's under the banner of Jesus Christ.

30 · Signals the conclusion by introducing a summary chart that will visually capture the five contrasts between the Gospel and every other system

So with that, let me wrap this up. I want to wrap up with a quick chart because I want you to see the contrast here. I'm going to throw this up online, but I want you to feel the difference here. But my goal is to get you to be regrounded and rerooted in the fact that everyone else in the world is selling kind of sort of the same thing except for one person, the man Jesus Christ with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Right?

31 · Summarizes the five contrasts in rapid succession: identity (optimize vs

So think about identity. Right? And identity, our culture and the Roman culture are like, well, add a little bit to your identity. Optimize your identity. Christianity and the gospel says we're going to transform your identity. When it comes to truth, Romans thought a truth. Doesn't matter if it's true, but it's a truth. We think, well, my truth and your truth, but the Bible is God's truth. When it comes to historicity, the Romans constantly revise their origin story. We constantly revise our origin story based on what we're feeling, but this gospel of God is proved. It's not an idea. It is a fact. And then when it comes to grace, every other religion is saying you get grace if you obey. And Christianity, the gospel of God, says you get grace when you don't obey. Like that, that it's just radical. And then last, the offer is this. The offer is just for a few people, for us only, for me only. In Christianity, the gospel is for all. It's for all.

32 · Personal story from watching his sons rock climb, introducing the safety practice of 'clipping in' with pitons or cams to prevent fatal falls

Now here's the last picture I want to leave you with. My sons have done off and on bouldering and rock climbing. And one of the things that you do when you're climbing out in the wild, especially up big rock faces, is you use— they used to use a piton, which people don't use as much anymore, or a cam. They'll clip into crevices on the rock so that if something happens, you won't fall all the way down to your death and break your neck. Right? They basically, you clip in and you're like, okay, I'm going to be anchored here, and you climb a little bit more and then you clip in again. You climb a little bit more and you clip in again. Now, here's what happens. Sometimes young, inexperienced climbers do a few climbs and they're like, oh, I got it. I can free climb. I don't need the pitons. I don't need the cams. I can do it on my own. I got it. I did it once. I did it twice. And experienced climbers look at them and go, you idiot. Because everybody's grip strength fails unexpectedly sometimes. Everybody gets pushed by a big gust of wind they didn't see coming sometimes. Everybody's shoe catches the wrong space sometimes.

33 · Applies the climbing illustration to the Christian life: experienced believers can become overconfident and think they've moved beyond the basics, but when crisis comes (medical, relational, financial, global), only those anchored in foundational Gospel truths will hold

And friends, Christianity is like that. We, we might think, listen, I'm fine. I believe all the things. I don't need to reground myself. I don't need to re-go over any of these basics Paul's going over. That's for elementary Christianity. I'm up in upper-level Christianity now. Friends, there's going to be time wind blows and you lose your grip, and your doctor says, we need to talk to you about your lab results, and your business that you've poured years into might go under. And your wife or your spouse says, things are so broken. I don't know how we can stay together. One of your kids says they don't want to talk to you. And the world is shaken by something big like war or COVID. When those things happen, when you begin to blow around, friend, you need to be clipped into the fundamental truths of Christianity like this. You need to believe that this is utterly different This is utterly unique, that this is utterly true, and you will transform your life utterly by believing it. And so friends, this is what I'm praying for as we end today. Wherever you are, wherever you've been, I want to invite you to clip back into the basics of the Christian faith today.

34 · Particularizes the application to specific groups: teens who overestimate their knowledge, young adults experiencing doubt, believers in crisis, and non-Christians hearing this for the first time

Listen, if you are a teen, somebody not born in the 1900s, you're, you're, you're under 26 apparently. Which I guess there's a bunch of you, and you think you know a lot of stuff, and you think, yeah, I got it. Friends, clip in. Ground yourself in these truths. Maybe you're going through a time of shaking in your early 20s or late teens because you have never ground yourself. You've never clipped in to these things. You've never studied them. You've never gone and looked at the historical record. You've never looked at the uniqueness of Jesus. I want to encourage you to to do that. Or maybe you're in a crisis and you're wondering, can I really believe the Lord? Can I believe his word? Study it. Anchor yourself. Clip back in. And friend, if you are here and you're like, I walked in and I didn't know any of this stuff, this is an invitation for you to clip in to the one truly different thing in the world, in world history. And here's the good news. It's open to everyone. Won't you do this today?

35 · Closing prayer petitioning God that the congregation would anchor their hope in the Gospel not merely intellectually but existentially ('in our very bones'), grounded in the historical reality of the resurrected Christ

Would you stand and let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that as we end with singing, I pray that we would anchor our hope yet again in the truths of the Gospel. Lord, may we believe not just on some esoteric level in the truths of the Gospel and its uniqueness, but in our very bones. May we be anchored yet again in Christ and in Christ alone, in a real man with a real genealogy who really did walk out of a grave and change the world. And so may our lives change too. In Jesus' name, amen.