Do You Live In, and Benefit From All of God’s Blessings in His Gospel?

As ‘The Gospel Life Coach,’ I’ve Found 10 Gospel Blessings So Far. There May More I Haven’t Found Yet. Do you know any more?

3,000 years ago, God told Moses he’d send his special Prophet-Messenger (which we now know is Jesus), with his special Message (we now know is the gospel of Jesus). God said he would REQUIRE us to believe it and live it.

This is repeated in the book of Acts, which makes it clear that the purpose of the gospel is to BLESS us. It is the power of God in us. In 2 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul says Jesus will someday return in the clouds, with his angels, and will judge those who don’t believe and live his gospel. Romans 2 says that the scale for any judgment we face is the gospel.

The gospel is the greatest GIFT planet earth has ever seen. The only issue is that it is only a BLESSING to us if we do believe and live it. If we don’t live it, there is no blessing to be received.

Now let’s look at 10 gospel blessings and benefits.

(1) Living in God Unconditional Love for Us

Most believers don’t ‘believe’ this. They believe God’s love depends on them: on what they do and don’t do — at least to some extent. They have a, “He loves me… he loves me not… he loves me… he loves me not” human thinking.

Most people think God’s love for them depends on them some: how obedient they are, how submitted they are, how much good they do, or how little bad they do, or how much of God’s law they live by. They don’t believe, as Paul says, that a believer cannot be separated from God’s love — the Holy Spirit constantly reminds us of his love.

The problem is that we don’t think ‘UN-conditionally,’ and we often think of God as being in our image. We think conditionally, so we think God thinks the way we do too. We most often love others — IF they do what we like, and IF they don’t do what we don’t like. Our thinking is very conditional.

The gospel assures us that God does not think the way we do or love the say we do as humans. We’re told, “God IS love.”

(2) Knowing God’s Total, Absolute Salvation

If we don’t believe God’s unconditional love for us, we struggle with believing that God has ordained our salvation, as Isaiah says. We have to believe it, of course. But belief is the only condition on receiving God’s salvation. Not knowing his love makes knowing his salvation difficult because the only alternative is to think it is contingent upon us.

Paul even tells us God chose us “before the foundation of the world” — “NOT according to our works, but according to his purpose and grace before the world began.”

We reason in our minds and ask how God can do this. It must depend on us to some extent, doesn’t it? If we weren’t born, how could God save us?

I don’t have all the answers, I don’t understand everything. This is why we are meant to be ‘believers.’ Jesus asks, “Why do you reason in your hearts?” Believers are not meant to reason and to understand everything. We are told to believe.

In John, Jesus says that our ‘work’ is to ‘believe.’ As humans, we tend to make this a harder job than it is. The more gospel we live, the easier it is.

Paul says God even sees us as seated with him in heavenly places right now — even while our feet still walk this earth. He says God sees us all as being one big family — those already in heaven and us believers on the earth. No wonder God tells us to believe in his absolute, total salvation.

If we’re believers, God sees us right now as being part of his big family. We’re told there are about 6 to 7 BILLION people in the world. But because God sees us in such unity and oneness, I sometimes wonder if he doesn’t just see TWO people in the world: (1) those in Christ, and (2) those not in Christ.

(3) Knowing God Did Away with His Law

At least this is true as far as our having to live it, and to be ruled and measured by it is concerned.

According to Christian polls, one thing that trips up a lot of people is that they just refuse to believe that God has abolished his law. They can’t believe it no longer is a ruling system or a rating system: a measurement of our lives. The New Testament says this many, many times, but most people just can’t seem to bring themselves to totally believe it.

People reason that “God is the same — yesterday, today, and forever,” so they reason that God would never do away with his law. This is why Jesus says not to reason, but simply believe what he says (and also what Paul says about the gospel). Paul says Jesus nailed the law to his cross.

Most preachers don’t believe it either. And Paul says there are 10,000 of them compared to few ‘Fathers of the Gospel.’ So they preach a 1+1=2 theology: “Get saved in the New Testament and then live by the Old Testament.”

Even the parables of Jesus speak against this: “Don’t sew a new patch on an old garment” — “Don’t pour new wine into old bottles.” This is why Paul says so many preachers don’t understand what they are saying and they mislead us by things they so confidently affirm. Too often they’re like politicians.

It says Jesus fulfilled God’s law for us, but this doesn’t mean it was abolished. It still reveals the divine character of God, and at least the moral law reveals the divine character of a perfect person (that only Jesus achieves). Acts says that everyone else fails in trying to live it.

But it has been done away with, set aside, and abolished as far as us needing to live by it. In Galatians, Paul goes so far as to say that we must be DEAD to the law if we want to LIVE unto God. And he also says if we choose to live by law today that we are cursed. Jesus took all the curses away, but apparently Paul thinks he left this one: if we try to live by law when we have been given the blessings of the gospel.

(4) Living in God’s Thoughts, Truth and Reality

The gospel is intended to ‘renew our minds’ and to ‘transform our thoughts.’ This means the gospel was given to straighten out our thinking and to make us think more like God. Thus Jesus says to repent and forsake ALL other beliefs and to only believe and live his gospel.

Paul says he was ‘separated to the gospel.’ This means nothing else influenced him. This is where I’ve come to in my life, trying to follow in Paul’s footsteps. Some say I’m so narrow-minded in the gospel that I can see through a keyhole with both eyes. The same type of thing was said about Paul too.

Isaiah says God’s thoughts are far above ours. This implies we can’t reach them. But the gospel is given to us so that we can think God’s thoughts if we choose to. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” What we think, and truly receive into our hearts, is what we believe, and how we live.

The gospel is the greatest revelation we have of divine reality: the way that we experience more of heaven on earth. “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We can never experience heaven until we get to heaven, but God gives us a good preview in his gospel.

The struggle in our lives is about us believing and living the gospel. Paul says in 2 Corinthians that the greatest goal of Satan is to hide the gospel from us and to blind us from receiving ‘the light’ of the gospel. In 2 Timothy he says we remain captive to the devil all of life if we don’t believe and live the gospel.

(5) Knowing that God Totally Forgives Us

We have trouble loving others because we struggle with totally forgiving others who have wronged us and done us dirty. Part of this comes from us not knowing our ‘equality’ with everyone else in the gospel (see number 10).

Again, we try to transfer human characteristics to God. We forget God is not human. We are told twice in Hebrews that God not only FORGIVES us but that he also FORGETS our sins and wrongs — if we are believers. Sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west. Paul says, “Jesus became sin for us.” He even took all our sin on himself.

This is why the gospel tells us to have BOLDNESS in the day of judgment. We can be bold and confident if we truly believe the gospel because it becomes apparent to us that God can’t judge what he doesn’t remember, and that he forgives.

Paul says several times that God has ALREADY forgiven us if we’re believers. It’s something that’s already been done. It’s an event of the past. It was done 2,000 years ago in Jesus.

(6) Living in God’s Grace and Peace

So many complain about not having enough grace and peace, and they pray for God to give them more grace and peace. Psychology calls this being ‘deficiency motivated.’

We always think we don’t have enough and we need more. Often we’re talking about more money or more success or more of 100 other things. But this applies to spiritual things too. The gospel makes this point about faith a lot.

Romans says God’s grace is one of his many, many gifts to us. This means the ability to cope with life, but it means so much more. We’re told God’s grace is ‘sufficient’ for every problem we face in life. And Romans also goes on to say we have total PEACE with God because Jesus has ‘justified’ us. We lawyers know this is a legal term that means God finds no fault with us at all. He not only sees us as being ‘not guilty,’ but he sees us as ‘innocent’ and ‘blameless.’

People who do not live these blessings and benefits of the gospel cannot know peace with God! If we don’t know God’s love-1, — his absolute salvation-2, — if we still live under the law-3, —if we don’t think gospel thoughts-4, — if we think God’s forgiveness in contingent upon us-5, then we can’t live in peace with God. But the gospel says Jesus is our peace.

(7) Living the Abundant Life of Christ

Jesus says God gives us his entire Kingdom. The gospel reveals this. Paul says God gives us ALL things. He says in not withholding the death of his Son Jesus from us, God also gives us all things. We are told we are given ‘every blessing.’ Paul says there is nothing we have that we have not been given.

In Romans, it says the gospel is “Good news of good things.” Wow, is that an understatement! The gospel is what allows us to live the best life we can possibly live on this planet. The gospel empowers us. The Apostle John says it gives us (1) prosperity and (2) health — if we’ll only live God’s truth. Religion demands that we live life right. The gospel is the presence and power of God in us that enables us to live life the way God desires. The gospel empowers us to live life better by accident than we ever could on purpose.

Of course, life isn’t perfect now. If life were perfect here, we would never have any desire or anticipation of heaven. Jesus says (1) we will have problems, and (2) we will be offended by other people. Haven’t you experienced these two things in your life? The answer is obvious, right?

And of course, we all experience physical death too. I like the bumper sticker: “Life is just one damn thing after another, and then you die.” I’ve done seven messages on death available here: Medium.com/@RogerHimesEsq.

The Old Testament law demanded from people what it could not produce. The New Testament gospel produces in us what it does not demand. Paul says the gospel goes so far as to ‘fulfill God’s word in us.’

BUT REMEMBER: God does not just bless us for the sake of blessings us. We are blessed so that we will be a blessing to others. It’s not just what we lawyers would call ‘a unilateral grant.’ It has ‘a bilateral part’ to it. We

God sees us as implementing three things: (1) receive blessings of God, (2) relegate them in our own lives, and (3) release them to others.

A maxim of the world calls it ‘PAYING IT FORWARD.’ In John, Jesus refers to this as being ‘rivers of living water.’

(8) God’s Righteousness is His Free Gift to Us

Righteousness is a hard thing for us to grasp in our minds. This is because we know we are NOT righteous in everything we think, do, and say. But this is because we think of righteousness as being a VERB: it defines things we do and don’t do. In the gospel, righteousness is a NOUN: it defines who we are in our person — our identity in Christ.

We won’t understand our righteousness, without us doing everything right, until we understand Jesus was made sin, without doing anything wrong.

In Romans, Paul says righteousness is one of God’s free gifts to us. John reminds us, “As Jesus is, so are we in this world.” It’s simply a gospel reality we must BELIEVE! The problem is our human minds just don’t think this way! Thus the gospel is meant to transform our minds (#4 above).

In the Old Testament, righteousness was only attained by keeping God’s law flawlessly. Of course, everyone failed. The gospel speaks of two types of righteousness: (1) God’s and (2) ours. Romans says we’re IGNORANT of God and his righteousness if we live in self-righteousness. It is worshipping the creature (us) more than the Creator (God).

The righteousness of God also imparts to us the whole inheritance of Jesus, which is everything in the heavens. Paul says we are joint, equal heirs with Jesus. It is only in God’s righteousness that we see this.

(9) Living in God’s Authority Over Everything Evil

‘The Lord’s Prayer’ closes with the prayer to deliver us from evil. Well, the gospel does this in us if we are living it. I hear so many people complain that the devil — or his demons — are after them. I think of the cartoon about the devil — he sadly says, “I get blamed for everything.”

We are told Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. We are told Jesus defeated him so thoroughly that he triumphed over him in public, making a public spectacle of him. The Apostle Peter says the devil can’t do anything else today except roar to try to scare people. That’s because Jesus kicked out all of his teeth (spiritually speaking, of course).

Christians believe that Jesus must return to fight Satan again at ‘The Battle of Armageddon.’ I don’t believe this at all. If we believe the gospel, the devil has already been defeated. It’s now a matter of ‘no contest.’

All Jesus has to do is return, wrap history up and conclude things. The battle was won on the cross. Paul says if Satan had known the defeat he was experiencing that “He would never have crucified the Lord of glory.”

The devil wants us to believe Jesus must return to fight him again. And in Luke, Jesus says he gives us believers ALL authority over Satan.

If we live the gospel, Satan stays as far from us as he can get. He only harasses people who don’t believe and live gospel authority. Can I quote it again? “As Jesus is, so are we in this world.”

In the spiritual realm, we are put in the same dimension that Jesus is in. It sounds unbelievable, and that’s why so many people don’t believe it, but it is what the gospel declares. Sometimes I think God says some things just to test our trust in him, and whether or not we’ll even try to believe him.

10. The Gospel Makes Us All Totally Equal

I refer to the gospel as ‘the great equalizer.’ In Galatians, Paul says we are all equal in the gospel. Now in religion and ‘churchianity’ it is not this way. We are all UN-equal, and this begins with the comparison between (1) pastors and leaders, vs. (2) us laypeople. This is the invention of MAN, and it grows out of man’s theology — which is man’s ideas about God.

The gospel is God’s ideas about God. In the gospel, there is no difference between any of us: not due to sex, race, age, position, education, wealth, title, color, our height and weight, our good looks, or anything else.

What we don’t grasp is the gospel is defined by Paul as ‘the power of God.’ If we live in UNITY and ONENESS with God, as Jesus says we are, the gospel lifts us all to ‘a 4th dimension’ that is greater than any 3-D we have on earth. Paul calls it ‘a new dispensation.’

He says believers become ‘a new creation,’ about which I’m doing a whole separate series of messages: Living Life As a NCIC — a new creation in Christ. They are also available at Medium.com/@RogerHimesEsq. A NCIC is no longer strictly human. We become a new species: a ‘GodMan.’

See one thing about equality! The Bible says so much about loving others. Do you realize how hard it is to love others who are not EQUAL to you?

If you view someone else as above you and better than you, then you can look up to them, ask them for help, model after them, and even ‘brown nose them’ to get them to love you, or at least like you more.

But you can’t really love them because they are not on your level.

If you view someone else as lower than you and lesser than you, then you can pray for them, give them money, give them food, speak blessings to them, and try to help them in any other way you can.

But you can’t really love them because they are not on your level.

The gospel makes us all equal, and allows us to love others much easier than we could in ourselves only. We enter into the truth of Jesus: “Love others AS I have loved you.”

There may be more than these 10 gospel blessings in the New Testament. This is just all I’ve found so far. But one thing Paul says in 1 Corinthians is that part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to show us any of God’s free gifts that we may miss. This means even more blessings and benefits.

God wants to give us all his blessings, and he wants us to live in them. Now there is a divine method to ‘his apparent madness.’ God knows that what he plants is what he harvested — what he sows is what he reaps. God is smart! He knows if he plants apple seeds in us, he won’t raise pumpkins.

God knows if the more blessings he plants in us, the more we will want to share them and give them away to others.

Our response should simply be the same as Mary’s was, the mother of Jesus. When the angel appeared to her saying she was going to have a son, the Messiah of God, when she was a virgin, it was UN-believable, like so much of the gospel is to us. Often, the gospel just seems too good to be true.

But Mary didn’t doubt the angel. She responded in trust and faith: “Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.” In the gospel of Christ, our response should be the same.