Creflo Dollar — Grace: The Power of the Gospel
I don't want to take for granted that everybody's been hearing me preach on grace. There may be some people that come here for the first time, and this can be quite shocking to look at these Scriptures and say, "Whoa!" Okay?
You're gonna question a lot of stuff, but we believe God you're gonna get it and your ears are anointed to hear. Let's read Romans 1:16 out loud together. Now, notice here he says, "I am not ashamed." There's no shame here. So this gospel is not going to produce shame, all right? "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ."
So let's deal first of all with the word "gospel." Underline this word "gospel." You know, when you talk to most religious people and you ask them what is the gospel, they'll say what? Good news. And that's an okay definition, but I want you to understand the setting and the time and the place where this word first came forth.
In Paul's day, this word was not used a whole lot, if ever, because this word literally means "nearly-too-good-to-be-true news." That's what it means. If you study this Greek translation-- and the New Testament is written in Greek-- of the word "gospel," it means "nearly-too-good-to-be-true news."
Now, the reason why that wasn't used a whole lot in Paul's day was because there were not many people that even experienced anything that would be nearly-too-good-to-be-true news. So it wasn't a word that was used a lot.
But when Jesus showed up-- and the Bible says that the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ-- this news about the grace of Jesus Christ was nearly-too-good-to-be-true news, the news that Jesus is declaring righteous, ungodly men without their works. That was nearly too good to be true.
The news that Jesus has shown up and with His blood has washed and forgiven all of your sins, past, present and future. That's nearly too good to be true. The news that we can be in Christ and we are seated with Him in heavenly places and that we're the righteousness of God without our works, but we've been made righteous because of the works that Jesus has done, that was nearly-too-good-to-be-true news.
That's what the gospel is, nearly-too-good-to-be-true news. And Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of this nearly-too-good-to-be-true news. "...the anointed one." All right, now, the gospel, we've got to define what it is. I just said it's the nearly-too-good-to-be-true news, but it's not a complete definition if we don't define what--what is the news?
I mean, let's collapse it. What is the nearly-too-good-to-be-true news? I mentioned a couple of things, but what is it? Well, let's deal with it right now; what is the nearly-too-good-to-be-true news? Let's just say it: Grace.