{"id":6092,"date":"2017-02-24T23:20:20","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T05:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/?p=6092"},"modified":"2017-02-25T01:54:44","modified_gmt":"2017-02-25T07:54:44","slug":"session-1-recap-gilbert-unashamed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/session-1-recap-gilbert-unashamed\/","title":{"rendered":"Session 1 Recap: Gilbert, “Unashamed”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Note:\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Grant Blankenship is the Preaching Elder at Cedar Springs Church<\/a>, Cedar Crest, NM. He is a member of the Albuquerque Chapter of The Gospel Coalition<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0This post is a summary of Greg Gilbert\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s message from Friday evening at Clarus<\/a>, February 24, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unashamed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from Romans 1:16\u00e2\u20ac\u201c17.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n

Greg Gilbert opened our conference with three reasons we can have unshakeable confidence in the gospel:<\/p>\n

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  1. Because it has massive power. <\/strong>Paul does not say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am not ashamed of the gospel because its message is very powerful,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but rather because it<\/em> is the power that saves! The same power that resurrected Jesus from the grave is the same power that brought dead souls to life and is at work in others to bring them to life as well. Gilbert challenged us to, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stand back for a minute in a little bit of amazement that you are a believer at all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 The same word of God that was powerful enough to bring the universe into existence, brought you from death to life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to be ashamed to talk to others about this Good News because this message is backed up by the massive power of the God of the universe. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find confidence to share the gospel because of our ability to persuade and convince people, but rather in the Spirit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power to bring about life.<\/li>\n
  2. Because it offers an awesome gift. <\/strong>The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.<\/em> The gift of salvation is a gift based entirely on faith. It \u00e2\u20ac\u0153begins and ends with faith; it is faith from top to bottom.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Martin Luther called this an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153alien righteousness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because it comes from outside of us<\/em>. The problem for humans is not just the absence of good works, but the presence of sin. We cannot blot out those sins no matter how hard we try to cover them with good works. <\/em>The heart of the gospel is that we cannot save ourselves, and yet we need to be declared righteous by the Holy Judge of the universe. It is only through \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Great Exchange,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as Luther called it, that we can be saved. Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 righteousness is given to us, and in exchange the wrath we deserved was poured out on the Son, satisfying the requirements of our Holy Judge.<\/li>\n
  3. Because it is a wide open invitation. <\/strong>The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most universal invitation in the world. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an invitation, so it must be accepted. You must come to the source of living water if you want it. This awesome gift is not found with any other god. It is only available in Jesus Christ.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Note:\u00c2\u00a0Grant Blankenship is the Preaching Elder at Cedar Springs Church, Cedar Crest, NM. He is a member… Continue Reading ›<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[71],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6092"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6108,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6092\/revisions\/6108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}