JESUS CHRIST-GOSPEL
The portrait of
Jesus in the gospels is altogether different from the picture contemporary
evangelicals typically imagine. Rather than a would-be redeemer who merely
stands outside anxiously awaiting an invitation to come into unregenerate
lives, the Savior described in the New Testament is God in the flesh, invading
the world of sinful men and challenging them to turn from their iniquity.
Rather than waiting for an invitation, He issues His own in the form of a
command to repent and take on a yoke of submission.
John MacArthur
The Gospel According to Jesus, © John MacArthur, 1988, p. 107.
The real
truth is that while He came to preach the gospel, His chief object in coming
was that there might be a gospel to preach.
The gospel is
not speculation but fact. It is truth,
because it is the record of a Person who is the Truth.
Alexander MacLaren
Fundamentally,
our Lords message was Himself. He did not come merely to preach a Gospel; He
Himself is that Gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, I am
the Bread. He did not come merely to shed light; He said, I am the Light. He
did not come merely to show the door; He said, I am the Door. He did not come
merely to name a shepherd; He said, I am the Shepherd. He did not come merely
to point the way; He said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
J. Sidlow Baxter