The Gospel According to the New Creation
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. — 2 Corinthians 5:18
There is a small Gospel and a large one. The small Gospel says: you were guilty, Jesus paid, you are forgiven, try to be good until heaven. Every sentence is true, and the whole is too small. The large Gospel — the one Paul actually preaches — says: God has made a new creation in Christ, reconciled the world to Himself, made the believer His righteousness, and sent him out as an ambassador of that reconciliation.
What the new creation Gospel announces
- Not only that your sins are forgiven, but that the sinner you were has died and a new person lives.
- Not only that God is no longer angry, but that He has reconciled you and calls you a son.
- Not only that you will go to heaven, but that heaven’s life has come into you now.
- Not only that Christ did something for you, but that Christ Himself is in you.
What it changes in discipleship
Under the small Gospel, discipleship is behaviour management for forgiven sinners. Under the new creation Gospel, discipleship is teaching new creatures who they are and how their nature works. The first produces tired people who never feel they measure up. The second produces people who grow, because a living thing grows when it is fed.
This is why WordHouse trains the way it does. Christian Doctrinal Foundation is not a set of rules for new converts; it is a map of the new country they have been born into. We are not trying to make bad people good. God has made dead people alive, and we are teaching them to walk.
What it changes in witness
Ambassadors do not beg. They announce, on behalf of a King, that peace has been made and the door is open: "be reconciled to God". The believer who knows he is a new creation tells his neighbour in Eket not "try my religion" but "come and be made new". That is the Gospel according to the new creation, and it is the only Gospel there is.