The Gospel of Self

By Pastor Anton Bosch

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves,..."
(1 Timothy 3:1-2a) [emphasis added]

We seldom take notice, when things change very slowly. I am sure you know the story (probably an urban legend) that if you threw a frog in a pot of boiling water, it would immediately jump out of the water, but if it is put into the pot when the water is cold and the water is gradually heated, it will stay there until it is dead.

The Gospel in the western world has gradually been changed over the past 50 (or more) years so that what is believed to be the gospel today is no longer the true Gospel but a false gospel which differs substantially and dramatically from the true Gospel. But because the changes have been brought in gradually, no one seems to have noticed.

Paul mostly just refers to the Gospel as “the gospel” meaning that there is no other gospel, and assuming that his readers understand what the term means. But about 30 times he calls the gospel “the gospel of Christ” (Romans 1:16; 1Corinthians 9:12 etc.) or “the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1; 1Thessalonians 2:2 etc.). In fact, Mark opens his gospel with “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1).

By calling it the “gospel of Christ” the writers of the New Testament are saying that the Gospel is about Jesus Christ, it is founded in, and by, Him. It is completed in, and by, Him. And He is the object and center of the Gospel. Nowhere is this clearer than in Paul's explicit definition of the gospel:

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