“Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people…”
(1 Corinthians 1:1–2)

This is Paul’s opening address to the church at Corinth. It is interesting that Paul would say “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people,” as the root word in Greek for both “sanctification” and “holy” is the same, hagios.

Redundant? No, this was very intentional by Paul.

Throughout the Old Testament, “hagios” and its derivatives refers to the act of setting a person, space, or object apart for dedicated use by and for God. This was done through the application of blood, as symbolic of purifying [atoning for] sin and oil, signifying the Spirit’s anointing of the person, space, or object for service to God. (Leviticus 8:10, 24, 30; 14:28; 16:19; 17:11)

In the New Testament, we learn that we are sanctified through both the blood of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:16; 1 Peter 1:2; Hebrews 13:12). In this way, the cross not only represents our reconciliation (being set in right-relationship with God through the atoning work of Jesus) but our sanctification (the ongoing devotion of our life to the work of God in the world.)

Here, Paul reminds the Corinthian church (who were enslaved to their desires and consumed with the affairs of this world) of the most basic reality that ought to inform and shape their daily lives: (1) you have been made right with God through Jesus Christ; (2) thus being set apart to live in service to his mission in the world.

This reality frames Paul’s ethical and doctrinal teaching throughout this letter (really, all of his letters). The gospel is not merely a proclamation that our sin has been forgiven but that the way has been opened for us to live in unceasing communion with God, so that we may fulfill his purposes in creation. (Genesis 1:26-28; Colossians 3:10; Romans 1:1-5; cf. 16:25-27)

It is the message that we were once separated from the life of God by our sin; inherently dysfunctional in our thoughts, desires, and relationships; being dislocated from the purposes for which we were created . . . but God through Christ has redeemed us, set us in right-relationship with God, and endowed us with his life-giving Spirit— so that we now have the capacity to live in loving faithfulness to God, not merely as individuals saved from divine wrath but as the people of God demonstrating new creation (way of the Kingdom) through gospel community. (Romans 5:6-11; Ephesians 2).

Through Christ, we have been cleansed from defiling effects of sin (sanctified), so that we might be filled with God’s holy presence (Spirit), who empowers us to become more like Jesus. We have been set apart to become “holy, as he is holy,” learning how to image God in creation. (1 Peter 1:13-16; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18; cf. 2 Peter 1:4)

WHY THIS MATTERS
This “call” that we receive in the gospel is important. No, it is vital for understanding our identity and purpose in the unfolding story of God. Too often the gospel message is reduced to forgiveness of sins so that we can escape eternal damnation in exchange for a blissful existence in heaven when we die. It’s an otherworldly message with relatively little to ground our ethical lives in this world.

In other words, that gospel has no bearing on how we actually live. That gospel is predicated on a shallow view of “grace” (charis) understood as a type of unmerited favor implying that: (a) no matter what you’ve done/or do, you are loved and forgiven; (b) without requirement or qualification.

For the sake of brevity, let’s grant a biblical view of “grace” that includes nuances of that meaning, but that is certainly not all that it means.

In his graciousness, God moved toward us while we were his enemies, providing the way through Jesus for sin to be forgiven, thus resulting in our reconciliation with God (Romans 5:6-11). Yet, it’s a shortsighted and grave mistake to reduce either the fulness of the gospel or God’s grace to this one aspect of our salvation. It reduces the gospel to the question of “How?” while never asking the ultimate “Why?”

To what ultimate end did Jesus present himself as a living sacrifice, well before his death on the Cross? To what ultimate end does his death and resurrection reconcile us to God?

The answer is simple, the gospel is not primarily about us, it is about God. It is not primarily about assuaging our guilt nor easing our suffering, either now or in eternity. This might be hard for us to accept, it may even sound scandalous, because from that fateful moment in Eden we tend to make everything about us, perhaps especially, in how we turn the word of God into a means of promoting personal significance, satisfaction, and assurance. We are prone to set our self-importance at the center of our existence, as the primary reason for our existence itself and the driving purpose behind God’s action throughout history. If we are not careful, we risk following in the sin of Israel in thinking the story is about us rather than God’s ultimate purposes for the world.

In Scripture, we see that the gospel is about God setting the world right by reestablishing his rule and reign over creation in bringing all things into harmony with himself (Ephesians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

It is the “gospel of the Kingdom” Jesus proclaimed throughout his ministry, being directed to humanity, of which humanity plays a key role as image bearers of God; but while saving us from Hell is one desired outcome, it is not the primary aim of the gospel (Matthew 4:17 [“the Kingdom” as the primary content of Christ’s message throughout the Gospels]; John 3:1-8; cf. Acts 1:3; 8:12; 14:22; 19:8-10; 28:23-31).

In short, the primary subject of the gospel is that the rightful King of the cosmos has ascended the throne, a new era has begun in Jesus, and we have been invited to join him in his mission to restore the Kingdom to its fulness “on earth as it is in heaven” as his priestly ambassadors and image bearers.
(Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:3; cf. Isaiah 49:8-26; Isaiah 55:1-13)

This explains the weightiness and gravity of the ethical imperatives we read across the New Testament, even though ”by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

That is, we’ve done nothing to merit the gracious provision and invitation God has extended; nevertheless, it is not without purpose and expectation. God simultaneously calls us out of the old way of life lived according to the autonomous self (“flesh”) and into a new way of life empowered by the Spirit. On the personal level, the gospel calls us into a life lived in ceaseless communion with God, of learning increasing dependence upon and obedience to his will and work in the world. (Colossians 3:1-17)

Just as Paul continues on, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 210). This is not primarily about your or my individual calling or personal significance. Rather, it is about ‘us’ as a group (the people of God/the Church) being caught up into the work God is already doing, which we are now to participate with him in through the indwelling presence of his Spirit, until the fulness of his Kingdom come! (Matthew 11:28-30; John 14:15-17; Acts 1:3-8; Romans 8:1-17; 2 Timothy 1:6-14; cf. Mark 14:24-25)

You see, the gospel is not expressly for us, it is good news for the whole of creation, which includes us. It is God’s project to restore society, culture, and the cosmos to their intended state under the reign of God’s Kingdom. What went wrong through Adam is now being made right through Christ. Humanity’s redemption is instrumental to the story but it’s not the underlying purpose nor ultimate aim, of this “good news.”

So, while deeply personal, our ‘salvation’ certainly is no private matter. We are not simply called into Christ but into his Kingdom (gospel community), where the life of God works in and through us for the sake of one another and the world at large.

Our salvation is not just in having our sin forgiven, it’s in having our sin forgiven so that we can be indwelled with the Spirit of God who empowers us to partner with God in his Kingdom work in the world. This gracious gift is applied “through faith” (pistis) as the ongoing affirmation of our trust, hope, and allegiance (covenant faithfulness) to Jesus (Galatians 5:13-26; Titus 2:11-14). If our understanding of the ‘gospel of grace’ negates this “so that” in an effort to emphasize personal salvation over and above the mission of God, then it potentially undermines our preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom as attested to from Eden to New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1–22:5).

FURTHER READING
King Jesus Gospel, by Scot Mcknight

The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative, by Christopher J.H. Wright

Gospel Allegiance: What Faith in Jesus Misses for Salvation in Christ, by Matthew W. Bates

Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God, by Dallas Willard

Best Kept Secret of Christian: Promoting the Gospel with More than our Lips, by John Dickson