Getting Involved
| What is an Evangelical Student? |
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The word evangelical comes from the Greek word euangelion. In the New Testament this word is translated as either “good news” or “Gospel”. (Gospel is a combination of two old English words god (good) spell (news or message), and over time these two words melded into the one word Gospel). In the ancient world this word was used in an interesting way...
Sometimes an invading king would send an envoy ahead to announce his pending arrival to the people he was about to attack to give them a chance to lay down their arms and enter into a treaty, thus avoiding war. The envoy’s message was called the euangelion, the good news: “My king is coming to invade your land, destroy your army, take your women and children into slavery and claim all of your wealth and property as his own. Surrender now or die!” Doesn’t sound like very good news, does it? But of course it was good news – for the invading king, who was about to expand his territory and wealth! The book of Acts in the Bible records the first time Peter (one of Jesus’ disciples) announced the euangelion about Jesus. Here is a part of what he said: "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him…. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, "`The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." ' "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:22-24, 33-36, NIV) For many years the Jewish people had been waiting for the day when God would send his Christ, a descendant of King David who reigned in Israel about 1000 BC. They believed that when the Christ came he would issue in a new age of peace by conquering all of Israel’s enemies. In the time of Jesus this hope was particularly strong because Israel was under the rule of the Roman Empire. However, when the people heard the good news announced by the disciples they didn’t start celebrating: “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:31,NIV) While in English “cut to the heart” might mean something like “deeply saddened” or “grieved”, in ancient Greek it was an idiom which meant “acutely distressed” or “terrified”. Why were they terrified? Wasn’t this what they had been hoping for? When we look at what Peter said it becomes clear: God has declared that he will make all of his enemies a footstall for his feet, and they were the ones who crucified him. They were the enemy he came to conquer! Sin is a word that gets used a lot in our society, but there seems to be little understanding about what it actually is. We say things like, “It’s so good it must be a sin.” There seems to be a perception that religion is all about obeying a set of rules, and when one of those rules is broken, we “sin”. While there are many things we describe as “sin”, all sin at its heart is the same thing. It is the desire to live according to our own rules, to determine our destiny, to define our own purpose; in short, it is the attempt to place ourselves on God’s throne and rule in his place in our own lives. So when the euangelion is preached, the news that Jesus has been crowned as king and that all of his enemies will be made subject to him, those who believe the message hear not good news at all, but a threat to their own sovereignty from a power that cannot be defeated. Llike those who heard Peter, we are left asking, “What shall we do?” The difference between the euangelion of the invading king in the ancient world and the euangelion of Christianity is that it is not a message about a king who is coming to destroy; rather, it is news of a king who has come to save. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17, NIV). And so Peter’s reply to the crowd that day was, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Repentance is “a change of mind” – that is, we are told to change our mind about who is boss, who is king, and submit to Jesus’ rule. And baptism? In baptism we discover something amazing that removes all of the fear we felt when we first heard the euangelion: in baptism we discover that the penalty we deserve for our rebellion against God has been paid for us by the king himself! “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NIV) “…all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life… Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:3-4, 8-11 NIV)” You see, it really is good news after all! So what is an Evangelical Student? An Evangelical Student is one who has heard and believed the euangelion, one that submits to the rule of Christ in their lives, and one who then becomes an envoy of the king, declaring the good news to all who will hear it: God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ. |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 October 2009 10:51 |
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