Lost – For Whom?

The Gospel that Paul preached he calls “the Gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Most Christians turn out not to know this at all. They think that the Gospel is about us. In the salvation that is preached to them, in practice man is central. Man is lost, and therefore (so one thinks) it is in man’s interest to be saved. That latter is not entirely untrue, but in it the essence is overlooked.

If something is lost, it is a loss for the owner! For no one else. Regardless of whether the lost one is aware of it. It may even be that the one who is lost feels very happy. Just think of the parable of the lost son who squandered his wealth in a foreign land. Or was that son only lost when he had spent his wealth and was hungry with the pigs? No, from the moment the son left his father, he was the lost son. The father had lost his son. Just like the shepherd who, from the moment he lost a sheep, was already at a loss.

It is therefore, of course, the owner’s interest to seek the lost. And it is the owner’s joy when he has found the lost. The Gospel is about God who saves His lost world. It is called Gospel (Good News) because it is His celebration! It is also HIS glory! Man does not seek to be saved. The only thing mankind “achieved” was to become lost. But God seeks mankind. And He finds mankind!

That latter is undoubtedly the best that can happen to man, but make no mistake: it makes God happy in the first place. That is why we read in 1 Timothy 1:11 about “the Gospel of the glory of the happy God.” The Gospel is called Gospel because it displays God’s glory and makes Him happy. He finds everything that He had lost.

“…going after the lost one until he may find it…”
Luke 15:4 (YLT)

Delen: