discipleship, evangelism

The Gospel Brings Life

Written by Sarah Blake LaRose on . Leave a comment

The Gospel … the message of salvation … is about God taking a person’s vulnerability and shame and turning it into something that empowers them to speak about His goodness and love. It isn’t about God wiping away any trace that shame ever existed, or simply giving us what we want.

I am convinced that the reason we do not see people turning to Jesus in greater numbers is that we have been failing to preach this kind of Gospel. We have not testified to this in our own lives and we have not preached the Scriptures in a way that allows people to identify with this message.

Instead, we have made the Gospel a message about God fixing what is societally unacceptable so that it makes a person fit in with society. We have created a gospel that the haves give to the have-nots so that the have-nots can join an elite club. This is not bread for the hungry or rest for the weary. It is false hope to the hopeless, because the Gospel does not answer to the control of humans. When the have-nots don’t receive what the haves promise and he haves don’t admit them to the elite club, then the gospel becomes a thing that wounds instead of the balm that heals.

The truth is that all of us are have-nots when it comes to the kingdom of God. That is where Jesus meets us all: in the same place in our soul where we are stripped of all our dignity. That is the message that is love. That is why among the followers of Jesus you find Jewish peasants and Roman tax collectors. All needed the transforming love.

And so do I. Every day. Thank God for freeing me, for empowering me to live differently from my past. There is no limit to that empowerment–not for me and not for anyone else.

If I never give anyone another message, I pray that I have given you this one. If I never teach someone to communicate anything in ministry, I pray I teach this.

About Sarah Blake LaRose

Sarah Blake LaRose teaches Biblical Hebrew and Greek at Anderson University School of Theology and Christian Ministry in Anderson, Indiana. She is one of three blind academic scholars who received the Jacob Bolotin Award from the National Federation of the Blind in 2016 in recognition of innovative work in the field of access to biblical language texts and tools for people who are blind. In addition to her work as a professor, she provides braille transcription services specializing in ancient languages. Her research interests concern the intersection of disability, poverty, and biblical studies.
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About Sarah Blake LaRose

Sarah Blake LaRose teaches Biblical Hebrew and Greek at Anderson University School of Theology and Christian Ministry in Anderson, Indiana. She is one of three blind academic scholars who received the Jacob Bolotin Award from the National Federation of the Blind in 2016 in recognition of innovative work in the field of access to biblical language texts and tools for people who are blind. In addition to her work as a professor, she provides braille transcription services specializing in ancient languages. Her research interests concern the intersection of disability, poverty, and biblical studies.

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