God’s headline for his church prioritizes the person of Jesus and his purpose to demonstrate God’s power by dying and rising again for our salvation.
The morning routine of reading a daily newspaper has been replaced by turning on our phones. Be that as it may, the headline is one element consistent in a newspaper and on a smartphone. A headline is one of the most important elements in journalism, online or otherwise, and a “good” headline will convey the essential bits of a story without any fluff. The purpose of the headline is to grab the attention of readers, incentivizing them to want to find out more and read the rest of the story. Things get hairier in the world of digital journalism thanks in large part to the sleazy practice known as “clickbait,” which is a term that refers to those overly exaggerated news headlines you see on Facebook. The goal of clickbait is not “journalistic integrity” but more clicks on a website.
Recently, after getting suckered into reading one of these clickbait articles, I started to wonder what the headline for the Christian faith might be. If you were tasked with writing a headline that captured all of the most important elements of the church and the Christian faith that anyone would ever need to know, what would you say? What would you write? Scouring the annals of church history would surface gobs of different headlines, each of which offers a snapshot of what was going on at the time. Not all of them are good, of course. Headlines from past eras of church history are far from “rosy,” but the headlines of today’s churches don’t fair any better. After a quick search, you will find results that speak of political infighting, pastors stepping down over moral failures, and whole denominations dividing over doctrinal issues. Is it any wonder that folks are leaving churches in droves when these are the headlines coming out of the church? There seems to be a gigantic gap between what we say Christianity is all about and how we illustrate what it is all about by how we live.
The reason for all these bad headlines is not only because churches are filled with sinners — which is certainly true — but also because many churches have let go of their grip on God’s headline for his church. The whole institution of the church is ordained and designed by God himself. As such, how would God summarize what he is about and, likewise, what his church should be about? Can that even be done? This is what God did when he inspired Paul to write his first letter to Timothy, where, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he puts into words the most remarkable and life-altering truths of the Christian faith in a single sentence. “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance,” writes the apostle, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). This is Christianity’s headline. “This is the gospel in brief,” R. C. H. Lenski says, “this is its very heart” (523–24). It is the best encapsulation of what our faith is all about since it was written by none other than the Author and Finisher of our faith himself. Paul’s words do what any “good” headline should do by relaying only what is important while inviting us to want to know more and dive deeper.
It tells us about God’s priority.
It is worth noting that Paul’s statement occurs in a pastoral letter, in which he addresses his protégé Timothy, who is in the early days of pastoring the Ephesians. Sensing that his life is coming to an end, Paul pens two epistles to convey to Timothy not only the importance of his position but also what should be his main priority as he shepherds that congregation. He reminds his son in the faith that his calling in Ephesus included the defense of the truth against those who would teach something “different” (1 Tim. 1:3–4). There were self-proclaimed “experts” in and around the Ephesian Church who were promoting “silly myths” (1 Tim. 4:7), that is, sensationalized and misleading stories that did little to edify the Body of Christ (a.k.a. clickbait!). All those “myths and endless genealogies” only served to promote speculation and division, which embroiled the church in lots of “vain discussion” (1 Tim. 1:6). By contrast, Timothy was charged to resist the urge for “mythical proclamation” by staying true to God’s “sound doctrine.” This was his priority.
God’s gospel is not another specimen of a misleading headline. Rather, his gospel is categorically true.
Anything in conflict with God’s gospel should be refused at once, no questions asked. This is when Paul proceeds to elaborate on the content of the gospel by telling his own story. He recounts his conversion and how he was the recipient of God’s “overflowing grace” (1 Tim. 1:12–14), a testimony that precipitates his bold declaration in the very next verse (1 Tim. 1:15). The truth that forms the bedrock of our hope and everything we believe is found in the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” As Paul says, this is a “trustworthy” saying, one that should be accepted without hesitation or reservation. In other words, this isn’t clickbait! God’s gospel is not another specimen of a misleading headline. Rather, his gospel is categorically true, so much so that God inspires Paul to emphasize it even more. “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.”
Paul effectively puts this verse in bold and even underlines it, as if to say, “Don’t miss this!” He is adamant that Timothy pay attention to this announcement. Indeed, his very position as a leader in the church was tethered to the proclamation of this message. While other facets and corollaries of the Christian faith are important and have their place, the most crucial truth of all is this piece of good news, which Paul summarizes in a mere nine words (1 Tim. 1:15). God’s priority remains demonstrating that this message is true, so much so that he has given us an entire book to tell us all about it. The Bible is God’s story, throughout which he reveals the only way sinners can be forgiven — namely, through his Son’s life, death, and resurrection. This emphasis is made apparent not only by God telling us but also by God showing us in person.
It tells us about God’s person.
The significance of this phrase is seen not only in who inspired it but also in who it is about. “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance,” Paul declares, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). The subject, of course, is Christ Jesus since he is the one doing all the action. It is Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, “God with us.” It is he who is the “fullness of God” in human form (Col. 1:19). It is he who is the flesh and blood embodiment of the eternal Creator. Indeed, all that God wants us to know about who he is and what he is about is bound up in the person of Jesus Christ. The very God who cannot be contained by “the highest heaven” is the same God who takes on “skin and bone” and dwells among us (1 Kings 8:27; John 1:14). The Christian faith is intimately connected to the person of God’s Son who is simultaneously God and Man, Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). In many ways, this was the underlying reason beneath all that Jesus did and said while he was on Earth. Every sermon, every conversation, every dinner party, and every miracle was meant to drive those who followed him to conclude that he was God’s Son.
This is made apparent in Chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel when Peter confesses that Jesus is “the Christ.” We are, likewise, confronted with the same question (Mark 8:27–29). Although Peter’s confession is undermined by his own confusion about what “the Christ” was supposed to do, the fundamental question of the Christian faith remains, “Who do you say that I am?” Who is Christ Jesus? I make no apologies for, once again, referring to the State of Theology Survey, a dataset obtained by Ligonier Ministries in conjunction with LifeWay Research, the results of which often paint a worrisome picture of America’s theological proclivities. In 2022, 44% of evangelical adults in the U.S. agreed that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.” One wonders how the claim of Christianity can abide when one fails and/or refuses to confess that the Christ of God is Jesus of Nazareth. In him, the fullness of God himself is revealed.
Alexander Maclaren puts it this way: “In this story of a human life, patient, meek, limited, despised, rejected, and at last crucified, lies, brighter than all other flashings of the divine light, the very heart of the lustre and palpitating centre and fontal source of all the radiance with which God has flooded the world . . . this self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the very climax and highest point of all God’s revelations to men . . . The whole Godhead, so to speak, is smelted down to make that rushing river of molten love which flows from the Cross of Christ into the hearts of men. Here is the highest point of God’s revelation of Himself” (14:2.310–12).
God’s headline for his church is intimately tethered to the announcement that the Messiah has come, his name is Jesus, and through his death and resurrection, the kingdom of heaven was opened to all who believe.
It tells us about God’s purpose.
God has placed a priority not only on the person of Christ but also on the purpose of Christ. He “came . . . to save,” Paul asserts (1 Tim. 1:15). There are no better or simpler words to summarize Jesus’s purpose than those. God does not leave humanity to aimlessly wander through this wasteland of sin and squalor, nor does he abandon his creation after his creatures rebel against him and go their own way (Isa. 53:6). Neither is he a god who insists that his disciples climb up to where he is in order to experience his love. Rather, the gospel reveals God to be one who descends to where we are, who gets on our level to save us. This, of course, is what makes the Christian faith unlike any other religion in the universe. While other systems of faith might include their own mythologies of gods visiting them, only Christianity announces the good news of the Myth Become Fact that God in Christ dies for his enemies. “For God so loved the world,” Jesus attests, “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Every other system of spirituality is nothing but a remix of the same old song: “Work hard, do better, try harder, then you’ll get in.” The way to paradise and the hope of heaven, therefore, is earned by one’s own blood, sweat, and grit. This is explicitly stated in the last recorded words of Siddhartha Gautama, otherwise known as Buddha, who reportedly said on his deathbed, “Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you: work hard to gain your own salvation.” The encapsulation of a lifetime of spiritual ascension, awakening, and asceticism is condensed into a message of self-motivated effort. In stark contrast, the last words of Jesus of Nazareth were “It is finished,” which was a culminating statement capping off years of prophetic fulfillment. The hope of deliverance for Israel and the world was complete in him.
Although it might sound too good to be true, it really is true. The gospel is not clickbait, nor is it like Saving Private Ryan. Steven Spielberg’s 1998 award-winning World War II film Saving Private Ryan is often hailed as the best war movie ever made. Its realistic depictions of combat were almost too accurate to real life, resulting in dozens of veterans leaving movie theaters after the film’s opening scene portraying the trauma of the D-Day invasion. The film itself tells a fictional story about a company of Army Rangers under the captaincy of John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and their grueling search for Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), the lone survivor of four sons who perished during the Allied invasion of Normandy. It is decided by the superiors that Momma Ryan would not be losing a fourth son. Therefore, Miller’s company is tasked with “saving Private Ryan” and bringing him home. As you might expect (spoiler alert!), they end up finding and saving Private Ryan, but only after great losses and harrowing sacrifices.
During the penultimate sequence, as Hanks’s character lies dying on the battlefield, he calls Ryan close and whispers in his ear, “Earn this.” With his dying breath, he conveys an enduring message that only by the quality and caliber of his life can Private Ryan make all the bloodshed worth it. “He better be worth it,” Hanks remarks earlier in the film. “He’d better go home and cure a disease or invent a longer-lasting light bulb.” All too often, this is how we conceive the gospel of Christ crucified. Even though Jesus willingly made the ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross, we still imagine him telling us to earn it, to make it count, and to prove ourselves worthy of it. God’s headline is not “Earn This” but “Look At What I Have Earned For You.” The words of his Son are “It is finished,” which signals the accomplishment of his purpose to “fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:17) and save the world from sin.
It tells us about God’s power.
Paul’s most critical words are, perhaps, the last ones, as he identifies who the Lord Jesus comes to save. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” he says, “of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). God’s Son was not sent from heaven to bolster the reputations of religious people nor did he come to wag a judgmental finger in everyone’s face for all the ways they’ve screwed up. As Jesus tells Nicodemus, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Humanity has already done itself in and dug its own grave. We are wrecked, ruined, and “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). Apart from the intrusion of God into this world in the person of Jesus, we are categorically hopeless. But this is where God’s power is most truly revealed — namely, through the person and work of Christ on the cross.
God’s power is demonstrated nowhere better than in his dying love for sinners. When his Son breathes his last after being pegged to a Roman torture device as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, the universe is made to witness God’s immense power and love. Instead of scrapping this creation after the Fall and starting all over again, in God’s infinite wisdom and grace, he chose to show the depths of his love and holiness by dying to rid the world of sin by becoming sin himself. Unlike human potters who start over with new hunks of clay whenever things go awry, our Heavenly Potter does not throw us away or toss us in the scrap heap when cracks or chips appear. Rather, he comes to where we are to save us. He is the Artisan who puts himself inside the paint, the Storyteller who writes himself into the story to make things right. God’s headline for his church prioritizes the person of Jesus and his purpose to demonstrate God’s power by dying and rising again for our salvation.
