What did Christ do? He died. To say this is not simply to state a fact, but to explain it, because human death in Scripture is never a meaningless phenomenon. On the contrary, death is always a fact of theological significance, the dreadful penalty for human sin.

A public portrayal. The gospel is Christ crucified, his finished work on the cross. And to preach the gospel is publicly to portray Christ as crucified. The gospel is not good news primarily of a baby in a manger, a young man at a carpenter's bench, a preacher in the fields of Galilee, or even an empty tomb. The gospel concerns Christ upon his cross. Only when Christ is 'openly displayed upon his cross' (Gal. 3:1) is the gospel preached. --- From "The Message of Galatians" by John R.W.

"If you take another position than what is presented by people today ... you are defined as discriminatory. And because of that, you and your institutions can be very, very severely criticized, or even sanctioned. Essentially, what we are facing is the failure to balance the rights of free expression of religion with all these other newly created rights that are coming up out of our secular society.

The message of the New Testament is first and foremost a declaration. It is good news about God. It is the story of what God has done in and through his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. He has established his kingdom. True, the full manifestation of the kingdom is yet to come. We await the final consummation. But the kingdom of God has been inaugurated. The time has been fulfilled. The dreams of ancient visionaries have come true. God has kept his promise to Abraham.