God's Wonderful Plan: True Gospel vs. False Gospel
   In 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 Paul says, "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain." It is of the utmost importance that we get the gospel right. Whatever ministries, manifestations, and methodologies we pursue are all in vain, indeed our own faith is in vain, unless we are standing firm in the Biblical gospel.
   Continuing in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul gives a very concise summary of the gospel, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve." [... Then He appeared to five hundred, to James, and to Paul.]
   Of first importance the gospel affirms these statements: "Christ died for our sins, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day." But these statements alone are not enough. They leave open too many big questions. Without any background they cannot be understood. Who is this `Christ'? What are my `sins'? Why did He die for them? How could a man be raised from the dead? What makes all of this `gospel', why should I consider it `good news'? Rather than explaining all of these things at this point, Paul simply says that Christ's death for our sins and His resurrection happened in accordance with the Scriptures (that is, the Jewish Scriptures, the Old Testament). We know from Acts 18:11 that Paul had previously spent a year and a half teaching the Corinthians the `word of God', i.e. the Scriptures.
   The significance of Christ's death and resurrection must be understood as fulfillment of the promises, hopes, and expectations of the Jewish Scriptures. What I want to do today is to examine one sentence which, in my opinion, simultaneously contains true gospel and false gospel. Understood in accordance with the Scriptures it contains beautiful pearls of true gospel. Yet without that larger Scriptural context it concisely summarizes what is, in my opinion, the number one false gospel plaguing the evangelical Christian world today. The sentence is, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." (Note: I chose that sentence from the most well-known tract of our day as a representative expression of popular evangelical thought. My main point is not to critique Bill Bright's "Four Spiritual Laws" per se, but to use it as a framework to examine true vs. false gospel.)
   First, I want to talk about the true gospel embedded in that sentence. Second, I want to talk about the false gospel which that sentence summarizes. And third, the implications of this true/false gospel distinction on our theology of persecution, suffering, and the "cost of discipleship."

The True Gospel
   The "Four Spiritual Laws" cites two verses, John 3:16 and John 10:10, in support of the statement, "God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life." Let's look at what these two great verses tell us about the gospel.
   "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish": Although Jesus had not yet died, He was clearly pointing forward here toward the hour of His glory. First Corinthians told us that Jesus' death for our sins was in accordance with the Scriptures. How does that play out here? Well, for this passage it is easy to see because the immediate context already provided an example. Jesus said, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up." He was referring to Numbers 21:9 which says, "So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived."
   Moreover, Jesus says that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Now, this is where we have to be careful to understand gospel truth in accordance with the Scriptures. What is the eternal life foretold in the Scriptures and fulfilled in the gospel? It is important to note that the phrase "eternal life" in the Bible does not merely mean a conscious existence which continues forever. One reason I say it does not mean that is because even fallen angels and unbelieving humans will exist forever, albeit in eternal conscious torment (Rev 14:9-11, 20:10,15; Mt 25:41,46; Isa 66:24). Another reason is that the Bible speaks of sinners who are currently breathing air and eating food and walking around as already `dead'. God warned Adam and Eve that when they ate the fruit of the tree they would die. He didn't say, "You will die spiritually", He said, "You will die." Ephesians 2:1,4-5 says, "You were dead in your transgressions and sins.... But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions."
   Only God has life in Himself. Therefore, nothing can properly be called "alive" unless it is connected to Him, the source and focus of all life. Indeed, the ultimate meaning of the word "life", as with "truth", is not a thing but a person, Jesus:

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:4)
I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. (John 11:25-26)
I am the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6)
For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:2-3)
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1-3)

   To be `alive' is to be `in Christ'. God gives us eternal life by giving us Himself. This is perfectly clear from the rest of the New Testament. But is it right to say that this part of the gospel John 3:16 is in accordance with the Jewish Scriptures? How could Jesus expect Nicodemus to understand these things? Well, on the one hand the Old Testament has very little to say about eternal life directly. But note, the concept of `eternality' would certainly be familiar to any Old Testament reader. Most commonly it speaks of the eternal God, His eternal attributes, His eternal word, His eternal covenant promises, and His eternal kingdom. If anything is going to be `eternal', it must be united to the only One who is from everlasting to everlasting.
   Furthermore, though few in number, there are some glimmers of eternal life in the Old Testament, and amongst those, several point to the glorious hope of life in God's presence. One of the first such glimmers is Genesis 5:24, "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." It doesn't say, "God transported Enoch to paradise", but rather, "God took him." Likewise, when the Old Testament saints pondered eternity, their joyful, expectant hope was to be with the Lord:

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes-I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Ps 16:11)
Surely you have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence. (Ps 21:6)

   Finally, consider how Jesus Himself proved the resurrection of the dead from the Scriptures to the Sadducees who denied it. "But about the resurrection of the dead-have you not read what God said to you, `I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." (Matt 22:31-32) Any God-loving and God-fearing Jew should have been able to understand what any Christian today should also understand, that eternal life is when the Eternal Living God says, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
   Next let's look at John 10:10, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full [or, "have it abundantly"]." By now we have already spent enough time looking at the the Biblical concept of `life' that when you hear a phrase like `abundant life' your mind should immediately think `an abundance of God.' But it is interesting to look more into the uses of this word `abundant'.
   According to my searches, the Greek words `zoe' (life) and `perissos' (abundance) are used together only in two places the New Testament apart from John 10:10. In Luke 12:15 Jesus tells us what the abundant life is not about, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Romans 5:17 tells us what the abundant life is about, "how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ."
   Other appearances of the word `perissos' in the New Testament paint a beautiful picture of the abundance of the Christian life:

Abundant hope:
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 15:13, NAS)

Abundantly serving others:
So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church. (1 Cor 14:12, NAS)

Abundantly serving the Lord:
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Cor 15:58, NAS)

Abundant thanksgiving:
For all things are for your sakes, that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. (2 Cor 4:15, NAS)
For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God (2 Cor 9:12, NKJV)

Abundant faith resulting in thanksgiving:
As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. (Col 2:6-7, NKJV)

Abundant joy:
that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. (Phil 1:26, NKJV)

Abundant joy resulting in abundant generosity to the poor:
...that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. (2 Cor 8:2, NKJV)
But as you abound in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us--see that you abound in this grace [of giving] also. (2 Cor 8:7, NKJV)

Abundant grace resulting in abundant generosity to the poor:
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. (2 Cor 9:8, NKJV)

Forgiveness through abundant grace:
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, (Eph 1:7-8, NKJV)

Abundant love:
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment (Phil 1:9, NKJV)
And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all (1 Thess 3:12, NKJV)
But concerning love of the brethren ye have no need that one write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another; for indeed ye do it toward all the brethren that are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more; (1 Thess 4:9-10, ASV)
For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. (2 Cor 2:4, NKJV)

Abundant obedience:
Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. (1 Thess 4:1-3, NKJV)

Abundant boldness to testify for Christ:
and that most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear. (Phil 1:14, ASV)

   The New Testament clearly pictures an abundance of God's grace resulting in an abundance of Christ-likeness in His people, but is it a stretch to believe that this is what Jesus meant in John 10:10? When He spoke about coming to bring life in abundance, could He rightfully have expected His sheep, at this time His Jewish sheep with no New Testament, to have their hopes set on Messiah bringing the abundant life of holiness? My answer is, absolutely yes! The sort of abundant life we read about in the New Testament epistles is precisely what faithful Jews should have been longing for as they awaited the promised New Covenant:

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." (Jer 31:33)
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." (Ezek 36:26-27, NAS)

   No covenant is enacted without blood. Jesus shed the blood of the New Covenant. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He died and was raised according to the Scriptures not only to bring us life, but even to purchase for us a life of abundant obedience and devotion to Him. Now that is a wonderful plan for your life!

Today's Number One False Gospel
   So what's the problem? How can such glorious truth of God's love and the abundant life be distorted in to a false gospel? Unfortunately, it is all too easy. Simply remove the requirement that gospel statements be understood in accordance with the Scriptures and allow them be understood in accordance with the flesh. Simply say, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life", allow the sinful nature to interpret that statement as a fulfillment of its own desires, and you have a false gospel. Even if you use words and phrases from the Bible like "eternal life" and "life in abundance" you are not necessarily any closer to the true gospel. What sinner wouldn't like to live forever in a Godless, Christless `paradise', as if there were such a thing? What God-hater doesn't want a life of abundant fleshly comforts?
   Statements like "God loves you" and "God has a wonderful plan for your life" can be filled with glorious Biblical meaning, but it certainly doesn't happen automatically. When a person hears, "God has a wonderful plan for your life", the default images and pictures floating through their mind are probably as far away as possible from the abundant life described in Scripture. Therefore, what I consider to be the number one false gospel in the Protestant church worldwide today is the statement "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" thought of as a blank check for you to fill in the details of what that love and that plan might look like.
   Some of you may be thinking that I am talking about the health/wealth/prosperity gospel. Yes, that is part of it, that is one obvious form of this false gospel. What the health/wealth gospel gets right is that it reminds us that God's children have full access to His resources. Where it goes horribly wrong is that it fails to see and speak the truth that God's children are so enthralled with and full of delight in Him that if sickness, poverty, and tribulations in this life can draw them closer to Him, if carrying our own cross can bring us into deeper fellowship with Christ, which it does, then they would rather have that than all the treasures and comforts of the world. They say, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Phil 3:10-11)
   But the false gospel I am talking about is much more widespread than the movement known as `health/wealth' or `prosperity teaching'. The `traditional' (non-charismatic) evangelical church, while vehemently denying the health/wealth gospel, can too easily slip into its own version of the same thinking. One way you can see which gospel has been truly embraced at the heart of a church is to look not to its preaching but to its prayers. "Lord, please keep us safe on this trip. Lord, please help this family who is hurting financially. Lord, please heal this person's cancer. Lord, please restore relationships in this family." All of those are good and important things to pray about. But if week after week, month after month, year after year, your prayer life is centered around seeking comforts for this life and easing the trials of this world, then you don't love God. God's value to you consists only in His ability to give you the `wonderful life' as you have defined it yourself.
   A charismatic/pentecostal version of this false gospel could say that the abundant life is primarily about manifestations of the Spirit --- deliverance, healings, prophetic words. Yes, God gives those things to His beloved to set us free from whatever would come between us and Him. But Jesus also warned, "Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" (Matt 7:22-23)
   Who is teaching this false gospel? Who is preaching the idea that you can define "God's wonderful plan for your life" on your own terms? Although there probably are a number of preachers in the world who do explicitly teach such things, they are not the primary source of the popularity of this false gospel. The primary source of this false gospel is my heart and yours, the thoughts of the natural man living in us. The natural religion of the natural man is this, "Find out what is needed to appease the gods, do what they require, and hopefully they will give you the goods." Defining the `abundant life' on our own terms is what the flesh does by nature. No one has to teach us to do it. That is why I believe this false gospel is so rampant. You don't have to teach people to think in worldly terms, all you need to do is make provision for the flesh and it will take care of the rest, even to reinterpret the glorious holy events of the gospel in accordance with its own desires.
   You see, the powerful deception in this false gospel is that, like the true gospel, it points us to Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. But instead of unveiling the significance of theses events in accordance with the Scriptures, it allows you to take hold of Christ's sacrifice as a tool to get you somewhere else, somewhere beyond `merely' knowing Him. As an illustration, consider the remaining three "Spiritual Laws" (emphasis added):

2. Man is SINFUL and SEPARATED from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.
3. Jesus Christ is God's ONLY provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.
4. We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.

I consider the first half of each of these three statements to be thoroughly Biblical and essential gospel truth. It is the second half of each of these `laws' which concerns me greatly.
   "Man is sinful and separated from God." Yes, that is exactly, in and of itself, man's problem. But when we continue reading, "Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life," it sounds to me like God's love and plan for my life is something beyond the purging of my sins and being united to Him. It sounds to me like I am at point A, God's love and wonderful plan for my life is something at point B, and my sin and separation from God is in the middle blocking the way from A to B. Once my sin and separation from God is dealt with I will be able to access this other thing called "God's wonderful plan for my life", which was never defined in 'law' 1, nor in `law' 2, 3, or 4, but is left open to my (sinful) imagination.
   "Jesus Christ is God's ONLY provision for man's sin." Amen! If this `law' just stopped there then it would be on track. God has made provision for man's sin in Jesus Christ. That is good news! But instead of stopping there, it adds, "Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life." Once again I see myself at point A, God's wonderful plan for my life at point B, and this time I can go through Jesus to get from A to B. It is not clear exactly what wonderful plan is awaiting me at point B, but at least it is not Jesus. He's in the middle, I just have to pass through Him to get to it.
   "We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord." Right on the mark, and supported by Scriptures like John 1:12. But again it adds, "Then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives." This leaves me asking one enormously important question, does Jesus merely grant me access to God's wonderful plan for my life, or does God's wonderful plan for my life primarily consist in knowing Jesus Himself?
   I wouldn't say that the "Four Spiritual Laws" preaches a false gospel. But I would say that it makes it much too easy for its readers to hear a false gospel. In my opinion it leaves open far too much freedom for the flesh to make up its own idea of what the "wonderful plan" is and look at Christ as a mere means to get there. Especially considering that this piece of literature is intended for unbelievers who, by their nature in Adam, consider eating from the forbidden tree in order to "become like God" to be a "wonderful plan".
   However, my purpose today is not to critique the "Four Spiritual Laws", but to use this tract as a concrete example of a much wider concern. We need to be aware that even if we are not preaching a false gospel, our listeners might be hearing one. To some extent, we cannot control how other people might misinterpret and misuse our words. People do that even to God's word all the time. If people abuse our faithful teaching of Scripture then that is on their heads. But there is also temptation here which every Christian leader and every Christian who ever shares the gospel should be aware of and resist.
   We all know that if you change the gospel you can make it easier to accept and thereby attract large numbers of `followers'. Of course in doing so we quite possibly assist in condemning our hearers and even ourselves to hell by proving that we never embraced the true gospel to begin with. So don't change the gospel. But beware of the much more subtle version of this temptation. You can say things in such a way that your words are not heresy, and such that you can convince yourself and fellow Christians that you are teaching truth, but all the while your teaching is vague enough to allow itching ears to hear what they want to hear. Tell them that Jesus is the way to experience God's wonderful plan, but don't tell them too much about what that wonderful plan looks like Scripturally. You can fill up churches to overflowing that way, and on the day when each man's work is revealed by fire, the fruit of such false gospels will be burned up as straw.

"The Cost of Discipleship"
   Here are two more verses, which I skipped over earlier, about the abundant life in Christ:

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. (2 Cor 1:5, NAS)
Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. (2 Cor 11:23, ASV)

   The Christian life is indeed abundant, abundant in sufferings, abundant in imprisonments, abundant in beatings, abundant in betrayals, abundant in insults, abundant in deaths ... and amidst it all, abundant in God's comfort to us in Christ Jesus. Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of heaven. But to our flesh, these things don't sound like a wonderful plan. Indeed, God never said that He has a wonderful plan for our flesh. Thus wherever the false gospel thrives, these Biblical teachings get abandoned. Probably the most telling evidence for the widespread popularity of the false gospel today is the absence, within so much of the evangelical church, in "open" countries and in "closed" countries, of a Biblical perspective on suffering, persecution, and the cost of discipleship. These teachings simply don't fit with the "wonderful plan" that we have imagined God has for us.
   Consider what we learn about God's love in Romans 8:35-39:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:35-39)

Do you see what this implies about God's love? God's love does not spare you from tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and the sword. If we are in Christ, then God's love is upon us in the midst of, through, and beyond all of these things. This passage is enormously significant because it is the exact opposite of what your heart will tell you. In the face of famine, persecution, and tribulation your heart will tend to say, "God doesn't love me. How could a loving God let me go through all of this?"
   If God's love doesn't spare us from suffering, indeed if receiving God's love causes us to be led like sheep to the slaughter, if our suffering in this world greatly increases when we receive God's love, then what good is God's love? How can it be called "love"? What are the benefits for us? We need to go back and read the rest of Romans 8 to see the love of God which is ours even in the face of being put to death all day long:

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
...
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
...
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
...
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."

   We are not condemned, we are set free from the law of sin and death, we live according to the Spirit, we are not controlled by the sinful nature, our spirit is alive, we will one day be raised from the dead, we have access to God as our intimate Father, we are co-heirs with Christ, we will share in His glory, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, He intercedes for us in accordance with God's will, we are being conformed into the likeness of Christ, and Christ Himself is interceding for us so that no charges can be brought against us. That is what God's love for us looks like. And no amount of suffering in the flesh can take away ANY of that. Indeed, several of those things are best accomplished through the suffering of the flesh, such as being conformed into the likeness of Christ.
   Now here is the crucial question which divides true gospel from false gospel: is Romans 8:35-39 overwhelmingly good news or overwhelmingly bad news? In this world you will have tribulation and distress (e.g. betrayal by your closed friends and loved ones), persecution (e.g. imprisonment and confiscation of property), famine and nakedness (i.e. poverty), peril and the sword (i.e. martyrdom), and NONE of those things, or anything else, can separate you from the love of Christ. Is that encouragment or discouragement? If you have trusted in the true gospel, it should be wonderful news. Romans 8:35-39 is a solid foundation that can hold you up through any of the fiercest storms that Satan, under God's sovereign hand, would send your way.
   The false gospel that springs from the heart of the old nature in you will tell you that God's loving and wonderful plan for your life couldn't possibly include those things. If you listen to that false gospel springing from your heart then when those things do happen (when, not if) you will question God, you will question His character, you will question the truthfulness of the gospel. The false gospel cannot deal with the Biblical teachings on suffering, persecution, and the cost of discipleship, and therefore the false gospel is a worthless foundation to build your life on.

   A practical application: Missionaries in "closed" countries so often say things like, "I wouldn't want to do anything that could jeopardize the local Christians we work with." In response to that I want to ask, "Which gospel have you been teaching them?" Jesus sent His disciples out as sheep among wolves. What happens to sheep amongst wolves? They get slaughtered. Have you been deceiving or allowing the local Christians you teach to be deceived into thinking that God's plan for their lives is to save them from the slaughter, or have you been teaching them about God's true wonderful plan to save them through the slaughter?
   The savage wolves will come, not sparing the flock. A compassionate shepherd doesn't whitewash that fact. Looking at Jesus as the ultimate example, and Peter and Paul following after Him, we see a compassionate shepherd is one who prepares the flock in advance to stand firm in the faith through it all.
   "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain."

Resources related to this topic:
Read the book "God is the Gospel" by John Piper. (Read it online at Crossway books.)
See the video "God's Wonderful Plan" on The Way of the Master Program (Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron)