The Implications of the Gospel, Part 4

(originally published in our local newspaper on 2/1/12)

We’ve thus far defined the gospel, talked about its cosmic implications, and last week showed one practical way in which the gospel affects our relationships. I have argued that the gospel is more than just good news—and certainly nothing less—as well as it affecting everything, the spiritual and natural world. It also changes how we perceive ourselves (we understand ourselves to be born with a propensity towards sin) and how we perceive God (he is holy, just, loving, wrathful and gracious). Having this “gospel grid” can teach us better ways in which we see the world.

C.J. Mahaney wrote a wonderful little book called “The Cross-Centered Life,” and in it he quotes theologian D.A. Carson. Carson says, commenting on the Apostle Paul and Paul’s theology, that, “He cannot long talk about Christian joy, or Christian ethics, or Christian fellowship, or the Christian doctrine of God, or anything else, without finally tying it to the cross. Paul is gospel-centered; he is cross-centered” (pg. 11).

The obsession in the New Testament is the gospel and at the center of the gospel is suffering Servant, Jesus Christ. Everything revolves around the cross for Christian theology. Struggling with sin? Look to the cross. Struggling with money? Look to the cross. Frustrated at your job? Look to the cross.

The glory of God is shown most vividly when Jesus died on the cross. He died for us, and as Martin Luther says, it was the “Great Exchange.” Jesus takes our sin; we get his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus takes our failures,; we get his successes. Jesus obeys perfectly, cleans our filthy hearts, and removes our guilt. We are no longer condemned (Romans 8:1). It was at the cross where business was done between God and man.

Before we implement the “gospel grid,” let’s get practical for a moment.

As a pastor, there is one relationship paradigm that I am most confronted with in counseling: marriage. Marriages continue to falter under the pressures of this world and it seems that many people in our churches are all feeling the same pressure. The pressure to have both spouses working, the daycare bills, the mortgage payment, gas prices, layoffs at work, grocery bills growing, cost of insurance on the rise and the list goes on and on. Marriages are strained because of this pressure. But what would it look like to have a gospel grid in your marriage?

Husbands: it looks like you repenting first and blame shifting never, taking full responsibility. It looks like men growing in their knowledge of the Lord and choosing to lay their lives down for their wives, just like Jesus did for the Church (Ephesians 5:22-33).

It looks like it does for every other relationship, and here is the secret. Are you growing in awareness of your own sin while simultaneously growing in your awareness of God’s holiness? That’s part of what it means to live a gospel-centered life. Repentance and faith, repentance and faith, repentance and faith… This is what it means to be enamored by the gospel.

The Implications of the Gospel, Part 3

(originally published in our local newspaper on 1/25/12)

Last time we looked at the “big picture” implication of the gospel message. And it would be appropriate to clarify that yes, it is a message, but it is also more than that. It is a message that has cosmic implications because it deals with the spiritual and natural world, too. In other words, it’s a message about what Jesus has done that affects the space/time continuum. It’s about the Kingdom of God coming to bear on all of creation.

But this week I want to focus in on a couple of ways in which the gospel message affects our relationships. For many, the gospel is more easily understood in cosmic scope, but less understood in practical day-to-day ways. The reality is, each of us needs the gospel every day. We need it in every moment, opportunity and situation.

One of the core doctrines of the Christian faith is our “Union with Christ.” This is the Bible’s way of speaking of what Jesus has done for us. He has obeyed where we failed to obey, died a death we should have died, and was resurrected to defeat death thus adopting us into his family when our faith is placed in him. “In him” are the words the Apostle Paul often uses to describe our union with Jesus. His point: he has brought unity to our relationship so that when the Father looks at us, he sees Jesus. This gives us a new identity.

And this new identity gives us value, not because we are something special—we certainly are not!—but because Jesus gives us his inherent value and status before God having brought us near to the Holy One.

Here’s where it gets a bit more practical.

Most of us are insecure in our relationships. We tend to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like with money we simply do not have. And we have this perpetual “need” to feel needed and valued by others. So we often, though disguised in the sin of pride, prop ourselves up because we care what others think of us. We say, “Look at me! Look what I did! Check out what I did on Facebook! Me, me, me and me!”

The gospel challenges this propensity. It says that our value is not found in what other people think of us. When our lives our driven by the gospel we don’t “need” anything but Jesus. What people think of us doesn’t matter because what God thinks of us has taken primacy in our lives.

Jesus has brought us near to our Maker. He’s done so by the blood of the cross. We are now called to put to death what is earthly in us and instead, “Put on…as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Colossians 3:12-13). Seek to live a gospel-driven life that is secure in Christ Jesus.

The Implications of the Gospel, Part 2

Last week we explored the definition of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15. There are many other passages we could look to in order to understand the gospel, not the least of course, are Jesus’ first words in Mark’s Gospel narrative, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (1:15). Do a word study sometime on the word “gospel” (Greek, euangelion). The word appears over seventy times and always refers to good news, joyful tidings, and “good report.”

What’s interesting, however, is that in the Roman context of the New Testament world the word in question was often used to refer to the good news that a new emperor was born, a savior who would bring peace to the world. Furthermore, this emperor was considered the “son of god” and as history shows, most of the emperors deified themselves hoping to be worshipped my mortal men.

When the Apostle Paul says that Jesus is Lord he’s directly attacking the commonly held notion that Caesar is lord. He’s saying, in effect, “Your god is no god at all. In fact, you believe Caesar is lord because he says so. I believe Jesus is Lord because Jesus, rather than conquering by violence, conquered all things, including that guy you worship, by dying and was vindicated (“justified,” validated and declared to be truthful) by his resurrection from the dead.” (See 1 Timothy 3:16).

The response called for last week was a repentant heart. The first implication of the gospel this week is on an earth-shattering scale. The implication is that the powers that be in the world are corrupt. They are cronies who are self-deceived and blinded by the evil one. The gospel is the only good news that provides the only hope for this world. This sounds offensive and is often purported to be so. But Paul says that the foolishness of preaching is what God has chosen to use to inject his message of salvation to a world that loves darkness (1 Corinthians 1:21). Paul goes on to say that God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

This seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? For the GodMan, Jesus, to enter our culture, die a gruesome death for our sins and rise again to kill death? Paul says, and we say, emphatically: “No!”

The good news changes things. It changes the corrupt governments and corrupt “power” that people think they have. It changes everything, including creation itself (Romans 8:18-30). The very first implication of the gospel is that God has chosen to intervene in the world, shaming the wise, destroying worldly power and ultimately freeing all of creation from bondage. The gospel is a game-changer.

The Implications of the Gospel, Part 1

(From my article in the local paper last week.)

If there’s something I’ve learned about faith, Jesus and Christianity it is this: the gospel is something we need every second of every day. As I open up the Scriptures and study the life of Jesus and the theology of the New Testament, I conclude that we are all on a journey and have to revisit the good news over and over again. We never outgrow our need for the gospel, nor do we move on from it. It applies to every situation, circumstance, thought, action and opportunity.

Furthermore, Tim Keller once said that the gospel is not the “ABC’s” of Christianity. It’s the “A-to-Z.” What Keller was getting at was the reality that for many Christians, the gospel is simply that thing you believe when you first become a Christian and after that you move on to bigger and better things (whatever that means). The biblical vision for the gospel, however, is that it is the news that sustains you until God sovereignly takes your life.

Before we look at the implications of the Gospel in the next few weeks, I want us to define it. The Apostle Paul defines the Gospel this way in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 (ESV), “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”

According to this passage the gospel consists of 5 things: (1) It is “according to the Scriptures”—which means that the Old Testament is an integral part to this news; (2) It is the climactic story of Jesus—his death and resurrection being the central part to that story in the overall story of Israel; (3) It is the grounds for our justification—“in which you stand” is Paul’s way of assuring the Corinthian church that Jesus is the bases for salvation (not our good works!) and that we are “declared right” in the eyes of the Judge because of Jesus’ substitutionary death for us; (4) Jesus “appeared”—thus showing his followers that God has vindicated him (through resurrection), and showing the world Jesus is who he says he is; (5) You must receive it (Paul reminds them of the gospel that they “received”).

The first reaction we should have towards this good news is a repentant heart. The Offended Creator of the Universe has chosen to intervene in the Story He is telling by crucifying His Son. This cannot be responded to with ambivalence—no, we must respond confessing our sin, trusting in what Christ has done (Romans 10:9). Salvation begins and ends with the realization that we are sinners, but God intervened refusing to allow us to have the final word of sin. That’s the gospel we glory in (1 Timothy 1:3).

the gospel and sanctification

“If we would be sanctified, our course is clear and plain–we must begin with Christ. We must go to Him as sinners, with no plea but that of utter need, and cast our souls on Him by faith…If we would grow in holiness and become more sanctified, we must continually go on as we began, and be ever making fresh applications to Christ.”

-J.C. Ryle, Holiness (Cambridge, UK: James Clarke, 1956), 32. Quoted in Jared C. Wilson’s Gospel Wakfulness (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2011), 135.