Category Archives: Gospel Centrality

Gospel Centrality

The truth is that God isn’t concerned with any kind of obedience; he’s concerned with a certain kind of obedience

“The truth is that God isn’t concerned with any kind of obedience; he’s concerned with a certain kind of obedience. What motivates our obedience determines whether or not it is a sacrifice of praise … If any kind of obedience, regardless of what motivates it, is what God is after, he would have showcased the Pharisees and exhorted all of us to follow their lead, to imitate them. But he didn’t … External righteousness is something we can all achieve on our own with a little self-discipline and a lot of self-righteousness. But Jesus wants us to see that regardless of how well we think we’re doing or how righteous we think we’re becoming, when “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” becomes the standard and not “how much I’ve improved over the years”, we realize that we’re a lot worse than we fancy ourselves to be–that unrighteousness is inescapable, that “even the best things we do have something in them to be pardoned … Only when our understanding of righteousness “exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees” and goes beyond outer conduct, will we see the  impossibility of achieving our own righteousness and the necessity of receiving Christ’s righteousness. There is nothing that sinners hate more than to be told that there’s nothing they can do, that everything has been taken out of their hands, that no matter how hard they try, their best is never good enough. And yet, we’ll never be free until we give up fighting for a righteousness we can claim as our own.”

-Tullian Tchividjian, read more here

Gospel Centrality, Quotes/Lyrics

Spiritual growth is realizing how utterly dependent we are on Christ’s cross and mercy

“Spiritual maturity is not marked by our growing, independent fitness. Rather, it’s marked by our growing dependence on Christ’s fitness for us … spiritual growth is realizing how utterly dependent we are on Christ’s cross and mercy … Thankfully, the focus of the Bible is not the work of the redeemed but the work of the Redeemer. The gospel frees us from ourselves.”

-Tullian Tchividjian, read more here

Gospel Centrality

Temptations aren’t our problem

“This may come as a surprise to you, but temptation has more to do with belief than it does behavior.”

“This is why when Jesus was asked in John 6:28, “What must we do to be doing the works of God?” he answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him who he sent.” Jesus was making the indisputable point that unbelief is the force that gives birth to all of our bad behavior and every moral failure. It is the root. While the disciples located godliness in something they must do, Jesus pointed them back to himself–the One who came to do for them what they could never do for themselves. “Believe in me.””

“Believing that “it is finished”, that everything we need in Christ is already ours and therefore we need nothing more, is the hardest thing (so much harder than modifying our behavior) because we are all seasoned “do-it-yourselfers.” Self-salvation engineers (that’s all of us) find it much easier to make a moral “to-do” and “not-to-do” list and try to live by it, then they do trusting, believing, and resting wholly in the work and provision of Another.  “To be convinced in our hearts”, said Luther, “that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing” because “the sin underneath all sins is the lie that we cannot trust the love and grace of Jesus and that we must take matters into our own hands.””

Read More here

Gospel Centrality

Grace Laced People are Transformed

“He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.” (Isaiah 33:15–16 ESV)

Faith far too often is mechanical, intellectual (only), theoretical.  But the man who is transformed by God’s grace is truly different; faith moves from theoretical to a passionate pursuit.  The kingdom of God is for these people, people who have been transformed.  Grace laced people are transformed so that they walk righteously, speak truthfully, hate oppression, cheating & bribery, and oppose evil – even when it is sanctioned by the law.  This man is near God, he is strong, secure, satiated.  Has your heart been transformed by the grace of God or has your faith been something that you have only known in your head?

Gospel Centrality

The gospel requires that we abandon our performance

All religions are fundamentally based in human performance.  The follower must pray often or correctly enough, be moral enough, have enough piety or zeal, give enough, sacrifice enough, love enough, serve enough and adhere to countless other requirements as prescribed by their religion.  Regardless of whether this is a formalized religion or a far less structured religion; all religion is based on human performance in an attempt to earn heaven, acceptance, approval, or blessing from God (or gods).  Some religions aren’t attempting to earn approval, but are only trying to keep their deity from raining down wrath from on high.

Therefore, it is no surprise that a large number of people, many who would profess to be Christians, bring this same orientation to Christianity.  Many misunderstand Christianity, believing that it is founded on the same principles as every other religion – human performance and adherence to a code of conduct & morals.  This is not true of Christianity.  Christianity’s foundations are not built upon human performance, but God’s performance on our behalf (grace).  Christianity requires that we do the one thing that we are all hardwired to hate:  depend on something other than our own abilities.  Christianity requires that we place our ultimate trust in something outside of ourselves – the performance & sacrifice of Christ.  Christianity requires that we bring nothing to the table to barter with God, except for our failures and shortcomings (sin).  Christianity requires a recognition that we have nothing to contribute – even our faith is not produced by our own effort.  Christianity requires that we do that which is so counter-intuitive to is:  abandon our own performance.

When Christians understand that there is nothing that they can do to earn God’s acceptance, they become liberated to joyfully live their lives with abandon and obedience.  It was not our performance or ability that earned God’s acceptance in the first place and it is not our performance or ability that maintains God’s approval even after we are saved.  Our approval & acceptance by God is earned by the performance of Christ, period.  We do nothing to gain His approval – ever (not to earn salvation or to stay in His good graces after salvation).  Our ability to perform and obey has nothing to do with God’s acceptance of us.  The more we understand this, they more we will be moved to obey.

Gospel Centrality

The Radical Grace of God

“For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”” (Isaiah 30:15 ESV)

“Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 30:18 ESV)

God calls His people to return, repent and rest in Him and He will provide for and protect them; their strength was to be found in quietness and trust in God (30:15).  But the people were unwilling (v 16) and depended, instead, upon the perceived strength and power of their Egyptian protectors (v 16-17).  So how does God respond?  With wrath, with judgement, with His strong oppressive arm?  No, God responds in unmerited favor – He responds with radical grace (v 18)!  Don’t miss the fact that He is still a God of justice, but He has determined that He will extend mercy and grace.  These rebellious, idolatrous, heard hearted people (sound familiar) were constantly rejecting the loving, protecting hand of their God in lieu of every idol that they could find and yet, God mercifully and patiently extends grace!  The fact that the sovereign Creator of all things is merciful to any of His treasonous creatures is foreign to me, but it produces worship.  It is, indeed, the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).

 

Gospel Centrality, Meditations

A Liberating Truth

“Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”” (John 8:47 ESV)

“but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.” (John 10:26 ESV)

“For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”” (John 18:37 ESV)

“We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:6 ESV)

These passages highlight a liberating truth. That truth is that God is the One that works in the hearts of men so that they can hear His words. The pressure to convert or convince is not ours to carry; carrying this pressure serves as poor motivation to labor faithfully, joyfully & dependently.  We should work tirelessly, study faithfully and prepare diligently, but only those who are of God hear God’s words. What a relief! It doesn’t depend “on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (Romans 9:16 ESV). Now, let’s go labor with all of our might because God just might allow us to play a part in His cosmic plan – not because He needs us, but because it glorifies Him to use such an incapable people as us and brings us profound joy in the process!

Gospel Centrality

What is Gospel Centrality?

There is a lot of talk about Gospel centrality these days.  What do we mean by this?  Here are a few questions to help diagnosis whether we are really keeping the Gospel of Grace as the central component in our thinking, devotional life and ministry.

1.  Is the bulk of our thinking and teaching devoted to revealing who God is and what He has done or is it oriented to application, self help and what we must do?

2. Is the lasting impression that we leave in our minds and the minds of those that we are around something that must be done or what God has already done?

3.  Does our teaching and thinking accurately and intentionally reveal God for who He really is (ultimate, sovereign & supreme) and us for who we really are (depraved, wicked & without hope apart from the gospel)?  Do we unknowingly make Him in our image?

4.  Is it rooted in biblical, historical, orthodox Christianity?

5.  Does it produce worship?

The Gospel is an announcement about what God has done on behalf of sinners.  It’s not good news if we have to do something to make ourselves good.