Category Archives: Gospel Centrality

Gospel Centrality, Quotes/Lyrics

The Gospel Grid

“The apostle Peter teaches that a lack of ongoing transformation in our lives comes from forgetting what God has done for us in the gospel (2 Peter 1:3-9). If we are to grow into maturity in Christ, we must deepen and enlarge our understanding of the gospel as God’s appointed means for personal and communal transformation.”

[The gospel] “is not just the means of our salvation, but the means of our transformation.  It is not simply deliverance from sin’s penalty, but release from sins power.  The gospel is what makes us right with God (justification) and it is also what frees us to delight in God (sanctification).  The gospel changes everything!”

“The more I grow in my Christian life, the more I grow in my awareness of God’s holiness and of my flesh and sinfulness.” … “But my awareness of both is growing.  I am increasingly seeing God as he actually is (Isaiah 55:8-9) and myself as I actually am (Jeremiah 7:9-10).” … “As my understanding of my sin and of God’s holiness grows, something else grows:  my appreciation and love for Jesus.” … “The cross looms larger and more central in my life as I rejoice in the Savior who died upon it.”

“Because of the indwelling sin that remains in me, I have an ongoing tendency to minimize the gospel or ‘shrink the cross.’ This happens when I either (a) minimize God’s perfect holiness, thinking of him as something less than his Word declares him to be, or (b) elevate my own righteousness, thinking of myself as better than I actually am.  The cross becomes smaller and Christ’s importance in my life is diminished.”

“We need to identify, admit, and feel the depth of our brokenness and sinfulness.”

“Our hope is not in our own goodness, nor in the vain expectation that God will compromise his standards and ‘grade on a curve.’  Rather, we rest in Jesus as our perfect Redeemer – the One who is ‘our righteousness, holiness and redemption’ (1 Corinthians 1:30).”

-Exerted from The Gospel-Centered Life by World Harvest Mission, pages 8-10.  Download a sample of chapter 1 here

Depravity, Gospel Centrality

Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually

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“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” (Genesis 6:5–6 ESV)

Just six chapters prior to this section, we see Adam and Eve enjoying a peaceful existence in the perfect paradise of the garden of Eden.  They walked in the presence of the Almighty and enjoyed His favor and provision; life was not fraught with hardship, difficulty and discord.  Life functioned harmoniously and in rhythm, like that of a spectacular symphony.  But that is no more.  The consequences of sin are catastrophic:  death (Genesis 2:17), difficulty in child-rearing (Genesis 3:16), distorted roles in marriages (Genesis 3:16), creation opposing man’s efforts to cultivate it (Genesis 3:17-20) and the creation itself is broken (Romans 8:20).  So in Genesis 6:5-6, we find ourselves a far cry from the “very good” of Genesis 1:31.

There is no more comprehensive assessment of the total depravity of mankind than what we see here in verse 5.  The verse tells us not that man’s behavior or periodic inclinations were evil, but that their evil was so deep seated that it saturated every intention of the thoughts of his heart.  The heart’s motivations and drives are evil continually, that is in opposition to God and His glory.  Natural logic would lead us to think that the difficult circumstances outside of the garden would have led man to repentance – to throw himself on the mercy of God.  This is not the case, sin becomes more perverse and more depraved and without God’s grace-filled intervention, this is the pattern of the human existence.  And in case you think that things have gotten better, Paul reminds us that ““None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”” (Romans 3:10–12 ESV).  What is painted for us here is the picture of the fallen soul – and it is not a pretty one!

God’s response to the total depravity of those who were created in His image is interesting, “and the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”  Contrary to God being a distant and disconnected deity that created all things and then just lets them play out, we see a God who is greatly invested in His creation – so invested that it grieved Him.  God’s grief is connected to his loving care for His image bearers.  Matthew Henry’s comments help us here:  “He did not see it as an unconcerned spectator, but as one injured and affronted by it; he saw it as a tender father sees the folly and stubbornness of a rebellious and disobedient child, which not only angers him, but grieves him, and makes him wish he had been written childless.”1.  The more jarring question here is the fact that the text tells us that God “was sorry that he had made man on the earth.”  This is interesting, is God not soveriegn in His rule and reign?  Did He not know that this would be the outcome?  Is God shocked by the way things are playing out?  Of course not!  God’s immutable (unchangeable), sovereign rule and reign is one of the central themes of the bible.  Malachi 3:6 tells us “For I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6 ESV).  Additionally, “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.” (1 Samuel 15:29 NIV).  So what is going on here?  Why does it say that God was sorry (or repented in some translations)?  Moses is using what is known as an anthropomorphism which is the use of human terms in an attempt to describe God.  This is limited and falls short, but that is how we should view this section of scripture as Moses attempts to describe how God views humanity.  It is important to understand the Hebrew word, “nacham”, that is translated “sorry.”  The primitive root of this word means to sigh or breath strongly; to express remorse.  So the picture that the text is conveying is one of a Holy sigh over the total depravity of his image bearer’s hearts.  It is the physical manifestation of the sorrow and pain that is within, like when one receives bad news and all that can be mustered is a deep sigh that is marked with guttural tones.  God feels pain, remorse and hurts over the wickedness of His creation – and a heartfelt sigh is what is the result.

It amazes me that God did not destroy the entire human race at this point, I would have.  But God was (and still is) willing to experience profound grief at our wicked hearts that rebel against Him and He still provides us with a way to be reconciled with Him.  He not only provides the way, but also provides us with the faith to believe (Ephesians 2:8-9).  If this does not move you to be absolutely grateful then you don’t understand the meaning of the text!

Aside, Gospel Centrality

People do not drift toward holiness

Aside

“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”

–For the Love of God (Vol. 2) by D.A. Carson

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

Grace Driven Effort (part 2)

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Yesterday, we began talking about killing sin (mortification) in our lives.  If we are honest, this is topic rarely discussed in Christian circles and most never really experience any significant level of victory over recurrent, ongoing sins in their lives.  There is no doubt that the scriptures call us to kill (mortify) sin in our lives – and to take radical steps in this pursuit.  Matthew 5:29 reminds us of the seriousness with which Jesus views sin and the radical steps we should be willing to eradicate it from our lives.  Yesterday, we summarized points 1-4 from Ralph Erskine’s article entitled The Difference Between Legal and Gospel Mortification.  Today, we will look at points 5-8 in an attempt to replace “us driven effort” with “grace driven effort.”

5.  The motives are different.  Ultimately, the Christian empowered by “grace driven effort” will not serve sin, because sin has been put to death and he now lives to God (Romans 6:6).  Conversely, “us driven effort” runs from sin not because he is alive to God, but so he can live.  “Grace driven effort” kills sin because the love of God overwhelms him, “us driven effort” attempts to kill sin so that God will love him and find him acceptable.  One knows that God accepts him, the other is trying with all of his effort to earn God’s acceptance.  “Us driven effort” relies on us, our discipline and hard work as the foundation for killing sin, thus placing our hope in trust in us rather than in God.

6.  The nature is different.  “Grace driven effort” seeks to not just subdue and weaken sin, but to completely destroy and eradicate it from our being because sin is contrary to our nature.  When we employ “us driven effort,” we are OK to live with sin as long as it is beaten into submission and rarely rears its ugly head on the surface of our lives.  One violently attacks sin while the other makes pacts to let it have dominion in unseen areas of our lives.  “Us driven effort” manages surface level sins and is shocked when the lion that has been keeping on a leash devours them.

7.  The extent to which war is waged against sin is different.  “Grace driven effort” sees and beholds God as supreme, holy and sovereign and every fiber of our being hates sin and never approves of it.  “Grace driven effort” sustains us in the lifelong fight against sin and the goal to be holy as God is holy.  In “us driven effort,” we may hate sin and its affects with part of our being, but there are levels of our heart that are OK to live with sin, as long as they are not “bad” sins like adultery, murder, alcoholism, abuse, etc.  In “us driven effort,” we make a pact with our sin, allowing the “lesser” ones to remain so long as the “surface” level sins are not seen; there is no energy for the long lasting war with sin, victory is short and not sustained.  “Grace driven effort” is never at peace with sin, it violently attacks sin.

8.  Their success is different.  Make no mistake, our battle with sin is one that we will fight until we die, or Jesus returns.  Then we will be set from from sin and its affects.  “Grace driven effort” recognizes that some battles will be lost, but there are gains being made in the over all war.  “Grace driven effort” sees progress in the putting to death of the corrupt nature that dwells within, not just the surface manifestations of that corrupt nature.  “Us driven effort,” on the other hand, never really progresses much in the war against sin because the goal is to manage sin and its consequences instead of ripping it out by its root.  In “us driven effort,” one sin is often times replaced by another.  The Pharisees employed “us driven effort” in their attempt to mortify sin.  They looked good on the surface, successfully managing “external sin,” but their pride and self-righteousness had supplanted their “external sins.”  The later sins were more dangerous than the former because it blinded them to their need for a savior because they had found “success” on their own.  They really weren’t that bad.

In the end, “us driven effort,” reduces our reliance on God and dulls our sensitivity to sin.  When this is our primary mode of operation in our Christian life, we think that we don’t really have that much sin in our lives.  We aren’t really that bad or that depraved, just read the paper or watch the news if you want to see the really depraved people in the world!  We have made such great strides in cleaning ourselves up on the outside and putting to death the sins that everybody sees along with their uncomfortable consequences.  But, the reality is that we have most likely merely replaced these with more blinding and subtle sins like pride, self-discipline and self-righteousness.  In “us driven effort,” we are the focus, we have to make it happen, we are the ones that have the power to overcome.  That sounds a lot like what transpired many years ago in the Garden with Adam and Eve – they forsook the sovereign Creator’s command and provision for their own; they knew better.  “Grace driven effort” places us in a position before God that recognizes our complete inability and begs God to work.  The litmus test for which means you deploy is in answering the question, “who gets the glory?”  In “us driven effort,” the glory is ours because we were disciplined and hardworking enough; in “grace driven effort,” the glory is God’s because He is the deliverer.

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Grace Driven Effort (part 1)