Tag Archives: Grace

Gospel Centrality

We really don’t want God to reward us according to our faithfulness

“Behold, it is written before me: “I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their lap both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together, says the LORD; because they made offerings on the mountains and insulted me on the hills, I will measure into their lap payment for their former deeds.”” (Isaiah 65:6–7 ESV)

We don’t want God to reward us for our faithfulness.  Look at Israel, their covenants with God were contingent upon their obedience to the Law – and the bulk of the Old Testament is devoted to their failure, suffering and inability to keep the Law and the consequences associated with that arrangement.  We, on the other hand, have the perfect Law Keeper as our advocate.  Let us not default back to trying to earn our way, applying formulas to get God to bless & prosper us.  Let us rest securely and soundly on Christ’s perfect life on our behalf and stop striving to keep a Law which has already been perfectly kept.  In Christ, you are wholly acceptable to God; you can do nothing to earn additional approval or affection from the Almighty.  When Jesus said, “it is finished,” He meant it and the book of Hebrews would attest that the alter is closed, no other sacrifice is required.

Gospel Centrality

Godliness is having regard for God; ungodliness is an apathetic disregard for God

The grace of God has appeared… training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. (TITUS 2:11-12)

“Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness. Ungodliness in its broadest form basically comprises disregarding God, ignoring Him, or not taking Him into account in one’s life. It’s a lack of fear and reverence for Him. The wickedness portrayed by Paul in Romans 1:18-32 all starts with the idea that “although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him” (verse 21, NIV). A person may be highly moral and even benevolent and still be ungodly. When we trust in Christ as our Savior, we bring a habit of ungodliness into our Christian lives. We were accustomed to living without regard for God. As unbelievers, we cared neither for His glory nor His will. Basically, we ignored Him. But now that we have been delivered from the dominion of sin and brought under the reign of grace, grace teaches us to renounce this attitude (as well as actions) of ungodliness. Obviously this training does not occur all at once. In fact, God will be rooting out ungodliness from our lives as long as we live on this earth. Grace also teaches us to say no to worldly passions, the inordinate desire for and preoccupation with the things of this life, such as possessions, prestige, pleasure, or power. “For this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:31, NIV). Saying no to ungodliness and worldly passions basically means a decisive break with those attitudes and practices. In one sense, this decisive break is a divine act that occurred when we died to the dominion of sin in our lives. In another sense, we’re to work out this breach with sin by putting to death the misdeeds of the body (Romans 8:13).”

Gerald Bridges;Jerry Bridges. Holiness Day by Day: Transformational Thoughts for Your Spiritual Journey Devotional (p. 45). Kindle Edition.

Gospel Centrality

Religion vs. The Gospel

RELIGION: I obey, therefore I’m accepted.

THE GOSPEL: I’m accepted, therefore I obey.

RELIGION: Motivation is based on fear and insecurity.

THE GOSPEL: Motivation is based on grateful joy.

RELIGION: I obey God in order to get things from God.

THE GOSPEL: I obey God to get to God, to delight and resemble him.

RELIGION: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or myself, since I believe, like Job’s friends that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life.

THE GOSPEL: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I struggle but I know all my punishment fell on Jesus and that while he may allow this for my training, he will exercise his fatherly love within my trial.

RELIGION: When I am criticized, I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think of myself as a “good person.” Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs.

THE GOSPEL: When I am criticized, I can take it. I struggle, but it is not critical for me to think of myself as a “good person.” My identity is not built on my record or my performance, but on God’s love for me in Christ.

RELIGION: My prayer life consists largely of petition and only heats up when I am in a time of need. My main purpose in prayer is control of my environment.

THE GOSPEL: My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. My main purpose is fellowship with God.

RELIGION: My self-view swings between two poles: If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel insecure, inadequate, and not confident. I feel like a failure.

THE GOSPEL: My self-view is not based on a view of myself as a moral achiever. In Christ I am “simul iustus et peccator”—simultaneously sinful and yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad he had to die for me and I am so loved he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deeper and deeper humility and confidence at the same time, neither swaggering nor sniveling.

RELIGION: My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work or how moral I am, and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral. I disdain and feel superior to “the other.”

THE GOSPEL: My identity and self-worth are centered on the one who died for his enemies and who was excluded from the city for me. I am saved by sheer grace, so I can’t look down on those who believe or practice something different from me. It is only by grace that I am what I am. I have no inner need to win arguments.

RELIGION: Since I look to my own pedigree or performance for my spiritual acceptability, my heart manufactures idols. It may be my talents, my moral record, my personal discipline, my social status, etc. I absolutely have to have them so they serve as my main hope, meaning, happiness, security, and significance, regardless of what I say I believe about God.

THE GOSPEL: I have many good things in my life: family, work, spiritual disciplines, etc. But none of these good things is an ultimate end for me. None of them is something I absolutely have to have, so there is a limit to how much anxiety, bitterness, and despondency such things can inflict on me when they are threatened and lost.

Download 11×17 Poster.  Adapted from Gospel in Life Study by Tim Keller.  Comparison above from The Resurgence.

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

Created things cannot provide transcendent answers

Idols are powerless to deliver.  Ancient idols, created by craftsmen, were powerless to save, deliver or strengthen – the same is true of our modern, shiny, sophisticated idols.   Just as God formed us, so do craftsmen form idols – but these creators are human: they tire, get sick, get hungry & thirsty.  All idols are created out of created things that God gave mankind.  They used the wood to make a fire to bake their bread and then used what was left to fashion a “god” and then bow down and worship it, saying “deliver me!”  They cannot see that this is a created thing that they are looking for transcendence from.  Created things cannot provide transcendent answers.  On top of that, God has blinded them and shut up their hearts so that they cannot see the futility of their pursuit.
What do you delight in?  What do you look to for answers, satisfaction, identity, fulfillment?  These are your idols.  The heart will always worship something – either God or an idol.  Many times these are good things that we turn in to god things; things like marriage, family, faithful service, hard work or kid’s activities.  We teach our children what is worthy of worship and what they should seek to establish their true identity in life by what we will really trust in and what we really point them to – it may be athletics, relationships, morality, education or financial independence.  All of these things are good, but they are not designed to be our ultimate pursuit; they cannot hold the weight of our worship.  What “gospel” are you preaching to yourself and your children?  What do you say is worth all of your time, energy and pursuit?  What is your life ordered around?  This is what you really worship.  Is Jesus just one of many gods in your life?

“All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.
The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”” (Isaiah 44:9–20 ESV).
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

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.