Tag Archives: gospel

Should my life be centered around the gospel?

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“So what do you mean by gospel?”

My friend was taken aback by my question. She had just been talking about the importance of living a gospel-centered life, based on the transforming power of the gospel.

But I had been feeling some concern that gospel is becoming more and more of a buzzword in the church, and as such is beginning to lose its meaning, which is beautiful, and take on a meaning it was never intended to have.

Am I really supposed to be living a gospel-centered life? Does the gospel really have transforming power?

Gospel means “good news.”   All Christians know the basics there: because of Christ’s death on the cross, my sins are forgiven. Yes, good news indeed.

But the Good News of Jesus Christ goes much higher and wider and deeper than that. Jesus Christ’s perfect life fulfilled all the law for me. His atoning death procured forgiveness for me. His powerful resurrection provided for me new freedom from sin. His glorious ascension provided gifts for me, primarily the Holy Spirit to empower me to be able to pour out a sweet fragrance before God. His victorious seating provided a seat for me, where I am now. Immeasurable riches of grace. Incomparable kindness through Christ Jesus.

All this is incredibly good news. Astounding news. Forgiveness and more, much more. But still, it has no more power to transform my life than wonderful news written up in a newspaper, like the end of World War II or something. A young wife whose husband has been away at war can’t continue to center her life around that news, or be truly transformed by it over the many long days to come.

The centering is around a Person. The transforming comes through the Person. Is it important to say that I live a Christ-centered life rather than a gospel-centered life? Is it a crucial distinction to urge people to remember that they are transformed by Jesus Christ Himself rather than His gospel?

Maybe we can ask the young war bride who holds a newspaper in one hand and her husband in the other.

But beyond all comparison with an earthly husband, when my life is centered around Jesus Christ, He transforms me—from the inside out—providing a sustaining joy. I find my life in Him and He lives His life in me.

This is the Good News. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We live it. We proclaim it. And we hold it in its rightful place.

Lessons from Teaching English as a Second Language

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Teaching English as a Second Language has taught me something about English: There are loads of rules. People from other countries who just have to learn the rules and then all the rules about the rules (meta-rules?) can feel utterly overwhelmed with the complexity of the language we speak naturally. They can even become resentful. They could wish that English were their first language, but of course that cannot be.

But if you grew up in a home where English is spoken all the time, and spoken correctly, then it will seem natural, and the rules will come easily. In fact, you’ll be able to intuit rules you’ve never even heard. “Oh yes, I see. I thought so.”

Just so, the Language of Love has rules. The rules in the New Testament can seem overwhelming. You can make a long, long list and say, “All right, now I’m really gonna keep these rules,” but to keep everything straight and to remember them all can make us end up just feeling resentful against God.

But when the Language of Love becomes your first language—which can happen only by the miracle of new life by grace through faith—then that Language comes naturally, and the rules fit into the schema you’ve already developed by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the rules are helpful, but mostly to give form and shape to something you have already basically understood by faith.

This is the Gospel. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ. He takes helpless people who are dying in their own blood and cries, “Live!” He transforms hearts that are dead-set against Him and fills them with His own Love, which transcends all language boundaries. In His glorious New Covenant He sets rules, but not so much for restraints as for clarity. “This is the way it is in My Kingdom.”

And we who are His leap up to cry out, in our Love for Him, “Yes, Lord! I see! I thought so!”

A song I love to hate

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I don’t really hate it . . . but I dislike it a lot.

It has such a beautiful title: “I Am Satisfied with Jesus.” My heart leaps up in response to that title. Yes!

It’s an old song, sung in the churches in which I grew up, so you may not know it. It goes like this:

“I am satisfied with Jesus! He has done so much for me. / He has suffered to redeem me. He has died to set me free.”

Well, the poetry isn’t the greatest, but I appreciate the sentiment. So far so good.

Here is the refrain, sung again and again for four verses:

“I am satisfied, I am satisfied, I am satisfied with Jesus. / But the question comes to me as I think of Calvary, / Is my Saviour satisfied with me?”

It’s a rhetorical question. So you’re supposed to know the answer. Listen, and you’ll hear it. It comes roaring down the empty corridor and resounding off the concrete walls.

NO!!

No, He’s not satisfied! I’m not doing enough! I need to try harder! I need to make a longer list! I need to sleep less! I need to work and work and work! More Bible study! More prayer! More witnessing! More church attendance! More passing out tracts!

For three more verses this song lays the burden of guilt on heavier and heavier and heavier, until you are bowed almost to the ground under the weight. He has done so much for you! Why aren’t you doing more for Him? And with this mindset, no matter how much you do, you’ll always ask that question, because how can you EVER do as much for Him as He did for you? It’s impossible.

I never really liked this song, even back in the days when I didn’t understand why I didn’t like it. In fact, I felt guilty for not liking it.

But then I began to understand Salvation in Everyday Life. The Gospel that saves moment by moment. The Salvation that changes not just my destination some sweet day, but my desires, my direction, and even my death in this very day. I began to understand the outpouring River of God’s grace to do all the things He wants me to do, through the power of the Holy Spirit (who, by the way, is ignored in this song about doing things for God).

About three years ago I was giving a little . . . talk . . . to my children about how the mindset of this song is wrong, explaining the truth about salvation. “The truth of the matter is that if I am IN CHRIST, then He is completely satisfied with me, because Jesus Christ is completely satisfying.”

My daughter uttered some beautiful words: “That sounds almost too good to be true.”

“Ah, yes,” I said. “That’s the gospel.”