The Gospel is the Power of God Everyday!

     Here is another wonderful post by pastor Tullian Tchividjian on the power of the gospel for daily living in Christ.  This brother has a way of saying what I am believing and experiencing (at least on some level) in a way far better than I.  His blog, On Earth As It Is In Heaven, is required reading.

     The wonder of the gospel is so multidimensional, but what I have been meditating upon lately is God's ability in the gospel to afflict us in our pride/self-sufficiency and at the same time encourage us in our many sins of disobedience.  The sin of pride is taken care of at the cross of Christ for no matter how obedient, righteous, or well we may think we are doing, the cross bears witness that God laid our sin on His Son.  No acts of worship or obedience from us are good enough, but only the righteousness of Christ.  As the hymn proclaims,

I dare not trust my sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name

    Pastor Tullian further explains that a preoccupation with our own righteousness often undermines the work of God in sanctification,

The hard work of Christian growth, therefore, is to think less of me and my performance and more of Jesus and his performance for me. Ironically, when we focus mostly on our need to get better we actually get worse. We become neurotic and self-absorbed. Preoccupation with my effort over God’s effort for me makes me increasingly self-centered and morbidly introspective.

     Sins of disobedience to God's law (with an accompanying guilty conscience) are also dealt a death blow at Calvary "by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This He set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Col. 2:14).  Christ became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13) as He bore our sin and ransomed us with His precious blood and there is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ (Rom. 8:1).  In the New Covenant, God will remember our sins no more because Christ has fulfilled every duty and penalty of the law on our behalf!  There is comfort when we sin that "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).  In order to grow spiritually, we need to remember that our every sin and debt has already been canceled through the work of our Lord Jesus.  Elyse Fitzpatrick explains,

One reason we don’t grow in ordinary, grateful obedience as we should is that we’ve got amnesia; we’ve forgotten that we are cleansed from our sins. In other words, ongoing failure in sanctification (the slow process of change into Christlikeness) is the direct result of failing to remember God’s love for us in the gospel. If we lack the comfort and assurance that his love and cleansing are meant to supply, our failures will handcuff us to yesterday’s sins, and we won’t have faith or courage to fight against them, or the love for God that’s meant to empower this war. If we fail to remember our justification, redemption, and reconciliation, we’ll struggle in our sanctification.

     These truths of the gospel apply to our Christian sanctification every day.  They free us from attempting to find our standing with God through our own puny, insufficient efforts, and also allow us to be assured that when we sin, we have forgiveness through our Mediator!  If God finds us to be particularly self-sufficient, let us go in faith to the cross where the Prince of Glory died and let our own supposed goodness fade to nothing.  If we are overwhelmed with the guilt of our sin, let us remember the cross of Christ and be washed anew in the cleansing blood of our Savior.  The power of Christ through the gospel is what saves us, sanctifies us, and will ultimately see us safely into the glory of the Father's kingdom!

Good Works Flow from God's Grace

"For by grace you have been saved though faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that not one may boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Tim Keller pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church explains the difference between all world religions and Christianity, 

At the end of The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis demonstrates how the major religions agree on certain moral absolutes.  Christians find that in today's culture wars, they often are on the same side with believing Jews, Muslims, and Hindus.  The Christian preacher seems to be saying, "Be moral," along with exponents of other philosophies.

But  when we ask, "Why be moral?" the other systems say, "In order to find God," while Christianity says, "Because God has found you."  The Christian gospel is that we are not saved by moral living, we are saved for it.  We are saved by grace alone, but that grace will inevitably issue a moral life.

Gospel-Powered Sanctification!

I’m Addicted: by Tullian Tchividjian

I’m addicted to the gospel. It burns inside of me. And it seems to get hotter ever day. I can’t stop thinking about it, talking about it, writing about it, reading about it, wrestling with it, reveling in it, standing on it, and thanking God for it. For better or for worse, my focus has become myopic. My passion has become singular. Lesser things don’t distract me as easily. I’m not as anxious as I used to be. I don’t fret over things as much. I’m more relaxed. What others think of me (either good or bad) doesn’t matter as much as it used to. I’m enjoying life more. The pressure’s off. I actually think I’m beginning to understand the length and breadth of the freedom Jesus purchased for me.

Jesus plus nothing equals everything–the gospel– is daily becoming for me more than a theological passion, more than a cognitive reality. It’s becoming my functional lifeline! And it’s this rediscovery of the gospel’s power that is enabling me to see that,

Because Jesus was strong for me, I am free to be weak;

Because Jesus won for me, I am free to lose;

Because Jesus was Someone, I am free to be no one;

Because Jesus was extraordinary, I am free to be ordinary;

Because Jesus succeeded for me, I am free to fail.

This is beginning to define my life in brand new, bright, and liberating ways. I believe God wants this liberating truth to define your life as well…and the life of the church corporately. Because I’m telling you right now, when you begin to understand that everything you need and long for, in Christ you already possess—it enables you to live a life of scandalous freedom, unrestrained fearlessness, and unbounded courage. When you don’t have anything to lose, you discover something wonderful: you’re free! Nothing in this broken world can beat a man who isn’t afraid to lose! And when you’re not afraid to lose you can say crazy, counterintuitive stuff like, “To live is Christ and to die is gain!” That’s pure, unadulterated freedom.

This is why I tweet as much as I do. I’m processing the  gospel all day long in 140 characters. Therefore, from time to time I post some of my more recent tweets to show you how God is working the gospel deeper into me and what I’m learning. Twitter has become for me an online personal journal. I hope you can benefit from the things God is teaching me.

Enjoy…

• The banner under which Christians live reads “It is finished.”

• Our security is in Christ’s achievement for us, so now we’re free to admit our weaknesses without feeling like our flesh is bring ripped off our bones

• Only when you realize that the gospel has nothing to do with your obedience but Christ’s obedience for you, will you start to obey!

• At no point in time, either before God saves you or after, does your behavior determine God’s love for you.

• Since a Christian’s value and identity is anchored in Christ and is not anchored in being right, the gospel frees us to admit we’re wrong.

• The gospel frees us from trying to impress people, prove ourselves to people, and make people think we’re something that we’re not.

• The gospel transforms us precisely because it’s not itself a message about our transformation but Christ’s substitution.

• The gospel frees us to realize that while we matter, we’re not the point.

• “Doing” will become instinctive and spontaneous only when our hearts become deeply gripped by what’s been done!

• Only the gospel can liberate us from the miserable, unquenchable pursuit to make something of ourselves by using others.

• Because everything we long for we already possess in Christ, we’re now free to love people, not use them.

• Our improvement comes from God’s approval; God’s approval does not come from our improvement.

• Christ fulfilled all of God’s conditions on our behalf so that our relationship with God could be unconditional.

• The gospel frees you from the pressure of having to make something out of yourself.

• Christian, the level of passion with which God loves you is not determined by the level of passion with which you love him. The Son’s passion for you secured the Father’s passion for you.

This is from pastor Tullian Tchividjian's blog, On Earth as it Is in Heaven.  The gospel is the power of God from start to finish in the Christian life!

Small Group Guidance

    "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith." (Romans 1:16-17).

     I recently spoke to a brother who has just moved and was looking for a new church home.  One of the churches he took a look at was an emergent type that seemed to stand for sound doctrine, but had at least one very troubling aspect.  This particular church requires in their "accountability" groups that each person confess all their sins to one another!

     Though I realize that churches are aiming for more "authenticity" and "transparency" (and this can be good), this approach of confessing every sin to one another has a multitude of potential pitfalls!  In this blog post by pastor Tullian Tchividjian, he brings us back to the gospel as the power-source of Christian sanctification.  One of the ironies in the Christian life is that if we spend more time meditating on what Jesus has already done for us, and quit thinking so much about what we have to do or not do we would grow more steadily into maturity.  Our Lord Jesus has already met every demand  of the law for us . . . we need to remember this as we determine to grow in Him.

10 Effects of Believing the Doctrines of Grace

Dr. John Piper describes 10 effects of believing in the doctrines of grace at pastor John Samson's Effectual Grace blog.  What a God-centered and soul-satisfying contrast to much of American evangelicalism that majors in me-centered narcissism, and frivolity.  Enjoy!:

Seeker-driven worship songs (you may want to start here, then move to Piper):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XHkMPA1334

Bookworm? Or Simple-Faith?

     Here is a good article by Kevin DeYoung that is likely to help us in our Christian sanctification.  Though the context of the article is in selecting an elder, I don't think that lets the rest of us off the hook.  Which are you most like: Mr. Bookworm? Or Mr. Simple-Faith? (both are very sincere believers).  What do you think your church tends to produce through her ministry emphasis?  Are you seeing your friends in this article?  Your spouses?  Pastor DeYoung proves here that we all have room to grow as Christians, but not necessarily in the same ways.  Personally, I would love to be more like Mr. Simple-Faith without losing Mr. Bookworm.  How about you?  Do you possess more knowledge than maturity? Or more maturity than knowledge?  In any case, we should be growing in both.

 ". . . but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.  Amen." (2 Peter 3:18).