The Gospel Is For Christians Too
When my wife and I left Dallas fresh out of seminary almost eight years ago to look for a house in Waco, our wonderful (and very dear to us to this day) real estate agent asked me what I did for a living, “What brings you to Waco?” I told her I was a pastor sent by our church in Dallas to plant a church in Waco. With a warm smile she said, “Oh, you’re going to love it here. Waco’s nickname is ‘Jerusalem on the Brazos’.” After spending most of my young adult life ministering to un-churched Ivy League students and un-reached central Asian university students, this was the last thing I wanted to hear. On the outside I smiled back, but on the inside I was frowning, thinking, “Great. It’s just what I thought. I’m in the land of the over-churched. Can I still back out of my call to Waco?”
I have been changing in a very profound way since that conversation almost eight years ago. The work in progress has become the vision of my life and ministry. It is this: The gospel is not only what brings you into a right relationship with God, but it is also what grows your relationship with God, continues change in your life, creates community, and empowers you for service and ministry.
The late Donald Grey Barnhouse, former pastor of historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, was once asked: “What would a town or city look like if Satan took over?” Dr. Barnhouse responded, “Well, the streets would be clean. The buildings would always be freshly painted and well maintained. There would be no spitting on the sidewalks, no profanity used in public, no crime, no gambling, no prostitution, no drunks or homeless walking the streets. Children would obey their parents … And on every Sunday everyone would go to Church where Christ isn’t preached.” What a startling answer.
For most of my Christian life I treated the gospel like the ‘rearview mirror’ in my car. A couple times a year, usually at Christmas and especially at Easter, I would look in my ‘rearview mirror’ to see what Jesus did for me (behind me) in the past, namely dying on the cross for my sins. This was usually followed by some sense of gratitude. However, I couldn’t stare too long at the rearview mirror because I had to get on with the real business of living the Christian life. Everyone knows you do not drive your car by looking primarily at your rearview mirror (if you do, you and possibly others will be in deep trouble!). You drive your car by looking through the front windshield. The problem is, depending upon your spiritual background and the current ministry menu you are consuming, there are as many ‘front windshields’ out there today to choose from as there are churches in Waco.
Is there a God-appointed power to not only bring you in to a right relationship with God, but also to grow you in your relationship with God, to continue changes in your life, to create community, and to empower you for service and ministry? The apostle, who strangely calls himself “the foremost of sinners” (1 Tim 1.15) while not only being a Christian but also the greatest of the apostles, says, “Yes.”
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God … God made Him (Jesus) our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’.” (1 Corinthians 1.18, 30-31.)
Let’s briefly see how God shines on the page here. First, notice who is being saved – “us.” Paul is included in the ‘us.’ Paul is being saved. Is Paul describing his past when he was Saul, the God belittler, persecutor of Christians, violent religious bounty hunter? In other words is Paul looking backward through the ‘rearview mirror’ to see what Jesus did for Him in the past in terms of his conversion? No. “Being saved” is in the present tense. Paul is describing what is happening to him right now not only as a believer in Jesus, but also as an apostle of Jesus. Paul is describing what he calls in verse 30, “sanctification,” or growing in grace. Salvation, according to the Bible, comes in a three-linked chain; each link is distinct but not separate from the other links in the chain. The first is justification, or coming to faith in Christ. The second is sanctification, or growing in the grace of Christ. The third is glorification, or being finally and fully with Christ forever. It is sanctification or growing in the grace of Christ in the present that Paul is talking about here.
Now notice what Paul does next. He connects the gospel message (“the word of the cross”) to the power of God that is working on him in the present. It is working in such a way that it is saving him. In other words, the gospel message is the God-ordained power to not only bring you into a right relationship with God, but also to grow your relationship with God, change your life, create community, and empower you for service and ministry.
For many of us this just doesn’t make sense because the gospel is only the ‘rearview mirror,’ not the front windshield. We treat the gospel as though it’s only a message for the un-churched, not a message for the churched and even over-churched. We treat the gospel like it’s the ABCs of the Christian life, not the A to Z of the Christian life.
But Paul saw it differently. To him the gospel was rich in the infinite glories of Christ. It was so powerful that when you came in contact with it God Himself nourished you, refreshed you, pressed in His presence amidst you, changed you, and empowered you for community, service, and ministry.
Our spiritual malnourishment these days is not due to our passion to hear the infinite glories of God’s gospel, but due to our innate drive to hear and try anything else. The gospel is for Christians too.
I have been changing in a very profound way since that conversation almost eight years ago. The work in progress has become the vision of my life and ministry. It is this: The gospel is not only what brings you into a right relationship with God, but it is also what grows your relationship with God, continues change in your life, creates community, and empowers you for service and ministry.
The late Donald Grey Barnhouse, former pastor of historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, was once asked: “What would a town or city look like if Satan took over?” Dr. Barnhouse responded, “Well, the streets would be clean. The buildings would always be freshly painted and well maintained. There would be no spitting on the sidewalks, no profanity used in public, no crime, no gambling, no prostitution, no drunks or homeless walking the streets. Children would obey their parents … And on every Sunday everyone would go to Church where Christ isn’t preached.” What a startling answer.
For most of my Christian life I treated the gospel like the ‘rearview mirror’ in my car. A couple times a year, usually at Christmas and especially at Easter, I would look in my ‘rearview mirror’ to see what Jesus did for me (behind me) in the past, namely dying on the cross for my sins. This was usually followed by some sense of gratitude. However, I couldn’t stare too long at the rearview mirror because I had to get on with the real business of living the Christian life. Everyone knows you do not drive your car by looking primarily at your rearview mirror (if you do, you and possibly others will be in deep trouble!). You drive your car by looking through the front windshield. The problem is, depending upon your spiritual background and the current ministry menu you are consuming, there are as many ‘front windshields’ out there today to choose from as there are churches in Waco.
Is there a God-appointed power to not only bring you in to a right relationship with God, but also to grow you in your relationship with God, to continue changes in your life, to create community, and to empower you for service and ministry? The apostle, who strangely calls himself “the foremost of sinners” (1 Tim 1.15) while not only being a Christian but also the greatest of the apostles, says, “Yes.”
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God … God made Him (Jesus) our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’.” (1 Corinthians 1.18, 30-31.)
Let’s briefly see how God shines on the page here. First, notice who is being saved – “us.” Paul is included in the ‘us.’ Paul is being saved. Is Paul describing his past when he was Saul, the God belittler, persecutor of Christians, violent religious bounty hunter? In other words is Paul looking backward through the ‘rearview mirror’ to see what Jesus did for Him in the past in terms of his conversion? No. “Being saved” is in the present tense. Paul is describing what is happening to him right now not only as a believer in Jesus, but also as an apostle of Jesus. Paul is describing what he calls in verse 30, “sanctification,” or growing in grace. Salvation, according to the Bible, comes in a three-linked chain; each link is distinct but not separate from the other links in the chain. The first is justification, or coming to faith in Christ. The second is sanctification, or growing in the grace of Christ. The third is glorification, or being finally and fully with Christ forever. It is sanctification or growing in the grace of Christ in the present that Paul is talking about here.
Now notice what Paul does next. He connects the gospel message (“the word of the cross”) to the power of God that is working on him in the present. It is working in such a way that it is saving him. In other words, the gospel message is the God-ordained power to not only bring you into a right relationship with God, but also to grow your relationship with God, change your life, create community, and empower you for service and ministry.
For many of us this just doesn’t make sense because the gospel is only the ‘rearview mirror,’ not the front windshield. We treat the gospel as though it’s only a message for the un-churched, not a message for the churched and even over-churched. We treat the gospel like it’s the ABCs of the Christian life, not the A to Z of the Christian life.
But Paul saw it differently. To him the gospel was rich in the infinite glories of Christ. It was so powerful that when you came in contact with it God Himself nourished you, refreshed you, pressed in His presence amidst you, changed you, and empowered you for community, service, and ministry.
Our spiritual malnourishment these days is not due to our passion to hear the infinite glories of God’s gospel, but due to our innate drive to hear and try anything else. The gospel is for Christians too.
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