Excerpt from the Book:
As a Christian I am, as Tim Keller states, “more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe and more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope.”1
Two Powerful Truths
These two truths can also be referred to as the gospel- the story of Christ’s life and death that redeemed sinful man. I cannot overstate how important and powerful these two truths are. Sadly, many Christians, once they have accepted Christ, begin to take them for granted as they seek to grow in the spiritual walk. The gospel is treated as the key to enter the kingdom, but once we’re in we try to move on to deeper and more mature knowledge. What we often fail to realize is that the gospel is still as important, if not more so, to mature Christians as it is to non-Christians. The gospel is intended to be our daily motivation and companion. It is the “how” to all the “whats” of the Christian life.
I’ll give you an example. I was recently watching a Christian video on the internet. It was a short video meant to set up the Sunday morning sermon. The tech guys call it a “bumper” but you know it as the video that plays as the worship team leaves the stage. The narrator’s words went something like this:
“Check this out. 1977 years, 134 days, 16 hours, and 28 minutes ago Jesus was asked, ‘What is the greatest commandment?’ Jesus simply answered ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.’(Enter techno music and cool graphics)…You see, our love for God must be sincere, not just by the words we speak, but also by engaging our souls. To truly love God we must be passionate about Him, inside and out. The only way to follow this command is to make loving God our first priority.”2
The video continued to point out that if we do this, if we make loving God a priority, then we will naturally follow the second greatest commandment- to love others as ourselves.
Now, the words in this video may not seem odd to you. They may sound like many of the other videos, sermons, and lessons you’ve heard in the past. But the narrator’s instructions in this video are extremely frustrating to me. Notice what he says. “Our love for God must be sincere…we must be passionate about Him.” Thats great and its true, but I want to know how I am supposed to do this. I mean, I’m a sinful, selfish, depraved person. How in the world can I become passionate about loving God. Thank goodness he answers this for me. “The only way to follow this command is to make loving God our first priority.” What!? That’s the same thing you just said. I need to really love God by really loving God? I still don’t know how I’m supposed to do this.
And its the same with most of the books and sermons I’ve heard over the years. I’m instructed to do this or that. I’m told why I desperately need to this or that. And then the guy starts praying! You haven’t told me how! Do I have to come back next Sunday or buy part 2 of your book? What’s the deal?
The How of the Christian Life
The gospel, the truth that I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe and more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope, is the how of the Christian life. It is the power and the motivation behind our spiritual growth. We can’t simply make living a good life a priority or try to rev up some discipline and love. It doesn’t work that way. We grow by remembering. We move forward in our Christian life as we are reminded of and rejoice in the gospel. As Tullian Tchividjian writes, “I once assumed that the gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, but after they believe it, they advance to deeper theological waters…the gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths but more like the hub in a wheel of truth…The gospel doesn’t just ignite the Christian life; it’s the fuel that keeps Christians going every day. Once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel but to move them more deeply into it. After all, the only antidote to sin is the gospel- and since Christians remain sinners even after they’re converted, the gospel must be the medicine a Christian takes every day. Since we never leave off sinning, we can never leave the gospel.” 3
You see, as we grow in Christ we are confronted with our sin daily. As we seek to live a good life and fail, we are reminded that our hearts are flawed. We will never be able to attain the holiness that God desires of us. But, we are also reminded that Christ attained that holiness for us, that God accepts and love us sinners because of Him, and that it is possible to have a relationship with God even in our sinful state. The product, the end result of this, is thankfulness and gratefulness. As we remember, rehearse, and rejoice in the gospel we begin to live our lives in loving response. This motivation is the how of the Christian life. How do you grow in your love for God? By rehearsing the gospel! By telling yourself that you are a sinful person who deserves death, hell, and the grave. But Christ has redeemed you and reunited you with the Father. You have been rescued from your plight and brought into His eternal family. With these two truths in you mind, you can’t help but love God. It’s the natural result of the gospel.
1 http://download.redeemer.com/pdf/learn/resources/Centrality_of_the_Gospel-Keller.pdf
2 http://vimeo.com/9191818
3 Tullian Tchividjian, Surprised by Grace, pg 16.
