Gospel Centered?

Great piece by Dane Ortlund at the Gospel Coalition:

"Gospel-centered preaching." "Gospel-centered parenting." "Gospel-centered discipleship." The back of my business card says "gospel-centered publishing." This descriptive mantra is tagged on to just about anything and everything in the Christian world these days.

What's it all about?

Before articulating what it might mean to be gospel-centered, we better be on the same page as to the actual message of the gospel.

I don't mean Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

What I mean by "gospel" in this article is the outrageous news of what has been done for us by God in Jesus. The gospel is the front page of the newspaper, not the back-page advice column; news of what has happened, not advice on how to live.

Specifically, the gospel is the startling news that what God demands from us, he provides for us. How? In his own Son. The gospel is the message that Jesus Christ delights to switch places with guilty rebels. The one person who walked this earth who deserved heaven endured the wrath of hell so that those who deserve the wrath of hell can have heaven.

And the gospel is not only personal, but cosmic. Christ's death and resurrection doesn't only provide forgiveness for me. It also means that in the middle of history, God has begun to undo death, ruin, decay, and darkness. The universe itself is going to be washed clean and made new. Eden will be restored.

But to be part of this movement, we too must die. Grace requires death. We must die to our bookkeeping existence that builds our identity on anything other than Jesus. We must relinquish, give up on ourselves, throw in the towel. And out of this death—letting God love us in, not after getting over, our messiness—resurrection life quietly blossoms.

Gospel-Centered Worldview

What does it mean, then, to be "gospel-centered"?

As far as I can tell the phrase is used in two basic ways. One way is to view all of life in light of the gospel. We'll call this a gospel-centered worldview. The other is to view Christian progress as dependent on the gospel. We'll call this gospel-centered growth. The first looks out; the second looks in. Take gospel-centered worldview first.

Think about what we mean when we call people "self-centered." We don't mean that all they think about directly is themselves. They also think about what to eat, what to wear, how to conclude an email, and a thousand other things each day. But self informs all these other decisions. A self-centered person passes all he does and thinks through the filter of self. Self trumps everything else and orders all other loves accordingly.In a similar way, to be gospel-centered does not mean that social action, marital and sexual matters, ethical issues, political agendas, our jobs, our diet, and all the rest of daily life are irrelevant. Rather, it means all of life is viewed in light of the gospel. Everything passes through the filter of the gospel. What Jesus has done and is doing to restore the universe trumps everything else and orders all other loves accordingly.

The Gravity That Holds Us Together

"We’re like the solar system without the sun. The sun is so massive it can hold all the planets in their orbits, but we’re not the sun. We simply don’t have the gravity to hold our lives together even when we expend a lot of effort trying. What we need is the good news of Jesus Christ, the good news that we can look outside ourselves at last because God has provided everything we need in Jesus. God has sent his glorious Son into the world to be everything for us, to be the center of our lives, to draw us into fellowship with the living God. And it’s all by grace."

-From Missing Jesus: Find Your Life in His Great Story, by Charles and Janet Morris

Hat Tip: Tim Challies

Fueled for Life

On April 6, 2014, Scotty Smith preached a sermon at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church entitled “Gospel-Fueled Sanctification.” Here's an excerpt:


   

Click HERE for the sermon notes.

A Gift That Keeps On Giving

“God did not give us His gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted. Actually, He offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps on giving to us everything we need for life and godliness.

The wise believer learns this truth early and becomes proficient in extracting available benefits from the gospel each day. We extract these benefits by being absorbed in the gospel, speaking it to ourselves when necessary, and by daring to reckon it true in all we do.”

— Milton Vincent    A Gospel Primer7

HT: Of First Importance

Gospel-Centered Confusion

I am not a fan of "buzz words."  You know...when terms that once had a fresh and specific meaning become so widely used that different people use them to mean different things, or just read past them. One of the current buzz terms that falls into this category is "gospel-centered." This post by Bryce Ashlin-Mayo has a necessary corrective:

In recent days, there has been a rise in rhetoric. The use of the phrase “Gospel-Centered” has become ubiquitous. People are arguing for Gospel-Centered Discipleship, Gospel-Centered Preaching, Gospel-Centered Evangelism, Gospel-Centered Children’s Ministry, Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry, etc. On the surface, it is hard to argue against the use of the phrase.

The challenge I would make to this phenomena is not necessarily against the desire to be Gospel-Centered (although I think it is fair to ask: Should we be Gospel-Centered or Christ-Centered? Have we lifted the message over the Messiah?) but I would challenge what one means by Gospel-Centered. If one believes that the Gospel is simply the message of reconciliation between God and the individual through Christ (in essence: an individual transaction of salvation paid for by the death of Christ) and nothing more, this means something very different than if one believes that the Gospel is the message of reconciliation of all things (Colossians 1:20) through Christ: between God and humanity, between humanity and humanity (reconciliation, justice, and compassion), and between humanity and creation (creation care).

If we simply understand the Gospel as a transaction between God and the individual, we have only understood the Gospel in one dimension and, in doing so, conveniently commodified it for a consumerist culture. This is analogous to seeing the physical world around us through only one dimension (length), void of width or height. By adding two more dimensions, we see breadth and depth of the world around us. The same is true with the full Gospel message and, thus, the embrace of the full dimension of God’s love (Ephesians 3).

The church is called to proclaim the gospel not simply in its words, offering something for people to consume but also through its actions and communal presence. The Church, as the people of God, are called to be a city on a hill, living in God's Kingdom expressed through forgiveness, peace, justice, compassion, etc for the entire world. The Church doesn't simply have a mission, the Church is called to embody mission by its very existence, presence, and activities because its very existence is an invitation of reconciliation. In an individualistic consumerist culture, this is extremely counter-cultural, explaining why the church's role is so difficult but also why it is so important.

Thus, I would argue that the church can only be Gospel-Centered if it embodies and proclaims the message of reconciliation of all things through Christ; thus, is active in sharing how one’s reconciliation with God is only possible through Christ, is active in carrying for our planet, is involved in reconciliation ministries, is pursuing justice and compassion, is caring for the whole person, etc. If the church is not doing these, pursuing these, etc., is it truly Gospel-Centered? If the church simply communicates a one dimensional message of individual salvation (individual reconciliation with God) it is simply not communicating the whole gospel.

Echoing the mission of the Lausanne Movement the call of the church is for: The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world.

Effectual Message

Doug Wilson posts Hands Like That:

We can never be reminded too many times of the gospel of grace. It is a message that is not just information, but also food, and light, and warmth—it is a message that is effectual. And there is a word we should all love more than we do—effectual.

Our condition apart from Christ is one of utter helplessness. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were slaves to sin, having to do its bidding, and we were free from the control of righteousness. All our efforts to cease being unrighteous just created a different kind of unrighteousness—the religiosity of the carnal man. This religiosity always veers to some form of works righteousness, because the energy for such religion comes from pride, and not holiness. But pride is our sinful condition. We are dead in our sins, and the name of that death is pride, self, me. And for all the striving that it generates, the word for such religiosity is ineffectual.

But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were steeped in our unloveliness, Christ came down from Heaven in order to love us. He abandoned His will to the will of the Father—the very thing we had refused to do—and was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He was stripped, beaten, flogged, nailed to a cross of wood, thrust through with a spear, taken down, laid in a tomb for three days, after which point He came out of that tomb with your forgiveness outstretched in His two hands. The thing about it is that when hands like that have been pierced in that way, whenever they are carrying forgiveness of sins, they are incapable of dropping it.

So He came out of that tomb carrying our righteousness, our justification, our perfection. And He offers it to us here—free grace—in the gospel, in the declaration, in the preaching, in the Supper. And so this is the message summed up—that we, the unrighteous and filthy, are given the grace to be able to say, without fear of contradiction, the Lord our Righteousness.

Hat Tip: Rick Ianniello

Defining the Term "Gospel Centered"

The term "Gospel Centered" is a very popular and frequently used "buzz word" now-a-days, at least in the books and on the web pages I've been reading. A danger that comes when a term gets quickly and widely used, when it becomes a "buzz word," is for the term to lose meaning, or to be defined differently by different users so that we are not really communicating. Another danger is that it simply becomes an identity marker, defining who is in and who is out of an "in crowd."

To define the term(s), I like Joe Thorn's definitions in an old post (Hat Tip Tim Challies) These are statements I can totally agree with!

THE GOSPEL:

"In the simplest of terms the gospel is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that accomplishes redemption and restoration for all who believe and all of creation. In his life Jesus fulfilled the law and accomplished all righteousness on behalf of sinners who have broken God’s law at every point. In his death Jesus atones for our sins, satisfying the wrath of God and obtaining forgiveness for all who believe. In his resurrection Jesus’ victory over sin and death is the guarantee of our victory over the same in and through him. Jesus’ saving work not only redeems sinners, uniting them to God, but also assures the future restoration of all creation. This is the gospel, the “good news,” that God redeems a fallen world by his grace."

GOSPEL CENTERED:

"Therefore, to be gospel-centered means that that the gospel – and Jesus himself – is our greatest hope and boast, our deepest longing and joy, and our most passionate song and message. It means that the gospel is what defines us as Christians, unites us as brothers and sisters, changes us as sinner/saints and sends us as God’s people on mission. When we are gospel-centered the gospel is exalted above every other good thing in our lives and triumphs over every bad thing set against it."

GOSPEL CENTERED LIFE:

“[T]he gospel-centered life is a life where a Christian experiences a growing personal reliance on the gospel that protects him from depending on his own religious performance and being seduced and overwhelmed by idols.”

These are truths we can (and should) unite around, not divide over!

Jesus-Centered Leadership

From Creature of the Word, here is the best definition of Christian leadership I have ever read:

"Jesus centered leadership is God-focused, Christ-exalting, and Spirit-led influence toward a kingdom agenda." (page 164)

Also the best definition of the goal of Christian leadership I have ever read:

"...the goal or aim of gospel-centered leadership is the formation of Christ in people who long to see the formation of Christ in other people" (page 176)

Can't top that!

Center Church - A Model for Ministry

Tim Keller has a new book coming out this week - Center Church.



Above is the trailer for the book. Here's a synopsis:

In Center Church, Timothy Keller offers challenging insights and provocative questions based on over twenty years of ministry in New York City. This book outlines a theological vision for ministry—based on classic doctrines but rethinking our assumptions about church for our time and place—organized around three core commitments:Gospel-centered: The gospel of grace in Jesus Christ changes everything, from our hearts to our community to the world. It completely reshapes the content, tone and strategy of all that we do.City-centered: Cities increasingly influence our global culture and affect the way we do ministry. With a positive approach toward our culture, we learn to affirm that cities are wonderful, strategic and underserved places for gospel ministry.Movement-centered: Instead of building our own tribe, we seek the prosperity and peace of our community as we are led by the Holy Spirit.

A Matter of Wonder

Do you understand the gospel? Do I? More profound Keller wisdom below:

"If you think you really understand the gospel – you don’t. If you think you haven’t even begun to truly understand the gospel – you do. As important as our ‘gospel theologizing’ is, it alone will not reach our world. People today are incredibly sensitive to inconsistency and phoniness. They hear what the gospel teaches and then look at our lives and see the gap. Why should they believe? We have to recognize that the gospel is a transforming thing, and we simply are not very transformed by it. It’s not enough to say to postmodern people: ‘You don’t like absolute truth? Well, then, we’re going to give you even more of it!’ But people who balk so much at absolute truth will need to see greater holiness of life, practical grace, gospel character, and virtue, if they are going to believe. 

Traditionally, this process of ‘gospel-realizing,’ especially when done corporately, is called ‘revival.’ Religion operates on the principle:I obey; therefore I am accepted (by God). The gospel operates on the principle: I am accepted through the costly grace of God; therefore I obey. Two people operating on these two principles can sit beside each other in church on Sunday trying to do many of the same things – read the Bible, obey the Ten Commandments, be active in church, and pray – but out of two entirely different motivations. Religion moves you to do what you do out of fear, insecurity, and self-righteousness, but the gospel moves you to do what you do more and more out of grateful joy in who God is in himself. Times of revival are seasons in which many nominal and spiritually sleepy Christians, operating out of the semi-Pharisaism of religion, wake up to the wonder and ramifications of the gospel. Revivals are massive eruptions of new spiritual power in the church through a recovery of the gospel. In his sermon on Mark 9 Lloyd-Jones was calling the church to revival as its only hope. This is not a new program or something you can implement through a series of steps. It is a matter of wonder. Peter says that the angels always long to look into the gospel; they never tire of it (I Pet. 1:12). The gospel is amazing love. Amazing grace."

                                 - Tim Keller

Hat Tip:  Vitamin Z

The Defining Element

"A gospel-centered church is always about the gospel. It preaches the gospel in all places, at all times, to all people. The gospel is the defining element in every part of their ministry.

Nonbelievers need to hear the gospel to believe it and be saved.  Believers need to be reminded of the gospel so they can grow deeper in Christ. There really is no distinction, you see, between what believers need to hear and what unbelievers need to hear. Both believers and unbelievers need to get a glimpse of God's majestic glory, a taste of His surpassing beauty, and a sense of how much grace God has shown toward them in Christ. Both believers and unbelievers need to be rebukes for their pride and self sufficiency, to be reminded of the all surpassing beauty of God. They both need to be stirred up to faith. The gospel is the center of the message no matter who you are talking to. It is everything. Christ is all."

- J.D. Greear, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, page 240.

Is The Main Thing The Only Thing?

Is The Main Thing The Only Thing?  An important question and insightful words from Joe Thorn's blog:

When I was in Bible College I often heard an old preacher tell the students, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Of course he wasn’t the first to say it, but I loved it. I still do.

Recently someone I respect asked me, “is it possible that within the ‘gospel-centered movement’ some people are making the main thing the only thing?”

It is a great question, and I think it does point to a problem of unhealthy reductionism among some well-meaning brothers and sisters. I believe this brother was essentially saying, “Look, our people need to know what their hope is before God. This is of first importance. But, they also need to know how to pray, fast, love, give, fight, and serve.” Of course, I agree with this sentiment.

There is more in God’s word than the gospel. God has given us his law to show us the way, uncover our corruption and condemnation, and point us to our need of redemption. There are commands to be obeyed, there is wisdom to learn and practice, and affections to feel and be moved by. But, the law itself is unable to create within us new hearts, or empower us to obey its demands. So let me say it this way: The gospel is the main thing, it is not the only thing. However, it is the only thing that brings life, power, and transformation. The gospel isn’t everything, but it does connect to everything, and preachers and teachers in the church must be able to show that connection lest we allow the church to drift (or even be lead) into various kinds of hopeless, powerless legalism.

More at the link.

A Church-less Gospel?

Is it possible to be "Gospel Centered" and leave out the church, the Body of Christ? Nope, not really. The excerpt below is from A Church-less Gospel? at| SBC Voices:

When we minimize, indeed, even eliminate the local church from Christian living and following Jesus we have missed the Gospel.

Part of this stems, in my opinion, from our over-focus on a “personal relationship with Jesus.” And while undoubtedly the Christian life is very much about a relationship with Jesus (John 17:3), we must remember what the church is in regards to Jesus: his body, the temple of his Holy Spirit, his bride, his flock, and his household.

Several times over, the Bible calls Jesus the head of the church which is his body—and we are the members. A church-less gospel is like the thumb trying to be in a relationship with the head while maintaining no connection to the hand, the wrist, the arm, the shoulder, the torso, etc. A severed thumb really has no relationship to the body at all, let alone the head.

The Gospel is more about Jesus saving a people (Titus 2:14) than a particular individual. Yes, God saves his people by saving individuals but then he takes them and makes them part of something bigger than themselves—part of a flock, a body…a church.

The Gospel produces the church. And no individual Christian can live a Gospel-centered life apart from belonging to and involvement as a member in a local church....

Much more at the link.

Nothing In My Hands

“Preaching the gospel to ourselves every day addresses both the self-righteous Pharisee and the guilt-laden sinner that dwell in our hearts. Since the gospel is only for sinners, preaching it to ourselves every day reminds us that we are indeed sinners in need of God’s grace. It causes us to say to God, in the words of an old hymn, ‘Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.’”

— Jerry Bridges,The Disciple of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness(Colorado Springs, Co.: NavPress, 1994), 26

Hat Tip: Of First Importance

Counterfeit Gospels Explained

Here's Trevin Wax explaining the core concept of his new book Counterfeit Gospels:



From: Kingdom People

Confronting Christian Consumerism

Why is the term "Gospel Centered" becoming so prevalent in the Christian blog-o-sphere?

The prevalence of “gospel-centered” language is a reaction to the kind of failed discipleship methods that many of us once thought would sustain our Christian faith. Church leaders haven’t always rooted discipleship in the gospel, so for many Christians the biblical mandate to grow in faith has led to continual frustration. What’s been proclaimed is an endless array of steps, secret formulas, or studies that lead to deeper truth. Therefore, many of us once considered the gospel as essential for believing in Jesus but unimportant for actually following Jesus. So what’s crucial in this gospel-centered movement is its fresh emphasis on Christ’s work for our growth and obedience.

Gospel-centeredness is a critique of our consumeristic culture, in which new is better and the latest is greatest. Contrary to this mindset, Christians don’t grow in faith by discovering the latest formula or completing the program with the newest “truth.” Human growth methods have no power to conform sinners to Christ for the glory of God. What Christians need isn’t something new but something old – the Old Story of Christ Crucified and Risen. So the gospel-centered movement certainly appeals to believers who recognize the spiritual bankruptcy of “Christian” consumerism. There is no greater news, no deeper teaching, than the gospel.

Excerpted from an interview with Mitch Chase, author of The Gospel Is For Christians, by Trevin Wax at Kingdom People.  Looks like another book I really want to read!

Always the Prescription

"...gospel-centrality is always the prescription, even when we're not feeling it. The gospel is where the power is. "Feeling it" or not, looking elsewhere is not a viable option. Always go to Christ, because he is strong -- stronger even -- when we are weak."

From Jared Wilson, The Gospel-Driven Church

How Does the Gospel Apply?

That is a good question to be asking oneself daily, and moment by moment.

Living a gospel-centered life is really simply living in such a way that this gospel is central. Thus when any kind of a situation arises we can say, “How does the gospel apply to this situation?” When I am dealing with a particular sin or temptation I can ask, “How can I apply the gospel to this sin?” When I am confused about parenting, how I am to raise my children, I can ask, “What does the gospel tell me about my task in parenting?” The primary reality of the Christian life is this one: Christ died for our sins and was raised. Thus everything else flows out of that gospel and every question is answered in reference to it.

I like how Joe Thorn phrases it: “The gospel-centered life is a life where a Christian experiences a growing personal reliance on the gospel that protects him from depending on his own religious performance and being seduced and overwhelmed by idols.”

From Living Gospel-Centered | Challies Dot Com:

Hat Tip: Peter Cockrell

Deeper Implications

"The main problem in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not ‘used’ the gospel in and on all parts of our life. "

                                  — Timothy Keller "The Centrality of the Gospel"

Hat Tip: Of First Importance

Going Deeper by Going Basic

People talk about "deep teaching,"  "deep spirituality," and "deep worship" - but what does all this deep stuff really mean?. Trevin at "Kingdom People" has an answer - So You Want to Go Deeper… ::

So what do we mean by “depth?” Not just new information or insightful application. We are longing for a depth that grounds us in the richness of the gospel.

Too many times, we assume that the gospel is just the basics of the Christian life, but intense, deep discipleship takes place when we get into the theological precision of interpreting biblical doctrines. Not so.

The gospel is the story that gives richness and profundity to all our study of the Bible. John 3:16 is simple enough for a child to believe, and yet we can linger over these words for a lifetime and never exhaust all the truth contained here.

“Going deep” is more than winning a game of Bible Trivia. It’s more than finding a helpful insight for the upcoming week.

Going deep is:

• immersing ourselves in the truth that Jesus Christ bled and died to save helpless sinners like you and me.
• seeing the depth of our sin and the depth of God’s grace.
• remembering that there is nothing we can do to make ourselves more acceptable to God.
• returning to the costly grace that demands “my life, my soul, my all.”
• viewing the whole Bible in light of the overarching story of grace that has the gospel announcement as its climax and the gospel community as its result.

It’s been said that the gospel is not the ABCs of salvation, but the A to Z of the Christian life. That’s good to remember. We never move beyond this good news. Depth occurs when we more deeply explore the truth of the gospel and its implications.

 More good stuff at the link.