the Gospel

“If there’s anything in life that we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel. And I don’t mean passionate only about sharing it with others. I mean passionate about thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to color the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first importance to each of us. And only the gospel ought to be.” C. J. Mahaney

News flash.  Missionaries sometimes don’t believe the Gospel for themselves.  Its true, although I’ll admit, hard to say it out loud.  Here you have a group of people who have given their lives to the calling that they believe the Lord has placed on their life.  We believe that the message of God’s grace and redemption is vitally important, so much so that we leave a lot of things that we love behind to go and share this message with the world.  And yet, there are days that I don’t believe this message for myself.  There are days that I don’t let it affect me on a heart level.  There are days that I don’t want to be changed and transformed by this good news. 

Some days its because I believe that I’m too bad and so far gone.  I’ve seen so much of my own heart and my own sin that I just can’t see how the Lord could possibly forgive and turn it around.  And some days I’m just so prideful that I look at my life and see all the things I’m doing well and I just forget that I need the Lord at all because clearly I’m doing alright all by myself.  And some days I believe that I need the Lord’s grace and that it is enough for me on an intellectual level, but it doesn’t bring any transformation to my life.

Tim Keller writes… “A Christian is not just someone who knows about Jesus, but one who has “seen” him on the cross. Our hearts are moved when we see not just that he died in general, but that he had to die for us. When that knowledge becomes affecting and life-changing, we are Christians.  We see the meaning of his work for us.”

I am praying that the Lord continues to remind me every day that I need His goodness and grace.  And I am praying that as I rest in His promises for me that my life will be transformed and changed as the Gospel is applied to every area of my life.

Oh, to believe is the Gospel.  It brings humility and love for others.  It causes me to step back and consider someone else’s point of view because I’m not so busy trying to make myself look better than them.  It allows me to receive love and grace, first from the Lord and then from other people because I know that to receive these things is a gift.  It gives me peace and comfort because I can stop striving to make my good deeds outweigh my bad.  I am allowed to rest in the joy of loving Jesus and living for Him without worrying about how my checklist of goodness is playing out.  And it frees me from living for the approval of other people, and oh what a freedom that is.  To know my identity in Christ alone and be free from my own self.  I’ll take it.