Category: Gospel
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6 Gospel Aspects
As I teach and preach – and even talk to people – it is not uncommon for someone to ask for clarification of what I mean when I casually and frequently use the term “gospel”. For some the word has very little meaning. Folks are confused, wondering if it is a style of music, a…
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Gospel Warning Signs
Noted 19th Century Anglican Bishop J.C. Ryle offers a handful of warnings about counterfeiting the gospel: 1. Substitute anything for Christ, and the Gospel is totally spoiled! 2. Add anything to Christ, and the Gospel ceases to be a pure Gospel! 3. Put anything between a person and Christ, and that person will neglect Christ…
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Inebriated by the Gospel
Great grace laced imagery from Robert Capon: The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievilism, a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred-proof grace – of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God…
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Losing Our Gospel Grip
Evidence abounds all around that the current Spiritual climate of the typical Evangelical church is rightly described by sociologist Christian Smith as “more akin to Moralistic-Therapeutic-Deism than anything resembling historic Christianity.” I paraphrased Smith there, but it reflects the essence of Smith’s assessment. (If you want a refresher on what Moralistic-Therapeutic-Deism is click here & here.)…
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2 Mistakes Christians Make
People tend to make two mistakes when they think about the redeemed life. The first is to underestimate the sin that remains in us; it’s still there and it can still hurt us. The second is to underestimate the strength of God’s grace; God is determined to make us new. As a result, all Christians…
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Justified: Profound & Practical
…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ~ Romans 5.8-9 Matt Chandler passionately proclaims the profound practical benefits of God’s grace…
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Brokeness, Contrition, and Repentance = Marks of a Growing Christian
“So Repentance begins with an attitude of brokenness over our sin. But true repentance will be followed by an earnest desire and a sincere effort to put away the sin we are repenting of – to put on the Christlike virtues that we see missing in our lives. These efforts often seem to be characterized…
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Gospel by Dylan
While Dylan’s lyric may at first seem bleak, in the end he captures the essence of the Gospel. We do deserve to be put in “a chain that you can never break; legs and arms and body and bone”. And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. (Hebrews 9.22) But if…
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The Gospel Is…
Gospel means “good news.” The good news is: you are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe yet you can be more accepted and loved than you ever dared hope at the same time because Jesus Christ lived and died in your place. As the apostle Paul said, “God made him who had…
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Paradoxes of Grace
In his excellent, perspective shaping book, Broken-Down House, Paul Tripp reflects some of the amazing paradoxes of the gospel. Take some time to ponder these; feel the tension. This is what genuine grace is and does: So grace is a story and grace is a gift. It is God’s character and it is your hope.…
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Lingering Guilt & Insulting God’s Integrity
What do you do with the person who says: “I’ve asked God to forgive me, but I still feel guilty?” A noted writer (R.C. Sproul, I think) was asked [this] once. [His reply:] “Well, if You still feel guilty, then pray to God again, but this time don’t ask Him to forgive you for the…
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Our Universal Need
“Just so you know, the need for repentance, redemption, and forgiveness is universal. I don’t care if you are a liberal or a conservative, a religious fanatic or a militant atheist, a ‘spiritual’/’religious’ person or someone who runs from all that. It doesn’t matter to me if you listen to Billy Graham or follow Camus…
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Gospel-centered Foundation
Tom Wood and Scott Thomas explain the essence and importance of being truly gospel-centered: We are persuaded that the gospel must be the central foundation for effective, God-honoring biblical [leadership]. It is imperative, therefore, that we know what the gospel is and how it informs our practices. Terms like justification, adoption, sanctification, and sin are…
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Wading in the Gospel Deep
The message of the gospel is shallow enough for a child to wade in and yet deep enough to drown an elephant, and to grasp it we suggest following the summary of the gospel story through the four narrative acts of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. As each act of the drama unfolds, it’s important…
