Category: Gospel
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Living & Loving to Please God
Steve Brown, professor at Reformed Theological Seminary and president of Key Life Network, penned a marvelous word picture of the motive and expression of a life gripped by God’s grace: When I became a Christian, two things happened. I got saved, and I got loved. I got loved so deeply that it still amazes me…
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Transforming Power of the Gospel
“The good news of the Kingdom is that our King has won a marvelous victory for us. Through his sinless life, sacrificial death as our substitute, resurrection, and ascension, he has not only conquered death for us, removing its penalty, but he has also conquered sin’s power over us… Now through repentance faith, God means…
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Gospel-Driven Sanctification
by Jerry Bridges Early in my Christian life I heard someone say, “The Bible was not given to increase your knowledge but to guide your conduct.” Later I came to realize that this statement was simplistic at best and erroneous at worst. The Bible is far more than a rulebook to follow. It is primarily…
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No One Without the Other
There’s a lot of talk about “Cross-centeredness”…as if the death of Christ is more important than the life of Christ. Christ’s death is not the center of the gospel any more than his life is the center of the gospel. One without the other fails to bring about redemption. ~Tullian Tchividjian, from Jesus + Nothing…
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Ways of Grace
We will never find God unless he first seeks us, but we should remember that he can do so in very different ways. Sometimes, God jumps on us dramatically, as he does with the younger son, and we have a sharp sense of his love. Sometimes he quietly and patiently argues with us even though…
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The Therapeutic Gospel
What may be the most famous chapter in all of western literature portrays the appeal of a “therapeutic gospel.” In his chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor,” Fyodor Dostoevsky imagines Jesus returning to sixteenth century Spain (The Brothers Karamazov, II:5:v). But Jesus is not welcomed by church authorities. The cardinal of Seville, head of the Inquisition,…
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Gospel Fluency pt 2
I have been listening these past few days to the audio of Jeff Vanderstelt on Gospel Fluency. The concept of Gospel Fluency is simply to learn to speak the language of the gospel, and gospel-centeredness, in every aspect of our everyday lives. Like any language, the the vernacular surrounding gospel-centeredness may initially feel somewhat foreign,…
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Gospel Fluency pt 1
I have been listening these past few days to the audio of Jeff Vanderstelt on Gospel Fluency. The concept of Gospel Fluency is simply to learn to speak the language of the gospel, and gospel-centeredness, in every aspect of our everyday lives. Like any language, the the vernacular surrounding gospel-centeredness may initially feel somewhat foreign,…
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The Determining Factor
In his magnificent and practical work, Spiritual Depression, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones provides this wonderful description of the dynamics of genuine Christianity: “The determining factor in our relationship with God is not our past or present, but Christ’s past and present.” ‘How then does it work?’ It works like this. God accepts this righteousness of Christ,…
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When God Speaks…Things Happen
In 2 Corinthians 4.6 Paul reveals a correlation between the Gospel and Creation: For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In other words, as Tim Chester helped me see: At creation…
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How Faith Speaks
“We can put it this way: the man who has faith is the man who is no longer looking at himself and no longer looking to himself. He no longer looks at anything he once was. He does not look at what he is now. He does not even look at what he hopes to…
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Gospel from Mars Hill
The gospel is like a multifaceted jewel. Descriptions of it vary but the substance is never altered. Our appreciation for it’s beauty is enhanced by viewing it from it’s different aspects. We also see things fresh through the eyes of others, as we understand what they are seeing. For that reason I value whenever I…
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Legalism in Light of the Gospel
In light of the gospel, let me especially demolish the myth that legalism is a blunder that’s associated only with our initial salvation—with our positional justification in God’s eyes. Most believers realize we could never earn such salvation; we’ve come to accept that no one can work his way into God’s kingdom… . But when…
