Tag: Gospel
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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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Gospel: Where Rubber Meets Road
It is one thing to affirm the gospel; It is something altogether different to experience it’s power where the rubber meets the road. ~Tullian Tchividjian, from Jesus + Nothing = Everything
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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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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 Cross in the Crosshairs of My Heart
“I tend to focus my thoughts on my Christianity – how I’m doing, what I’m learning, how my prayer time was today, how I avoided that pesky sin or fell into it again. I think about what I’m supposed to accomplish for Christ, and I interact with others on that same works-oriented ground. But this…
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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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Countering Moralism
Probably the most difficult obstacle for ministry I face is moralism. Despite the obvious declining standard in our culture, licentiousness is not the biggest hurdle. Nor is Biblical and theological illiteracy. Moralism, which substitutes our becoming good in exchange for God’s grace and glory as the essence and goal of Christianity, is a plague that…
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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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Deeper Into the Gospel
Reflecting on Colossians 1.6, Tullian Tchividjian, in his book Jesus + Nothing = Everything, offers this poignant perspective about the present practicality of the gospel: The gospel represents both the nature of Christian growth and the basis for it. Whatever progress we make in our Christian lives – whatever going onward, whatever pressing forward –…
