Well, it is an honor for me to be here in this capacity this morning. I have to say that the last couple of weeks, as I've prepared to preach, my mind and heart were flooded with fond memories of my time here on the pastoral staff of Tenth with Phil Ryken and Jonathan Olsen and Marion Clark and others. Second thing I would say is, "I noticed that they removed the clock at the back, so I take that as a sign I have unlimited time-you can cancel your Monday appointment." But my greater honor is that, by God's grace, I have been chosen to communicate, this morning, the most glorious message you could ever hear.
You Will Never Outgrow the Gospel
You and I will never outgrow the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There will never be a moment when it is inappropriate for you to hear again the simple message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter how long you've known the Lord, no matter how deep and expansive your theological knowledge is, no matter how great your biblical literacy, it is important for us to return again and again to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it is my experience as I've been called by God to be in churches, around the world and cultures around the world, that I have experienced something there that has caused for me concern, that often people have a fairly clear understanding of salvation past and a fairly clear understanding of salvation future, their destiny with Christ; but they're not so clear about the present benefits of the gospel right here, right now; what I would call the 'nowism' of the gospel.
No, it's not a word; I made it up. The gospel right here, right now, in all of its transforming power. You see, the reason this is important is that everyone in this room is a philosopher. Everyone in this room is a theologian. Everyone in this room is an archaeologist, and you will dig through the mound of your existence in order to make sense out of your life. Human beings do not live life based on the facts of their experience but based on their interpretation of those facts. And so, you are always preaching some kind of gospel to yourself.
Yes, it is true that there's a preacher that you listen to more than anyone who is on this platform, and that preacher is you. And you're either preaching to yourself the true gospel of Jesus Christ, or some false gospel of your independent self-righteousness, or of a God who's distant and uncaring. And so it's very important for us to again root our thinking and root our living in the glorious message of the gospel, not just then, and not just then but right here, right now. Turn, if you would, in your Bibles to Galatians, chapter 2.
The verse I'm going to read is in the midst of a discussion where Paul is speaking as a Jew, arguing with Jews that justification never happens by means of keeping the law. And in the midst of that discussion, he speaks quite autobiographically, but in speaking that way, he speaks for every believer in Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
"I have been crucified with Christ." Right here, right now, the gospel, for you and for me, is first an identity. Good gospel theology doesn't just define who God is and what he has done, but it redefines who we are as the people of God. And that identity is rooted in a redemptive historical act. Paul says, "I have been crucified with Christ." What incredible words. Paul wants you to understand that Jesus didn't purchase on the cross savability. He didn't purchase the possibility of being saved. Jesus took names to the cross.
I want to say that again. "Jesus took names to the cross." Now that should not surprise you because if you've read your Word, you know that your name was written in the Book of Life before the foundations of the world. God carried your name in that moment when he said to Adam and Eve that he would crush the head of the serpent. He carried your name when he made his covenant with Noah after the flood. He carried your name when he made his promises to Abraham that, through his descendants, all the nations on earth would be blessed.
He carried your name when he redeemed Israel out of slavery and gave them a land of promise. He carried your name when he brought them back out of captivity, preserving the line of Judah. He carried your name when he sent his Son to earth. Jesus carried your name from his birth. He carried your name through every righteous act done on your behalf. He carried your name to the cross. He carried your name out of that empty tomb in victory. He carried your name as he rose in his royal priestly reign in his ascension.
He carried your name. He carried your name. He carries your name. And if he carried your name to the cross, would he abandon you in this moment? The fact that the cross is personal and effective for all who believe means there are four freedoms that we can live in right here, right now. The first, I love talking about these things, the first is "Freedom from the Penalty of Sin." Jesus bore every aspect of our penalty for our sin so that we would never again have to sit under the weight of God's condemnation and his wrath.
It Is Finished
When Jesus said, "It is finished," he meant it. I'm free from that penalty. That has practical implications right here, right now. Brothers and sisters, I'm happy to say that your sickness is not God punishing you for your sin because Jesus carried your punishment. Your hardships that you face are not God punishing you for your sin. God looks on you with favor because Jesus canceled the written code that was against you, nailing it to the cross-beautiful words of Paul from Colossians 2. But not only a penalty of sin, you have "Freedom from the Slavery of Sin."
Paul says in Romans 6, "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." Sin enslaves, sin addicts, sin makes us captives. And on the cross, Jesus broke the power of sin over us. That is wonderful news because in that breaking of that power, in the breaking of that mastery, we now have the ability to say "No!" I'm going to say more about that. It's a glorious truth. The third freedom is "Freedom from the Shame of Sin." Jesus shamed shame on the cross, carrying its scorn, Hebrew 12:2 says.
That means I don't have to hide in fear. I don't have to try to minimize and deny my sin because I'm afraid of God. I don't have to live like Adam and Eve in the garden, hiding from their Lord. No, no longer. Here's the good news. There's nothing that could ever be known or exposed about you that hasn't been covered by the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Come out of the hiding. Come out of denial. Come out of minimizing. Come away from protecting yourself by preaching your righteousness and the unrighteousness of somebody else.
Step into the gospel, confess, the shame has been broken! But also "Freedom from the Exclusion of Sin." Sin separates us from God. There is no more horrible human condition than to live separate from God, "without hope and without God in the world," Paul says in Ephesians. On the cross, the most painful moment for Jesus was not physical torture, although he was experiencing torturous things. The most painful moment on Jesus at the cross was relational when God turned his back on the Son and Jesus cries out in torment, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus endured that moment for us. He was taking every ounce of our rejection so we would never see the back of God's head. In your worst week, in your worst moment as a husband, worst moment as a parent, worst moment as a worker or neighbor, God will never turn his back on you; Jesus carried your rejection, praise God! And he looks at you through the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ given over to your account. This identity is rooted in a historical redemptive act, but that's not all. Paul says, "I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." What a statement, "It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me." Now, you know he's not talking physical here. He's not saying he's physically dead because he wouldn't be writing this. He's talking about something very, very important to understand. Paul is saying. "The thing now that animates my life, that gives me hope and courage, that animates the things I say and do, that animates my values, is not my strength, not my righteousness, not my wisdom; it's Christ, it's Christ in me, the hope of glory!"
I get up in the morning like you do, and I face all the weights of life in this fallen world. Sometimes that's like putting on a backpack of stones, but your hope is not your weakness. It's not that you've grown in exotic wisdom. It's not your righteousness; it's Christ's! It's a beautiful thing to think about, that Christ lives in me, and with Christ comes his power. Think about this. I love how Paul captures this in 2 Corinthians 4:7, when he says, "We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God, and not to us."
Now, that means we're the jars of clay, and that's not a compliment, because if you put pressure on clay, if you drop it, guess what happens? It shatters. It's a picture of power inhabiting weakness. Isn't that beautiful? That God blesses us with the power of his Son. Think about that. That means if you're in one of those arguments in your marriage, please don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about, and you can think of the things you'd like to say to this person. All of a sudden, love isn't in your mind, but winning is in your mind no matter what, and you're about to say, "Oh yeah?"
Power to Turn
You have the power in Christ to turn and go in another direction and be a more loving and understanding and forgiving spouse. When you're about to march down the hallway because your children are misbehaving and let them know what a mess they've made of your life, and say things that you shouldn't say, and do things that you shouldn't do, you have the power, in Christ, to turn and be a nurturing, loving, instructing, Godly-disciplining parent. If you are sitting with your computer open, and you're tempted to look at things you have no business looking at, you have the power, in Christ, to say, "No!" and turn and go in another direction.
If you're about to destroy your relationship with your neighbor because you're so irritated that the rosebushes have grown over into your property, you have the power to say "No!" in Christ, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. If you're about to compromise your Christian convictions at your school, at your university, in order to gain acceptance from someone, you have the power to say, "No!" If you're about to carry some gossip to somebody else, about to destroy somebody's reputation, you have the power to say, "No!" and turn and go in another direction.
Christ lives in you. But not only does he come with his power, he comes with his provision. Peter captures that in 2 Peter, chapter 1, where he says, "We've already been given everything we need for life and godliness" (Paraphrase). I don't know if you've ever wondered why Peter uses two words. Why didn't he just say, "We've been given everything we need for life?" I think because Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, knew his audience, and he knew if he said, "We've been given everything for life," we would think, "Oh yes, eternal life!
We've been given everything, so somehow, someway, I arrive there with my Lord in glory." And that's true, but that doesn't happen to be Peter's topic. That's why he uses a second word, 'godliness.' What is godliness? It's a God-honoring life between the time I come to him and the time I go home with him. It's a right here, right now thing. I've been given everything I need, right here, right now, to be what God has chosen me to be and to be what God has called me to be in the places where he has sovereignly placed me.
That's good news! I'm not left to my small bag of resources. I may be a collection of weaknesses held together by cords of grace, but I have everything I need. At the end of that chapter in 2 Peter, Peter says that there are people who are "ineffective and unfruitful (unproductive) in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, when you read a diagnostic like that in Scripture, you ought to immediately ask, "Why?" Why are these people who really do know the Lord, why are they "ineffective and unfruitful (unproductive) in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ?"
And Peter says they are "nearsighted...and blind, having forgotten that he (they) was cleansed from his (their) former (past) sins." The issue is identity. The issue is right here, right now, gospel-amnesia. You see, when you forget who you are in Christ, you quit pursuing what belongs to you in Christ. Let me say that again. "When you forget who you are in Christ, you quit pursuing what belongs to you in Christ." The gospel's identity rooted in historical redemptive fact, rooted in present redemptive reality.
But the gospel's a second thing, the gospel is a lens. Paul says, "And the life I now live...I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Faith in the gospel should be, for us, like a pair of glasses we put on. The gospel becomes the means by which we make sense out of life. There's no more trustworthy, no more accurate interpretive tool that a human being could ever use than the gospel. And I want to just share with you "Five Foundational Gospel Themes" that you should carry with you as, in your place in the world, you seek to make sense out of your life.
First theme is "There Is a God of awesome incalculable glory who sits on the throne of the universe and rules everything everywhere, according to the power of his will." This life that we're living is not first about us. It's first about him. It's not first about our glory. It's about his glory. You could argue that the four most important words of the Bible are the first four, "In the beginning, God." Romans 11:36 says, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever."
At the center of the story of the cosmos is not us, it's God. And to help us to remember him, He's created a world, a created world that speaks of his existence. I like to say it this way, "You can't get up in the morning without bumping into God because His glory is everywhere visible so we would not forget that life is about him." There's a second theme, "People who were made in His image were made to live for something vastly bigger than themselves." What is that thing? Made to live for God, made to live for his kingdom, made to live for his glory.
A Glory Thief
It is so easy to slip into being a glory thief, to slip into making life about me, to shrink life down to the claustrophobic confines of my wants, my needs, my feelings. You do what brings me pleasure, I'll be nice to you. You don't, and I will punish you. That's glory thievery! It's tempting to make it about us. And we're meant to live for his glory. So everything I do in my marriage, everything I do at my school, everything I do at my job, everything I do with regard to my parents, everything I do in my sexual life, everything I do in my life of entertainment, is all motivated and shaped and directed by a desire that God would get glory by everything that I am, and everything that I think, and everything that I desire, and everything that I say, and everything that I do.
Third theme, it is "The horrible, horrible tragedy of sin." Sin is the ultimate inescapable human disease. The greatest, darkest pandemic that has ever infected humanity is not COVID-it's sin! No one ever escapes it. Sin is a liar. It makes promises it can never keep. And although we have been fully forgiven of our sin, our sin is not yet eradicated. There is sin that still lives outside of us and sin that still lives inside of us. And your problem is not just temptation because it's the sin inside of you that hooks you to the evil outside of you.
That's why monasticism doesn't work. So I have to, every day, acknowledge that I'm not a grace graduate yet, that there is still this thing inside of me. I have to acknowledge that sin is seductive and deceptive, that it blinds me, that this is not yet peacetime. I still live in the midst of a spiritual war and that war takes place in all those little mundane places I live every day. And that reality brings us to the fourth gospel theme. It's "The existence of great and glorious, forgiving, justifying, empowering, transforming, delivering grace; that no one lives beyond the reach of this grace."
And that grace is not just forgiving grace, that grace is empowering grace. Maybe you've been listening to me and saying, "Paul, the life you're describing is impossible!" You know what I would say to that? "You're right! In and of yourself, it's impossible, but you're not left to yourself, because God has unleashed his grace on his people." Last theme is the theme of "Destiny." The gospel would teach us that every human being is marching toward a destiny of some kind, and there are only two options.
You're either, sadly, marching toward a destiny that's eternal separation from God and torment; or you're marching toward that glorious destiny in the new heavens and new earth where peace and righteousness reign forever and ever. Now, I think we have a problem when it comes to eternity. Ecclesiastes tells us that God has hardwired eternity into our hearts. That means all of us have a longing for paradise. And so many of us make the mistake of trying to turn this into paradise. I just want to help you here.
You will never have a paradise marriage. May you have many blessings and much joy, but you'll never have a paradise marriage. You'll never parent paradise children, in case you haven't figured that out. You'll never have a paradise ministry. You'll never go to a paradise church. You'll never have a paradise job because this isn't our final destination. This is not all we have, praise God! This is a preparation for a final destination. And if you try to turn this into a paradise, you'll end up in all kinds of frustration and hurt and anger, and ultimately, you'll doubt God's goodness.
I have good news for you. "Persevere, paradise is coming!" And you'll look back and say, "Every hardship we faced, every loss we faced, every pain we faced, every disappointment we faced, every struggle we faced was a small thing in comparison to the glory we are now experiencing. It was enough. We're so thankful!" And when you're in glory, you won't look back with "if-onlys" and "what-ifs" because your heart will be fully satisfied with a paradise that is now yours because of Jesus. The gospel is an identity rooted in historical redemptive fact, rooted in present redemptive reality.
The gospel is a lens that you can look at and make sense out of life. Last, the gospel is a lifestyle. Paul says, "The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." The gospel is meant right here, right now, to form for you a way of living. I love the book of Ephesians; it has been a dear friend to me. And the first three chapters of Ephesians are one of the most glorious gospel explanations in all of Scripture. My crass way of saying it, "It's probably Paul's best gospel-rant."
Walk Worthy
It's just beautiful, and it'll take you to gospel-heights that you couldn't imagine without those words. But this is how he begins chapter 4, "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience," and it goes on. Paul says, "My prayer is, and my desire for you, and my exhortation to you, is that you would now live in a way that flows out of the gospel that I've just given you" (Paraphrase).
And then what the rest of the book does, is it applies the gospel to all the various dimensions of human life. Paul applies the gospel to your part in Christ's church. He applies the gospel to marriage. He applies the gospel to parenting, to your communication, to your emotions, to the way you use your money, and to spiritual warfare. The gospel is meant to form the way I live in all of those dimensions of everyday life because the gospel is meant to be transformative. The gospel is an identity. I don't have to shop for identity horizontally anymore.
I don't have to hunt around horizontally for meaning and purpose. I found it in Christ and his work on my behalf and his dwelling within me. I know who I am in Christ, and I know what it means for my everyday living. The gospel is a lens; I don't have to live in confusion because the foundational truths of the gospel help me to understand life. The gospel is a lifestyle; I don't have to wonder how to live-the gospel forms that for me. Now I want to ask you this morning, is the gospel that for you?
Would you fire your inner lawyer for a minute and examine your heart? Does the gospel form your living? Propel the things you say and do? Where in your life would you have to say, "Lord, there's times when I do forget who I am and I forget what I've been given, and I live as if my life belongs to me." Well, I'm happy to tell you don't have to fear that question. God harnessed the forces of nature and controlled the events of human history, so at a certain point in time, his Son would come and live, on your behalf, a righteous life that you could have never lived.
And died as your substitute, an acceptable death, satisfying God's anger. And he rose again, conquering sin and death and ascended in his royal priestly reign to the right hand of the Father so that you, right now, could enter his presence and come weak, come failing, come broken, and he will not turn you away! Confess, "I've forgotten you; I say and do things I shouldn't say; I live, in places, for my own glory; please rescue me from me." Your Lord will always hear and answer that prayer. Maybe you're in this room this morning.
And you would say, Paul, I don't know this Jesus. And I don't know this life. I shop around for identity all over the place, and it just leads to disappointment, aloneness, and alienation. I do things I know I shouldn't do, and all I live with is guilt and shame. I want to plead with you. "Don't leave this room without giving your heart and life to Jesus." If you don't know how to do that, grab somebody you don't know and ask them. If you don't know how to do that, grab somebody at the back of this room.
Don't leave. There is no life more glorious than what we've talked about today, and it's yours in Christ-run to him! Let's pray. Lord, how, how beautiful, how blessed the life is that we have just described, that you have poured down on us in the generosity of your love and your mercy and your grace. Oh, we don't want to live as gospel-amnesiacs, so meet us in our weakness, meet us in our blindness. Open our eyes and our hearts again. And Lord, in this moment, it's right to say that we love you, and we do.
But the greatest, fullest, deepest joy of our lives is that we've been loved by you. You are a rock and a fortress. You are the sun and shield. You are life and health and peace and truth and reconciliation and redemption. We do love you, but the greatest joy of our lives is that we've been loved by you. Thank you. We thank you. In the sweet and strong name of Jesus, our Redeemer and friend. Amen.
