Here is some wonderful instruction from Ralph Erskine about how to preach the gospel to yourself whatever your faith-struggle may be:

Go to God and say, O “do as thou hast said.” Consider what he hath said, and take him at his word, and put him to it, that he would do to you accordingly. Whatever your care be, surely there is some word relative to it.

Some may be thinking, alas! God hath said nothing to me, that I may put him to his word. Why, man, if the gospel, that is in this Bible, be preached to you, and if there be any word of grace therein suitable to your case, then put not away the word from you, but take it, and plead upon it, that God would do as he hath said. If you can see any word of promise suited to your case and to your need, then put to your hand by faith, and lay hold upon his word.

O, say you, is there any word from God about my case, who am a poor needy creature, like to starve for want of a spiritual meal and a hearty draught of the living waters that go out from Jerusalem? What hath God said, or hath he said anything concerning me? Yea, he hath said, Isa. xli. 17, 18, “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in dry places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry lands springs of water.” Hath he said so? Then take him at his word, and put him to it, saying, Lord, “do as thou hast said” (Ralph Erskine, “Faith’s Plea Upon God’s Word,” The Works of Ralph Erskine, vol. 2).

This is part one of a 20 part series. Many, many more gems to come.

I adapted the following Sinclair Ferguson quotation, which originally spoke of the pastor’s ministry of the Word, so that it speaks directly to the Christian’s approach to his personal study of the Word:

“The great gospel imperatives to holiness are ever rooted in indicatives of grace that are able to sustain the weight of [Scripture's] imperatives. The Apostles do not make the mistake that’s often made [by Christians]. [For the Apostles] the indicatives are more powerful than the imperatives in gospel preaching. So often in our [personal study of Scripture our grasp of Scripture's] indicatives are not strong enough, great enough, holy enough, or gracious enough to sustain the power of the imperatives. And so our [attempt to apply Scripture's imperatives] becomes a whip or a rod to beat our [own] backs because we’ve looked at the New Testament and that’s all we have seen. We’ve seen our own failure, and we’ve seen the imperatives to holiness, and we’ve lost sight of the great indicatives of the gospel that sustain those imperatives” (adapted from Sinclair’s sermon at 2007 Banner of Truth conference).

Here’s a suggestion for your personal reading of and meditation on Scripture for the remainder of the month of May: First, read the Epistles noting specifically those texts/verses that speak of who you are and what you possess in Christ. Second, pray for spiritual illumination to understand and faith to believe afresh all that you are and possess in Christ. Third, give sustained and prayerful thought on the glory of these great realities so that your heart is lifted up in joyful worship. Fourth, preach the truth of these texts to your own heart every morning, afternoon, and evening with abandon. Fifth, share the fruit of this spiritual exercise with others within the sphere of your Christian community for their spiritual encouragement.

If you decide to follow this suggested plan for the ramainder of this month, please let us know in the comment section and consider blogging about it on your personal blog.

Listen to Tim Chester introduce his upcoming book on gospel-driven change:

“My relationship to God is not a variable one. The case is not that I am a child of God, and then again not a child of God. That is not the basis of my standing, that is not the position. When God had mercy upon me, He made me His child, and I remain his child. A very sinful, and a very unworthy one, perhaps, but still his child! And now, when I fall into sin, I have not sinned against the law, I have sinned against love. Like the prodigal, I will go back to my Father and I ill tell Him, “Father, I am not worthy to be called your son.” But He will embrace me, and He will say, “Do not talk nonsense, you are My child,” and He will shower his love upon me! That is the meaning of putting on the breastplate of righteousness! Never allow the devil to get you into a state of condemnation. Never allow a particular sin to cause again the whole question of your standing before God. That question has been settled.” ~Martyn Lloyd-Jones

(HT: My good friend George Koontz)

John Fonville, of Gospel-Driven Blog, just e-mailed me about the upcoming Gospel-Driven Life Conference. Its theme is “The Gospel-Driven Life: Growing in Holiness by Living in Union with Christ.” Michael Horton, R.C. Sproul, Scott Clark, and Robert Godfrey will challenge the false notion that the gospel is merely what gives us entrance into the Christian life and explore the wonderful truth that the gospel is not only the power of God to justify us but also His power to sanctify us. Here’s what John wrote on his blog about their hope for this conference:

Our hope is that God would use this conference as a small means to:

First, aid Christians in realizing the joyful truth that the gospel is good news for Christians, too. Through faith in the Gospel, sinners are brought into a mysterious and glorious union with Christ. The Gospel is not just a doctrine that “gets me saved.” The Gospel is meant to be that which believers live by each and every moment of their lives (cf., Gal. 2:20).

Second, to observe how great the importance of preaching the Gospel is not only in order to give sinners encouragement respecting free justification, but also with regard to their sanctification, i.e., that the Gospel is the great means of sanctification.

Third, to proclaim that it is the gospel that exhibits God’s highest glory, which He chiefly designs to display before sinful men, even that glory of God that shines in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:8).

I may be on a trip somewhere else the dates of this conference, but if I’m not, I really hope to attend this excellent conference. Here’s information about Gospel-Driven Life Conference: Read the rest of this entry »

“The gospel word and the gospel community are essential. My heart needs to hear that word often if it is to be filled with ‘inexpressible and glorious joy’. It is among the community of God’s poeple that the word will be brought to bear on my life frequently and perceptively. It is through his word and among his people that the Holy Spirit works to break this sinner’s heart and renews it so that I love God - truly, madly and deeply” (Total Church: A radical reshaping around gospel and community, p. 203).

The Purple Cellar interviewed Elyse Fitzpatrick, author of Idols of the Heart: Learning to Long for God Alone, this past April. It’s a brief interview that reminded me of how profoundly I need Jesus in the life long process of sanctification. Read it here.

This is so very good and helpful!

“The great gospel imperatives to holiness are ever rooted in indicatives of grace that are able to sustain the weight of those imperatives. The Apostles do not make the mistake that’s often made in Christian ministry. [For the Apostles] the indicatives are more powerful than the imperatives in gospel preaching. So often in our preaching our indicatives are not strong enough, great enough, holy enough, or gracious enough to sustain the power of the imperatives. And so our teaching on holiness becomes a whip or a rod to beat our people’s backs because we’ve looked at the New Testament and that’s all we ourselves have seen. We’ve seen our own failure and we’ve seen the imperatives to holiness and we’ve lost sight of the great indicatives of the gospel that sustain those imperatives. … Woven into the warp and woof of the New Testament’s exposition of what it means for us to be holy is the great groundwork that the self-existent, thrice holy, triune God has — in Himself, by Himself and for Himself — committed Himself and all three Persons of His being to bringing about the holiness of His own people. This is the Father’s purpose, the Son’s purchase and the Spirit’s ministry” (Sinclair Ferguson).

(HT: John Fonville)

Justin Buzzard has interviewed Graeme Goldsworthy over at his blog. If you are not familiar with Goldsworthy (or even if you are) or are new to gospel-centeredness discussion, particularly as it relates to interpretation, you’ll want to check this interview out. Thanks, Justin, for making this Goldsworthy interview available.

I’m convinced that I cannot be real with others or myself without the gospel. It’s not a “cannot” like “I cannot eat ice cream because I’m on a diet.” No, it is more like “I cannot leap tall buildings in a single bound.” It’s an impossible cannot, not a voluntary, self-imposed cannot. Without the gospel, being real with others is an impossibility for me. If I lose sight of the gospel, it’s not long until I find myself saying this or doing that so that people will view me one way and not another. As soon as I begin to say or do things so that others think I’m like this or like that, I’ve ceased to be real with them and with myself. This is hypocrisy. When the gospel loses its central place in my consciousness, my modus operandi is to attempt to create and sustain an identity with which those within my circle of relationships will be impressed.

The main problem with this failure to be real with others and myself is not that I’m failing to be real with others and myself. That’s a problem for sure, but it’s not the main problem. So what is it? It’s my failure to be real with God. My main problem when I’m saying and doing things for the purpose of influencing how people think of me is that, ultimately, I’m failing to be real with God Himself.

Consider two ways in which these two failures are connected. First, when I fail to be real with others, I’m guilty of exalting man’s view of me over God’s view of me. It means I care more about what man thinks of me than I do about what God thinks of me. This is idolatry because it essentially puts another god before my eyes, namely, the god of human opinion. To be real with people means having no other gods before the God (Exodus 20:3).

Second, when I fail to be real with others, I’m guilty of relying upon human works to make myself presentable rather than upon God’s grace. It means that I’m seeking acceptance on my own terms rather than resting in the acceptance that has come to me by grace. Trying to be who I am not before others is a form of works righteousness. It is the kind of thing we do when we are not resting in God’s gracious provision in Jesus. Choosing not to be real with others is ultimately an affront to God’s grace.

Only through the gospel can I admit who I really am to others or even to myself. When I lose sight of the gospel, there’s no way I can bear up under the weight of the knowledge of the sin that lurks within the recesses of my own heart. If I can’t bear it myself, I certainly can’t bear allowing other people to see it. But through the gospel I can bear to acknowledge the depth of my own sin, whether to myself or to others, because it has already been judged in Jesus. As Paul says, for those who are in Jesus the Messiah there is no longer any condemnation (Romans 8:1). The gospel says that because of the work of Jesus not only do I not have a sentence of condemnation hanging over my head but I also have God’s full and gracious acceptance. Only when I see those two twin truths in the gospel, namely, that I’m no longer condemned but rather graciously accepted because of the work of Jesus the Messiah, can I truly be real with others and begin to give God His rightful place in my life.

Beyond this, the gospel also announces God’s provision for my ongoing struggles with being real. It reminds again and again that God has dealt with all of my sin, even my hypocrisy, in Jesus. He accepts me not because I’m being real but because Jesus was real in my place in his life and death. Only the gospel enables me to press forward in my quest to be real with God, others, and myself.

“Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons-much less secure than non-Christians, because they have too much light to rest easily under the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God and the righteousness they are supposed to have. Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive criticism of others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger. They cling desperately to legal, pharisaical righteousness, but envy, jealousy and other branches on the tree of sin grow out of their fundamental insecurity…it is often necessary to convince sinners (even sinful Christians) of the grace and love of God toward them, before we can get them to look at their problems. Then the vision of grace and the sense of God’s forgiving acceptance may actually cure most of the problems. This may account for Paul’s frequent fusing of justification and sanctification” (Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life).

Mark Lauterbach of Gospel Driven Life has an excellent post on hypocrisy and the gospel. As someone who struggles with hypocrisy, I found his comments very insightful and helpful. He writes:

Jesus spoke severely against hypocrisy. I think there is one reason—we cannot be committed to creating a false impression of our goodness with others and simultaneously admit we are sinners before God. The Gospel destroys hypocrisy and frees us from the burden of being phony.

Jesus said we cannot have it both ways—if we live to win the respect and good opinion of others, then we have our reward—but God will pay us no heed. We cannot serve to masters. Whose approval do I seek? Whom do I wish to impress?

Why are we tempted to play the hypocrisy game? When it comes down to it, it is not because we do not want to bother other people with our own mess. It’s because we don’t want people to see us as we actually are, namely, as people who struggle—sometimes intensely—with lust, anger, pride, worry, etc. When we give into hypocrisy we can be sure that we are finding our identity in how we want people to perceive us in what we do or don’t do rather than finding it in the gospel, that is, in God’s saving action toward us in the Messiah. Mark continues:

If I am afraid to let others see the reality of sin in my life, my marriage, my children—it is because I am a slave to the god of “the esteem of man” and that god is a cruel tyrant. I have watched sin gain strength in my life and in the lives of others because they were too committed to their good image. Marriage conflicts became roots of bitterness—resistant children became hard hearted rebels—occasional lust became “addiction” to pornography—all because they are more committed to their image than to the truth about their sin in the presence of the Savior and his people.

What frees us from being a slave to hypocrisy? You know what I’m going to say don’t you? The Gospel. Only the gospel tells us both what we don’t want to hear, namely, that we are more idolatrous and sinful than we’ve ever thought, and also what we desperately want to hear, namely, that we are loved with an everlasting love, at the same time. If, on the one hand, I’m only confronted with my sinfulness, I will play the cover-up game of hypocrisy. Why? Because not only will I not be able to handle seeing myself as I really am, I won’t be able to handle others seeing me as I really am. If, on the other hand, I’m constantly assured of God’s love for me without also being confronted with the depth of my sinfulness, I will play the same cover-up game. Why? Because an awareness of my sin will make my sense of God’s love for me evaporate in an instant.

Only when we are confronted with the depth of our sinfulness and the magnitude of God’s love for us at the same time will we be able to step away from the hypocrisy game. The gospel alone is the one thing that faces us with those two truths simultaneously. Only in the gospel are we freed to let people get an accurate picture of what’s going on in the inside. So what must we do? Continually preach the gospel to ourselves and surround ourselves with people who will daily preach the gospel to us. Hypocrisy cannot survive in a gospel-centered community.

**See Mark’s entire post here.

One of the main objectives of this blog is to encourage preaching that is gospel-centered. Because of this emphasis I am occassionally asked, “What does a gospel-centered sermon look like?” Those who have asked me this question are often already convinced of the necessity of preaching from a gospel-centered perspective, but how this kind of sermon should actually look in practice is still not clear to them. So, below you’ll find a link to a sermon I recently preached that is an attempt to preach a gospel-centered sermon on the baptism and temptation of Christ (Matthew 3:13-4:11). My emphasis is not on the illustrative value of this section of narrative. Rather, it’s on how this baptism and temptation narrative fits within the unfolding of salvific history.

To download: right click on link below and select “save as”

Vicarious Humanity

P.S. the first couple minutes of the sermon were not recorded. A written version of the missing introduction is below.

P.P.S. If you want to expose yourself to sermons that are consistently and beautifully gospel-centered, listen to Tim Keller. I agree with Mark Lauterbach when he says, “No one, and I mean no one, preaches Gospel saturated messages better than Tim Keller. Buy his sermons and see how the Gospel is everywhere in the Bible.”

Sermon Introduction:

I have the privilege of teaching 18-19 year old young people an introductory course on Bible study. Teaching freshman in this particular area is one of the most exciting things that I do. One of the areas where I have to work extremely hard to correct their thinking is in how they approach biblical narrative. Every freshman who has entered my classroom the past year and half has treated all biblical narrative texts as if there primary purpose is to be illustrative. There seems to be this underlying conviction that biblical narrative is primarily for exemplary value. In other words, they all seem to assume that the primary intention of the biblical writers is to give us examples to follow or not to follow to aide us in navigating life. So what I spend a considerable amount of class time doing is demonstrating that biblical narrative is primarily historical rather than illustrative.

What do I mean by historical narrative? By that I mean that biblical narrative is primarily about what God has done within space and time to accomplish redemption. It is not primarily about illustrating how we should live within space and time. Biblical narrative is primarily about God’s entrance into history to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The reason is spend so much time arguing that biblical narrative is historical rather than illustrative is because when our dominant focus is on the illustrative value of the text, the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to lose its central place in our thinking and living. And when preachers primarily preach narrative as illustrative material, the gospel subtly loses its centrality functionally in the life and practice of the church.

As long as we live on this side of glorification, we will always be tempted to interpret biblical narrative as illustrative rather than historical. So what I would like to do this morning is look at a text, half of which is too often thought of as illustrative rather than an historical account of God’s activity within history to accomplish redemption.

Matthew 3:13-4:1 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. [14] John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” [15] But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. [16] And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17] and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” [4:1] Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

I’m sure you’ve heard a speaker say something like this before: “The [eighteen] inches that exist between your head and your heart is what is keeping you from being a truly sold out Christian.” Les Newsome of Common Grounds Online writes about the danger that accompanies this kind of head/heart dichotomy. I appreciate his application of gospel-centered thinking to this issue. Les writes:

“There’s nothing wrong with you spiritually right now that can’t be cured with 18 inches,” the dynamic youth communicator dramatically said. “The [eighteen] inches that exists between your head and your heart is what is keeping you from being a truly sold out Christian.”

Am I the only one who absolutely hated hearing this on just about every youth retreat I attended as a teenager? And since I’m feeling uppity today, I want to entertain the possibility that my irritation was not entirely ill-founded. This head/heart dichotomy is sub-Christian…

Go here to read the rest of his short article. The last two paragraphs are well worth the time it takes to read his post.

Here are a couple of my stated beliefs:

1. God in Christ alone is my salvation.
2. God has made Christ to be my righteousness, my worth, and my significance.

These are beliefs that I am quick to state and explain if provided an opportunity. I am quick to affirm verbally that there is no salvation for me apart from that which God has accomplished in the Messiah. He alone is my righteousness, worth, and significance. It is only in the Messiah that I am accepted in God’s sight. Only in him is true humanity progressively restored in me.

I could go on and on with statements like these, but I have learned that stated beliefs are often just that—stated. Those beliefs listed above are too often not functional in my life, that is, too often my thinking, desiring, and living do not flow out of them. So, I am learning to ask myself questions like these:

1. Where am I actually seeking my salvation in any given moment?
2. Where am I actually locating my righteousness, my worth, or my significance right now as I teach this class or lead my community group?
3. What am I thinking I must have right now in order to feel truly human?

Questions like these force me to move beyond thinking merely in terms of beliefs that I affirm intellectually. They aide me in discerning what my heart is currently functionally believing regarding where my salvation, righteousness, and worth are found. Too often I find myself seeking salvation in how people think of me or in how successful I am at this or that. Though my stated belief is that Christ is my significance, I often catch myself locating my significance in my performance as a husband or father or as a professor.

Fortunately (understatement), the gospel frees me to admit this and face it head on. Jesus once said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13). Seeking my salvation, righteousness, worth, or significance in anything other than God are symptoms of the sickness of which Jesus speaks, that is, they are symptoms of a profoundly fractured and corrupted humanity. My default mode as a fallen human being is to seek my salvation in something other than in God’s Son, to seek my worth and significance in my vocational performance rather than in Jesus. But this means that Jesus came to seek someone like me, to call someone like me. He came to restore in me that which was lost at the fall, namely, a humanity that is joyfully centered upon God.

So, because of who Jesus is and what he accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection, I am free to confess my sin of wayward seeking and locating and rejoice afresh in what God has made the Messiah to be for me. Amazingly, the good news of God’s accomplishment in Jesus is His power to progressively make my stated beliefs functional in my living.

The primary objective for my blog is to focus weekly on the centrality of the gospel in all of life. Behind almost every post of mine is the conviction that, as Tim Keller puts it, the gospel is not just the A-B-C’s of the Christian life but the A to Z of the Christian life. One key text that is behind this conviction is Galatians 2:11-16. What I wish to do in this post is unpack this text’s teaching concerning the functional centrality of the gospel for all of life (I am profoundly indebted to Tim Keller’s exposition of this text in his article entitled, “The Centrality of the Gospel.” You can find it in the article section of the far right column of my blog.) If you asked me to identify what my main problem in the Christian life is, I would answer that it is the failure to believe the gospel functionally, that is, to believe it in such a way that it deeply affects the way I live each day.
Read the rest of this entry »

“No matter where you are reading in the Bible, faith is the first mystery you should recognize. Faith is not believing that the story you are reading is true as written. That does nothing for anyone. Even unbelievers can believe the Bible story of Jesus’ birth is true. Faith is not a natural work apart from God’s grace…Rather the right kind of faith, the kind that flows from Grace and that God’s Word demands, is firmly believing that Christ was born for you. His birth is yours and occurred for your benefit. For the Gospel teaches that Christ was born for our benefit and that everything He did and suffered was for us.”

Martin Luther, By Faith Alone

(HT: Tom Wood of Graced Again)

Parents have it rough. I know mine did. And I was the main reason for that. Think about all they have to do. Diapers, cooking, cleaning, spanking, listening to fighting & whining. And that’s all before breakfast!

Now, I know what your thinking. “What can C-dog possibly know about parenting? He has no experience. And what in the world does the Gospel have to do w/ parenting” Well, you’re right. I have no experience. But then again, how much experience do any of us have rearing our first child? And the Gospel only has everything to do w/ parenting. Just a couple of thoughts.

1) The Gospel gives parents rest from having to have the perfect child.

We’ve all seen it. We’ve seen a child throw the temper tantrum in public or do something that’s quite foolish. Probably that’s been your child. You know the feeling. Your child does something foolish & you want to find the nearest hole in the ground. Alot of times parents want their kids to behave so that their public image will be esteemed. I know the feeling. I don’t even have kids yet, but I know I don’t want people to think I’m a slacker of a parent or that my child is some little demon.

But the Gospel speaks to that. The Gospel says that my acceptance with God isn’t based on my kids behavior or my perfect parenting. Remember, Jesus was treated as if He were the misbehaving child or the slacker parent. He also was & is the Perfect Son, always doing the things that please His Father. So know that your acceptance with the Father is based on Christ’s perfect record, and view your child’s misbehavior as an opportunity for both of you to grow in the knowledge of Christ’s forgiveness and perfection

2) The Gospel gives parents courage to seek forgiveness.

You know what I’m talking about. You’ve wronged your child before. You’ve gotten angry or been unjust, or just been lazy and didn’t want to deal with his sin problems that flesh themselves out in his behavior. What do you do?

Some parents are under the illusion that their children think they are perfect. They think they need to maintain that. Little do they know that they’re children see right through that.

The Gospel gives me courage to ask forgiveness from my own children. You see, I know that if I ask my Father to forgive me, He will b/c of His Son’s sacrifice on my behalf. I also know that I don’t always have to be right b/c Jesus was always right for me. I can suck up my pride & go to my child whom I’ve wronged, confess my fault against them & ask their forgiveness.

Parents, if you do this, you’ll gain monster loads of respect from your youngin’. We should all be doing this to one another, forgiving & seeking forgivness. This is the kind of power the Gospel gives us!

“We must always keep focused on the gospel because it is in the nature of sanctification that as we grow, we see more and more of our sinfulness. Instead of driving us to discouragement, though, this should drive us to the gospel. It is the gospel believed every day that is the only enduring motivation to pursue progressive sanctification even in those times when we don’t seem to see progress. That is why I use the expression ‘gospel-driven sanctification’ and that is why we need to ‘preach the gospel to ourselves every day’” (from “Gospel-Driven Sanctification” by Jerry Bridges).

Scott Anderson e-mailed me the link to this gospel-centered article by Alfred J. Poirier. Here is an excerpt:

“In light of God’s judgment and justification of the sinner in the cross of Christ, we can begin to discover how to deal with any and all criticism. By agreeing with God’s criticism of me in Christ’s cross, I can face any criticism man may lay against me. In other words, no one can criticize me more than the cross has. And the most devastating criticism turns out to be the finest mercy. If you thus know yourself as having been crucified with Christ, then you can respond to any criticism, even mistaken or hostile criticism, without bitterness, defensiveness, or blame shifting. Such responses typically exacerbate and intensify conflict, and lead to the rupture of relationships. You can learn to hear criticism as constructive and not condemnatory because God has justified you.”

You can read the entire article here. It would be time well spent.