The Gospel-Centred Life
As I’ve read The Explicit Gospel over the last month I’ve been struck afresh by
the wonder, power and beauty of the gospel. I’ve been reminded of the
magnificent glory of God, the weight of our sin in light of this, the personal
and universal redemption brought about by Jesus’ blood and the renewed creation
in which we will dwell with the Lord forever. These truths are glorious and
life-giving, yet the question is, what will we do with them? In the final
section of the book, Chandler helps us think through this question by firstly
addressing what happens when we fail to understand the gospel in its fullness
and reduce it to something that it’s not.
Chandler says, “the explicit gospel holds
the gospel on the ground and the gospel in the air as complementary…[but] when
we don’t hold them together…we create an imbalance that leads to all sorts of biblical
error” (p. 175). He then proceeds to, with great discernment, speak about a
series of dangers that Christians throughout history have grappled with, and
which Christians today ought to be aware of if we seek to hold fast to the true
gospel. Things like creating a rationalized or self-centred gospel, which can
come from focusing on the ground too long and reading ourselves at the centre
of God’s word and plan. Or allowing
culture to become an idol that defines the Scriptures, and even taking Christ and
his death out of the gospel in order to make it more palatable for others.
As I read through all these potential
dangers, I was surprised by how conflicted I felt – saddened that we, sinful
humans, so distort God’s message of truth and grace to serve our own purposes,
yet humbled as I reflected on instances in my own life where the gospel I’ve
either held to or shared has more closely represented these distortions than I
would like to admit. I know there have been times when I’ve made the gospel too
much about my own personal relationship with God and lacked the desire to see his
entire world renewed. I know there have been times when I’ve let the prevailing
attitude of our culture shape the way I think about certain issues more than
what God says to us in his Word. I know there have been times when I’ve made
the gospel more about the pursuit of my own intellectual knowledge than growing
in fellowship with the Lord.
Maybe some of these things hit a nerve with
you too. Maybe you also felt uncomfortable as you reflected on your own
tendency to alter the gospel, sometimes not even consciously. If you, like me,
did feel these things, I really urge you to keep reading to the end, for in
Chandler’s final chapter there is great encouragement for us as we keep trying
to work out how to live out and hold to the true gospel. As Chandler tells us his own story of wrestling
with an assumed gospel, in his case, moralism versus repentance and grace, he
reminds us that the progress and maturity that we desire in our Christian lives
always revolves around “Christ’s saving performance on our behalf” (p. 210). As the Word and Spirit of God work in our
lives, we do change. We are transformed, by the grace of God.
This brings great comfort to me as I reflect
on my own tendency to forget the message by which I’ve been saved and to rest
in my own efforts. But it is the explicit gospel of God’s love for sinners
shown in Christ, not the assumed, and false, gospel of moralistic, therapeutic
deism, that saves us, and that our world needs to hear. Ultimately, just
reading this book will not change us, but it is definitely a helpful start, and
I am thankful to God for Matt Chandler’s encouragement to keep coming back to
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that has saved us, that we must stand firm
in, and that we proclaim.