Gospel-Centered Life
Day in and day out, people in ministry see people walk away from God. Whether a fellow pastor, a member of the church, or another Christian in the media, people are constantly leaving God or “deconstructing their faith.” While impossible to pinpoint exactly why people choose to walk away from God, I often think that it comes back to the lack of living a gospel-centered life. As Christians, we must remind ourselves daily of the gospel. The gospel always starts with where we are apart from Christ. If people did not sin, they would be have no need for a Savior. Ephesians 2 present the Gospel to us as such:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
God saw us in our helpless state and He chose to send His son to die on the cross for our sins. He wanted to make a way for us to spend eternity with him so that we do not have to be separated from him forever. If we let this truth take hold of our lives then it will change the way we live each and every day. The gospel will keep us walking in communion with God. It will help us be kind to our neighbors when we don’t feel like being kind. We know that in our own strength, we can do nothing. However, when we lean on Christ and His love to sustain us, we can do what feels impossible in this world. We know that apart from Christ we will continue to live in sin, but when the gospel takes ahold of our lives, we no longer have the option to live in sin. You see Christ and sin cannot both rule your lives. Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Therefore, we must align our hearts with God and give Him our lives. Each day, we must wake and die to self, in order to continue serving God daily.