Relearning the Gospel

I wonder how many Christians would do well to relearn the gospel. I’m not saying they need to relearn what the gospel means, but I think they would do well to relearn what it does. They need to become aware of its importance in daily life, not just at the Judgment Day. They need to tune in to its role in day-to-day Christian living, not just its role way back at the start of their Christian life. One of the most important lessons I ever learned was this: I need the cross, the gospel of Jesus Christ, every single moment of every single day. 

What do I mean by “the gospel”? Simply this: the gospel is the good news that God sent His Son into the world to live a perfect life, die an atoning death, and rise again in triumph for sinners like you and me. Jesus Christ absorbed the unrestrained fury of God’s wrath against us so that you and I could enjoy the unreserved benefits of God’s pleasure in Him. 

What changes when we learn to live in the good of the gospel every day? First, it affects how we relate to God. The gospel frees us from emotion-driven concern about whether we feel close to God. How? It explains that Jesus truly has brought us close to Him. When we really understand the gospel, we are released from the fruitless struggle to earn God’s favor and the constant tendency to despair because of our failures.

Second, the gospel affects how we relate to others. The gospel allows us to be who we really are—no secrets, no façade, no desire to impress. After all, Jesus already knows about all our sin, and He’s taken care of all of it! The gospel also causes us to take our sin against others seriously—no rationalizing, no blame shifting, no minimizing; after all, the gospel reminds us that the perfect Son of God had to die to atone for it. And the gospel opens the way for us to forgive their sins against us, since our sin against God will never match what someone else could do to us.

Third, the gospel affects how I perceive myself. It tells me that what defines me, the essential answer to the question “Who am I?”, is quite simply that I am God’s. No matter what else might be true about me, because of the cross, I belong to God. And that’s good news!