The most important thing in my life is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the main reason why I am attending and live blogging the Gospel Coalition conference.
When I wake up in the morning, go through each day and lay down to sleep at night, I realize that I sin against my Creator. I do not live as He wants me to live.
I have no right to do this. Who am I? I did not create myself. I exist solely because God made me. And I have sinned against this God. He gives me life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:24-25) and what is my response? I spit in His face.
Christ my Redeemer
God could leave me in this state: but He does not, He has not. Instead, He sent His Son, His only begotten Son, the second person of the Trinity to live as a man on earth (John 1:14). Jesus — fully God and fully man — lived on earth and died in my place, while I was set a sinful, rotten, despicable sinner (Rom 5:8).
The Son of Man lived a perfect life, always doing the will of God the Creator, His Father (Heb 4:14-16). After He died, being crucified on a cross, He rose again from the dead. This is the core of the Gospel (1 Cor 15:3-4): Jesus Christ dying and rising again in the place of sinners, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).
Living a Gospel-centered life
Apart from Christ, I would spend eternity in hell. This would be right: I deserve this. However, in Christ, I will spend eternity in heaven, with the one true and living God. I will worship this God forever, through song, work and life with other believers in God’s new creation.
Who I am in Christ should shape how I live, as I breathe and do everything else. My life should be an expression of worship to God (Rom 12:1).
When I wake up in the morning, go through my day and lay down at night, I should see humility, joy and peace characterizing my life. I should see service to God, done from a willing heart. I will still see sin against my Creator. But I should increasingly hate this sin and love serving Him. I should increasingly see the characteristics of Christ bleeding through into my life.
I should see growth in living as a child in God’s family (1 John 3:1-3), a citizen in God’s kingdom (Phil 3:20) and a soldier in God’s army (2 Tim 2:4).
I am attending the Gospel Coalition conference to help aid this growth. I will be live blogging at the conference, highlighting the most important elements of the event’s sessions.
I am interested in you reading my blog because I care about the Gospel and you responding to it. I care about you turning from your rebellion against the God who made you. I care about you joining me in God’s family, kingdom and army. I care because I am jealous for God to get the worship that He deserves.
Repentance and faith
All those who respond to Christ’s life and work with repentance and faith receive salvation and eternal life (Is 45:7, John 1:12, Rom 10:9-10, John 14:6). However, too often the nature of this faith is misunderstood. Saving faith does not merely include mental awareness of the elements of the Gospel: even demons have this and they are certainly not saved (Js 2:19).
Saving faith results in a godly life (Gal 5:6). Christ died so that we live unto God, not the sinful desires of our flesh (Rom 6:1-14, 2 Cor 5:21). Those who give themselves to the works of the flesh — idolatry, sexual immorality, fits of anger, etc. — will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21). Only those characterized by a faith that produces good works will be saved (Js 2:26). And only those who persevere in such faith until death or Christ’s return will be saved (Heb 6:4-6, 2 Pet 1:9-11).
A desire to persevere in the faith draws me to the Gospel Coalition conference. If I am to persevere in faith and teach others to do the same, everything I do and teach must be rooted and grounded in the Gospel. Here, and here alone, is there hope; for in Christ, and in Christ alone, is there hope.
Through faith in Christ I was converted and entered into God’s kingdom. And through faith in Christ, God will keep me in His kingdom until the day I die. For did I receive the Holy Spirit by faith or by works (Gal 3:2-3)? If I received the Spirit by faith, why would I turn from this faith to something else? Paul chastised the Galatians for such foolishness (Gal 3:1).
I believe Scripture teaches such faith is a gift from God (Eph 2:8-10) and that the means through which God preserves people for salvation is persevering faith (1 Pet 1:5). But this does not negate men’s responsibility to live by faith. Those who don’t cannot please God (Heb 11:6) and will not be accepted into His kingdom on the last day. How this fits together is a mystery that only God fully understands, and thus to Him be the glory (Job, Rom 11:33-36).
I am going to the Gospel Coalition conference because I believe the biblical realities of God’s sovereign and meticulous rule over every molecule in this world and man’s responsibility to respond to God will be upheld there. Scripture upholds both of these realities without explaining exactly how they fit together and I believe we should as well.
I could go on, but I must go to bed. I am writing this at 11:25 p.m. the evening before corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. And it is getting kind of long.
But it is getting long because I am writing about the central element of life — the Gospel of Jesus Christ — and realities attendant to it. And I am writing about the God who created us and deserves incalculable glory because of who He is and the mighty works He had done and continues to do.
So to God be the glory. Praise Him for the Gospel. And if you are interested, I will be recording some thoughts from the Gospel Coalition conference over the next few days.
Good words, my friend.
-If I am to persevere in faith and teach others to do the same, everything I do and teach must be rooted and grounded in the Gospel. Here, and here alone, is there hope; for in Christ, and in Christ alone, is there hope.-
We would all do well to meditate upon the implications of this thought. Yes, every single thing we do must be rooted and grounded in Christ. Only through Christ can anything we do be considered obedience to God (apart from him, everthing we do is sin -Rom 14:23), and from faith, every act of obedience brings greater glory to him. What does this say about our “free time”? Can one take this too far? I don’t think Christ did (who -always- did the will of the Father). This is what we will be doing as glorified saints. Are we not to strive for this now? Our striving of course, is as you said, in hope in and for Christ alone.