The Gospel Coalition

My friend Kevin DeYoung recently spoke at the Next conference (a conference organized and put on by another friend, Josh Harris). I was sorry that I couldn’t go and support my brothers. But I was taken by something Kevin said in his message that was posted on the Next blog. He said:

There are a lot of popular versions of Jesus in culture. There’s a Republican Jesus who’s for free-market economics. There’s a Democrat Jesus against Wall Street and Wal-Mart. There’s a therapist Jesus who helps us cope with life’s problems. There’s a Starbucks Jesus who loves fair trade coffee and Apple computers. There’s a touchdown Jesus who helps Christians run faster and jump higher. There’s the martyr Jesus who died so that we could feel sorry for him. There’s nice guy Jesus. There’s spirituality Jesus. There’s good example Jesus.

And then there’s Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter says, “You are the Christ of God.”

Most people have a shrunken, domesticated Christ who is safe, easy and manageable instead of the real Christ. The closer you get to him the more you love him and the more you fear him. God is calling you to stop playing games and to stop making excuses and to open your eyes to see Jesus as the Christ. He is more glorious and loving and gracious and powerful and more wonderfully terrifying that any of us can ever imagine.

Over a year ago I received a manuscript entitled Unpacking Forgiveness written by Chris Brauns to review and endorse. After reading it (and concluding that it was the best book I had read on the all important subject of forgiveness), I was happy to offer this endorsement:

My grandmother used to say that every healthy relationship is made up of two good forgivers. Chris Brauns has written a book that compliments my grandmother’s saying by showing us the indispensibility of understanding and practicing forgiveness. Biblically sound, theologically rich, sensitively illustrated, and profoundly practical, Chris’ book shows that forgiveness is at the heart of the Gospel. And because of its Gospel-centeredness, Unpacking Forgiveness provides the perspective needed to liberate you from past relational pains, present relational tensions, and future relational fears. This is a book that needs to be read. This is a book that needs to be lived. I heartily recommend it!

This morning I was reminded me of one section in Chris’ book where he addresses when it’s right to confront someone and when it’s wise not to. Chris writes:

The short answer is that it is a matter of wisdom or discernment. Each time you are offended, you need to wisely decide whether or not you need to bring it up. Only you can make the decision, but several diagnostic questions can help you work through it.

Here’s an outline of the questions (these are gold!):

Before confronting, ask, “Have I examined myself yet?”
Before confronting, ask, “How sure am I that I am right?”
Before confronting, ask, “How important is this?”
Before confronting, ask, “Does this person show a pattern of this kind of behavior?”
Before confronting, ask, “What do wise people counsel me to do?”
Before confronting, ask, “What else is going on in the other person’s world?”

These are all good and wise reminders to examine ourselves before we examine others and to always take into consideration that there is much more going on in people’s lives than we see.

You can order Chris’ book here.

Below is a very insightful comparison between “religion” and “the gospel” drawn from the sermons of Tim Keller (Senior Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan). Tim does a remarkable job of probing hearts and revealing how easily we slip into self-dependence mode. As I’ve been saying each Sunday, real slavery according to the Bible is self-reliance. So, read the comparison list below with humility and care. It will do your soul good. 

RELIGION: I obey-therefore I’m accepted.

THE GOSPEL: I’m accepted-therefore I obey.

RELIGION: Motivation is based on fear and insecurity.

THE GOSPEL: Motivation is based on grateful joy.

RELIGION: I obey God in order to get things from God.

THE GOSPEL: I obey God to get to God-to delight and resemble Him.

RELIGION: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or my self, since I believe, like Job’s friends that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life.

THE GOSPEL: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I struggle but I know all my punishment fell on Jesus and that while he may allow this for my training, he will exercise his Fatherly love within my trial.

RELIGION: When I am criticized I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think of myself as a ‘good person’. Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs.

THE GOSPEL: When I am criticized I struggle, but it is not critical for me to think of myself as a ‘good person.’ My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on God’s love for me in Christ. I can take criticism.

RELIGION: My prayer life consists largely of petition and it only heats up when I am in a time of need. My main purpose in prayer is control of the environment.

THE GOSPEL: My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. My main purpose is fellowship with Him.

RELIGION: My self-view swings between two poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel insecure and inadequate. I’m not confident. I feel like a failure.

THE GOSPEL: My self-view is not based on a view of my self as a moral achiever. In Christ I am “simul iustus et peccator”—simultaneously sinful and yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad he had to die for me and I am so loved he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deeper and deeper humility and confidence at the same time. Neither swaggering nor sniveling.

RELIGION: My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work. Or how moral I am, and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral. I disdain and feel superior to ‘the other.’

THE GOSPEL: My identity and self-worth are centered on the one who died for His enemies, who was excluded from the city for me. I am saved by sheer grace. So I can’t look down on those who believe or practice something different from me. Only by grace I am what I am. I’ve no inner need to win arguments.

RELIGION: Since I look to my own pedigree or performance for my spiritual acceptability, my heart manufactures idols. It may be my talents, my moral record, my personal discipline, my social status, etc. I absolutely have to have them so they serve as my main hope, meaning, happiness, security, and significance, whatever I may say I believe about God.

THE GOSPEL: I have many good things in my life—family, work, spiritual disciplines, etc. But none of these good things are ultimate things to me. None of them are things I absolutely have to have, so there is a limit to how much anxiety, bitterness, and despondency they can inflict on me when they are threatened and lost.

(HT: Chris Goins)

Last night I was officially installed as Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge. It was an amazing night. As one new church, we celebrated God’s promise to build his church. Through the praying, praising, preaching, and taking of vows, God came near and reminded us that it’s all about him and his glory, his fame, his renown. God’s presence was indeed thick and unmistakable. He was, “surely in that place.”

My friend Os Guinness reminded all of us that the church in America is indeed facing a crisis and the answer is not structural renovation but spiritual renewal. He exhorted all of us from Exodus 33 to never stop praying, “Lord, show me your glory.” When the weightiness of God rests on the church and spills out from the church, the world is changed. It was a great reminder that the ultimate factor in the church’s engagement with society is the church’s engagement with God.

And then one of my dearest friends, John Wood (senior minister of Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville), charged both the congregation and me to die. With God-fueled fire in his eyes, he reminded all of us that bearing fruit requires death. Jesus said we must die in order that we might live. Daily Christian living, in other words, is daily Christian dying: dying to our trivial comforts, soul-shrinking conveniences, arrogant preferences, and self-centered entitlements, and living for something much larger than what makes us comfortable and safe. God does everything through people who understand they’re nothing. And God does nothing through those who think they’re everything. 

Through these men and the vows that both I and the congregation took before God to love and support one another in mutual service, God reminded us that he will do great things if we embody his life giving Gospel for each other and the world.

I believe this one new church will thrive beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine if it’s packed with Gospel intoxicated people: people who understand that since Christ laid his life down for us, we must lay our lives down for others; people who love sacrifice over safety–serving others rather than being served. A Gospel saturated church is a church filled with people who give everything they have because they understand that in Christ they already have everything they need. It’s a church filled with people who, like Jesus, love giving up their place for others, not guarding in their place from others.

So, having been duly installed and charged, I invite all of you to spend your life dying with me.

Let this one new church show the watching world what human life and community can look like when a pack of God-centered missionaries spend their life seeking to serve rather than be served.

Fasten your seatbelts.

Over at the Christianity Today blog there is a discussion taking place regarding my book Unfashionable and a rather critical review of it by my friend Tim Challies. For anyone who wonders about my position on the cultural mandate, it appears I have become the poster child for it. You can read the discussion here. In the article there are links to Tim’s review and a recent Christianity Today profile on me.

For what it’s worth, here is the church’s mission statement which bascially comes right out of the pages of Unfashionable and it sets forth my understanding of the Bible’s teaching regarding the mission of Christ’s church:

The Bible teaches that God is on a mission to rescue and replenish a world lost and broken by sin thereby “making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). To me, the most startling aspect of God’s mission is that he has presently enlisted his imperfect people (the church) to take part in carrying out his glorious work of revitalization. Christians have been rescued by God in Christ to become agents of renewal—missionaries.

This means that churches are designed by God to be instruments of renewal in the world, not only spiritually renewing individual lives but also tangibly renewing cultural forms and structures, helping to make all that is crooked in our world straight.

So, our mission includes an evangelistic mandate and a cultural mandate. God wants us to immerse ourselves in the rehabilitation of hearts and houses, souls and society. We’re to care about the renewal of both individuals and the culture at large. This requires word and deed, proclamation and demonstration. God is renewing human hearts and recreating all things through his church. This is our mission to the world.