I’ve been writing on “Why and How the Gospel is to be Central to the Christian Life”.  You can check the other posts on them here:  Part 1, Part 2a, and Part 2b.  Those posts were mainly answering the question, “What is the gospel?”

Today, I’m answering “Why is the gospel central to the Christian Life?” in bullet outline form.

Why is the gospel central to the Christian life?

 

-Read Romans 1:16, 17; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6

-The gospel is central to the Christian life because it brings clarity to our sense of self, God, and His redemptive process.

 

–Self: We are sinners before conversion. We are justified sinners after conversion.  No longer is God’s wrath pointed at us since Jesus satisfied the wrath of God at the cross.  We are also adopted in Christ where we now have his Holy Spirit.

 

–God: God is the gospel. The goal of the gospel is the glory of God.  Redemption is for His glory. 1 Peter 3:18 describes that he has redeemed us, in order to bring us to…God!  Enjoying God and His glory is the ultimate end of salvation.

 

–Redemptive process: Romans 1:16. Past grace of justification secures the future grace of sanctification and glorification.  Change is possible.  We are being changed to reflect more of the character of Christ because of His sanctifying grace through the power of the Holy Spirit.  However, the gospel is still central to this process as it is the “power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16 – notice that Paul is writing to Christians).  Salvation here not meaning just conversion, but even the redemptive process of God conforming us to the image of Christ.  All of the Christian life is one of repentance and faith in Christ.  And it is only in the gospel do we acknowledge our sin, see the beauty of Christ, and submit our will to His.

 

 More concerning this redemptive process of change will be discussed and clarified in the next post.  Stay tuned!