A personal lesson on the gospel and our heart
As my teammate Liling and I work on program development for our upcoming mission trip, we struggled with this question: how much of the gospel are we experiencing personally? As one pastor writes: ”The more deeply we understand and experience law and gospel, the more capable we become in communicating and applying it … . A good teacher or evangelist is first a good preacher to himself.” 1
In the past three months, our team has been working through Tim Keller’s group bible study — “Gospel in Life“, and learning what it means to live out the implications of the gospel. I came to see how easily I tend to believe that God “owes me” because of my obedience. Like the elder brother in the famous parable of the lost son, we often forget the grace of God when we live as if our obedience is the basis of our right standing with him. Conversely there is a lack of boldness when I feel I haven’t been living up to standards if my salvation is not based entirely on trust in Jesus.
How freeing and humbling when we remember the gospel: I am so wicked that he had to die for me, yet I am loved and worth so much to him that he gladly died for me.
- Joe Thorn,Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself. It’s a really helpful book. Read a solid review and view a free excerpt here. ↩
