Why am I thinking about this today?
The coolest thing about the gospel is it is made up of so many truths that not only change the course of my final destination, but alter the very details of my day to day interaction. From the forgiveness I experience daily to the strength to obey, daily the gospel shapes the way I look at life and think about the world around me.
What is interesting is that if you were to take out any of the "smaller" ideas of the gospel, much like removing the "stirrup bone" in the ear, everything becomes silent. Grace becomes ineffective. The Gospel becomes silent. I fear that too often followers of Christ end up behaving like deaf people because we limit the impact of the gospel to only the things we can control, the things we can understand, and the things that are comfortable to us.
If the gospel is impacting every area of my life, disciples of Jesus should look (and sound) very different from the world around them. However, when we start to make the gospel fit our own understanding and match the shapes that we create for it, the conclusion is often like that of the rest of the world.
For instance, in missions, plenty of humanitarian groups around the world feed, educate, clothe and house the needy. How should that look different for a gospel shaped organization? In churches, people mess up, people sin, people fall. How does the church respond differently than people who don't know Christ? What does forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration look like for a believer? At work, millions of people every day leave home to go to work. How does the truth of the gospel shape the way a "Christian" does his or her job?
When we limit the gospel to a message given for an unsaved, unregenerate, fallen world so that they can be reunited with God, we have part of the message. The rest of the message, and frankly the bulk of the message, is for the one who has embraced the basic truth of the gospel and is seeking to live out a life that would glorify God and imitate the Son.
How does your life look different as a result of the gospel?
