Coram Deo Blog

24 August 2009 at 1:21 pm by Will Walker · formation, gospel, grace, identity, sermon

Applying the Gospel

Yesterday I preached on “Gospel-Growth” from Colossians 1:6-8. At the end of the sermon I worked through four questions that help us apply the gospel in various life situations (see list below). This is not the only way to think about gospel application, but it is a good start. Your ability to answer these questions depends on your understanding of the gospel and your expectations about what the gospel can accomplish. You will gain more insight if you ask and answer these questions in community.

1. How does the gospel confront the way you think and feel about a particular situation in your actual life?

The gospel is a body of truth, a revelation from God that sets forth the good news about what God has done in His Son Jesus. In a nutshell, this is “the grace of God in truth” declared in the gospel: A holy God created the world and everything in it. The first people had perfect fellowship with God, but they rebelled against God and fell into sin. And everyone after them has done the same. We are all under sin. We are separated from God and we deserve His eternal wrath. But God, because of His great love, offered up His own Son as a sacrifice for sin. God poured out His wrath against our sin on Jesus, who bore it on our behalf so that God could accept us. Jesus got what we deserve (shame, loneliness, beating, wrath, death), and we get what He deserves (favor and life eternal). God forgives sin and reconciles sinners to Himself so that we can worship and enjoy Him forever, as we were made to do. We did nothing to earn this immeasurable act of love. It is from beginning to end a work of God’s grace. So what truths about our salvation in Jesus confront the way we think and feel about our identity, worth, rights, expectations, performance, fears, needs, etc.?

2. How does the gospel convict me of sin with regard to that situation?

In every circumstance, even when we are wronged, we still bring something to the table. The gospel forces us to humbly consider our own thoughts and actions and attitudes. So how do you need to repent of the ways in which your sin has come to light in this situation?

3. How does the gospel comfort me in this situation?

The grace of God is not to overlook sin, but rather to forgive sin and empower us to turn from sin and trust in the hope of the gospel. So what realities set forth in the gospel enable us to rest in God’s provision, hope in Jesus’ coming, trust God’s character, experience His love and mercy, etc.?

4. How does the gospel challenge me in this situation?

The gospel is not only a body of truth, but also a power let loose in the world that transforms people and communities. It prevails upon your very identity to change you from the inside out. The gospel doesn’t merely instruct you about how to obey God. Rather, it changes you and makes you the kind of person who obeys God. It challenges you to expect supernatural change in your life and in those around you, the kind of fruit that cannot be accounted for apart from God’s divine activity. And this vision compels you to action. So what does the gospel challenge you to expect and do in this situation?

Situations addressed in the sermon: Job loss, Unforgiveness, “Mom Identity”, Frustration that things aren’t going your way, You don’t want to confess sin, You’re in great need, You’re a perfectionist.

I also mentioned five questions that indicate what John Ortberg calls pseudo-transformation in his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted. I have attached some excerpts from that book with the questions here.

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7 Comments »

clatterbuck on 24 August 2009 at 2:32 pm

Will,

Could you write a few words about the difference between how the gospel confronts versus how the gospel convicts? Is conviction the particular way that I need to repent as opposed to the gospel truth I am failing to believe? I tried to work through a few scenarios in my own life using the 4 points grid and had trouble separating the two.

-Nick

Jon on 24 August 2009 at 3:53 pm

I despise alliteration, and yet found in this case it does no harm. These four points helped a lot with my real life today.

Will Walker on 24 August 2009 at 3:55 pm

Good question. When the gospel confronts the lies I believe or my false understanding of reality, then I may need to repent of believing that or thinking that way. But I also may have just been ignorant or misinformed. When I think about how the gospel convicts me, I am asking more specifically how I have sinned in the situation, either willfully or in ignorance.

For example, if I am ashamed about losing my job because I was tying my identity to my work, the gospel truth confronts that lie because my identity and worth is actually bound up in the finished work of Christ. Sometimes this isn’t something we realize until after the fact. So in this case, I need to repent of believing that lie, but when I ask the question, “how does the gospel convict me?” I am going as step further to see if my false way of thinking led me to sin in more specific ways … Did I neglect my family because I worked too much? Did I lie to people to look better? Was I motivated by materialism? And so on.

Does that distinction help you? The important thing is not to get everything in the right category. The important thing is to submit to truth and repent of sin. It doesn’t matter what categories you use as long as you get to the right end.

Laura on 24 August 2009 at 6:48 pm

Will-
Would you please also post the questions to test for gospel transformation from yesterday’s sermon?

Thank you,

Laura

clatterbuck on 25 August 2009 at 8:14 am

Thanks Will, very helpful. We ran through some things at MC last night using the four points and your distinction made sense to people.

Will Walker on 25 August 2009 at 8:42 am

Laura, I hyperlinked the questions at the end of the post. Let me know if you have any trouble with it.

Laura on 25 August 2009 at 10:28 am

The hyperlink worked. 2 Cor 13:5.

Thank you Will!