I've been hearing for the last six months how the gospel needs to be the center of my life. I need the gospel beyond salvation. It needs to be "the main thing". Live out the gospel, I'm told.
I just don't get it. How can the gospel be the center? What does that mean? How does the gospel effect me past salvation? I know what the gospel is, at least I think I do. How do I live out the gospel? What does that look like? What does it mean to live out the gospel?
Grace used to be just a word to me. I don't think I can explain it very well yet, but I'm recognizing it more in my life. I've experienced God's grace in my life and am increasingly aware of it. Grace is so much more than a word to me now. My life is so much richer for having grace as God's action in my life.
I hear christians talking about the gospel and it's not just a word to them. It really means something. There is a depth and richness to their understanding of the gospel that I don't have. Is it something that can be taught and learned or is it another gift that God gives in his own time?
I think it means his death accomplished not only eternal life, but the power to become like him in this life...to do right, to be sanctified. We're not "just" saved and then left to fend for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI've looked at this comment several times, but I still don't get it. I don't understand sanctification. Growing up, I was taught a view of sanctification that in practice and in nicer words was "work your tail off so God will be pleased with you". That was sanctification. Good workers were sanctified. That's too man centered; but for now I'm blinded as to how sanctification happens and what that looks life in my life.
ReplyDelete