I love the saying I first learned from Tim Keller that the Gospel is not just the “ABC’s” of the Christian life, but the “A to Z” of the Christian life. In other words, the good news of Christ’s life, death and resurrection not only works to save me, but also to keep me saved, make my life pleasing to God and enables me to worship and serve Him.
A good question, though, is how does it do this in everyday life? If you’ve ever wondered about this, Elyse Fitzpatrick has crafted an outstanding essay describing the process. Here’s the final paragraph:
“It is the whole message of the gospel that has the power to transform impatient, guilty, selfish, despairing idolaters into free and joyful worshippers of the Living God. The whole message of the gospel includes His incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, reign and return. Seeing Jesus and His glorious work is the only power strong enough to transforms us from “one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18) or as John Owen wrote, “Here in this life, beholding the glory of the Lord [true believers] are changed into his likeness. Hereafter they will be like Him for they will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).”
Do yourself a huge favor and read the whole thing.
Thanks to Tullian Tchividjian for publicizing her article.
