The Gospel and the Christian Life Part 1

The Gospel and the Christian Life Part 1

I want to take a minute and look at the implications that the gospel bears on our daily life and our struggle with sin.  I believe that a correct understanding of the gospel and the proper application of the gospel to our life is crucial for walking in the spirit and not carrying out the desires of the flesh.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16, ESV)

To apply the gospel to your daily life and more importantly to your struggle with sin is basically saying that, "I will think and live my life in the light of the fact that my life and identity are hidden in Christ, I will mentally agree with the facts of the gospel and then I will BY FAITH walk in light of that."

“I will think...”

As believers it is imperative that we have correct thinking about who we are in Christ and this right thinking should propel us into right acting.

I.  Dead and Alive

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins...(Ephesians 2:1, ESV)

Before Christ saved us by His grace we were dead in our sins and absolutely unable to do anything to cure ourselves of our spiritual bankruptcy.  But God pursued us by his grace and breathed life into our spiritually dead corpse.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:3-5, ESV)

Now once we have been made alive to God we have to look at the other side of the same coin, which is the fact that we are now dead to sin.  We are alive to God and dead to sin.

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (Romans 6:6, ESV)

Sin no longer has dominion and control over us.  Your old self has been crucified with Christ.  When Christ was crucified our old self was crucified along with him.  If it was crucified then it no longer has the power over us that it once had.  You are a new creation in Christ, the old is gone and the new has come.  

We must have this truth solidified in our minds.  As believers it is imperative to have this reality consuming our thinking.  We must live and act in such a way that reflects our true standing and position.  This does not mean that we will never sin again but it does mean that we are never to be under the yoke of Satans rule ever again.  If we fall into a pattern of sin it is because we have lost sight of our treasure and have forgotten our position in Christ.  This is why Paul spends so much of his time in so many of his letters reinforcing the foundational truth that as believers our position and identity are hidden in Christ.

Take Ephesians for example, in the first three chapters we are hit with the amazing reality of who we are in Christ (next time you read through the book notice and underline every time Paul mentions the phrase “in Christ”, or “in Him”, or “with Christ” it is overwhelming to see.)  The book starts out in the indicative telling us and showing us where we are.  Then the book moves to the imperative, what we are to do in response to what we were just told about ourselves.  We are to live our lives in direct response to our position in Christ, the gospel.  This concept is made clear in chapter 4:

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— (Ephesians 4:17-20, ESV)

And in the following verses we see Paul go through a whole section about “put on” and “put off” because that is how we are to live and act as believers because that is how we learned Christ, through the gospel.  The gospel is not only for justification but it is for sanctification.  It is the gospel through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that changes our heart.  Applying the gospel to our struggle with sin is in essence tapping into the means God has given us through His Holy Spirit.

Next time I want to take a look at what those means are, and see how God has graciously allowed us to tap into the gospel.  It is the gospel that saves us and it is the gospel that will empower us to holy living through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.  If we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and we have surrendered by faith to him we are positionally completely different.  We are a new creation in Christ and now slaves of righteousness, no longer slaves to sin.  (I know this may bring some confusion in many peoples minds as to the reason why we still sin and I hope to build upon this and answer that question more fully as we progress.)  We have to start with this profound truth that we were once dead but now alive, we were once enslaved to sin and now slaves to righteousness.