Paul’s Singular Call to Radical, Gospel-Forward Living.

How do we, like Paul, live a life of devotion to the Lord, where the Cross of Christ is central to every aspect of our lives?

The Gospel is an amazing thing. No… scratch that. It’s not merely an amazing thing, it is at the center of everything. It is because of the Gospel – the good news of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, crucified, raised and reigning – that anyone experiences any good at all. At the cross, Jesus purchased for us both common grace for all and saving grace for all who believe (1 Timothy 4:10). Every ounce of good we experience is an undeserved act of God’s mercy (not giving us what we do deserve) and grace (giving us something we don’t deserve), purchased wholly by the cross. The breath in our lungs, the heartbeat in our chest, the food in our bellies, the ability to think and feel and smell and taste and hear – all of them are undeserved and lavish gifts of God toward humanity, despite our rebellion and self-exaltation, that apart from the cross, would demand immediate condemnation.

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”

1 Corinthians 15:3-11 , NASB 1995

If one thing is clear in Paul’s writings, it that he really loves the Gospel. The Gospel to him isn’t something purely academic; it isn’t something we master and move beyond, but is the lifeblood for all of the Christian life. We see the centrality of the Gospel to Paul in passages like, Ephesians 2:1-10, Galatians 6:14, and Romans 5:1-11 – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul emphatically insists that the Gospel is of first importance. While our theology, our holiness, our love, our ministries, our careers, our family and friends are all important, they are never supreme. The Gospel and the Gospel alone is first, for from if flows all those things.

Putting the Gospel First

Perhaps more than any other, John Piper’s sermon (see videos below) to a crowd of teenagers and twenty-somethings at OneDay 2000, proved to be a seminal moment for my generation – mobilizing and propelling perhaps thousands or even tens of thousands over the last two decades into ministry and missions for the cause of Christ. His sermon passage was a single, gloriously Gospel-centered verse, Galatians 6:14.

“But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Galatians 6:14, NASB 1995

John Piper’s sermon began with the stark contrast between a couple who had taken early retirement and moved to Punta Gorda, FL to collect sea shells and sail on their boat, with the lives of two elderly women who had died in a tragic accident in Cameroon, while serving as medical missionaries. Twenty-one years later, on my way to a photo shoot in Pine Island, FL, I thought it would be enjoyable to listen to this sermon again. Not far into the sermon, my GPS directed me to turn off onto Highway 768, toward Punta Gorda. A funny turn of providence, right? But less than ten minutes down the road, this nostalgic sermon landed on me with profound force and piercing reality as I came upon the scene of a single-car accident. A red Ford F-150 had lost control and rolled over in the median, ejecting the young driver. Emergency vehicles had yet to arrive but a crowd had gathered around the prone driver, one man kneeling over him, doing chest compressions. But his efforts would prove in vain, and the young man, Zack Berrebie, was pronounced dead at the scene, leaving behind his wife and four-year-old son. Just like that, in an instant, he was gone. – standing before King Jesus to give an account for his life.

Like a lightning bolt to the brain, that woke me up! This message of the centrality of the cross – this call to spending and being spent for one singular, glorious purpose was not just some academic, “got that covered” sort of knowledge, but is to be the very lifeblood of my Christian faith. Of course, applying these sort of mountaintop moments to the hillsides and valleys of this life – in all the mundanity of the day to day – is not so easy and is far from instant or consistent. Truth be told, this wasn’t the first time I’d embraced the centrality of the Gospel, nor would it be the last. In fact, the first two videos listed below, providentially brought that point home to me afresh, just yesterday. But my heart is, like the Puritan hymn writer Robert Robinson penned in 1758, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” It’s so easy to get distracted, to find our value and purpose in what we do. It’s our nature to take credit for God’s manifold gifts of grace in our lives, as though we were their source, and forget the cross that purchased all of them for us. So how then do we persevere?

Fuel & Focus

In short, the Gospel must be both the fuel and the focus of our lives.  

As a photographer, focus is really important.  When the subject of your photo is out of focus, it ruins the whole picture, no matter how good the composition.  When my wife and I visited Iceland for our 20th anniversary, this truth became crystal clear, unlike some key photos…  On a glorious night at the stunning Kirkjufellsfoss – the scene alight from the Northern Lights’ undulating bands of neon green and red – one of our cameras became out of focus, and though the scene looked great on the little 3 inch camera screen, when we brought the content onto our laptop, it was painfully obvious that the pictures and video were virtually unusable.  Despite being one of the most glorious scenes we had ever seen, the photos were no good because the camera was out of focus.  

Similarly, it is imperative that our focus intentionally and consistently remain on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Without this singular focus, no matter how good our deeds, no matter how pure our theology, no matter how impactful our ministry – if the Gospel is not the central focus of our lives, something else will necessarily be – and no matter how good those substitutes, they cannot please God (Isaiah 64:6).  Often, those substitutes are really good things – at least on the surface.  Perhaps it’s our efforts in ministry, or providing for the needs of our family, or producing great content for our followers – or a million other good things that were never designed to be supreme.  You see, when we lose focus on the God-wrought, Blood-bought, grace-sustained, Spirit-empowered Gospel, we inevitably replace it with something that is of our own making – something that subtly and imperceptibly at first seeks my own glory, and not that of Christ.  Simply put, if the Gospel is not our focus, we tend to become the focus.  Paul makes the inverse point both in Ephesians 2 and Galatians 6 – the Gospel, when rightly understood, is meant to kill all vestiges of pride in our lives and to transform our boast from self-glorifying accolades to cross-centered thankful celebration.     

“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Isaiah 64:6, NASB 1995

Shifting gears (pun intended), I would also encourage you to look at the Gospel as a sort of all-sustaining, never ending fuel. In my business, I have had the privilege of photographing some of the rarest and most expensive cars in the world.  Many of these vehicles are stunning works of art.  The level of craftsmanship and attention to detail is mind boggling.  But without the proper fuel, they won’t move an inch.  Many of these cars have high-compression engines that are designed to operate on high octane fuel, but you know what?  They can also run on lower octane fuels – at least for a while.  But even if the car is able to move, it’s always knocking, sputtering, and misfiring – and the chance of the engine blowing is increased exponentially.  

So it is with the Gospel.  It is the perfect, God-ordained fuel for every highway and byway of our earthly lives. It’s not just for our conversion, but is to be the power for every day thereafter. Indeed, it will even be the theme of our song for all eternity (Revelation 5:9-13).   But so often, we are prone to fill our tanks with lesser things – the praise of men, the satisfaction of a job well done, the joy of the experience, the fulfillment of achievement… Yet, even at their very best, those things were never designed to give us a joy that sustains us.  Sure, when things are going well, and you’re able to coast down the hills of life, these fuels may seem perfectly fine, but when you find yourself at the base of a treacherous, steep mountain road, these second-rate fuels aren’t going to bring you safely home.  The engine’s going to fail.  Only one fuel can reliably power the ascent through life’s deepest trials and tragedies – the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

“And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.’”

Revelation 5:9,10, NASB 1995

The reason why Paul’s is so insistent that his only boast is in the cross (Galatians 6:14) is precisely because it is the only fuel with the power to succeed.   And unlike the incremental changes between 87, 93 or 100 octane gasoline, the difference between attempting to serve God in our own power and serving God through the power He provides is like night and day.  Our only hope is in the Gospel.  It is the Gospel that justifies.  It is the Gospel that sanctifies.  The same grace that saves us, sustains us, and it will surely bring every single saint safely home (Romans 8:31-39). It is and will always be grace every step of the way!  

The Gospel is a beautiful thing – overflowing with grace that doesn’t simply forgive but also empowers us.  It is this glorious Gospel that sustains us in our darkest hours and fuels our boldest Christ-exulting ventures.  It’s the Gospel.  

Resources

Here are three sermons from three different pastor/theologians that have been a blessing to me as the Lord has graciously unpacked what it means to live a Gospel-forward life. They offer a far more thorough and insightful help for Gospel-centered ministry and living than I ever could:

May the Lord grant us all eyes that see and ears that perceive the beauty and bounty of the Gospel – that Jesus would be exulted and we would find our greatest joy in Him, both in this life, and in the life to come!