the Gospel
Over the last year some have asked me what it means to structure your Church in a Gospel-Centered way. In other words, how does the Gospel function as the centerpiece of your ministry? I thought I would take a few snippits out of our membership class and post it here:
The Gospel’s centrality
The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s, but the A to Z of Christianity. The Gospel is not just the way we enter God’s kingdom, but the way we thrive within the kingdom. We are not saved through the Gospel and then forced to maintain our salvation through obedience, but the Gospel is the way we grow (Gal. 3:1-3) and are renewed (Col. 1:6). It is the solution to each problem, the key to each closed door, the power through each barrier (Rom. 1:16-17).
The Gospel’s core meaning
The Gospel is not that we demonstrate our own righteousness before God and then He owes us something, but that He demonstrates His righteousness through Jesus Christ and then freely imputes His righteousness to us (2 Cor. 5:21). The Gospel is not that “it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you’ve been good,” but that “it doesn’t matter if you’ve been good, as long as you believe in Christ as your Savior.” The Gospel is not that we go from being irreligious to being religious; it’s that we realize that our motives for both religiosity and irreligiousness were essentially the same and essentially wrong—that we were seeking to be our own saviors and thereby keep control of our own lives.
To the degree that we rely on something other than Jesus to save us (such as moral performance, career, romance, family), we experience anger, fear, guilt, and despair. But when we trust in Christ as our Savior, we no longer trust in our own self-determination or self-denial for salvation; neither do we trust in moralism or hedonism for our security and comfort.
Kaleo assumes that most people have not heard of or thought through the implications of the Gospel. We exist to bring things “in line with the gospel” (Gal. 2:14), which renews us spiritually, psychologically, corporately, socially. The Gospel avoids the errors of legalism and liberalism, moralism and relativism, yet it does not produce something in between, but rather something different from them all. The Gospel critiques both religion and irreligion (Matt. 21:31). It shows us a God far more holy than the legalist can bear (Jesus had to die because we could not satisfy God’s holy demands) and yet far more merciful than the liberal can conceive (Jesus had to die because God loves us). The Gospel affects everything we do at Kaleo.
New way with God
The Gospel moves us from an impersonal “boss-employee” relationship with God to a personal “Father-child” relationship with Him—from a self-centered, fear-based motive to act morally to a love-based desire to delight (and delight in) God.
New way with Lordship
If we are saved by God’s grace at such an infinite cost to Him, then He can ask anything of us and it can still be a joy for us to obey.
New way with self
We no longer base our identity on what others think of us—or even what we think of ourselves—but on what God thinks of us in Christ (1 Cor. 4:3-4). The Gospel produces neither an inferiority complex (since God sees us as beautiful in Christ) nor a superiority complex (since we know we are sinners saved only by grace). The transforming power of the Gospel simultaneously produces in us both confidence and humility.
New way with problems
The moralizing approach to solving problems says, “Repent, you are not living right.” The psychological approach says, “You must accept yourself just as you are.” The Gospel says, “You are relying on something other than Jesus Christ to save you.”
Gospel reconciliation between individuals
Through the Gospel we become a new people of God, united to Christ and to each other. Since the Gospel both humbles us and yet assures us that we are loved, we are now free from both envy and pride, both inferiority and superiority. We no longer receive our sense of worth through approval from people or through power over people. This makes our relationships things of beauty driven by love (Gal. 5:6). We neither use people nor are overly dependent upon them; rather we are free to serve, affirm, or confront others—whatever is best for them.
Gospel reconciliation between people
The Gospel removes cultural pride and diminishes race as a component of identity, making it possible to avoid idolizing one’s cultural strengths while appreciating those of others.
Gospel-centered worship in the community
Worship is the process by which we continually attribute the most worth to Jesus. He alone is worthy of our worship and He alone can fulfill us. Many other things compete for this place of worthiness in our lives, and the Bible calls them idols. In fact, John Calvin referred to our hearts as “idol factories” that constantly manufacture new objects of worship. We must continually repent of our attempts to seek independence from Him or to find satisfaction in anything else besides Him.
Through the Gospel we strive both personally and corporately to identify, expose, and destroy all idols that compete with the one true God for our attention and devotion. If there is no personal transformation occurring within our body, then corporate worship will be like a committee meeting instead of an encounter with the living God. If, on the other hand, we are being personally transformed, then our worship will be alive and outsiders will be attracted to what is happening (1 Cor. 14:24-25).
Gospel respect
The Gospel teaches us to have deep respect for non-Christians. Since we are saved only by grace, it is our responsibility to humbly demonstrate our reliance on Christ and live out our security and peace as we boldly tell His story.
Gospel hope
The Gospel teaches us to have hope for non-Christians. We do not see anyone as hopeless since every conversion, including our own, is a supernatural miracle of God.
Gospel courage
The Gospel prevents us from basing our identity on the approval of others. This enables us to speak confidently and directly while not speaking haughtily.
Gospel love
The Gospel keeps us from being defensive and taking things personally. Because our value is derived from Christ, we do not feel the need to win arguments or prove ourselves through witnessing. We evangelize because we love people, and we love people because God first loved us.
Gospel mission
Paul says that the Gospel “is the power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16). The kingdom of God is gradually but inexorably growing (Matt. 11:12; 13:1-23).
A movement of priests
The Bible claims that the body of Christ is a “royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9). Every believer is a prophet, priest, and king. At Kaleo, the laity is encouraged to minister to one another.
A movement of churches
We desire to see the entire city of San Diego transformed by the Gospel of Christ. This goal will take more than a single church location to accomplish. It will take an entire movement of churches. We aim to plant churches with the same Gospel-based core values in every neighborhood and people group in the city (see session 10).
Healing racial and national divisions
The Gospel is the greatest foundation for civil relationships in a pluralistic society. Since we are saved by Christ and not by our own wisdom or performance, we can look at those who are not like us (even non-Christians) and realize that we can learn from them. We do not use our culture’s strengths as a basis for self-justification (as is the case with racism and nationalism), but in humility we desire to see racial and national divisions healed (Gal. 2:14; Acts 2:1-12).
Healing economic divisions
Jesus is the supreme example of sacrificial giving (2 Cor. 8:9). His Gospel produces in us generosity and a desire to see economic divisions healed (2 Cor. 8:1-15). Out of gratitude to God for the grace He has shown us we now desire to supply the needs of others (Matt. 25:31-40), even the needs of those who are undeserving as we are (Is. 64:6; Luke 6:32-35). One of the marks of a heart truly transformed by grace is a life poured out in deeds of mercy and justice (Is. 1:10-17; James 2:12-14).
All of our work matters to God
When the Gospel cleanses us of the kind religiosity that is itself an idol, then our so-called “secular” work becomes as valuable and God-honoring as full-time Christian ministry. When you use your gifts in work—whether by practicing law, tilling the field, swinging a hammer, digging ditches, mending broken bodies, or nurturing children—you are answering God’s call to serve the human community.
God matters to all our work
Our worldview drastically shapes the motives and methods that we employ in our work. The Gospel motivates us to strive for excellence in our work, not out of greed or selfish ambition, but out of gratitude to God and a desire to see Him glorified among our employers, co-workers, customers, friends, and families.
We encourage each other to perform our work as unto God out of gratitude for the grace He shows us in the Gospel. We do not want fellow Christians to privatize their faith away from their work or express their faith in terms of subculture. Rather we want to see growing Christians working in their vocations with Christian distinctiveness, thus transforming the culture from the inside out.
