(Transcript of the video above, edited for readability)
I think a lot of times when we tend to talk about the gospel, we tend to limit the gospel simply to the forgiveness of sins, and we treasure that, we make much of that, and we should make much of that. I don't want to dismiss or demean that. We should treasure the fact that in the gospel we are forgiven of our sins. Our sins are as far as God from the east is to the west, and I don't want to diminish that. But the gospel isn't less than that. It's just so much more than that. And I think one of the things in particular that we tend to forget is that we're not just forgiven, but we're justified. Our sins aren't just wiped away. We're given an absolutely clean slate, a new slate. When God looks at us, he sees his own righteousness. Our lives are hidden in Christ.
And so it's not just the fact that we're forgiven, as wonderful as that is. We're made new. We're not just forgiven versions of our old selves. We're not just shiny or cleaner versions of our old selves. We're absolutely new, and then we stand before God justified, made right, not just forgiven, and there's so much in the gospel. There are so many implications or riches to treasure in the gospel. The fact that we're forgiven? Yes. The fact that we're justified or made right? Yes. The fact that we're adopted into God's family, that we're not just on the outside looking in forgiven, waiting for the day when we come to be made right with God. No, we're adopted into his family. He calls us sons. He calls us daughters. We're given a new power through His Holy Spirit. The very spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is now alive and resides in our own heart, constantly working and willing to conform us into the image of Christ.
We have a new power. We have a hope to look forward to an eternity in the presence of God. There's so much to the gospel, so many implications to treasure that, I think we tend to sometimes talk and preach and narrow the gospel down to the forgiveness of sins, as wonderful as that is. But we fail to see the full picture of the gospel and then to treasure on a daily basis the varied riches of the gospel. Honestly, if we were to think on them and meditate on them and preach them to ourselves and have a more holistic, complete picture of the gospel, the way that we could face the circumstances and the situations and the difficulties and even the blessings that we face in life would be transformed.
(First published on Christianity.com on January 30, 2013)
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