Chapter 3
How Does the Good News Change Me?
I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit of a history freak. I studied it in college before sensing God directing me into the ministry. During that time, I read about zealous generals who led armies into battle after wars had already been won and treaties had been signed. They exposed their men to unnecessary danger, absorbed senseless casualties and collateral damage, and rubbed salt in the wounds of a defeated foe. From our perspective, in a globally connected world equipped with instant messaging and smartphones, such a tragic loss of life could have been avoided if only word of the war’s end had been delivered to the front lines in time!
This illustration highlights something I’ve observed in my own life as a Christian and in the lives of many believers I’ve known. Many times my friends and I have been locked in senseless and unnecessary spiritual battles when the war has already been won. Our Commanding Officer, King Jesus, has secured the victory for us over our enemies by laying down his own life and defeating sin, death, and hell (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). So why do we still feel the need to fight the daily battle with sin on our own? How do we live now in light of what God has done in Christ on our behalf?
We’ve already learned that the gospel is the good news of what God did in Christ on our behalf, and we’ve discovered how that message reaches us. But what is the gospel’s role in our sanctification as believers? (Sanctification simply means becoming more like Christ in our attitudes and behavior.) In other words, how does the good news change us and help us grow so that we become more like Christ?
In this chapter, we’ll explore this very important issue. If we don’t understand how the gospel message changes us and helps us grow spiritually, we can end up waging unnecessary battles, causing damage to ourselves and others in the process. We also run the risk of failing to experience the joyful, abundant life that Jesus’ victory secured for us. Instead, our growth will be stunted, our lives won’t be as rich and full as they could be, and we’ll find ourselves wallowing in a perpetual state of misplaced guilt and shame.
For the good news to help us change and grow as believers, we need gospel reminders like the ones that renewed my love for Jesus and helped me rediscover joy and excitement in my faith in those early days. By keeping the free grace of Jesus in front of us each day, the good news will impact every area of our lives and help us grow in our relationship with him.
Let’s explore four ways the gospel changes us and impacts our growth in Christ.
Where It All Begins
The gospel is the starting point, the gate through which each of us must enter to be reconciled to God and become “a new creation” in him (2 Corinthians 5:17). It’s the foundation of our life in Christ. In fact, if we haven’t heard the gospel message, believed it, and placed our trust in Christ, we aren’t truly Christians. We may be good people, moral people, religious people, or God-fearing people, but we aren’t followers of Christ. It’s one thing all Christians have in common: We all came to God through the same door.
A number of years ago, shortly after my family relocated to Upstate New York, a good friend of mine invited me to join him and some friends on a hike in the Adirondack Mountains. The Adirondacks are home to some of the most beautiful hiking trails in the United States. Even though I’d never been on a hike of this magnitude, I didn’t want to be seen as timid and fearful (even though I was), so I said yes. We hit the trail at five o’clock in the morning and walked and walked. And then we walked some more. We stopped to eat a few times but quickly got back on the trail for—you guessed it—more walking. After about eight hours of hiking through the wilderness, we arrived at our destination: a beautiful puddle of water nestled between a few of the famed Adirondack High Peaks—Lake Tear of the Clouds.
Maybe it was my youth and inexperience—or it could have been the shooting pains pulsing through my lower extremities—but I asked rather dejectedly, “Why is this lake so special?” That’s when my friend informed me that we were standing at the headwaters of the Hudson River—the mighty waterway Henry Hudson first explored that snakes its way south to New York City. This historic landmark served as a highway of trade and commerce for centuries—and, unfortunately, a convenient “drain” for many of the factories located along its shores that once spewed toxic waste. This majestic river begins high in the Adirondacks, neatly tucked away, nearly eight miles from the road where we parked.
The “mighty” headwaters of the Hudson didn’t look very imposing, grandiose, or impressive from my vantage point at Lake Tear of the Clouds. It looked more like a big pond. I really thought “lake” was a bit of a misnomer. But this lake is the origin, or source, of the Hudson, which flows out of the mountains, ever deepening and expanding until it becomes a powerful waterway, spanning roughly 150 miles from Troy to Manhattan.
Just as Lake Tear of the Clouds is the source of the Hudson River, the gospel is the origin, or starting point, of our life in Christ. The Christian life begins with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s the “headwaters” of our faith. Without Lake Tear of the Clouds, there is no Hudson River; without the gospel, there is no Christian life.
Through the gospel, we die with Christ, are buried with him, and are gloriously raised with him to live new lives (Romans 6:4). As we receive the gospel message through faith, God delivers us from the “domain of darkness” and transfers us to “the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). Through the gospel, we become “new creation[s]” in Christ as our old lives pass away and everything becomes new in him (2 Corinthians 5:17). Through the gospel, we embrace the abundant life Jesus died to give us (John 10:10) and begin the journey of becoming more like him (Romans 8:29).
That beats a big pond in the Adirondacks any day!
What does all of this have to do with our growth as believers? Revisiting the place where our faith in Christ began spurs us on to follow him more passionately. Remembering the love of Jesus and how he revealed himself to us through his gospel reignites our faith and joy. The gospel reminds us of our importance to him, the lengths he went to find us, and the beautiful moment when we placed our faith in him. This is where change and growth begin!
Revisiting the place where our faith in Christ began
spurs us on to follow him more passionately.
Strength for the Journey
The gospel is more than just the starting point of our faith in Christ. It has a continual impact on our lives as believers. Sometimes we treat the gospel like a medication, mistakenly thinking that when our “infection” is cured, we can stop taking it and get back to normal life. But the work of the gospel doesn’t end just because our sins have been forgiven, our separation from God has been resolved, and we have a one-way ticket to heaven. It continues throughout the Christian life, strengthening our faith along the way. A friend recently commented that it would be a mistake to see the gospel only as the “runway” for our lives. We should also think of it as the jet fuel that keeps us going.
How does the gospel strengthen our faith as believers? How does it keep us going? By reminding us that we’re not only unable to save ourselves, but we’re also incapable, on our own, of living this new life God has given us in Christ. Jesus alone is the Source of our strength, and the role of the gospel is to point us to him as we “work out” our salvation by faith (Philippians 2:12–13).
Jesus alone is the Source of our strength, and the role of the
gospel is
to point us to him as we “work out” our salvation by faith.
This process of growing and working out our faith in Christ isn’t at all easy. In learning what it means to be new creations in Christ, we experience countless twists, turns, and ripples along the way. As we trust God to help us “put to death” our sinful behaviors and “evil desires” (Colossians 3:5–9, niv), and as we begin to “put on” the character and attitudes of Christ (verses 10–14), we slog through some difficult terrain. It’s in this crucible of faith that we need strength—strength to change, strength to embrace new Christlike attitudes and emotions, strength to become new creations.
How do we find this strength? By keeping in front of us the gospel message that reminds us of what God did in Christ on our behalf, and by continuing to walk in that reality. The apostle Paul put it this way: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught” (Colossians 2:6–7, niv). Paul was encouraging believers to keep on living the way they started out: by grace through faith in Christ.
We didn’t get here because of something we did. We didn’t earn or deserve this seat at God’s table. It was given to us as a generous gift when we placed our faith in Jesus. In the same way, we grow in our faith and our ability to live the Christian life only as we rely on Jesus, not on our own strength. Too often we can buy into the false self-help message that we’re responsible for changing ourselves. We try hard to fix problem areas in our lives, attempting to discipline ourselves into maturity and Christlikeness. We may even try to reach our goal by following Jesus’ example of faithfulness and godliness, compassion and character.
But it never works. No matter how hard we try, we can’t change ourselves. Remember the story of Sisyphus in Greek mythology? He kept pushing a heavy boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down to the bottom. Every single time, as he strained heroically to reach the top of the hill, the boulder would slip from his grasp and tumble back down. It’s like that when we try to live the Christian life in our own strength. We keep trying and failing. And in the end, we become frustrated, discouraged, and weary because we simply don’t have what it takes to bring about that kind of change.
Enter the gospel. The good news reminds us that this work is God’s, and it’s his job to “bring it to completion” in our lives as we cooperate with him (Philippians 1:6). There is great strength in that thought alone. We are all works in progress, and God is responsible for making us new. In fact, he’s actively working to do that right now! When we wrap our minds and hearts around God’s gracious work in the gospel and root ourselves in Jesus, we find the strength and power to change, because the power to change comes from him alone. He is the One who shapes and molds our character so that we’ll reflect him. And the more we trust and cooperate with him in this process, the more we’ll see the results of our faith: new thoughts, new habits, new attitudes, new affections, new desires, and a new identity. It’s his job to transform us. It’s our job to get out of his way.
In Jesus, we find the strength and power to change,
because the power to change comes from him alone.
Free at Last!
Another way the gospel changes us as believers is by setting us free from those things that hold us captive and prevent us from living our lives fully and joyfully in Christ. I spent my entire childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood among believers in the church who knew their desperate need for a Savior and were convinced that the gospel was their only hope of being reconciled to God. But when it came to living as Christians, they were unsure about what God required of them. And in their uncertainty, they adopted a lifestyle of shoulds and oughts, as if sheer willpower and self-discipline—exhibited by their attempts to quit smoking cigarettes, stop watching R-rated movies, or devote the first two hours of their day to prayer—would bring about the spiritual growth they desired and fuel their affection for the Lord. As a friend of mine likes to say, they were saved by grace but were trying to earn their keep.
After I trusted Christ, I adopted the beliefs and practices of my church community, thinking I would become more spiritual if I followed that same path. I’d attend summer camps and revival meetings, and I’d hear from God’s Word about these oughts and shoulds. I’d compare my life with God’s righteous standards in the Bible and knew I wasn’t measuring up to them. I clearly wasn’t living a “life of love” the way Christ loved me (Ephesians 5:2, niv), or a life that was “worthy of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). I wasn’t submitting my anger, lust, pride, and envy to the Lord in a way that was pleasing to him. I wasn’t walking in faith the way he desired (2 Corinthians 5:7). I wasn’t saturating my life with his Word as I should have been.
By the time I finished sizing up my spiritual condition, I’d feel totally convicted. I’d repent of my shortcomings and leave those meetings with such passion and energy to go back to my normal life and be the person God wanted me to be. I’d make commitments, decisions, and promises—some of them quite publicly at our Thursday-night Campfire services. I vowed in front of my peers and my church to be different, to live differently, to change what was broken about me and become the man God was leading me to be. I promised to work harder to change.
After these meetings, I’d come home excited and more committed than ever to double my efforts at living for Christ. I’d get up early and attempt to establish a faithful devotional life. I’d try to stop fighting with my parents. I’d try to stop cursing. But the craziest thing happened. Well, actually, nothing happened. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t fix me. I couldn’t live up to the new commitments I had made, couldn’t stop the stuff I wanted to stop and start doing the things I wanted to do. I was conflicted, discouraged, and confused.
I’ve met a lot of people who share similar struggles. They’re continually disillusioned by their own weaknesses and inability to live a Christlike life. They’re unsure about how to grow in their knowledge and understanding of the Lord. They’re discouraged to find that as Christians they still can’t measure up to God’s righteous standards on their own.
When I see these dear brothers and sisters, I can’t help but ache for them. Like so many of us, they haven’t yet understood or experienced the incredible freedom they have in Christ. Without a biblical understanding of the freedom found through the gospel, we continue to find ourselves burdened by a load of guilt and shame. But even more tragic, we miss out on the joyful and abundant life Jesus desires for us (John 10:10). The war is over, but we’re still sending our troops into battle.
Without a biblical understanding of the freedom found through the gospel, we continue to find ourselves burdened by a load of guilt and shame.
Freedom from all the shoulds and oughts of living the Christian life is found in the gospel. But what kind of freedom?
Freedom from Bondage to the Enemy
First, the gospel frees us from bondage to the enemy of our souls—Satan. Before our gospel encounter, we’re deceived and led astray, enslaved by our passions and desires, and blindly following our enemy through this life (Ephesians 2). We think we’re free, but we aren’t. It’s an illusion. In reality, we’re bound and imprisoned by our sin. John 8:34 tells us that “everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” And because we’re slaves, we’re easy prey to an enemy who seeks our destruction and harm. Like a “roaring lion,” Satan prowls around “seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
But in the gospel we learn that Jesus, our King, defeated his enemy and ours by giving his life for us on the cross. We also discover that Jesus conquered sin and death when he was raised from the dead (Luke 24; 1 Corinthians 15), breaking the chains that have bound us and setting us free. We’re no longer slaves to sin. Jesus’ victory is ours through faith in him!
Regardless of the quiet whispers of the Enemy, you and I are no longer guilty before God! We have no reason to be ashamed any longer, because Jesus took away all of our guilt through his loving sacrifice. Those heavy burdens are no longer ours to carry.
Satan loves to remind us of all our failures and shortcomings and tempt us to believe that our loving heavenly Father is like a harsh earthly father whose approval and love are based on our performance. But the gospel message assures us that God accepts us not because of our own righteousness but because of Jesus’ righteousness.
Romans 8:1 tells us that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The Enemy, who accuses us day and night before God, no longer has any claim over us (Revelation 12:10). He can’t condemn us or hold us captive anymore because Jesus, our Substitute, has set us free! And if Jesus has set us free, we are “free indeed” (John 8:36).
[The Enemy] can’t condemn us or hold us captive anymore
because Jesus, our Substitute, has set us free!
Freedom from the Demands of the Law
The gospel also frees us from the demands of the law. This law—God’s perfect standard of righteousness—encompasses the entire Old Testament, including the Ten Commandments and the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch), and the commands in the New Testament. It’s the standard we weren’t able to live up to before we were saved, and we can’t live up to it now as believers. But all too often, we think we have to try. (And we know from firsthand experience how those efforts turn out!)
James 2:10 says, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (niv). That’s a pretty brutal standard! And yet many Christians feel horribly guilty and ashamed because they can’t live up to it. It becomes a burden and a continual discouragement to them. They feel as though they’re still shackled to their sin even though they put their faith in Jesus. They feel as though they can’t measure up, and they see themselves as failures. Some have even abandoned the faith because of their struggle.
What does the gospel say about this? It tells us that Jesus set us free not only from bondage to our enemy but from bondage to the law itself. This powerful truth is often overlooked or denied, but it’s essential to living the Christian life.
Jesus set us free not only from bondage to our enemy
but from bondage to the law itself.
When we see the law for what it is and understand Jesus’ death for what it is, it becomes clear that as believers we’re no longer “under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). The apostle Paul explained what this means in Romans 8:1–5:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature [flesh], God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met [fulfilled] in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature [flesh] but according to the Spirit. (niv, emphasis added)
Did you see it? God’s law has a fatal flaw, a weakness. It doesn’t make people holy, righteous, or perfect. There, I said it. Let the scorn begin. Too many of the Christians I meet believe that God’s acceptance or approval depends on their ability to obey the law. But to see the law and its requirements as something attainable is to fundamentally miss what the good news is all about.
The law was never intended to make us holy or righteous. In God’s plan, its purpose was to show us our inability to live up to his righteous standard. And instead of giving us new life, the law declares that all of us deserve death by relentlessly pointing out our sins, failures, shortcomings, and rebellion against God. In our own strength (our “flesh” or our sinful human nature), we’re too weak to live up to God’s standard. Too weak to keep the law in all its points. Too weak to earn or work our way to righteousness.
This double-edged flaw—the weakness in us and in the law—is precisely why Jesus had to die on the cross. We needed him to free us from the law’s impossible demands, and God was faithful to provide. Jesus, by living a sinless life on earth, did what we could never do: He kept the law perfectly. And when he died, he did so innocently. He hadn’t committed any crime. He had no sins, shortcomings, or failures. He was, and is, righteousness personified. And because he never sinned, his sacrifice on the cross fully satisfied the law’s demands.
But that’s not all! The flaw in the law and in ourselves, which prevents us from living up to God’s standard, points us to a new way of living as believers. The key is found in Romans 8:4: “The righteous requirement of the law [is] fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh [sinful nature] but according to the Spirit.” When we live by faith in Christ, God gives us the ability to obey the law—not in our own efforts, but by the power of his Spirit. And with God’s power fueling our efforts, we can’t fail!
The gospel reminds us that Jesus set us free from the demands of the law so we can be truly free to enjoy all he’s given us (Galatians 5:1). It also shows us how to live the kind of life God always intended for us as his children. A life overflowing with forgiveness and grace instead of guilt and shame. A life characterized by the “fruit” God promises—“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self control”—when we live by faith through the power of his Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). There’s “no law” against these things (verse 23), so we can indulge in them to our heart’s content!
The gospel reminds us that Jesus set us free from the demands
of the law so we can be truly free to enjoy all he’s given us.
A Framework for Spiritual Growth
Finally, in addition to giving us a foundation to build on, strength for our journey, and freedom from bondage, the good news changes us by giving shape and meaning—a structural framework—to our lives in Christ. This is probably the most important way the gospel transforms us and helps us grow in our faith. Like a computer’s operating system, the gospel is the foundation we build our faith upon. Colossians 2:6–7 reminds us once again, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (emphasis added).
With the gospel as the foundation of our faith, what framework does it provide for our spiritual growth? A life lived by grace through faith.
Living by Grace
As we’ve seen throughout this book, grace plays a central role in our conversion when we first come to Christ. We’re saved by the undeserved, unearned favor of God himself, not because of anything we’ve done. It’s a free gift. And that gift is given to us by God’s grace when we place our faith in Christ.
I don’t know any genuine believer who would disagree with that statement. But when it comes to living as followers of Christ, it isn’t always clear how grace applies. It’s all too easy for us to fall back into the performance trap, trying to earn our keep, and to lose sight of the fact that just as we were saved by God’s grace alone, we’re kept by his grace alone.
Just as we were saved by God’s grace alone, we’re kept by his grace alone.
This should lift a huge burden from your shoulders! Because of grace, Jesus still loves and accepts you even when you mess up (which you’ll inevitably do, because you won’t be perfect till heaven!). None of us is on this team because we had it all together when Jesus saved us. And none of us maintains our spot on the roster by our own efforts. We’re where we are because of God’s gift of grace and Jesus’ perfect sacrifice.
I should point out here that living by grace doesn’t mean it’s okay for us to live like rebels and reprobates, indulging every passion and pleasure. Living by grace should never lead to unrestrained sin. As the apostle Paul said in Romans 6:1–2, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
Instead, we should resist those sinful patterns with all of our might. Colossians 3:5 tells us to “put to death [or kill] . . . whatever belongs to [our] earthly nature” (niv). We should seek to honor God in our decisions and actions. We should seek God’s help to reject anything in our lives that is hurtful to others. We should indeed do all of this. But as we do, we need to continually remind ourselves of the gospel. We need to keep in mind that we aren’t doing these things to earn God’s approval, but because God has already accepted us in Christ. Instead, we offer him our lives as a way of saying “thank you” for the free gift of his grace. Good works flow from grateful hearts that have received God’s grace.
Living Out Our Faith
The second way the gospel provides a framework for our spiritual growth is through faith. We were saved by placing our faith, or trust, in what Jesus did for us on the cross: “By grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). In the same way, we grow in our lives as believers by trusting him. But when we start trying to live out this truth, things get a little muddy. How do we live and grow as believers through faith? Very simply, it means that we believe God and act accordingly.
Isn’t that how our gospel stories began? Someone somewhere shared with us the message of God’s immeasurable love, and when we heard what Jesus did on our behalf, something clicked inside us. We recognized that the message was true, we realized our need, and we responded in faith. We believed God’s Word and placed our trust in Christ. Why, then, would we expect our journey with him to be any different?
Second Corinthians 5:7 reminds us that “we live by faith, not by sight” (niv). As we wander through this life, bumping from one experience to the next, living by faith means listening to Jesus and choosing to trust him moment by moment. It means putting our faith into action as we encounter relationships, challenging circumstances, major and minor events, failures and successes, joys and sorrows. No matter what we experience in life, we trust that our loving Father will take care of us.
Living by faith means listening to Jesus and choosing
to trust him moment by moment.
So when you lose your job, living by faith means that you don’t lose heart, because you believe that God will provide for your needs and will never leave you or forsake you (Philippians 4:19; Hebrews 13:5). When you’re diagnosed with cancer, you don’t give in to despair, because you believe that Jesus has prepared a home for you in heaven (John 14:1–3), and someday soon, this broken world will fade away, and you’ll spend eternity with him. When you lose a loved one, you trust God to comfort you as he promised (2 Corinthians 1:3–4). Living the Christian life through faith means all of this and so much more!
Guidelines for Spiritual Growth
As we wrap up this discussion of the gospel’s role in our spiritual growth, I’d like to offer four practical guidelines for growing in your relationship with Christ:
1. Hold on to the things of “first importance” that the apostle Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4: “that Christ died for our sins . . . , that he was buried, and that he was raised [to life].” The gospel message contains not only everything you need for salvation but everything you need for living the Christian life (2 Peter 1:3–8). Each of us desperately needed Jesus to save us because we couldn’t save ourselves, and we still need him as believers because we can’t change ourselves. Live in light of that truth every day.
The gospel message contains not only everything you need for
salvation
but everything you need for living the Christian life.
2. Stay connected to the Source of your life. Seek to walk closely with Jesus and live in moment-by-moment dependence on him. In John 15:4–6, Jesus told his disciples,
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. . . . Apart from me you can do nothin