I kneeled, at an old fashioned altar following pastor
Gilming’s message. God saved me about 15 years prior to this Sunday night but I
was confused, thinking that in some miraculous way by walking that aisle Christ
would transform me into a better man, or at least one who didn’t want to sin as
often. As was custom, a man came upfront and I explained my frustration, he
related well as my brother explaining that his life was no different. He prayed
with me and asked God to strengthen me so that I could do better.
Doing better was the preferred lifestyle. Granted, I was the
biggest sinner I knew (and still am) but wanted to “do better” or so I thought.
But how? Unfortunately, at the altar the gospel of Jesus Christ was not
mentioned; we didn’t think we needed it for the mundane day-to-day
sanctification. Sadly, I was becoming satisfied with a sour life, thinking
change for me was impossible even though Christ had saved me when I was a
child. But there remained a huge miserable hole in my life as a college
student. I desperately needed the “now” gospel only I did not know it. One
pastor explains this problem well:
The good news of the gospel of
Jesus Christ is a “then-now-then” gospel. First, there is the ‘then’ of the
past. When I embrace Christ by faith, my sins are completely forgiven, and I
stand before God as righteous. There is also the “then” of the future, the
promise of eternity with the Lord, free of sin and struggle. The church has
done fairly well explaining these two “thens” of the gospel, but it has tended
to understate or misunderstand the “now” benefits of the work of Christ. What
difference does the gospel make in the here and now? How does it help me as a
father, a husband, a worker, and a member of the body of Christ? How does it
help me to respond to difficulty and make decisions? How does it give me
meaning, purpose, and identity?[1]
Why are we so ineffective as Christians? Why is it that our
lives tend to reflect more of the world than more of the gospel? Could it be that
we fail to believe the gospel in the day-to-day stuff? We forget that He can
empower us to be salt and light as parents or at work or wherever we go. When
we forget, we become blind. Then the sins and the stresses of life take over
and we only remember ourselves and wallow in pity. We tend to forget what we
already know, according to 2 Peter 1:3-10:
Seeing
that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and
godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has
granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may
become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in
your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance,
and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness,
and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are
increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is
blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make
certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these
things, you will never stumble.
I forgot! I failed to remember His cleansing and His divine power in the gospel of Jesus. “For too many of us, our sense of identity is more rooted in our performance than it is in God’s grace . . . [furthermore,] we find it much easier to embrace the gospel’s promise of life after death than we do its promise of life before death!”[2] Without a constant awareness of Christ’s presence we begin to live anxiously, we avoid all difficulty and suffering and are overwhelmed too easily. Our greatest problems exists within us not outside of us, that huge miserable hole, exists in each one of us.
To be sure, there is a world of
items that we can use to fill that hole, from legalism to mysticism and the
pursuit of right theology. Church ministries and Christian friends filling our
miserable gaps may be appealing but will not fix the hole. That is, theology,
good friends and ministries may lead us to the solution but are not the
solution. However, turning to Christ and admitting to Him our daily need for
forgiveness; also, being mindful of His cross and the divine power we get from
it begins us on the way of filling this gospel gap appropriately. Don’t be
fooled, sanctification is hard work and growing in Christ equals brokenness
before Christ. Thus, let us (like the Apostle Peter) remind each other of our
brokenness and of the effective gospel that so perfectly fills that miserable
hole in each one of us. When the hole is loaded with the gospel, you will be
changed into salt and light.
“Therefore, I intend to remind you
constantly of these things even though you know then and are well established
in the truth that you now have” (2 Peter 1:12).
