Perhaps the greatest glory of the gospel is that it doesn’t leave us like we were/are. Just based on New Year’s resolutions alone, we can safely conclude that most people, if not all people, are not satisfied with who they are. People are constantly striving to improve themselves and their society. But in spite of this constant striving, we regularly fail to improve ourselves by ourselves. That’s where the gospel comes in. The gospel first speaks to our sinful condition, explaining why we can’t help ourselves. Then the gospel points us to Jesus’s righteousness which God imputes to us in spite of our sin. But it doesn’t stop there; the gospel goes on to re-create us, restoring the marred image of God in us. Then the gospel transforms our thinking, pulling us out of the futility of our minds and turning us to the satisfaction found only in Christ through God. This is the expected result of the gospel working in us, which Paul articulates in Ephesians 4:17-24. Paul speaks to the fact that because the Ephesian believers are no longer walking as the Gentiles walk, they should continue in their transformation. They were no longer marked by futile thinking, darkened understanding, or death. They were no longer hard-hearted, impure, or greedy. In fact, they were no longer even Gentiles. This is the transformative power of the gospel, a work that’s expected because it’s a work of God. This is the same work God is doing in everyone who believes the gospel, in you and me still two thousand years later. And it’s the work that will continue until Jesus returns, because only the gospel provides the transformation we need. –Pastor Rory
Changed in Christ
posted in: Sunday Stuff
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