As Paul says in Romans 1:16, the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. The gospel is the power of God that saves us. And the gospel is the power of God that sanctifies us. To live a gospel centered life is to live in the present continuous remembrance, celebration, and experience of the power of the gospel in every aspect of our lives.
The gospel is the power of God not only in our individual lives, but it is also the power of God that enables us to love one another, serve one another, encourage one another in the context of the community that God has placed us in. The gospel is also God’s power that enables us to engage the culture around us humbly and boldly. It is the gospel which enables us to live, as Christ called us, to live in the world but not of it.
Gospel centrality is important because every one of us need the present power of God every moment, in every aspect of our lives. If we are not truly centered on the gospel, we are going to drift away in one of these two ways. Either we’re going to become so numb or so indifferent to our own sinfulness, we’re going to bury our sins, ignore it, hide it, pretend it doesn’t exist, and therefore lose the feeling of a need for salvation.
Or we’re going to try and more than make up for it by doing things in our own strength, by trying to add to our Salvation, or by trying to contribute to our salvation by the things we do.
If you’re not centered on the gospel, we’re going to err in one of these two ways. The culture around us and this is true of every culture is constantly trying to disciple us to take on self salvation narratives. It could either be if you’re really successful in your career, you’ve got it all made, or if you find the right life partner, you’re going to experience joy and happiness all your life. All of these are self salvation narratives, and every culture is discipling us to live out these self salvation narratives, and so to remain in the gospel is so important because it is by remaining in the gospel that we don’t give in to any of these narratives self salvation narratives that every culture is constantly calling us to.
And so the gospel is the present power of God that enables us to reject all of these self salvation narratives and to truly embrace, to feast on, to enjoy, to cherish, to be content with who Jesus is and what he has done for us.
