Why as a Christian should I Preach the Gospel to Myself?
The Role of Scripture Meditation in our Sanctification, Part Two
INTRODUCTION:
When we think of habits of godliness, perhaps the first thing to come to mind is: “I have got to pray more, memorize more of the Word, have more regular devotions.” All those spiritual disciplines are commended in God’s Word, but I would like to steer our thinking in the direction of the motivations for these godly habits.
May I suggest what is foundational to the habit of godliness is to be satisfied in God; satisfaction in God is a byproduct of meditating on the Word, particularly the “Word of Grace.” The ‘Word of His grace’ is Paul’s term for the full-orbed gospel message as applied to all of life (Acts 20:24, 32). By “full-orbed” I mean that Paul normally begins his epistles with the glorious gospel blessings the believer has in Christ: sonship; union with Christ; justification; throne rights; etc.
Preaching these gospel blessings to ourselves revolutionizes our Christian walk. In fact, feeding upon the gospel as a life habit fills us with God and as a result and motivates us to care for our relationship with the Lord out of delight rather than merely out of duty.
Thinking this way does not come natural to us: to consent to let Another, Christ, work for me and to reckon that He has earned every blessing I enjoy can only become my mindset if I regularly feed my faith on the gospel. Our natural bent is to reason that we are the sum total of our achievements and that we carry our own worth by means of our performance. That is why the gospel is so radically counter-intuitive—the gospel tells me that God has taken the issue of my salvation into His own hands —my acceptance and righteousness before God are carried by Christ.
I must train my mind to think this way. By speaking to myself about the gospel, my confidence that acceptance and fellowship with God are grounded upon who Christ is and what He has done is strengthened. Then, I will begin to view Christ as my ‘eligibility’ for God’s endless love and favor. This is the central habit for godliness because everything in your Christian life comes back to your affections; what you love supremely and what you trust most.
In this lesson we will look at the final three ‘access points’ involved in meditating upon the gospel. These points of contact between our need and Christ’s sufficiency we have designated “access points.” By access points we mean that we find access to the specifics of the gospel by meditating upon, and contemplating God’s saving activity toward us in these specifics. In this lesson we will look at the final three of the following six gospel “access points.”
- The Gospel is the VOICE of Christ’s love to His sheep
- The Gospel is the VERDICT of God’s justice at the cross
- The Gospel is the VALUE of justification by faith through grace
- The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ
- The Gospel is the VANTAGE point whereby we see the kingdom
- The Gospel is the VICTORY won by Christ at Calvary
IV. The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ
We are familiar with the verse, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). But what often goes unnoticed in this verse is the fact that by our sin we have forfeited not only our ability to reflect God’s glory; but also our desire and capacity to see or behold God’s glory. The glorious gospel restores our ability to see the glory of God and thereby experience satisfaction in God.
While we were spiritually dead we could not see or perceive the Lord’s glory and His beauty. We did not love His glory or live for His glory—we had zero passion for His glory. Therefore, we worshipped and served the creature and the creation. Our hearts were not the temple of God—they were idol factories—our affections settled onto created things (Rom 1:25). This disaster was the result of the fall in the Garden of Eden—because of man’s defection from God, the heart of man became a veritable ‘zoo’ of lusts. The heart originally created to find its highest joy and purpose in God instead became filled with coveting of every kind as the Apostle Paul states in Romans 7:8.
Since by sin the perception of God’s glory was forfeited, salvation must center upon the restoration of the glory of God to the sight of the creature. God has chosen a means of salvation which puts His infinite wisdom and glory on display in the redemption of sinful men (1 Cor 1:30; Col 2:1-2). Thus man’s salvation is not solely the bestowal of the gifts of life, righteousness, pardon, and adoption—salvation is the restored ‘sight’ of the glory of God (2 Cor 4:4-6). “The Gospel gives us God!” (John Piper, God is the Gospel).
The gospel is the power of God—divine power is exerted in connection with the spiritual ‘resurrection’ of dead sinners; the imputation of righteousness to them; and the restoration of spiritual sight to them. Though the restoration of the sight of the glory of God is an instantaneous, sovereign, ‘fiat’ act; it is not a direct immediate flooding of the soul with light. The sight of divine glory is ‘mediated’ or reflected in the face of Christ. God’s glory is made sensible to us in the face of Christ— He is the ‘glory-bearer.’
The new birth is a miracle of both revelation and restoration. By the Spirit’s regenerating work we are given a revelation of Christ—we see who Christ really is and we see the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6). In addition, there is a restoration: we receive a new faculty known as the “eyes of the heart” (Eph 1:18). This faculty of spiritual sight allows us to understand and perceive spiritual realities which belong to us as heirs of God’s grace (1 Cor 2:10-13, 15-16).
Christ’s infinite capacity to reflect the glory of God is due first of all to the virtuousness and grace of His Person in His incarnation, and secondly to the work He accomplished in His propitiation. It is these two elements which reflect the glory of God: His humanity and His mission— His Person and His work—His character and His cross. Paul preached “Christ” (His incarnation); “and Him crucified,” (His work) (1 Cor 2:2). These two constitute the duality of God’s infinite wisdom. God’s reflected glory in Christ has the power to melt the sinner’s heart—evaporating dread, fear, guilt, hiding, and enmity (Col 1:21-23).
Thus we are to understand that God has chosen a way of salvation which showcases His glory. We could take an example from sports. The greatest excellence only becomes manifest under the greatest opposition. It can be a challenge to sell tickets to a game between a winning team and a losing team. Who wants to watch the top team play a team that is perpetually in the cellar? But it is easy to sell tickets to watch the two best teams in the world compete. But why is this true? Answer: we were created to enthusiastic spectators of excellence—opposition reveals excellence. God created us to be enthusiastic spectators of His excellence. Christ defeated enemies which opposed us—enemies which we had no power against in ourselves: sin; death; hell; the world; the flesh; and the devil.
Now that we are redeemed, the Word of God describes us as the ‘unveiled ones’ able to behold the glory of the Lord, our new vocation is to gaze upon His glory (2 Cor 3:16-18). God’s glory of course is the outshining of His perfections made manifest in Christ, and revealed in the wonderful plan of redemption. God’s majesty and excellence are put on display in our redemption.
Beholding the glory of the Lord is the vocation or calling of the church (2 Cor 3:18). Proclaiming the excellencies of the Lord is the mission of the church (1 Pet 2:9-10). The second activity, proclaiming, depends upon faithfulness to the first activity, beholding. The cycle is behold, be changed, proclaim as a witness. We are created by God to be enthusiastic spectators of His excellence—to cheer, to adore, to admire, and to praise. It is the new birth that has made us new creations able to behold and proclaim God’s glory.
To behold the glory of the Lord is to be ravished by the sight. The reason why is stunning—to begin to understand the vastness and supremacy and dignity of the Person who gave His life for us is to rocked and staggered at His majesty. He lavished grace on you for His name sake. He is fulfilling God’s plan to reveal the divine perfections in an awesome manner—by the redemption of sinners. Let this sink in and it will blast you out of the spiritual ‘blahs.’ It will fill you with passion for the glory of the Lord. For in Christ, God’s glory and your eternal good are eternally joined (Eph 2:6-7). Paul regarded himself to be a steward of this divine mystery that God’s glory is revealed in the Christ’s work of redeeming sinners to the glory of God (Eph 3:8-12).
Beholding the glory of the Lord is our blessed work; but it is often blocked by the ‘tyranny of the urgent.’ We get so busy ‘tweaking’ the many projects on our plate that we begin to lose a ‘Godentranced vision of all things’ (Jonathan Edwards). We forget that the universe and history itself exist as a stage for God to manifest His glory. The universe right now is cursed because of what happened at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The universe is about to experience cosmic reconciliation because of what happened at Calvary’s Tree (Col 1:20). And then the redeemed will eat from a third tree—The Tree of Life.
God’s glory has provided a ‘lens’ for us to look through. And, as Pastor Ian Paisley says, we see Jesus as Lowly because of His condescension in taking on flesh and blood. We see Jesus as Lonely because He was abandoned at Calvary to reconcile me. We see Jesus as Lovely because His reproach is my glory. And, we see Jesus as Lofty because His Name has been placed above every other name.
We have work to do—we need to keep looking at His glory. Bring your heart hunger to Him— He is able to ravish the soul and make you like Him in holiness. Remember why He laid hold of you in the first place, “And it was for this He called you through our Gospel, that you might gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess 2:14). Now closely associated with beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ is seeing the infinite value of the kingdom of God—which is our next “access point.”
V. The Gospel is the VANTAGE point whereby we see the kingdom
The gospel brings Christ’s kingdom into our hearts. God is setting up His throne in the hearts of the redeemed before He comes to earth again to set up His throne in Jerusalem. Only through the gospel can we reach a vantage point high enough to see the grandeur, wealth, and scope of the Kingdom of God. When the Lord saved you, He invited you into His story, His ‘kingdom plot.’ The glory of this kingdom will fill the universe someday. There is more here in this kingdom plan than we can imagine. The Lord is calling out a portion of the human race—forming them into the moral likeness of Christ. With Christ as their ‘Head’ this new humanity is being fashioned for eternal life in the Father’s house (Jn 14:2-3; Rev 21:1-7). “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard all that God has planned for those who love Him” (1 Cor 2:9).
The gospel Christ preached has a King and a kingdom—a divine Ruler and His subjects. It is important to keep this in view in our postmodern relativistic age. When talking with unsaved university students about the Word of God, there is an common attitude which suggests that believing something ‘religious’ makes that religious proposition true for you. How opposite biblical faith is from this prevailing idea. The biblical gospel makes submission to the person of Christ inseparable from saving faith. Thus, to remain in unbelief is to refuse to be ruled by Christ and His Word. Faith and repentance brings the sinner under Christ’s loving and all-wise governance and authority.
It is interesting that fallen man wants peace and justice and fulfillment; but not God’s way—by coming under the rule of Christ. Hollywood keeps cranking out a new crop of fantasy movies in an attempt to satisfy the cravings for ‘other world’ plots. And what do these fantasy flicks all have in common? They have a redemptive plot with antagonists, protagonists, oppression, the way things ought to be, cries for justice, utopian existence, deliverance, super heroes. Hollywood continually steals and borrows from the divine drama of redemption. The last stanza of Joni Mitchell’s song, “Woodstock,” which she sang at Woodstock, contains some very insightful lyrics describing mankind’s craving for order, beauty, peace, community, and justice:
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden
Man’s longing to get back to the Garden (Joni Mitchell) is seen in countless cultural expressions (including the Hollywood movies described above); but only the Gospel of Kingdom explains how God will accomplish this restoration to paradise. The book of Revelation is fraught with descriptions of the glory to come when Christ returns and it is remarkable how many of those descriptions of heaven employ terminology from the Garden of Eden in Genesis.
Earlier in this lesson we saw under view of glory that we are transformed into Christ’s likeness by beholding the glory of the Lord. In a very similar manner meditating on the Gospel of the Kingdom instills in us a ‘kingdom consciousness’ which deepens our hope of glory. The gospel feeds our kingdom consciousness causing us to be controlled by an eagerness to see the Lord face to face (1 Cor 13:12-13; Rom 8:23-25; Titus 2:13; 1 Jn 2:28).
Kingdom consciousness is a kind of ‘lens’ through which the believer sees all of life. Those who love the world are warned that they will pass away with it (1 Jn 2:15-17). Those who love the world have never seen the infinite value of the Kingdom of God. By contrast, the saints are controlled by their hope of glory (Heb 11:14-16; 12:25-29). Those who love the world will lose their treasure, their glory, and their souls (1Cor 2:6-8). Paul warns that those who set their affections on earthly things are enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil 3:18-19).
Satan is the god of this world. He offers the concept of a ‘master-less freedom’—a freedom without service and without subjection to authority—which is precisely the soul-damning lie that drove his own rebellion. The cruelty of his lie is that since we were created to serve—those who refuse to serve their Creator will serve Satan by default (Jn 8:38-47). Satan is the default god of this world’s inhabitants (2 Cor 4:4; 1 Jn 5:18-19; Eph 2:1-3).
In William Ernest Henley’s famous poem “Invictus” (published in 1888), the last stanza captures the self-reliant defiance which characterizes the human condition:
It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul
What a vast contrast this is from the child of God who gladly and boldly confesses that Christ is the captain of his soul. The apostle Paul reminds us that salvation is a ‘kingdom transfer’—a radical deliverance from one kingdom in order to be placed in another kingdom.
The child of God has undergone a ‘kingdom transfer’—he has been moved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Col 1:13-14). This change in kingdoms is a change in masters. As a child of the King, the Christian is willing to suffer with Christ his King (Rom 8:18-23). The believer has seen by faith the preciousness of Christ the King and His Kingdom; therefore the true believer is willing to suffer for the sake of inheriting the Kingdom of God (Acts 5:39-42; 14:22; 9:16; 2 Thess 1:5; 2 Tim 3:12).
As a result of being ‘transferred’ into Christ’s kingdom, the redeemed individual is able to perceive the infinite value of the kingdom (Matt 13:44). Jesus described this perception of the preciousness of the kingdom in a most unusual manner: “. . . violent men seize it by force” (Matt 11:12). In other words, once a person has seen the infinite preciousness of the kingdom he is never the same—that man or woman has to have it! As Jesus said, they are forcing their way into it. They are making whatever sacrifices necessary to have it.
How opposite this is from the world; the natural man is apathetic and complacent about eternal issues. The unsaved man is a spiritual procrastinator; he won’t pray; he leaves the subject of eternity on hold. Scottish pastor R. M. M’Cheyne captures the urgency of the matter in a portion of one of his sermons,
Be entreated, O wavering souls, to settle the question of your salvation now. Why halt ye between two opinions? It is most unreasonable to be undecided about the things of an endless eternity, in such a world as this, with such frail bodies, with such a Savior stretching out His hand, and such a Spirit of love striving with you. Remember you are flesh—you will soon hear your last sermon. “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have put before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed my live” (Deut 30:19) (Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of R. M. M’Cheyne, Banner of Truth, 1973, pp. 219-220).
The believer’s hope is set upon a lasting city, his true home; for here he has no lasting city— therefore he is not ‘addicted’ to the world’s praise, comforts and honors. He is willing to suffer reproach for the sake of Christ (Heb 13:10-15).
Kingdom consciousness is kingdom hope. Kingdom hope is more than just comfort and eternal values. Kingdom hope sanctifies us in the present—“Whoever has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure” (1 Jn 3:2). Kingdom hope is part of our spiritual armor (1 Thess 5:8). Hope lets us see the world for what it is—a mirage of stimuli that cannot offer a crumb of nutrition to our hungry souls (Rom 13:12).
Kingdom consciousness helps drive our victory because it reminds us that we are locked in a combat to the death in a battle between temporal and eternal values. Trials tempt us; but also make us choose. Trials reveal our value system—they illuminate the contents of our hearts. Our response in trial evinces either a temporal or eternal value system (2 Cor 4:16-18). Trials expose our treasure, our hope, our life direction. Those radically identified with Christ know that God is working from eternity and for eternity in all His dealings with them.
When Christ came to earth He did not find one square foot of real estate completely devoted to the knowledge and glory of God. The coming Kingdom of God will change all of that. “[Someday] the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Is 11:9). “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Ps 46:10).
Consider therefore what is at stake in this battle of the ages. The kingdom of God is coming; but in order for God’s kingdom to come down to earth, all competing systems of authority and power must be shaken to oblivion (Heb 12:26-29). When we pray the Lord’s Prayer; we seldom reflect upon the fact that it is a very militant petition. To pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10); is to ask God to remove every obstacle standing in the way of His perfect will on earth. This is a violent prayer—for it is asking God to remove every single enemy who opposes His will and His glory—and it is going to require the tribulation period in order for this prayer to be answered!
Dwelling upon the coming kingdom of God is essential for a true believer for that activity of Scripture meditation sharpens our focus upon reality. The hope of the gospel preached to ourselves deepens our kingdom consciousness—the result is that we are increasingly animated by eternal values.
VI. The Gospel is the VICTORY won by Christ at Calvary
Because of Christ’s substitutionary death for us, sin’s dominion is broken for God’s people. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8). Christ as Creator and Ruler of all did not need personal victory over sin and the world. He came to earth to be an overcomer for the sake of His bride. He gained the victory to give it to His church.
The victory Christ won is the rightful property of His church. But it is not a victory that is enjoyed passively. The saint is commanded to enter into Christ’s victory by feeding the mind upon gospel realities. We are commanded to reckon, to count, to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11ff.). All that Christ has accomplished at the cross is ours by virtue of being in union with Him. When the Spirit placed us in Christ, all of the benefits of Christ’s ‘crosswork’ became our possession. But this is a ‘positional truth’ that it not immediately experiential. You may not wake up tomorrow morning and ‘feel’ dead to sin. In fact if you allow yourself to be gripped by fear, anger, resentment, or lust, you may ‘feel’ very alive to sin!
Paul’s point in Romans chapter six is that we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin regardless of how we feel. This reckoning is not an attempt to make something fictional into something real. It is an appropriation of Christ’s victory by faith. The Lord accomplished a mighty conquest of our enemies. Our part is to believe it—that is how we participate in His victory—it is how we appropriate His work of overcoming so that we are conquerors with Him (Rom 8:37).
We must be convinced (by reckoning) that we are dead to sin before we can fight sin successfully. The gospel order is, reckon yourselves dead to sin; then say ‘no’ to sin’s overtures. That is the gospel order—this is the means whereby we enter into Christ’s conquest (Col 3:5). God commands us to believe something BEFORE we seek victory over indwelling sin. We must be convinced that Christ died to give us real objective victory over sin.
Everything Christ endured from His birth to His ascension was for His people. His vicarious life had one great aim for His people—to give them life, righteousness, sonship, pardon, holiness, adoption, and victory. He gave His life to redeem you from sin’s penalty and power—He gave His life to make you an overcomer. His conquest over the enemies of our souls was not merely an example to follow—His conquest and victory is ours. We enter into His conquest by faith—it is a conquering of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil is not an option; it is the condition necessary to finish the race. The citizens of heaven are said to be overcomers (Rev 21:7). Those who live by faith in Christ are said to be overcomers (1 Jn 5:4-5). Overcoming is set up in stark contrast to who are overcome by the world instead. Scripture refers to them as ‘cowardly and unbelieving’ and not heirs of eternal life. What a cause for sober reflection. Those who do not overcome; but instead are overcome by sin and the world, will not enter heaven (Rev 21:8; 2 Pet 2:18-22).
We must constantly keep in mind that Christ is our ‘sphere’ of life. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Rom 13:14). There is the gospel order again—‘put on’ then ‘make no provision for the lusts of the flesh.’ Preaching the gospel to myself is the way in which I am to live out the victory Christ won for me. Co-crucifixion with Christ is the ‘staging area’ from which the practical work of mortifying sin takes place. I reckon who I am and what I am in Christ—a child of God who is dead to sin—THEN from that perspective of co-crucifixion I make my forays against sin.
Defining myself as crucified with Christ (a positional truth) is an act of obedient faith. At the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit sanctified me in Christ—that is He set me apart in Christ as belonging to God. Definitive sanctification (positional sanctification) is an accomplished fact that allows me to live the rest of my earthly life as God’s own possession (Heb 10:10). The more I trust in this fact of definitive sanctification (that I am set apart from sin unto God); the more I will understand why Christ does not want to share my heart with idols.
Though the Christian is to pursue moral excellence (2 Pet 1:5), moral striving has its limitations in making us good. Bare morality cannot sanctify us. Only radical identification with Christ can change us from the inside out. The reason why is tied to the question, “How much of a disaster do you think human sin is?” God’s Word reveals that it is such a disaster that the only hope of mankind is to be ‘killed’ vicariously with Christ (co-crucified with Him). The only possible way we can live our lives for God is to ‘die with Christ’—this is exactly what happened—our sin natures were judged in the body and soul of our Savior 2000 years ago so that we would no longer live for self; but for Him who died and rose on our behalf (2 Cor 5:14-15).
God’s work in Christ of justifying us and definitively sanctifying us is ‘preemptive’—in other words, God declares us pardoned and righteous ‘up front’ BEFORE we have a chance to try to win His favor by our works. This is so significant. Because of our ‘lust for law’ God knew that we would approach progressive sanctification with legal motives. The gospel order involves God declaring us righteous up front (Rom 4:5-8). The gracious gospel order is designed to make the entire Christian life ‘all of grace.’
This means that the Christian can pursue sanctification from the position of full acceptance because he is already pardoned and accepted by God in Christ. This shapes all of our motives for personal holiness—it always brings us back to an attitude of gratitude, rather than working for acceptance through our performance.
Closely related to this is the provision for constant cleansing from sin. The new covenant has a boundless provision for cleansing (Heb 8:12; 9:14). We must avail ourselves of this cleansing provision as often as needed. William Romaine reminds us that only pardon, and consciousness of that pardon, can ultimately cancel sin’s hold on us. Says William Romaine, “No sin can be crucified in heart or in life unless it is first pardoned in the conscience.” His words are a fitting reminder that guilt is a lousy motivator to holiness. Guilt cannot sanctify us—in fact, our resolve to pursue personal holiness is best activated by the awareness that we have no guilt or condemnation in God’ sight.
In order to experience victory over the enemies of our souls, we must understand the present value of the cross. We must always remember that Christ’s work in His atonement was a purchase— not only a purchase of eternal life and victory; but also a purchase of ourselves as well. To have received God’s free gift of redemption is also to have become God’s own possession. It is to be owned by the Lord as His possession (1 Cor 6:19-20). It is to be Christ’s ‘slave’ who is ruled by His Word. The Lord has an absolute right to control all aspects of the life of His child. What follows the rest of our lives (in time and eternity) is giving our selves back to God in overflowing gratitude (Rom 6:12-23). Sharing in Christ’s victory over sin as a daily course involves presenting the members of our body to the Lord as instruments of righteousness (Rom 6:12-13).
Biblically this defines the dynamic of grace in our lives; but it also means that grace is often NOT defined accurately evangelicals. Grace is commonly defined by professing Christians as boundless kindness but not as absolute obligation. Grace is commonly seen as the remedy for sin; but not as having the goal of sharing in Christ’s victory over sin. Paul, in Titus 2:11-14, corrects this misnomer by declaring that grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.
CONCLUSION: We have seen the immense practicality of preaching the gospel to one’s self. We will never outgrow our need for the gospel—the word of grace provides the foundation, the formation, and the motivation for loving obedience to Christ—which is the reason He called us to Himself.
Preaching the gospel to self is to grow in our knowledge of the Lord. Here is the reason why: to deal with the wealth of the gospel is to deal directly with Christ’s Person. For the benefits He has won for us are not ‘commodities’ that have an existence apart from Him. The infinite benefits of salvation cannot be separated from His Person. Our wealth is in Him—we are sons in Him; overcomers through Him; heirs in Him. As we meditate upon our union with Christ, all that is ours through Him tends to put our Savior into more clear focus. Our hearts are drawn out in love, devotion, and adoration to Him.