Feeding Upon Christ by Feeding Upon the Gospel

Feeding upon Christ by feeding upon the Gospel

By Jay Wegter

Gospel faith is not solely our entrance into the Christian life, it is the daily source of our being built up and established in our faith. “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude” (Col 2:6-7). Therefore, in our disciple-making relationships, we must learn to excel at re-speaking the gospel to one another. Bringing each believer to maturity by mutual edification is the corporate task of the body of Christ (Col 1:28-29).

The sanctifying and comforting benefits of knowing our identity in Christ is continually realized as we keep preaching the gospel to ourselves and to one another. Victory as an overcomer involves keeping our identity in Christ in view. We should always be matching His all-sufficient Savior-hood with our sinner-ship—always dwelling upon how His redeeming work is a perfect fit for our ruin due to sin. “For it was fitting [in God’s redemptive plan] for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Heb 7:26). Reckoning who we are in Christ means that our position in Him will exert an ever-greater sway upon our daily life choices. Since the true believer is Christ’s sheep, freeman, son, beholder, heir, and overcomer, etc.—it means that as we mature in Christ we are becoming what we really are!

Regularly reckoning our true identity in Christ is a spiritual discipline vital to spiritual growth, and essential to spiritual victory. Our walk of faith involves presenting to the eye of faith that Christ is our source of: sonship, status, acceptance, favor, adoption, heir-ship, power, truth, fellowship, love, wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification. “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord’ ” (1 Cor 1:30).

Our identity in Christ is a battle front because the gospel is utterly counter-intuitive. Everything in our natural reason loathes being an object of pity and mercy—we want our worth, importance, respectability, and acceptance to flow from our own virtues and achievements. We desire to ‘be in charge of’ our own lovability, adequacy, and security. We were born with a satanic religion of self-help which says in effect, “The more perfect I am the more love I am worthy of—I can do it!” That’s the world, the flesh and the devil courting us with its offer of the ‘pride of life’.

Regarding the gospel’s counter-intuitive nature, think of God’s redemptive plan—that Almighty God should take pleasure in bruising His Son in our place. “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering” (Is 53:10a). Consider that the Father treated Christ as the worst criminal who ever lived so that believing sinners could be adopted as true children of God. All of this was necessary so that repentant sinners could be brought to heaven without God striking a single blow to them in wrath. It is amazing beyond words that the Son should be sent to earth to reap the eternal consequences of what elect sinners had sown, and to credit them with the perfect obedience they could not supply. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).

Thinking this gospel 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 is something we must learn to practice by faith. I must train my mind to think this way by preaching the glorious gospel to myself and to my disciple. Only the word of His grace, the gospel, can cut new ‘grooves’ in my thought life. Only by feeding on the gospel can we reckon, as a habit, that our acceptance, favor, and fellowship with God are grounded upon who Christ is, and what He has done as our Substitute.

As we feed on the gospel, divine grace becomes a greater part of our reasoning processes. And, as a result, our affections are increasingly conformed to the precious things of God. It is a blessed exercise to cut these new channels in our thought life because gospel-reasoning (grace-based thinking) over time becomes a way of re-educating the mind and affections. In the process, our minds are renewed (Romans 12:2). And, by means of ‘gospel reasoning’, we gain the sweet optimism that God desires to meet with us at the throne of grace for daily fellowship and intimacy (Heb 4:15-16). In addition, the grace-based believer is convinced that God is glorified in giving His people endless installments of mercy, grace, and love (Eph 2:7). Divine grace then becomes a central subject in our meditations; and not for our comfort alone, for the grace of God in the gospel teaches me about my completeness in Christ (Col 3:10). As such, the gospel is able to lift me out of self-concern, and self-consciousness in order to be burdened on behalf of others. The gospel in giving me joy in God, channels my overflowing joy into care for others (1 Jn 4:19).

The gospel is vital to the ‘treasure principle.’ As a man thinks in his heart so is he (Prov 23:7). The mind of a man always returns to what he esteems as his treasure. No wonder Jonathan Edwards described true religion as existing primarily in the affections. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter six Jesus drove home the treasure principle, explaining in just a few words how life-directing and dominating a man’s treasure really is. A man reviews his treasure, displays his treasure, adds to his treasure, speaks of his treasure, follows his treasure, and is ruled by his treasure (Mt 6:19-21).

Preaching the gospel to ourselves is a spiritual discipline or habit that is to be learned. This discipline is not simply entertaining general thoughts of Christ and grace. The discipline of preaching the gospel to one’s self and to one’s disciple involves specific ways that Christ and His redemptive work answers our need and ruin, and our yearning and longing. To preach the gospel to oneself is to always be about the business of rejoicing in Christ’s fitness to answer in Himself our spiritual poverty, ruin, yearning, and need. These points of contact between our need and Christ’s sufficiency may be designated “access points” of gospel application. By that is meant that the wealth of Christ is perfectly congruent with the expansiveness of my need.

Here are seven “access points” for feeding upon Christ by feeding upon the gospel:

1. The Gospel is the VASTNESS of Christ in His preeminence
2. The Gospel is the VOICE of Christ’s love to His sheep
3. The Gospel is the VERDICT of God’s justice at the cross
4. The Gospel is the VALUE of justification by faith through grace
5. The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ
6. The Gospel is the VANTAGE point to see the King’s Kingdom
7. The Gospel is the VICTORY over sin won by Christ at Calvary

I. The Gospel is the VASTNESS of Christ in His preeminence

Christ the Lord unifies all reality, for He is the Creator, Upholder, Owner, Ruler, Definer, and Interpreter of the universe. Only when we grasp His preeminence and the Father’s determination to give Him first place in everything will we find the cure for our fragmented lives and disjointed thinking. Feeding minds and hearts on His majesty is the key to living for His approval, and to anticipating His coming Kingdom. Christ is Creator and Redeemer. He is the Agent of creation, the Origin and source of creation, the Upholder of creation, the Goal of creation. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Col 1:15-18).

He has first place in everything; He is ‘cosmic King’. He is the consummation of all things— every knee will bow to Him acknowledging His rightful sovereign rule over all (Phil 2:9-11). Christ has unshared authority in every sphere. Christ as the image of God is the projection of God onto the canvas of our humanity and the embodiment of the divine in the world of men (Col 1:15). Creation not only finds its origin in Christ, for He was the location from whom all came into being and in whom all creation is contained. All laws and purposes which guide creation and govern the universe reside in Him. Christ’s creative work is all-encompassing, for it includes all created things “in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.” (Col 1:16-17). All of God’s purposes are in Him.

“He is before all things,” there never was a time when He did not exist (v. 17). “All things are held together in Him” (v. 17). All is unified by Him; all coheres by Him; stands together by Him, stand in relation to Him. All things are defined in relation to Him. He maintains all things—the unity in nature, the order of all things, and the flow of history—are all traced to Christ. The reason the world is a cosmos and not a chaos is because of Him. This world is a system with a plan because of Him. From the smallest living cell to the blue whale, to the monarch butterfly—each creature occupies its appointed ecological niche due to God’s guiding hand in Christ. Christ is the cause of creation and He upholds creation—being the very bond that holds it together by His power (Heb 1:3).

All things are created for Him—they abide forever to that end. Christ is preeminent above all creation; above every creature; He is the point of reference of all things and all creatures. The Son is the goal of the existence of all things; the region they occupy makes no difference. Whether in heaven or on earth, even angels have no power apart from Christ. Physical and spiritual (visible and invisible, v. 16) is part of the creation that is in Christ—contained in Him and by Him. Someday the world will fully recognize the preeminence and sovereignty of Christ (1 Cor 15:25; Phil 2:10-11; Rev 19:16). The very public revelation of His preeminence in judgment and restoration will in itself consummate the ages—everything will be summed up in Him (Eph 1:10). He will pronounce the eternal destiny of every rational creature. Every enemy will be judged and made a footstool (1 Cor 15:23-28).

Christ is first in all things material and spiritual. How we need to constantly consider the dignity of the Person who took our iniquities and infirmities upon Himself. Christ is Firstborn, Point of reference, Agent of creation, Goal of creation, Forerunner, Governor, Head of the Body, the Beginning of the creation of God, Firstborn from the dead, first in the realm of the visible and the invisible—He has the right to the title preeminent. He is the “beginning” the origin of creation; and also by His death on the cross He established a new beginning—the beginning of redemption for mankind. His death and resurrection signaled the dawning of an age in which individuals would enjoy a closer more personal relationship to Him than ever before. As first-born from the dead, He possesses authority and dominion over yet another aspect of this world—He is supreme over death, having conquered death by His resurrection. He now holds “the keys of death” (Rev 1:18). But, these mighty truths of His supremacy beg the question: ‘are we describing the Christ of the modern gospel?’

The Father’s purpose is that “Christ would have first place in everything” (Col 1:18): in the church, in creation, in salvation, and even in death. God the Father’s design is that He should reveal himself in Christ by executing all of His purposes by Him. “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him” (Col 1:19). In Christ the fullness of saving grace and power reside. God’s purpose is that Christ have first place in all things: first place in creation (as maker, owner, upholder, goal of the universe), first place in the realm of spirits for by Him and for Him they exist, first place in the realm of the redeemed for He is the firstborn from the dead—the first human to be raised from the dead to eternal glory. Through Christ and His cross the universe is brought back to its proper relation to God. Jesus is first, and Founder, of a new humanity, the Church. By His God-ordained supremacy He rules. As a just reward for His obedience, Christ is exalted to God’s right hand—from this position of exaltation, glory, and power—He rules the universe. “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name. . .” (Phil 2:9).

What He accomplished at the cross, He will consummate at the second advent when He formally and militantly takes back the title deed to the earth. Through Christ, all intelligent beings— both obedient and disobedient, and both human and angelic will acknowledge the sovereignty of God manifest in the Lordship of Christ who is over all. The vastness of Christ’s Person is seen in His ‘cosmic Kingship’, thus His cross affects not only mankind, but the entire cosmos. The scope of Christ’s redemptive work reaches to the physical creation and to the innumerable hosts of fallen angels. Christ has gained their ultimate surrender. He has disarmed and conquered them by His cross—He has de-fanged the demons. “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him” (Col 2:15).

All the redeemed and unredeemed will acknowledge His sovereignty, and in that sense there will be reconciliation. This does not mean the unredeemed will be given salvation. “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Col 1:19-20). A distinction needs to be made between reconciliation and salvation. God, in reconciling all things, has given Christ the power administration, to make every enemy His ‘footstool’—to subject all things to Himself (1 Cor 15:24-28). When Christ is publicly inaugurated as the ‘cosmic Potentate’ at the beginning of the eternal state, the earth will have its Day of reckoning and redemption, and will be transformed (2 Pet 3:10; Rev 21:1). This is all traceable to Christ’s conquering work of redemption.

The vastness of His Person (His preeminence) gives us insight into the marvelous dimensions of His work. We gaze in awe at His supremacy to learn more of the sufficiency of His redemptive work. The lowly salamander, the mushroom, the angel, the earthly head of state, the mountain peak, the storm cloud, the bridesmaid—and all created reality exists to exalt Christ. His glory is creation’s goal. The vastness of His Person dignifies the all-sufficiency and efficacy of His work. Because of the immensity of His Person as the ‘God-man’, the souls of believers are supported by an immeasurable ‘continent of rock’. One cannot understand the cross until one knows the dignity of He who died upon it. He who is transcendent to creation condescended to become one of us—the Great Insider—to live the life of a creature in order to bring us to God.

The world is blind to Christ’s identity as preeminent Creator. Now to see Him in His majesty—as supreme—as Lord of all requires the gift of saving faith. To see by faith the Risen Lord is the result of a gift of faith bestowed by God’s grace. “Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God,” requires the revelation of God to our minds (Mt 16:16). In the regenerating, illuminating work of God’s Holy Spirit, the concept of Son of God and Son of man bursts upon our understanding so that we fall at the feet Christ as our Savior and Lord.

God is made known by the revelation of Jesus Christ to the sinner. No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ but by (apart from) the Holy Spirit. God’s wisdom and power are resident in Christ and made known in the cross (1 Cor 1:23-25). How God saves—by the cross of Christ, is contrary to human pride and wisdom. The last view the world had of Christ was a hideous scene of abject weakness; victimization, shame and ignominy—flies, dust, spittle—hollow eyes, complete isolation. Christ’s supremacy and centrality were completely hidden in His atoning death, and when Christ arose—He subsequently only appeared to believers.

Because Christ is central and preeminent—His work on behalf of sinners is all-sufficient. If His sufficiency were had not been attacked so soon after His ascension, many of the N.T. epistles would not have been written. In every age of church history there is a tendency to lose sight of the majesty of Christ. The value of His work flows from the vastness of His Person—this is the great mystery hidden in the bosom of the Father from all eternity—but now has been made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit (Eph 3:5; Rom 16:25-26; 2 Tim 1:8-11). We must strive to see Jesus better and better each day as He is revealed in Scripture—until we are staggered at His majesty and supremacy—until lost in awe at Who God is toward you in Christ. To see in this manner is better than being the richest man in the world.

II. The Gospel is the VOICE of Christ’s love to His sheep

The true believer needs to know that he or she is beloved of the Lord. Christ as redeeming Shepherd restores our ability to be taught of God (Jn 6:45). And, He grants to believers the relationship that was lost through original sin, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lu 19:10). Through regeneration, God’s Spirit renews our teach-ability and guide-ability. “My sheep hear My voice, they follow Me” (Jn 10:4, 16). The sheep cherish their Savior as He is revealed in the gospel. Under the Spirit’s conviction, they were crushed over their sin—and by an act of divine grace they were enabled to ‘hear’ the voice of Christ in the Word of Grace, the gospel (Jn 10:2-5, 16). ‘Hearing’ His voice in the Word is a mark of belonging to Him as His beloved sheep.

The gospel is addressed to faith alone; not to the righteous, nor to the worthy, but to the guilty, the weary, the defiled, the helpless, the condemned, the broken, and the foolish. “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mk 2:17). To “hear” Christ’s voice is to believe God’s testimony that there is love, mercy, righteousness, and cleansing for the defiled who repent and entrust themselves to the Savior. The Father sent Christ to be the slain lamb—the propitiation for our sins (this is the epitome of love) (1 Jn 4:9-10). Christ’s love for us was there even while we were helpless enemies of God (Rom 5:8).

We refer to Christ’s love as His ‘voice’ because Christ’s love is not a bare proposition, it is personal and transforming. Christ takes up residence in His people by His Spirit. The ‘voice’ is Christ’s Word in the Scripture speaking to the newly created faith that has been planted in the bosom of His child by the new birth. This love is not theoretical for the believer. It is a reality that the believer experiences. “. . .And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom 5:5). But, this awareness of His love is not merely a generalized sentiment that God loves us. It is joined to the comprehension that God has moved heaven and earth in the incarnation and in the atoning death of Son in order to purchase an eternal love relationship between His people and Himself. “. . . just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless” (Eph 5:25-27). Thus, the believer experiences Christ’s love by ongoing faith in the gospel. Christ manifests His love when the believer is dwelling upon, and contemplating God’s saving acts toward him in Christ (Rom 15:13).

Central to God’s plan to communicate His love to us is the doctrine of adoption (1 Jn 3:1). Through union with Christ, the believer is held in the Father’s heart of love (Eph 2:4). The Spirit of Christ is the ‘Spirit of sonship’—the indwelling Spirit produces in the believer the disposition and the consciousness that we are sons of God loved by the Father (Rom 8:14-17; Gal 4:6-7). To be focused upon the spiritual reality of your sonship in Christ totally conditions your behavior. By faith, the obedient believer steps into, and walks in his new life ‘script’ of sonship. In other words, all that God is toward me in Christ is the gospel reality which shapes and determines my entire course in life.

To know His love is to be controlled by His love. To be the object of this ‘other worldly’ exotic love (1 Jn 3:1) is to be transformed by that love. To be animated by this love is to be driven with a holy unction to pass on that love to God and to others. Receiving His love engenders the desire to reciprocate that love. “We love because He first loved us” (1 Jn 4:10, 19). Feeding on the gospel is the means by which we perceive and deepen our understanding of God’s love for us in Christ. We love God and the brethren as a reflex response to receiving God’s love for us in Christ. In this way His love for us keeps us from loving the world (1 Jn 2:15-17). Since salvation imparts a relationship of love; the believer has every warrant to daily go to God for love. We often go to God in prayer for our needs, for strength to fulfill our Christian duty, but do we go to God for love? We can and should excel at this appropriation of His love. It is enlivening to our affection for God to do so. How radical is the rationality of the gospel, that Christ Himself is my eligibility for eternal divine love and favor.

III. The Gospel is the VERDICT of God’s justice at the cross

The Christian needs to know that his Heavenly Father’s unbending justice is fully satisfied on his behalf through Christ’s atoning work. “It is finished” were Christ’s last words from the cross (Jn 19:30). We must remember that the cross was a kind of courtroom in which the justice due the trampled law of God was addressed decisively. Absolute justice had to be accomplished in the case of the sinner’s guilt before the sinner could be freely accepted by God. The sinner’s transgressions had to be judged in the body and soul of Another—in our Messiah. Christ’s work of propitiation was a ‘verdict’—He took the wrath of God due our sins, suffering under it in His own person (1 Jn 4:10).

Nothing can bring a person’s conscience to a full stop—to a place of absolute peace and rest except the justice which satisfies God Almighty. And, nothing satisfies God on behalf of the sinner except the finished work of Christ. Therefore, under God’s moral government, a person will never have a clear conscience until he hears, and believes by faith the verdict of God’s justice accomplished at the cross (that is the gospel). “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:14). But hearing that verdict and reckoning that verdict are two different matters. Receiving the liberating message of the cross is not a one-time event. Yes, salvation takes place at a point in time, but feeding on the verdict won at Calvary is a lifetime endeavor. Here is one of the reasons why that is so: the conscience of man is ‘wired’ for strict justice—it is suspicious of mercy and compassion. How true this is! The conscience of man is tied to law—to crime and punishment. It is like a private eye hired to collect dirt on you. In our fleshly reasoning it is remarkable how much emotional energy we dissipate trying to quiet our conscience with arguments: “I’m generous, considerate, a hard worker, well-liked, kind, a servant, I do my best, etc.” But, one of the most common way man seeks to ‘bribe’ and balance the conscience into silence is by comparing self to others. But, if the whole human race, outside of Christ, is on an ‘escalator to hell’, being a couple (of moral) steps above another doesn’t change one’s destiny—the whole thing is going downward into perdition.ⁱ The point being, every fleshly attempt to quiet conscience will ultimately fail.

The blood of Christ alone has the power to cleanse the conscience down to the smallest crevice (Heb 9:14) (The Person of Christ, A. A. Bonar). We need to preach the gospel to ourselves each day because we sin each day. There is no effective ‘book keeping’ for the conscience other than the blood of Christ. The comfort we need in order to serve, love, and worship will only be there if our consciences are clear. One preacher noted that if even one unresolved sin is circulating in the conscience it can kill your joy, numb your confidence before God, weaken your resolve to holiness, erode your confidence of answered prayer, and even shake your assurance of salvation. Is it any wonder that Paul claimed that he always made it his practice to keep a clear conscience! (Acts 24:16).

To preach the gospel to your self is to labor to have the verdict of the cross as the loudest verdict in the conscience. When the verdict of conscience is brought in line with the verdict of heaven—there is overflowing joy, peace, hope, and comfort. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13). But how many believers really enjoy this liberty of conscience on a daily basis? How many Christians have as their goal to bring their conscience in line with the verdict of heaven at Calvary? We rob ourselves of comfort by our apathy on this point.

As we trod this vale of tears, what remains of indwelling sin acts up and defiles us. We fall to temptation and the guilt of sin throws mud in the eye of faith. We become temporarily blinded to God’s verdict at the cross. God’s decisive work through Christ at Calvary becomes remote. That’s exactly when experience at preaching the gospel to ourselves is so valuable. We must enthrone the gospel in our conscience again so that the gospel is allowed to make the call (let the ‘peace of Christ’ ‘umpire’, make the call). “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful” (Col 3:15). If we don’t return again to the freedom of conscience promised in the gospel, we sentence ourselves to be stuck in the futile activity of self-justification.

Remember, the Spirit is solution-oriented—He never tires of pointing to the blood. As one Puritan divine said: Guilt harasses us—robs our peace—accuses us—calls for a verdict. But how are we to tell the convicting work of the Spirit from the accusing machinations of the devil? The answer is simple, the Spirit will always point to the blood so that we may repent, be pardoned and restored to fellowship with the Lord. By contrast, the devil is like an irritating horsefly. He accuses without a solution. He wants the child of God to descend into fear, uncertainty, doubt, alienation, legal working, and despondency. Therefore, learn to preach the gospel to yourself and you will instinctively run to the atonement when you fail (1 Jn 1:9).

To draw near to God through His verdict at the cross is to have the Lord expose what He wants changed in our lives. Reckoning the verdict at Calvary has the effect of welcoming the Lord’s examination of us, granting Him access to the soul so that He may rearrange the priorities of life and affections of the heart. Many believers aren’t sure they want to get that close to the Lord! To draw near to Christ through the gospel is not merely to seek our own soul comfort—it is to be examined by Him, and surrendered to Him—governed by His Word. This is of course why your conscience is very much a barometer of your intimacy with the Lord. For, the Spirit is constantly at work there in the believer. Our task therefore is to cooperate with His sanctifying purposes (Phil 2:12-13; Jas 4:5).

There is no exit out of the castle of self but by the gospel preached to self. As long as I listen to self instead of preaching the gospel to myself, I stay confined in the gray castle of self-absorption. What is the answer? Look to the cross again and embrace God’s verdict there. Enthrone the gospel in your conscience as ‘umpire’ to make the call until you are able say to your conscience: God’s verdict brings the light and cleansing I need today (1 Jn 1:7-9). The gospel preached is God’s invitation to come out of our dank hiding places, returning into the sunlight of His fellowship (1 Jn 1:6-9).

IV. The Gospel is the VALUE of justification by faith through grace

The true believer needs to know that his right-standing with God is carried unchangeably by Christ. In His incarnation and passion, Christ identified with our dilemma, ruin, and alienation from God. He became radically identified with us (yet without sin) that we might become radically identified with Him. Christ entered the great cog works of God’s justice in order to be crushed for sinners. He lived the life of a perfect disciple—all to affect the most magnificent exchange in time or eternity. “. . . So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).

The wonder of justification is that Christ traded places with us so that under God’s moral government Christ might become ‘officially’ guilty of the sins of His people (Rom 3:24-26). My sin was imputed to Christ so that He might bear it up to the cross and judge it in His own Person. “And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Pet 2:24; 3:18). To be ‘justified in Christ’ is to have sin removed and to have Christ’s perfect righteousness given in its place. God is the ‘Architect’ of this great exchange which took place in our justification. He planned it in His eternal counsels, having promised before times eternal (Titus 1:2). Its purpose is to bring us all the way to God and to magnify the Godhead. To be justified through Christ is to be furnished for every good work, and to be fitted for communion with God, and ultimately to be prepared for endless life in His presence.

God’s work in justifying believers is ‘preemptive’ in this sense—God declares the believing sinner ‘pardoned and righteous’ ‘up front’—before good works. This is so significant. Because of our lust for law and works righteousness, God knew that we would approach progressive sanctification ‘legally’ (that is, with the motive of earning divine acceptance). But, the gospel order nips this in the bud, for it is God declaring us righteous up front (Rom 4:5-8). This order makes certain that the entire Christian life is ‘all of grace.’ “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Rom 4:4-5). This means that the true Christian can pursue sanctification from the position of full acceptance because he is already pardoned and justified by God in Christ. This shapes all of our incentives for personal holiness, it always brings us back to an attitude of gratitude, rather than working for favor through our performance.

We have seen that the grace of God in our justification is preemptive in ‘beating us to the punch’ in the matter of our good works. But it is also preemptive in another area as well—in the forgiveness of all of our sins (Col 2:13-14). God’s full and free forgiveness up front precedes our role in mortifying what remains of indwelling 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. Said English preacher 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 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! Only blood-bought pardon breaks sins’ chains.

Justification through Christ’s righteousness gives us a new identity. The believer ought to reason in this manner: “I have been given a new identity of sonship in Christ, therefore I reject the world’s offers to establish my identity through my performance. Yes, I have an earthly place of employment, a vocation and calling, but my gracious identity in Christ is who I really am.” Regarding this blood-bought identity, how true in practice: the more in tune I am to the gospel, the more consistently I will live out my identity in Christ. This is precisely where the gospel is strategic in fitting us to deny ungodliness (Titus 2:11-14). Justification is the defining truth of our relationship with the Lord, for to be a justified person is to be a person reconciled to God.

Paul is the only N.T. writer who uses the word ‘reconciliation.’ He uses that word to describe the relational benefits of having been justified. Reconciliation brought us from a place of estrangement to a place of nearness to God (Eph 2:13-18ff.). Reconciliation speaks of relationship restored, thus being ‘reconciled to God’ is at the heart of the believer’s identity. As Puritan author John Owen says in His book, Communion with God, when we bring our sin to Christ and go to Him for righteousness, we are having communion with God. What a blessed thought that the exchange of our sin for Christ’s righteousness continues throughout our earthly life—Christ taking our sin away and giving us His righteousness. This is the continual use of Christ for the reasons God gave Him (Owen). In giving us Christ, God has provided every incentive for maintaining our relationship with Him (1 Jn 1:1-6).

Christ is the very sphere in which the believer lives, moves, and has his being. To be ‘in Christ’ as our realm of life is to have every benefit found in His Person. We are accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1:6). It is by union with Christ that the infinite benefits of His life, death, resurrection, and priesthood become ours forever. When Paul says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh,” (Rom 13:14), he is saying that we must reckon Christ as our sphere, our life, our right-standing with God; then trample the world’s offers of sinful pleasure. How we need to daily preach the gospel to ourselves; that God has transported across time and eternity His own joy and given it to us in Christ. We cannot exhaust the subject of who God is toward us in Christ. As John Flavel said, “Christ is the fountain of life.” Christ is inexhaustible, when we draw upon His infinite wealth it does not reduce the principle. God is glorified when we make withdrawals from His infinite treasuries of grace to us in Christ. Meditating on the gospel is inseparable from godliness. When we feed our faith, we are in the best position to trample upon the bogus promises of the world (Is 55:1-3).

V. The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ

Know your glorious calling in Christ to be a ‘beholder of glory’. To receive the good news of the gospel is not merely the acceptance of the historical facts of Jesus’ life. No, to become saved is to have ‘seen’ the glory of God in the face of Christ so as to trust Christ with one’s whole being (2 Cor 4:4-6). It is to behold by faith the divine identity of the Good Shepherd. A saved person has Christ revealed to him as the Lord of Glory, the Jehovah of the O.T.—for no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit’ (1 Cor 12:3). Even the Apostle Peter could not say “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” apart from the revelation of the Father (Mt 16:16-17). Paul’s own testimony extolled God as the One who ‘revealed Christ in me’ (Gal 1:16).

Salvation restores our ability to behold the glory of God and to be captivated by His majesty. We are all 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 capacity to desire and to behold God’s glory by faith in His Word. God’s power in the glorious gospel restores beholding and spiritual sight (2 Cor 3:18, see also, Jn 9:25; Heb 1:1-3).

The new birth gives God’s glory back to us, the sight of which was lost by the fall. Thus, regeneration is a miracle of both revelation and restoration. By the Spirit’s regenerating work, we are given a revelation of Christ—seeing who He really is, seeing the glory of God in Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6). Jonathan Edwards, in his work on the infinite merit of Christ opens up aspects of the glory of Christ to our understanding. For, the glory of Christ is our Savior’s ‘equipment to save to the uttermost’ (the equipment He earned by His obedience to the Father).ⁱⁱ Christ’s mission in His incarnation, atonement, resurrection, ascension and exaltation, was to earn that equipment (Acts 2:36; Phil 2:5-11). God’s wisdom is Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). Concerning His mediatorial glory: “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever’ so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. The former priests, on the other hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore, He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Heb 7:21-26).

At the new birth, believers receive a new faculty of perception by the Holy Spirit known as “the eyes of the heart,” in order to perceive these spiritual realities. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph 1:18). The eyes of the heart allow us to grasp spiritual realities so as to be rocked and staggered by them. “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God [by His grace], which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words” (1 Cor 2:10-13, 15-16). 250 years ago, Jonathan Edwards penned his magnum opus, The Religious Affections. His book is a masterful exposition of the marks of true salvation with particular emphasis placed upon the supreme mark of salvation known as the religious affections. Edwards argued that true salvation must have a foundation that goes deeper than self-interest. Genuine salvation is characterized by a Spirit-engendered sight and savor of God’s glory. Hypocrites and false religionists lack this mark of salvation. Edwards presses his case stating that the truly converted man has seen Christ spiritually whereas the world has not seen Christ in this way. Explaining further, he notes that the religious affections are the fruit of a new heart and that these affections are what moves the Christian life. Satan cannot counterfeit this sentiment—no natural man sees God’s glory and the creature’s happiness woven together in Christ. Thus, to see God’s glory in the face of Christ is to be a saved person who actively continues beholding that glory (2 Cor 3:18).

While we were spiritually dead we could not see the Lord’s glory and His beauty. We did not love His glory or live for His glory—we had no passion for His glory—no sentiment for His purpose to extend His glory. Therefore, we worshipped and served the creature and the creation (we were infatuated by world’s promises). Our hearts were not the temple of God, but were idol factories (a veritable ‘zoo of lusts’ Calvin), producing coveting of every kind as the Apostle Paul says—Romans 7:8). We gladly let our flesh set the standard for our behavior.

But, now, through the miracle of the new birth, believers have become the ‘unveiled ones’ able to behold the glory of the Lord. Our new identity is that of an ‘unveiled one’, and our new vocation or calling is to behold His glory. “But whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Cor 3:16). 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 is put on display in our redemption (Rom 3:24-26). Beholding the glory of the Lord is now the vocation of the church that we might proclaim His excellencies (1 Pet 2:9-10).

To behold the glory of the Lord is to be ravished by the sight of His glory. 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 be thrilled at His majesty. He lavished grace on believers for His Name’s sake. To take delight in God’s glory in the face of Christ is to be ‘calibrated’ afresh to Who He is. The activity of beholding has a rectifying effect; curing our lukewarm-ness, double-mindedness, and spiritual sloth.

By His saving work, Christ 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 ‘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). The saint is a beholder of glory now by faith, but then it will be face to face, no longer mediated by the inscripturated Word of God. By beholding His glory now by faith, the believer is being prepared for the great purpose of gaining the glory of Christ (2 Thess 2:13-14). “Christ in you,” is the hope of glory (Col 1:27).

VI. The Gospel is the VANTAGE point to see the King’s Kingdom

Know the priceless treasure of your Kingdom destiny in Christ. The gospel brings Christ’s kingdom into our hearts. Only through the gospel can we reach a vantage point high and lofty enough to see the grandeur, wealth, and scope of the Kingdom of God. His coming Kingdom is when the Lord’s Prayer will be fully answered: “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10). When the Lord saves a man, He brings him into His story—into His ‘Kingdom plot’. The glory of the Lord’s kingdom will fill the universe someday. Our hunger for an immutable family will be eternally satisfied (Greg Koukl, The Story of Reality). There is more here than we can imagine. With Christ as their ‘Head’ this new humanity in Him is being fashioned for life in the Father’s house and in a restored planetary paradise (Jn 14:2-3; 2 Pet 3:10-13ff.; Rev 21:1-7).

We saw under view of glory that believers 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 awareness, causing us to be controlled by an eagerness to see the Lord face to face, and to live with Him, and to finally be free of personal sin (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. But, those who love the world are warned that they will pass away with it (1 Jn 2:15-17). For, they have never seen the infinite value of the Kingdom of God. By contrast, the saints are controlled by their hope of glory. Consider what the Lord says in the book of Hebrews of those who have this Kingdom hope: “For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them” (Heb 11:14-16; 12:25-29).

Those who love the world will lose their treasure, their glory, and their souls (1 Jn 2:15-17). The rulers of this world and their wisdom are passing away (1Cor 2:6-8). The cruelty of the devil’s lie is the service rendered by the natural man—for those who refuse to serve their Creator serve Satan by default (Jn 8:38-47; 2 Cor 4:3-4; 1 Jn 5:18-19; Eph 2:1-3). By blessed contrast, 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 is willing to suffer for the sake of inheriting the Kingdom of God (Acts 5:39-42; 14:22; 2 Thess 1:5; 2 Tim 3:12).

As a result of being ‘transferred’ into Christ’s Kingdom, the redeemed are able to perceive the infinite value of the Kingdom (treasure in a field, priceless pearl—Matthew 13:44-46). Jesus described this perception of the preciousness of the kingdom in a most unusual manner: “. . . violent men seize it by force” (Mt 11:12). In other words, once a person has seen the infinite preciousness of the Kingdom—that man or woman will venture any cost in order 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 lethargic and complacent about eternal issues.

Kingdom hope is more than the promise of future comfort and joy. Kingdom hope sanctifies us. “Whoever has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure” (1 Jn 3:2). Hope is part of our spiritual armor. It lets us see the world for what it is—a mirage of stimuli that cannot offer a crumb of nutrition to our hungry souls, or a speck of hope (1 Thess 5:8; Rom 13:12).

Kingdom consciousness is an essential habit of godliness—it helps drive our victory because it reminds us that we are engaged in a war to the death. 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). The Lord’s prayer will be answered someday, “His kingdom will come and His will is going to be done on earth as in heaven. God’s great gift to His people is the Kingdom (Dan 7:18, 22). “And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His Kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the Kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Lu 12:29-34). No other king ever gave His life blood to make dear friends and willing subjects of his enemies (Rev 1:5). We handle this eternal ‘treasure’ of the knowledge of Christ our loving King by faith in His Word through the Spirit of grace.

VII. The Gospel is the VICTORY over sin won by Christ at Calvary

Know the victory which Christ has won for His people. Because of Christ’s substitutionary death for us, sin’s dominion is broken for God’s people. “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Rom 6:6-7). 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 over sin, death, and hell in order to give that victory to His church.

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, victory, and glorification—all of grace (Rom 6:23). 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 the believer’s possession by sovereign decree, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:30-31). Now, by faith and obedience, we participate in His conquests. We enter into His conquest by faith—it is a conquering of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Victory was gained by our Christ, our mighty Champion. We are to daily appropriate that victory through faith and obedience.

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). By reckoning these truths (or spiritual realities) by faith, the reality of ‘co-crucifixion’ is worked into our daily walk so that this victory over sin becomes inseparable from our Christian experience.

The victory Christ won is the rightful property of His church. He overcame in order to give that victory to 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 (by means of His cross). Appropriation: “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom 6:11-13).

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 ‘cross-work’ 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 is that true believers are to reckon themselves dead to sin regardless of how they 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 victory that Christ has purchased for us.

We must be convinced (by counting God’s promises about us in Christ as fact) 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. Christ has killed the sin that defiled us, separated us from God, and brought judgment upon us. Therefore, we are to ‘take to the morgue’ the sin that Christ has slain.

“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them” (Col 3:2-7).

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. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death”

(Rev 21:7). Those who live obediently by faith in Christ are overcomers (1 Jn 5:4-5). Overcoming is set up in stark contrast to those 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). One cannot have his sin and heaven too.

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 Christ’ then ‘make no provision for the lusts of the flesh.’ 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 fact, or perspective of co-crucifixion, I make my forays against temptation and indwelling sin.

Defining myself as crucified with Christ (a positional truth) is an act of obedient faith. At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit set me apart in Christ as belonging to God. Set apart to Him is an accomplished fact that allows me to live the rest of my earthly life as God’s own possession (Heb 10:10, 14). The more I trust in this fact that I am set apart from sin unto God as His child devoted to Him, the more I will understand why Christ does not want to share my heart with idols (Eph 3:14-17).

CONCLUSION: We have seen that feeding upon Christ as He is displayed and offered in the gospel is the spiritual discipline of the godly. Our part in preaching the gospel to self is to view these treasures by faith and then meditate on them until we are able to explain them to our own souls. We should always be matching His all-sufficient Savior-hood with our sinner-ship—always dwelling upon how His redeeming work is a perfect fit for our ruin by sin (Heb 7:25-27).

Preaching the gospel to self is to grow in our knowledge of the Lord. 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. 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 and adoration to Him—our affection deepened, our loyalty to Him becomes more stable and firm.

We must always remember that Christ’s work in His atonement was a purchase—not only a purchase of eternal life, 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 ourselves back to God in overflowing gratitude (Rom 6:12-23).

Grace is commonly defined by professing Christians as boundless kindness but not as absolute obligation. Paul, in Titus 2:11-14, corrects this misnomer by declaring that grace instructs us in holiness. Grace fits us and motivates us to live our entire lives as an answer to God’s calling—to present ourselves back to God without reservation as our daily privilege (Rom 6:11-13). In this life, you will never outgrow your 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. “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace [the gospel], which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). Preaching the gospel to ourselves is the key to thinking spiritually, it is the chief spiritual habit which the Lord utilizes to form Christ in us. It is essential to doing all from grace-driven motives. When we are gospel-centered, it is normal for us to experience fruitfulness and as well as victory over the world and its idolatrous offers.

Unbelievers attempt the impossible—to cast off their creational identity as the image of God. As Christians, we are locked in combat in a spiritual battle involving mutually exclusive ideas about the source of identity. In our identity-hungry, image-craving culture, the perception of one’s true identity is an intensely contested battlefield. The world, in its love of relativism, incessantly tells us that we ought to anchor our identity in created things, rather than in Christ. The world lies to us daily, inferring that our worth rests upon our successes and failures and not upon Christ who is our unchanging absolute and immutable foundation. Only the gospel proclaims that a sinner may be right with the God of the universe by means of gospel faith (Phil 3:10). There is no greater glory and honor than to know God. “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares the Lord” (Jer 9:23-24).

The Puritans remind us of several things related to the centrality of the gospel:

1. The gospel ought to be central because the gospel is how God gives Himself to us in Christ.
2. Christ is our ‘source Person’, the fountain of life; the gospel sets forth union with Christ as our life.
3. When we are feeding on the gospel, we are dealing directly with Christ, for He gives Himself to us within the gospel promises of the new covenant.
4. The gospel is our ‘food’ because it answers our heart's hunger by graciously giving to the believer the full availability of Christ who is source of all divine blessing, favor, and presence.

Questions for Discussion:

1. Why is Christ’s Lordship, supremacy, and preeminence foundational to the gospel?
2. Why is our core identity and its source an area of intense spiritual warfare?
3. What are the benefits of preaching the gospel to yourself? How is that accomplished?
4. What is the connection between being loved by Christ, and the ability to understand, and rest upon the gospel promises in His Word? (Hint: Christ’s sheep are those who ‘hear His voice’— John 10:4, 16). Locate as many gospel promises as you can in John chapter 10. To whom are these promises made?

5. Explain what it means that Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary’s cross was a ‘verdict’. It was a verdict about what? What established the verdict? Who pronounced the verdict?
6. How does God intend that this verdict affect the believer’s conscience (use Scripture)?
7. The righteousness that God is looking at when He justifies a believing sinner is resident in Christ, not in the sinner. How does this truth ensure that salvation is ‘all of grace’? How does this truth drive all of the believer’s motives in his Christian walk?

8. Why is the glory of God only made sensible to us ‘in the face of Christ’?
9. How did Christ’s obedience in His atoning death make Him perfectly equipped to be the all-sufficient High Priest and Savior of sinners?
10. What do the ‘eyes of the heart’ enable believers to perceive?
11. The church is not the Kingdom of God, but an ‘outpost’ of the coming Kingdom. What are some of the ways that a believer is to ‘seek first the Kingdom of God’?
12. Why does a vigorous Kingdom hope have such a purifying effect on the believer?

13. How are we to daily appropriate the victory over sin that Christ has won for His people?
14. Explain what it means to put sin to death, how does a believer mortify sin.
15. What is an overcomer? Why is heaven promised only to overcomers?

i John MacArthur ii Craig Biehl, The Infinite Merit of Christ; The Glory of Christ’s Obedience in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards.