The Gospel Lens

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SOMA 101: LIVING INSIDE THE GOSPEL STORY: Session 1

The Gospel Lens SESSION ONE HAN DOUT

The Gospel In order to live out the life God intends for us to live, we must understand and believe the gospel AND it must permeate all of life. Many Christians believe the gospel is the starting point in their relationship with God, but that they move on to something more after that. If this is the case, they are deserting the one who called them by grace and turning to another god to save them – they are no longer living in line with the very truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:6-10; 2:14). The gospel is the power of God to save everyone who believes (Romans 1:16) and to make them righteous by faith in the work of Jesus Christ, accomplished on their behalf (Romans 1:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21). However, it’s not only the beginning of our Christian life, but it is also the ongoing means by which we are changed (Colossians 2:67). As Tim Keller has stated, “The gospel isn’t just the ABCs of Christianity, but the A to Z.” It is the way in which we live are to live everyday of our life. The reason why so many Christians fail to experience ongoing transformation is because they have forgotten what God has done for us in the Gospel (2 Peter 1:3-9). [The gospel] is not just the means of our salvation, but the means of our transformation. It isn’t simply deliverance from sin’s penalty, but release from sin’s power. The gospel is what makes us right with God (justification), and it is also what frees us to delight in God (sanctification). 1 In order for us to understand how to apply the Gospel to all of life, we need to go back to the beginning of God’s Story and identify two key lenses through which we ought to perceive life…

Creation God has always existed and was never created. God always does what is good, right and perfect. The Bible says that He is Holy. In the beginning of the story, God created the heavens and the earth. When God created man, God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over all the creatures and all the earth.” So God created humans in his own image. God commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and rule over it. He also put man in the garden and gave him every kind of tree and plant that was good for food. There were two trees in the garden: The Tree of Life and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil. God told Adam he could eat from any tree in the garden, but he was not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the day he would eat of it he would surely die.
What do we know about God from this part of the Story?
What do we know about Adam and Eve?

Fall
What happened in this part of the Story?

1

Thune, Bob and Walker, Will from Gospel Centered Life curriculum, Summer 2007 Coram Deo, GCL 1.5

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SOMA 101: LIVING INSIDE THE GOSPEL STORY: Session 1
What did they believe about God?
What did they believe about themselves? The two lenses we need to focus properly through are: 1) A right view of God 2) A right view of Self Adam and Eve believed God was less than He truly is – that He was not as holy as He truly is, and they believed they were able to be God – that they were greater than they actually were. As a result, they sinned and experienced death – relationally and physically
How are we like Adam and Eve?

Redemption through the Gospel The starting point of the Christian life (conversion) is when I become aware that there is a big difference between God and myself – He is more holy than I ever realized and I am more sinful than I know – and the gap between who He is and who I am is very wide. When I am converted, I trust in Jesus who has done what I could never do and is the human that I am not yet: through his life he bridged the gap between my sinfulness and God’s holiness AND he has taken God’s holy wrath toward my sin upon himself. The Gospel Lens

At the point of conversion, I have a very limited view of God’s holiness and my sinfulness. However, as I grow in my awareness of God’s holiness and of my sinfulness I realize increasingly that God is more holy and I am more sinful than I previously believed. It is not as though God is becoming more holy and I am becoming more sinful, but my awareness of both is increasing. I am increasingly seeing God as he actually is (Isaiah 55:8-9) and myself as I actually am (Jeremiah 17:9-10; 1 John 1:8-10). As a result, the reality of my need for the gospel grows as well.

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SOMA 101: LIVING INSIDE THE GOSPEL STORY: Session 1

As I grow more aware each of these realities – as each lens gets turned into a more correct focus – my appreciation and love for Jesus and what he has done for me increases. His righteous life lived on my behalf, his perfect sacrifice for my sin, his victory over death, and his ongoing mediation for me before the Father become more and more amazing! As a result the cross gets larger and larger in my life and my focus on what He has done and what he is doing through His Spirit in me grows as the focal point of my whole life.

Ongoing Transformation through the Gospel As many of us know, our ongoing growth and transformation to become more and more like Jesus (sanctification) is not as straightforward and smooth as we might hope – our focus can get pretty blurry. That is why we need the work of God’s Spirit to continue the convicting us of sin and leading us to the truth about God. We consistently minimize the gospel or “shrink the cross.” This happens whenever one of my lenses make God’s perfect holiness or my sinfulness and brokenness less thanl they really are. In my heart and mind I make God less than what he really is and I make myself better than I really am. When this happens the cross gets smaller – the need for God, his work on my behalf through Jesus Christ and dependency on His indwelling Spirit becomes less apparent to me. Minimizing the Cross

The process of transformation is the result of God’s Spirit at work in me as I depend increasingly on him and live in line with the gospel. In order to do this, I must grow in my awareness of who God is (holy) and who I am (sinful) and what he has accomplished for me in Jesus Christ (bridging that gap). As a result I realize “I am more broken and sinful than I ever dare believe and more love and accepted than I ever dared hope at the same time in Jesus Christ.” This moves me to worship God and live in constant dependency on him to do the work of changing me and enabling me to live as he intended.

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SOMA 101: LIVING INSIDE THE GOSPEL STORY: Session 1

Six Way of Minimizing Sin WEEK ON E SU PPLEMEN T

Defending // I find it difficult to receive feedback about weaknesses or sin. When confronted, my tendency is to explain things away, talk about my successes, or to justify my decisions. As a result, I rarely have conversations about difficult things in my life.

Pretending // I strive to keep up appearances, maintain a respectable image. My behavior, to some degree, is driven by what I think others think of me. I also do not like to think reflectively about my life. As a result, not very many people know the real me (I may not even know the real me).

Hiding // I tend to conceal as much as I can about my life, especially the “bad stuff”. This is different than pretending in that pretending is about impressing. Hiding is more about shame. I don’t think people will accept the real me.

Blaming // I am quick to blame others for sin or circumstances. I have a difficult time “owning” my contributions to sin or conflict. There is an element of pride that assumes it’s not my fault AND/OR an element of fear of rejection if it is my fault.

Minimizing // I tend to downplay sin or circumstances in my life, as if they are “normal” or “not that bad. As a result, things often don’t get the attention they deserve, and have a way of mounting up to the point of being overwhelming.

Exaggerating // I tend to think (and talk) more highly of myself than I ought to. I make things (good and bad) out to be much bigger than they are (usually to get attention). As a result, things often get more attention than they deserve, and have a way of making me stressed or anxious. 2

This material was designed for Soma Communities Missional Community Groups. Much of the content has been adapted from Coram Deo’s Summer 2007 training and Sonship (©World Harvest Mission, 2006). 2

This whole supplement was taken from Coram Deo’s Summer 2007 training – GCL

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